Some interesting buck "time of day" data

[BSK]

That's some fascinating data Ski, especially the mid-day movement.

 

[JCDEERMAN]

A couple of things that stand out obvious to me is all are daylight and all coincide either with easterly wind or inside the dead time between wind direction changes. The one exception is a buck that showed up during a few minute dry stretch on a rainy day.

I'm interested in this terrain feature….

 

[BSK]

And by the way, love your wind observation. I've often heard old-timers say hunting and fishing are worst on an East wind. I find exactly the opposite. Here in TN, when do we usually experience an East wind? When a big Low pressure system is approaching, which usually means a day or two of rain/snow. Animals often feed heavily before such an event.

Below is some of my hunter observation data by wind direction. This data includes all buck sightings (not just older or mature bucks). But notice the peak in buck sighting rates in an East wind.

 

[Ski]

That's some fascinating data Ski, especially the mid-day movement.

Yeah it's a bit of an outlier really. I rarely get nighttime pics there. It's in a 75yd wide strip of willow oaks & privet sandwiched between a large creek to the south and a 10yr feral 10acre crop field to the north that I leave as sanctuary & only enter to blood trail a harvested buck. It stays full of does. Being as the stand is at the SW corner of the old ag field, it doesn't surprise me that the bucks cruise by with north and east winds. I'm not sure why only during daylight though, other than that is when the wind is shifting most often.

 

[Ski]

I'm interested in this terrain feature….

It's a 10 acre fallow field sanctuary surrounded almost entirely by active ag fields in rotations of beans & corn. To the immediate south of it is a 75yd wide slough with a few oaks and lots of privet, which parallel a med/large creek. To the immediate south of the creek is active ag fields. To the immediate north and west of the sanctuary is active ag. To the immediate east is a large cattle pasture. A mile to the east is a large WMA where I suspect most of the random bucks come from.

 

[Ski]

And by the way, love your wind observation. I've often heard old-timers say hunting and fishing are worst on an East wind. I find exactly the opposite. Here in TN, when do we usually experience an East wind? When a big Low pressure system is approaching, which usually means a day or two of rain/snow. Animals often feed heavily before such an event.

Below is some of my hunter observation data by wind direction. This data includes all buck sightings (not just older or mature bucks). But notice the peak in buck sighting rates in an East wind.

That's an interesting graph. Aside from the slight bulge toward south winds, the graph dang near mirrors the data I charted. I suspect the discrepancy is likely terrain/habitat driven.

 

[7mmWSM]

Thanks BSK for the time consuming work. During the rut a mature buck can show up anytime of the day like we all know. But your graphs definitely show when they're most consistent.

 

[Joe2Kool]

For those who try to be totally ready on their stands BEFORE light, have you ever noticed how often you observe bedded deer when you're walking in, and so long as you're not walking directly toward them, they will often not flush, even as you pass them under 40 yds?

Finally getting around to reading this post. Many times, I have been walking to my stand and seen deer bedded nearby. I've moved slowly, but not towards them, and they don't seem to mind. Sorta like a crouched rabbit. If you walk directly towards it, it's gone. If you angle towards it, you can often get within a few feet.

This data also confirms my observations, as I've had good luck in that 8:30-10 am time block.

 

[ROUGH COUNTRY HUNTER]

Likely you would have more events of mature buck movement between 11-2 inside of bedding areas. For obvious reasons, your cameras were outside of these areas. But, if you were going to hunt during these times, being on the edge of these areas, might be more productive.

I've killed a buck or two chasing does in these bedding areas and had the doe break out into the timber with the buck following during these times.

Thanks for sharing this valuable information BSK.

I agree with you 100%, from my experience if you can find the woody browse near his bed, you can kill him in the middle of the day. I don't kill them often but do get lucky every couple of years or so

 

[ROUGH COUNTRY HUNTER]

BSK, thank you for the well planned and presented info. Even an old country boy like me can make sense of your charts.

Yes, BSK is a mountain of knowledge, I really enjoy reading his post

 

[BSK]

Since this old thread came back up, let me update the data. The data now includes nine years of November and December trail-cam pics and videos (2014 to 2022, minus the last 8 days of December 2022 data, which I haven't picked up yet). The data set has exactly 2,500 buck events recorded. The first graph is the time of day for all antlered bucks (all bucks 1 1/2 or older). The second graph only includes data for older bucks (those 2 1/2 or older). The third graph only includes data for mature bucks ( 4 1/2 or older). With the additional years of data, I've finally picked up some mid-day movement by mature bucks, but the extremely low movement during all daylight hours for mature bucks is very interesting.

 

[Plateau Hunter]

BSK, Thanks for the information

 

[DeerCamp]

And now for the data for just mature bucks (those 4 1/2 years old or older). I was not at all surprised at how much more nocturnal the buck event data is for only mature bucks versus all bucks 2 1/2 and older. But I was not expecting NO mature buck events in 6 years (again, just November and December) for the period 11:00 AM to 2:59 PM. NONE. In addition, if I had guessed before I saw the data graphed, I would have speculated almost all daylight pictures of mature bucks would have occurred during only the first and last hour of daylight. But that is not the case. Mature buck movement has been pretty solid through the morning hours, out until at least the end of the 9:00 AM hour (out to 9:59 AM). And once again, that weird low point at first light, from 5:00 AM to 6:59 AM.

That first bar to the right of "hunting hours" lines is the one that drives me crazy.

Because I know they are on their feet, but to intercept them before dark, I'd have to push in closer and risk bumping them.

Sometimes I've noticed that when a front is moving it can push them a little sooner, and that's when I've have the best afternoon luck.

 

[JCDEERMAN]

Very cool updated info!

 

[Ski]

Because I know they are on their feet, but to intercept them before dark, I'd have to push in closer and risk bumping them.

IMO that right there is the single biggest reason 10% of hunters kill 90% of the big bucks. Most err too far to the side of caution because they're afraid of failing, blowing the buck out and never seeing him again. But not failing isn't the same as succeeding. Guys consistently killing big bucks aren't necessarily better hunters. They are merely putting themselves in a position where the only two paths are success or failure. Sitting in limbo afraid to make a move probably won't chase the buck out of the county, but it probably won't result in punching your tag either.