FroMan

During the rut you oughtta try to sit all day anyways. Bucks don't take breaks from chasing the ladies. Also on days after full moons the bucks get up and move around noon sometimes too.

Also, during the rut is when bucks see the most hunting pressure. Most hunter's head outta the woods at around noon and stay gone til 2 or so, to get a bite to eat or to meet up with guys and get lunch. Bucks realize this.

Your pics help prove one point...all day is the best time to hunt during the rut.

HANKFAN

The area I hunt is vast mature harwood timber that is very rugged. There is literally thousands of miles of coal company land that anyone can access.This area has a low deer populationhowever, the doe to buck ratio is very close to 1:1. With bow hunting only in these 4counties it really helps most of the bucks reach full maturity. With all this land to hunthunting pressure is non-existent.

I place alot of my cameras on mock scapes or existing scrapes as I have found that during the pre-rut mature bucks will check them duringdaylight right before the first does come into heatand if it's a daytime photoit has over the last 3 years been 100% between the hours of 12-1. I however, do place my cameras on old logging roads and trails and stillhave all of my daylight pictures of mature bucks between 12-1.I have my cameras spread over several milesof terrian so it's not just one area or group of deer that aremoving during this time frame. Also I have noticed that temps play no part on when these deer move. Wether it's 10 degrees in late Novmeber or 90 degrees in August every picture I have gotten in the last 3 years of a mature buck has been between 12-1.

My theory on it is this: Most mature bucks at daylight are on there way to their bedding area or already in their beds by daylight. However, I feel that no deer will bed for the entire day. So around 12-1 the deer either gets restless, hungry, thirsty or wants to refreshen a scape or look for a hot doe and moves during that time. However, my trail cam pictures show that almost all of the mature bucks are bedded back by 1:30 to 2 pm.And normally stay beded until dark. In the last 3 years I have never gotten a picture of a mature buck between the hours of 2 pm andright before dark.

So I am sure that this pattern probably doesn't hold true for all areas of the US. Butif you are hunting mature bucks inmature harwood timber my bet is that you're missing a lot of daytime movement between the hours of 12-1 if you're not in your stand.

spde911

Wish the wife would read some of these posts. It might make her understand why I'd like to spend all day in the woods instead of just a few hours in the morning. I hope to get a few all day hunts in over the next couple of weeks, I think the rut is getting ready to start around here.

HUNTING_MN

herd1 i hunt in southeastern mn along the mn and wisc. border and the rut is deff heatin up here....last sat, saw a nice 10pter cruisin after some does and i was no further than 40 yrds from him...

Talondale

Dr. Kroll has been saying this for years. His radio tracking of mature bucks shows most movement for them is between 10-2. Hunting pressure does have a lot to do with it, as hunters move out of the woods at that time, and as stated earlier the prelight movement of bucks has them wanting to stretch mid day. Dr. Kroll suggests skipping the early morning hunt and planning your hunt around those times. I'll have to check my book again but I think he also states most record book bucks are taken within that time frame. I'll double check that though. On my property I sometimes do that because the deer are feeding in my fields and moving up the hill at daylight. If I try to go in before light I bump them. If I go in after light I can catch the mid morning deer movement. See quite a few at 10:30. If I can chose between shooting a buck in mid day light or twilight I'd chose broad daylight anytime. More tracking time too.

huntinwv

Hankfan,

I know what you mean. I also hunt one of these four counties. The biggest buck I have seen was exactly 1pm. Of course, no shot but seeing them keeps you going.

Thanks for sharing your info! We really need to be in the woods right now...