That was so interesting to me I had to take down the old gernal and found that after 32 years of deer hunting almost all my real Trophy Bucks came in the morning. With that said I also want you to know that in October I killed 0 tropny buck November 4and December 8 and I'll have you know the ones in December were all after the 15th. I have never taken a trophy Buck in the evening. Really gives me something to think about

Sure, but I have probably spooked more mature bucks walking out in the dark than I have killed as well.

I am not arguing your point and it very well may be true, I have just had some success hunting mornings outside of the rut and hope that success will continue [8D]

Thanks for the input, I posted this to hear others experiences, yours included.

I seen more in the evenings, but I've also seen quite a few in the mornings. I'm hunting when I can hunt. A friend of mine has a hard time getting up in the morning to hunt unless he feels it in his "bone" that he will see something big. I can't fault him since he has a wall full of big deer.

Yea ....I noticed that just this last season , most of the bucks I did see were around mid - day and evening hours.
What I did see in the mornings was alot of young spikeschasing doe's.

I can say I have saw my big bucks in both the mornings and the evenings. I am not going to miss being in the woods just to wait for an evening hunt, so I will be out there in the mornings no matter what.

My experience- from sunup to 12:30 or so is when the big ones come buy ... real early - first hour of light and then 10am-11:30 seem to be the hottest, no matter when I hunt.

pretty much the same for me. I've shot two mature bucks in the morning, and my first buck (immature) shot in the evening. The two mature boys were shot about 21/2 hrs. after first light. That's my deal. I will say I have seen much more buck activity in the evenings though. I have seen more mature bucks in the evening, it's just the way things went down for me I killed mine in the a.m. for some reason.

drhntr178,
The above is my exact hunting strategy. I began trophy hunting in 1991 and have killed 15 mature bucks with a bow. For me, Nov. 1st is when I start hunting mornings. Because I believe that the mature bucks are already in their beds before daylight, except during Nov. During Nov, I've had 50/50 for mornings and evenings. Kind of weird though, is that 5/6 inthe first 6 years were in the mornings. #5 was an Oct deer. Also, the last5/7 have been in the evenings. 2 were Dec deer (evening month). But over all, I'm still about 50/50 mornings and evenings. Just be there in Nov!

BTW, no sleeping in late! Get your stuff around the house done so there are no complaints from the boss!

Mornings are toughbowhuntinghere on mature bucks. Morning thermals always blow downslope for mature bucks to guide them back to their well elevated mountain beds. They are usually in their beds right at or right after daybreak during Sept- to mid Oct and in Dec. Younger bucks not the case. They fiddle fart around for an hour or so after daylight.

I have killed 2 mature bucks outside of the rut in the mornings... one in Sept 140 classand one in Oct a 160 class. Both I had a spot to set up that structure deflected the wind sideways due to a bluff in one case and a finger ridge on the other. Both spots allowed me to hunt close in proximity to the bucks path to his bed without the thermal blowing directly to him.

I will add, I dont get many opportunities to hunt mornings due to my work schedule. I think I would have a few more bucks tagged in the mornings if I had more than just weekends to hunt mornings...outside of the rut.