HANKFAN

Well as some of you know I am a trail cam fanatic. I run 6 trail cameras basically year round. I hunt in 1 of the 4 bow hunting only counties here in West Virginia which is on public land. The terrian here is very steep and with 1,000's of acres to hunt the hunting pressure is almost nill.

After 3 years of using these cameras in this area and thousands of pictures later I have noticed one trend that has really helped my hunting. Every mature buck photo that I have ever gotten in the past 3 years during daylight hours during hunting seasonhas been between 12pm and 1pm. And about 70% of the doe photos that I have gotten during daylight during hunting season as well has been between 12pm and 1 pm too. You wouldthink that after all that time I would have gotten as least 1 mature buck photo in theearly am hours or right before dark but it's not so.Usually I would hunt my am stand till 11pm and then go back and grablunch and them be back in the stand at 2pm for the evening's hunt.After seeingmy trail cam photos, I now hunt from daylight till 2 pm onlyand my mature buck sightings has more thantripled. I have killed 2 mature bucks over the last 2 years and guess when I killed them.... Yeah between 12pm and 1 pm. So the next time your hunting your favorite stand try sittingat least till 1pm because that 12pm to 1pm hour can be magic.

Below are some pictures to prove my point:

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-7/274721/10PointMidDay2.jpg

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-7/274721/8ptday.jpg

Virginiashadowhunter

Thats great information Hankfan, thank you....I have been hunting alot lately and because I like to get home and play with my kids for hours before they go to bed, I have started skipping my late day hunting and instead hunting from sunup unto 2:30 or so....I have seen alot of movement during those hours, no large bucks yet, but bucks are moving which is cool.

vashadowhunter

cardeer

I realize this does work for people.but in my last 45 years hunting I spent many all days hunting and the lastest I ever shot a buck in the mornig was 10:30. I contribute this to the high pressure we have in my hunting area continually.Not uncommon to see a dozen people walk by .And on the first day of gun season Last year I had over 40 people walk past me.

Jeff K

at 1:45pm today I had a 8pt walk by, first deer I have seen mid day.

Double Creek

Hankfan,

That is very interesting....... One question..... Where and how do you set your cameras? I noticed the two pics were on scrapes...... Maybe indicating a scrape tending pattern..... I would be interested to hear if you had the same results on feeding areas.......

Greg / MO

Yep, very interesting. Thanks for the post. I've been giving more thought to this as well. Probably at the latter end of this upcoming week, I may pull a few all-dayers because of more frequent posts like this.

MNpurple

I hear this same story every dang year and its people like you HANKFAN that keep me sitting in my stand all day seeing nothing. That midday has never EVER EVER proven for me, but now you have stated results and suckered me into continuing to do it. Thanks

Perhaps the pressure has somthing to do with it. I hunt private land but there is a fair share of small game hunters around, and maybe that keeps midday movement low whereas it sounds like your are sees no pressure of any kind.

herd1

HANKFAN, I live in Madison but have been hunting Lincoln county the last two Saturdays. No sign of rut, how about you locale?

It's been so stinking hot lately it's hard to stay in the stand past noon. Thanks for the posting the info.

TROPHY SEEKER

Very cool post. I've heard this alot as well. If I wasn't married with kids, I would definately pull all dayers. I got two trail cams this year and am starting to notice trends as well. It's very helpful.

Finch

I am going to pull all dayers this week. Im out of class at 10 so Ill have then until dark to try and bag my monster that got away.

You have some nice looking woods there