Morning or evening hunts better

[pchwcf50110]

deer season in my neck of the woods starts sept.15 and runs to jan.15 for archery with centerfire in Nov. and ML in Dec. from sept. to november i seem to have better luck in the morning. i think the key to successful morning hunting is being able to get in your area without bumping deer in the dark. as such i find the majority of places impossible to morning hunt. my best morning stands are accessed by boat which seems to almost eliminate spooking deer. come December there is really no deer movement at first light anymore in my area. they don't seem to start moving around till 9:00am or later. late season i have much better luck in the afternoon/ evenings.

 

[Tyrone]

Where we hunt in So. Ill I've have had deer come around in the dark before shooting hours, but no one in our group has taken a shot before midmorning. This year before we went, I told my son that I think we'll just start after 8 AM and have the other hunters moving the deer to us instead of vise versa. Well, we did go before first light anyway and after seeing 3 deer by 6:30, I shot the 4th that I saw at 6:40. Go figure. By the way, the other 3 guys in our party only saw 2 deer combined the entire 4 days in the field.

 

[Bean]

Lots of factors at play with deer. First off they can see well in the dark and feel safe in the dark. Wind makes them nervous, rain makes them nervous. Secondly they want to eat about every 6 hours.
So - watch the moon phase and the weather. Then tie that to the morning or evening. If it rains and blows all day and night you need to be waiting when the rain lets up. If you have calm nights and a lot of moon just take your chance. They were up all night eating and will sleep all day. They think pretty well like we do and they are fairly lazy. They will make it easy on themselves. There is no rule to when they move or feed. If you hunt in an area with alot of pressure you might find it best when everyone else is coming or going as they bump the deer into moving as the come or go. Just trust his senses are 10 times better than yours and what would irratate you really irratates him.

 

[Headhunter]

I have 1500 B&C Inches on my wall that say....


From 9AM to 3PM.

Headhunter

 

[Walks with fire]

I like the last few hours of the day the best; I don't really like the field dressing/dragging in the dark but that's generally what happens. They can be taken at anytime of the day but the methods change.

 

[hanshi]

I've frequently had great luck in the late afternoons, virtually always in fields and large openings. On several occasions I've taken up to three in the space of half an hour. I've also been unable to find deer due to darkness even though they were only a few yards away. Going back out the next morning, I was never able to salvage anything other than a rack. If it was a doe then the coyotes had already had their way with it. Plus, I've had to pass up many shots simply because I can't use iron in fading light. Let me say also that I detest having to dress & drag them in the dark.

I like to sleep in more than most (a lazy gene). Still, I much prefer the mornings with no darkness worries. Watching the forest wake and come alive exhilarates me like nothing else. I generally see more game, too. As a result, the vast majority of my deer are taken in the morning to early afternoon since that's when I'm more likely to be out, small game too. If it's a field I like to settle behind a hay bale with it's ready made bench rest. I made my longest deer kill (130 yds) that way. I'm more Lark than Owl.

 

[Dave K]

I can't deny, I love the mornings best myself, for all the reasons stated. But, man is it cold this time of year. Going out in sometimes single digit temps. makes the afternoon look better. As far as finding game, if you have snow, it can be real easy to go ahead and track them, before the coyotes get to them. Without snow, it can be a test sometimes in the darkness, just like you said.

Right now the best time to hunt is midnight. I get deer as visitors everynight now in the backyard, around midnight.

 

[Stumpkiller]

Looking through my field notes about 1/2 the deer I've taken were within a half-hour of sunrise, 1/4 the last half-hour before sunset and the rest throughout the day. Some at 11:00AM, noon and 1:00PM. I prefer to have my butt planted on a log, stump or a portable tree-seat half-an-hour before sunrise to give the woods a chance to settle down. In NY we can only shoot between prescribed sunrise and sunset times.

But as a rule of thumb I'd say the best time to hunt is when the deer are there. ;-)

Where I used to hunt 9:30AM was a good time as the other hunters got stiff or cold and moved around to take a pee-break around that time. Moved many deer to me that way. I watched one hunter lean his shotgun on a tree about 200 yards off and take a whiz and turn and yell for his buddy. A buck waited for him to walk off and rose from it's bed just inside a field edge about 30 feet from where the hunter stopped and I shot it as it came past me. Nice three point (fork on one side & freak 3/4 curl tine like a ram horn on the other side).

I have seen many hunters sling their firearms when moving. WHATZUPWITHAT? I hunt 100% when I'm in the woods: moving, standing or sitting. I've taken many "grouse shots" at deer that flush as I move slowly through the brush, or that I spotted suddenly and had little chance to make much motion. I don't even put a sling on my rifles or shotguns until it's time to drag a fressed deer out.

 

[Dave K]

I spend most of my hunting time with a bow. Gun seasons are pretty unreliable to me as there are so many people in the woods, that who knows when is the best time in the woods. One thing is certain and I sure agree with you on that. When you start to get bored, then it is the time to really stay put. So many people seem to have the same amount of "sit" in their butt, before they start to roam around. That is when you want them to be your "secret" drivers. The same thing takes place around 11:30am when they head for lunch and again around 1:30pm when they come back from lunch. Ohio gun seasons are not very long, so everyone with a gun is out there sometime it seems. As a bowhunter, it seems as if all my deer in the mornings were taken around 8:30am,and this is before mid Nov. After that it seems to shift to more evenings, but both times are very good. Late season after the gun seasons are over, it seems as if evenings are best. The cold weather seems to have them locked in their beds and they will be on the sides of the woods that get sun first, so they can soak up the sun. In the afternoon,they will drift to the west side of the woods for the same reason. If this west side has a food scource like wheat or corn it is all the more reason to be there. I will be sure to be standing in my tree stand about 5pm as they will be filtering through the trees at this time headed to food. You can actually set you watch by this time of year in mid to late Jan.

 

[Vic Price]

I like the early morning the best AND I don't recall hardly ever having much for shooting possibilities in the mid-late afternoon timeframe. I think it's a good time, just never had any deer cooperate with me. I always set up for the end of the day.....the last 1 1/2- 2 hours for sure. This year up north - another camp nearby scored some very nice bucks at "day's end" out of their treestands ( reg. season, cartridge rifles ).

Vic