Deer numbers in fields??

[BHC]

I am wandering what brings high numbers of deer into food plots during daylight. As many of us see on television a guy shoots at a deer and it looks like fifty deer take off running out of the field. And I know thats TV stuff, but I know of several guys who hunt there own private land in Al, TN, GA, and MS that are seeing 20+ deer in food plots at a time. These guys dont know why thats just what theyve always seen and assume its just because they have high deer populations.

On the other hand im in a club in middle TN, Wayne co. and never see more than 5 or 6 deer in a plot on good day! I may be wrong but I do not think we heavily pressure our deer as we see as many bucks as does if not more which isnt typical on most properties. We also harvest 10 or so 3 1/2+ yrolds per yr and try to take enough does to balance that out.

I though it may be because of the number of fields as we have 33 food plots,this could spread out the feeding, but these are spread out over 3300 continuous acres, so im not so sure. Ive discussed it with some that say its just higher numbers of deer. that they have more deer in south AL, and Illinois and probably the other locations im hearing about. But I dont think that is so. Any thoughts here? I just wanna see as many deer as I can...

 

[Winchester]

Actually hunting and shooting deer in a particular plot will have a huge effect on what uses it during daylight.

 

[BSK]

BHC,

It is a combination of hunting pressure, food availability outside of the plots, number of plots, and over-all deer density.

If the food plots are the only game in town when it comes to high quality food sources (like on the big industrial pine plantations of the Deep South), only a few large food plots are available, hunting pressure is limited, and deer densities are high, yes you can see a lot of deer in food plots.

However, have a lot of other food sources (both browse and acorns), have lots of food plots scattered around, put some hunting pressure on those plots, and have a low to moderate deer density, and you will see very few deer in food plots during daylight.

 

[Football Hunter]

I actually got a pic of a 3.5 in daylight in a food plot on Nov 16,9 am,course,I wasnt there

 

[megalomaniac]

how big are your fields? If you're hunting a 5 acre field, 5 or 6 deer at one time is a lot. If you're hunting 80 acres of prime habitat at once, it wouldn't be unusual to for me to see 10-15 deer at once, and 25 in a single hunt (morning or afternoon).