RE: morning vs evening, if you had to choose
After analyzing my graphs from 1994, which I'm trying to get up on the website, I found that it depends on what you are looking for; doe, subdominant buck or dominant buck; and which rut phase you are hunting.
Now these are just my observations, and I'd have to do a lot more digging into my 10 years of records to prove it (and I feel it would still be the same). I found that I sighted 5-10% more deer in the evening than in the morning; that subdominant bucks were sighted most often in the mornings during the pre-primary breeding/scraping phase; that dominant bucks were sighted most often in the evenings during the primary breeding phase; and that overall deer sightings were highest in the evening during the late breeding phase, which is when the temperatures were higher during the day, when food sources were limited, and when there was often cloud cover, which made the deer feel secure coming out at 1-3 in the afternoon to feed.
However, that was in my area. In your area it may be different. But, TrapperDave makes a very good point. Going in, in the morning, is tuff, because you do spook deer you can't see. Wasn't much help, was I.
Hey Huntmup,
Where are you at in MN. I'm in Wanamingo (SE).
T.R.
T.R. Michels