In the short time I've been hunting, if I was going to hunt in the morning, I usually would get to my spot well before daylight and wait in the dark for an hour or two. It's just what I was told should be done so I've always done it. Made sense to me.
But lately I have read several times that it's one of the worst times to get into the woods. You're likely to make more noise in the dark (and that headlamp might be seen), and often the deer are still out feeding. Many times the deer don't have to move far between bedding and feeding areas, so the chance of sneaking into your spot at 0:dark-thirty undetected is not too high. This also makes sense to me.
What do you all think? I enjoy seeing the sun rise and the woods come to life, but I don't want to spook my quarry on the way in. Also, not a huge fan of waking up at 3am and freezing while the sun is down.
