I have kept a very detailed hunting log the last six years. I hunt literally from dark-to-dark nearly every day I get out, and hunt 20 or so days per year. Periodically, I'll draw up charts from my records. Anyhow, here in western MT, my best time frames (judged by deer sightings per hour hunted) are 7-9 AM and 2-4 PM. My worst time frame is the last 2 hours of daylight. This hunt is in Nat'l Forest land in the Rockies.

A new hunt I'm doing in eastern MT farmland shows different results, although I don't have nearly as much data. On this new hunt, it boils down to the classic first two hours and last two hours of daylight. I seem to see more big bucks in the evening on this hunt, too.

My four 3 1/2 y.o. bucks, and when they fell:

2000 1:15 PM, 11 Nov
2002 3 PM, 18 Nov
2003 12:30 PM, 28 Nov
2004 7:15 AM, 11 Nov.