Mike,

It’s very tough to schedule vacations based on when peak daytime deer activity will occur.  This is because weather conditions are such a huge factor in the amount and timing of deer activity.  Simply stated, deer are generally less active during daylight when the temperatures are warmer than normal and more active during daylight when temperatures are colder than normal.  

It’s easy to forecast when the peak of breeding will occur in a general area.  The whitetail’s gestation period is 200 (+ – a few days) long. Therefore it’s easy to backdate from fawn birthdates or measure and determine the age of fetuses and know when does were bred.  Average breeding and fawning dates rarely change more than a day or two between years. They certainly don’t shift by weeks from year to year as some report.  In fact, the New Year Department of Environmental Conservation Department has a great data set of breeding dates for deer.  

However, if the temperatures are warmer than normal during the peak of breeding deer won’t move much during daylight hours.  You could schedule vacations days during the peak of breeding where you hunt and still not observe many deer due to the weather conditions.  Given average or better weather conditions there’s usually good hunting during the last week of October and first week of November.

I recommend scheduling your vacation when you like to hunt and hoping for cooler than normal conditions. Whatever the conditions are, enjoy the hunt! The warmed the temperatures the closer to the bedding areas you need to hunt!

Enjoy creation,

grant