Great nighttime spots.

[Tennhunter3]

This week I hunted 2 I thought dynamite spots
Had the sign, beds where they are suppost to be. The only issue was they were in open oaks as remote as they may be from the road.

I had thought it was probably nighttime but felt if I didn't hunt it I may be missing something good. I sat both of them and only one of the two had a deer in it before dark.

The more I hunt public the more I realize open terrain no matter how good looking will not be daytime movement for a mature buck. Even if im first to hunt it early season.

The areas I hunt have very little swamp and it is the heaviest hunted area in the wma. All our hunters hunt the swamp edges, funnels or oaks they just get pounded. As I keep scouting im finding more hunter sign then ever in transition funnels.

It seems most of my best bedding areas are overlooked pines nowadays.

Anyone else going through this finding great nighttime spots ?

[MichiganMike]

Yeah it’s almost like the decent bucks know when hunting season starts. But yeah I came across great looking spots that were remote and didn’t see squat. I have a couple new spots this season I’m looking forward to hitting after out opener oct 1st. We’ll see!

[Wolfie417]

This week I hunted 2 I thought dynamite spots
Had the sign, beds where they are suppost to be. The only issue was they were in open oaks as remote as they may be from the road.

I had thought it was probably nighttime but felt if I didn't hunt it I may be missing something good. I sat both of them and only one of the two had a deer in it before dark.

The more I hunt public the more I realize open terrain no matter how good looking will not be daytime movement for a mature buck. Even if im first to hunt it early season.

The areas I hunt have very little swamp and it is the heaviest hunted area in the wma. All our hunters hunt the swamp edges, funnels or oaks they just get pounded. As I keep scouting im finding more hunter sign then ever in transition funnels.

It seems most of my best bedding areas are overlooked pines nowadays.

Anyone else going through this finding great nighttime spots ?

Even a lot of the mature does in the areas I hunt don't like leaving the cover in daylight. Something I've had to adjust to in the past.

[HunterBob]

This week I hunted 2 I thought dynamite spots
Had the sign, beds where they are suppost to be. The only issue was they were in open oaks as remote as they may be from the road.

I had thought it was probably nighttime but felt if I didn't hunt it I may be missing something good. I sat both of them and only one of the two had a deer in it before dark.

The more I hunt public the more I realize open terrain no matter how good looking will not be daytime movement for a mature buck. Even if im first to hunt it early season.

The areas I hunt have very little swamp and it is the heaviest hunted area in the wma. All our hunters hunt the swamp edges, funnels or oaks they just get pounded. As I keep scouting im finding more hunter sign then ever in transition funnels.

It seems most of my best bedding areas are overlooked pines nowadays.

Anyone else going through this finding great nighttime spots ?

Haha, I was actually about to send you a pm to pick your brain on some similar questions. I've only had four sits so far, but have seen 0 deer from the saddle yet. I did bump a deer out of a patch of oaks in a hard to access area, but it did not return before nightfall. Been trying to hunt river bottoms early season this year and have had no luck yet. Best beds I have found are in or close to the pines, or in spots impossible to access quietly. Haven't hunted these areas yet this season.

I think my area is very similar to yours in terrain, hunter pressure, and habitat. One question I do have for you is what patterns have you seen for deer movement? I am not to the skillset yet of only hunting big bucks, so I am looking at getting on deer in general.

[brancher147]

Yeah open oak flats are not good for daytime buck movement. But I do hunt some areas that are wide open and deer move in the daytime but there has to be some kind of habitat diversity and low pressure. The thing is when it’s all open like that it doesn’t take much cover to create bedding it could be a downed tree and rootwad with a few short pines behind it or a big boulder. It doesn’t look like much and is easy to overlook but if it’s close to a drop off or point it may be good buck bedding. They just won’t tolerate much or hardly any pressure in a spot like that.