This questions comes up every spring...

The answers are always varied. The three biggest factors are 1) can you hunt all day and 2) how much have you scouted and 3) how big & how many properties do you hunt.

If you hunt on small parcels (like I do in CT---the large parcels are few and far between, and almost impossible to get permission), then you have to scout like mad. With that said, I know on three of my properties that after 8 am if I' m empty handed I might as well go home till about 11. At 11, I can come back and try to bring em in close that last hour. It all goes back to scouting.

My 4th property, I don' t even go there until 9 then wait it out until noon...

I must be doing something right, I fill tags consistently and have fun doing it.

With everything I just said, anyone that says they prefer to hunt after 10 is either full of BS or can' t drag themselves out of bed, because the number of gobbles you hear after 8 am drops off greatly, probably around 5% of what you' ll hear doing the first 2-3 hours of sunrise.