Ask The Biologist

Pressure Point

Pressure Point

By Bob Humphrey

The best way to see more deer on your food plots is to reduce pressure.

QUESTION: Is there a way to get the deer to come in to food plots during daylight hours. They come into our plots all night long, but we hardly see any during the day.

Answer: Your situation is not that unusual, and there could be several reasons. The most likely is hunting pressure. As I’m sure you’re aware, deer are crepuscular, meaning they’re most active around twilight. Research has shown that as hunting pressure increases, they move less in daylight and more in thick cover.

I experience this every season on my plots, where I see a fair amount of activity during bow season. Once gun season comes in, daytime activity drops off dramatically, especially in more open areas. The best and simplest solution is to reduce human activity in the area as much as possible.

It’s usually a good idea to hunt food plots mostly or exclusively in the afternoon. Going in there in the morning you’ll likely bump the deer off, which only educates them and makes them less likely to visit the plot in daylight. You might also try setting up back in the woods near your plots in places where the deer might stage while they wait for darkness.

If you hope to see bucks on your food plot, don’t harvest any does there. It might seem harmless to shoot a doe since you don’t see any bucks in the field, but they’re usually nearby, staging. If you can, shoot does elsewhere.

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