High Noon bucks

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Southern Man
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Re: High Noon bucks

Unread postby Southern Man » Wed Jun 15, 2011 12:02 am

BackWoodsHunter wrote:So is this midday movement related to hunter movement, the rut or a deers need to feed. I don't know if it was discussed on this thread or another about deer needing to eat every six hours (in theory) could it be related to that? Do deer in bigwoods have less food and possibly return to their beds earlier than deer in other settings forcing them to get up and move midday or am I off?


Deer are a slave to their rumen, the bacteria in their stomach. If they don't keep something o their stomach, the bacteria will die and that's bad news for the deer. Thus, nature makes them feed often, not necessarily major feeding. But every 4-6 hours they will feed on something.

I have seen that deer will rise in mid morning, usually close to where they're bedded and feed, bed, feed til about 2pm. Mostly in the same area, not traveling far at all. This is when I'm all day hunting and that's very late October thru mid late November. So that's rut time and when most hunters are in the woods here, namely rifle season (early to mid November). And being that time of year, the bucks aren't far away. I've thought for a long time that deer will pattern human activity the same as we try to pattern them and they'll move and feed accordingly.

So, I think it's a combination of both, the need to eat and hunter pressure.


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Re: High Noon bucks

Unread postby RaisedByWolves » Wed Jun 15, 2011 12:45 am

what about the need for water as well?...i've caught mature deer on trail camera hitting my water hole at midday but it was usually during august or the rut.
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Re: High Noon bucks

Unread postby JRM6868 » Wed Jun 15, 2011 2:19 am

Southern Man wrote:
BackWoodsHunter wrote:So is this midday movement related to hunter movement, the rut or a deers need to feed. I don't know if it was discussed on this thread or another about deer needing to eat every six hours (in theory) could it be related to that? Do deer in bigwoods have less food and possibly return to their beds earlier than deer in other settings forcing them to get up and move midday or am I off?


Deer are a slave to their rumen, the bacteria in their stomach. If they don't keep something o their stomach, the bacteria will die and that's bad news for the deer. Thus, nature makes them feed often, not necessarily major feeding. But every 4-6 hours they will feed on something.

I have seen that deer will rise in mid morning, usually close to where they're bedded and feed, bed, feed til about 2pm. Mostly in the same area, not traveling far at all. This is when I'm all day hunting and that's very late October thru mid late November. So that's rut time and when most hunters are in the woods here, namely rifle season (early to mid November). And being that time of year, the bucks aren't far away. I've thought for a long time that deer will pattern human activity the same as we try to pattern them and they'll move and feed accordingly.

So, I think it's a combination of both, the need to eat and hunter pressure.

That's how I hunt the full moons. When people hate them because they aren't seeing the deer I found that they get up mid morning and hit the area around their bed to do a minor feeding. I usually see deer doing this.
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Re: High Noon bucks

Unread postby headgear » Wed Jun 15, 2011 2:27 am

I have also noticed more mid-day activity during full moons, I often start seeing action from 9:00 through the middle of the day. Nothing early or late. Almost makes a guy want to sleep in.
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Re: High Noon bucks

Unread postby Autumn Ninja » Wed Jun 15, 2011 1:49 pm

dan wrote: That seems very strange to me... Most of my traveling hunting has been during the chase phase, but I have never hunted East of Wisconsin, but in the 9 states I have hunted in the midwest, south and Western areas the over all majority of deer I have seen cruising have been the 90 to to 130 class 2 1/2 year olds...

I've spent 90% of all my hunting on one large track of land. Its a tough area to hunt but I like it, its made me a much better hunter. Its a big woods sitting with low deer density but there have always been mature bucks to key in on and learn from.

Just a few years ago there where only 6 to 8 deer PSM, then they started doing selective clear cuts. After 3-4 years the density climbed to 8 to 10....and now there at 10 to 12. I hardly ever see 1 1/2 or 2 1/2 year old bucks in the morning, midday or evening due to my stand placement. At times, I'll go days with out even seeing a deer but I'm really not a "deer" hunter. I'm a buck hunter and the older they get the less they act like a deer.

For the most part, what I see at midday reflects what the stats show.
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Re: High Noon bucks

Unread postby bwwma » Mon Jan 01, 2018 2:41 pm

Bump... Good info
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Re: High Noon bucks

Unread postby mainebowhunter » Mon Jan 01, 2018 4:00 pm

Autumn Ninja wrote:
dan wrote: That seems very strange to me... Most of my traveling hunting has been during the chase phase, but I have never hunted East of Wisconsin, but in the 9 states I have hunted in the midwest, south and Western areas the over all majority of deer I have seen cruising have been the 90 to to 130 class 2 1/2 year olds...

I've spent 90% of all my hunting on one large track of land. Its a tough area to hunt but I like it, its made me a much better hunter. Its a big woods sitting with low deer density but there have always been mature bucks to key in on and learn from.

Just a few years ago there where only 6 to 8 deer PSM, then they started doing selective clear cuts. After 3-4 years the density climbed to 8 to 10....and now there at 10 to 12. I hardly ever see 1 1/2 or 2 1/2 year old bucks in the morning, midday or evening due to my stand placement. At times, I'll go days with out even seeing a deer but I'm really not a "deer" hunter. I'm a buck hunter and the older they get the less they act like a deer.

For the most part, what I see at midday reflects what the stats show.


Very much the same situation I am hunting in one area. 8 to 10 dpsm. 14 sits, not a deer spotted to sit #15.

Cameras really showed lot of daytime midday movment this year first week sept. Full moon was sept 6 corn moon. Next full moon hunters moon was oct 5 when season was open. We had a very good sept 30 to oct 7. Again, some midday movement. Not as much as corn moon.

Same moons are sept 24 and oct 24 in 2018. Not much of a moon guy but I am watching them and keeping track of the data.
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Re: High Noon bucks

Unread postby Boogieman1 » Mon Jan 01, 2018 4:28 pm

I used to have permission to hunt a small farm that backed up to a 2000 acre lease. On the weekends with a certain wind midday was where it’s at. Suspect lease members across the fence all got out of stands between 9-930 then thought it was best to stomp all over there property then drive atvs around. I eventually moved a stand right on the preferred fence crossing and took many deer under those conditions. Like Dan stated it’s forced movement, outside of rut I don’t see any midday buck movement from the fringes.
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Re: High Noon bucks

Unread postby Mathewshooter » Mon Jan 01, 2018 4:54 pm

A vast majority of the bucks I see during midday are the larger bucks for my area and mostly during the rut phases. I also see alot of activity between 10-2 during full moon phases. A lot of times I see big bucks out in open fields with does in the middle of the day while driving around.
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Re: High Noon bucks

Unread postby UofLbowhunter » Tue Jan 02, 2018 5:01 am

Mathewshooter wrote:A vast majority of the bucks I see during midday are the larger bucks for my area and mostly during the rut phases. I also see alot of activity between 10-2 during full moon phases. A lot of times I see big bucks out in open fields with does in the middle of the day while driving around.




Yesterday i went to scout a public tract i have been scouting, and as soon as im driving up to enter the woods two really nice bucks were trotting out in wide open crop fields coming out of public heading into private ground at 12:15. Making a quick loop around and watching were they went 15 min later i seen 9 does come busting out of the woodlot the bucks went into acting like the bucks were chasing them. Last night was the beginning of the full moon.
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Re: High Noon bucks

Unread postby Swampbuck » Tue Jan 02, 2018 11:50 am

Most the bucks i have killed have been midday or evening, and most older bucks pics I get in the daytime is midday by a large margin.

Because most of my info is from prerut/rut period I had assumed it was rut action related. I have heard that the bucks wait for the does to bed back down so wait until mid morning to start thier cruising. Not sure if this is the case yet but it does make sense
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Re: High Noon bucks

Unread postby Threekgt » Sat Jan 20, 2018 11:57 am

I hunt North Central and North West, AL where our pre rut typically starts in early Jan and the rut continues through the end of January into early February. I have read about this midday movement that is caused by pressure for years now, but have never seen any evidence of it. Since 2015 though, I have really noticed a pattern in my area of rut timeframe midday movement. In early Jan 2015, while driving into my area for an afternoon sit, I saw a very large buck standing just inside the tree line off the road with a doe at 11:15am about 5 miles from where I hunt. Being a slow learner, but not a fool, I sat the following Saturday in a thick hill side funnel during midday and shot this 8pt cruiser at 12:20pm. The first midday deer I’ve ever killed.

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In January 2016, I shot this 9pt at 9:30 in the morning as he cruised through a thick strip in a low spot between two food plots.

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Fast forward to January 2017, and utilizing hill Country tactics I’ve learned from the Beast sitting tops of draws in thicker areas on or near the 1/3 elevations, I saw the most bucks in one season that I ever have (7 bucks during a ten day stretch including 3 shooters and the biggest deer I had trail camera pics of) All were cruising between 9:30 and 2:30 to include getting busted by my target buck (pictured below) at approx 10:15am after he snuck in behind me and caught me shifting in my stand.

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Due to family obligations this season, I have not been able to hunt as much, but what do you know I get out for a morning hunt last Sunday the 14th and I get about 20 miles into my drive home and see a very large buck running across a field at 12:05 pm.

I’m still not sure if this is just rut cruising behavior, a reaction to less midday hunting pressure, a combination of these factors, or if there is more to it, but these are highly pressured bucks that rarely show themselves in daylight. One thing is definitely becoming more clear to me, the more time I invest in hunting midday during the rut, the more of them I see. Since we still have a few weekends left before our season ends and the rut is still going strong, I’m hoping to add another data point to this theory for 2018.
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Re: High Noon bucks

Unread postby ghoasthunter » Sat Jan 20, 2018 12:59 pm

I you jump a buck that was trying to lay down to chew his cud he's not going to run far either because he needs to chew.
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Re: High Noon bucks

Unread postby ghoasthunter » Sat Jan 20, 2018 1:27 pm

I have hundreds of trail cam photos of mature bucks coming into mineral sites at noon in summer and moving around bedding. every year I get pics of my biggest bucks mid day on scrapes the last weak of October. I killed my biggest buck a 6.5 year old at 11:30 walking a scrape line and killed another 5.5 year old swamp buck moving down a transition line between a dark hemlock swamp and a bright open maple swamp post rut. I also killed a 5.5 year old swamp buck opening day of gun season dogging a doe last year in a major buck bedding area.
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