Morning or evening
 

I' m curious if you prefer to hunt mornings or evenings. Also do you see more deer in the morning or evenings? Because of my schedule I' m pretty much forced to hunt in the evenings. I' d perfer to hunt mornings as it allows more time for tracking and lessens the chance of leaving a animal in the woods overnight if I' m unable to locate it after a hit. I' d appreciate it if you' d let me know your thoughts.[:-]

RE: Morning or evening
 

I prefer the evenings until the pre-rut and rut, then I like all day. I' ve harvested most of my mature bucks in the evening.

RE: Morning or evening
 

Hunting the mornings is nice. It is always getting lighter and not darker in the woods. However, I have always had better luck in the evenings.

RE: Morning or evening
 

I' m the opposite. I' ve seen most deer around 7am and again around 9am. In 18 years of bowhunting, I' ve only seen deer within range one time during the evening hunts. All of the deer I' ve actually harvested have been around 9am except for my best buck, a mature (read " OLD" , taxidermist said he was about 7 years old) 9 point buck I shot at 5pm during rifle season.

Maybe it' s something I' m doing wrong! :(

RE: Morning or evening
 

In my experience' s, hunting in the morning has been more productive for me. I seem to see more deer movement during the morning hours than during the evening hours. But I will add that I took my best buck on an evening hunt. Good Luck!!

RE: Morning or evening
 

You' re gonna get a different answer from every hunter you ask! Personally, I prefer the evening. It' s always been more productive for me.

RE: Morning or evening
 

Evenings for me, but if I had the chance, I would hunt all day.

RE: Morning or evening
 

good and bad for both. mornings, sucks walking to your spot in the dark, cant see, cant tell if your spooking anything, shadows look like deer... evenings is cool because you can see where your going, if there is a deer 10 yards from you, you can be a littel more organized, however, if you shoot an animal close to dark, you have to search form it in the dark, if you shoot it in the morning, you have all day to find it.

RE: Morning or evening
 

Hey all, ....do you think that where you hunt has a bearing on whether morning or evening is more productive?

Clint

RE: Morning or evening
 

I prefer the morning...........and right now, that' s all you can hunt here...too hot in the evening.........

RE: Morning or evening
 

I like evenings. Until the time changes next week and I start running out of daylight afte work. :(

RE: Morning or evening
 

I prefer mornings.

RE: Morning or evening
 

i prefer anytime i can hunt.


go deep hunt hard.;)

RE: Morning or evening
 

I hunt from daylight till dark every day of November and I see 98% of my deer from daylight until 2pm. After 2pm I virtually see nothing. Some times I wonder why I even stay the rest of the evening.:(

RE: Morning or evening
 

HANKFAN, do you stay in the same stand all day? If so what kind of stand(s) are you using?

RE: Morning or evening
 

I' m with Bobcat 10, anytime I can get in the woods.

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RE: Morning or evening
 

I


I prefer the evenings. I like to stay untill it' s dark. usually deer will move alot right before dark. Just getting close is the hard part.

RE: Morning or evening
 

Massbowhunter- I use several different types of hang on stands. Over the years I have found that no matter how determined you are you can not hunt daylight till dark for weeks on end unless you have a comfortable stand. I usually keep 6 hang on stands out all season. I hunt mostly terrain funnels so I can hunt them several days in a row with out burning them out. My favorite stand is a Loggy Bayou climbing treestand that I convert over to a hang on. The stand has a thick padded seat, padded back rest and footrest. I just don' t use the top climbing part and add 2 tie-down straps to the stand to convert it to a hang-on. This year I purchased a API Grand Stand Master stand from Cableas for $99.00. I added a footrest to this stand and it is an excellent stand. Large platform and comfortable seat plus it' s lightweight. The only thing that I don' t like about the stand is the made in China sticker on the platform.

RE: Morning or evening
 

During the rut - mornings. With cooler temperatures
at first light there is usually more deer movement.

RE: Morning or evening
 

Evenings over mornings, 99% of the deer I see are at night, when the rut starts thats when I start hunting all kinds of weird hours...

RE: Morning or evening
 

I see more deer in the late evening than in the morning but then again i don' t hunt as much morning as evening so that may be the reason.

RE: Morning or evening
 

I agree with the evening group. I see more deer. I like to hunt all day once the rut begins but before that, I hunt ducks, squirrels, rabbits, whatever is available in the morning and deer in the afternoon. Some days, the afternoon begins at 1:00 though!

Greg

RE: Morning or evening
 

Definitely prefer mornings both because of the reasons you listed and also because the areas I can hunt are primarily morning spots.

RE: Morning or evening
 

I prefer mornings. In my area I have seen more deer in the am during the early season.

But anytime you can hunt is a good time.

RE: Morning or evening
 

I ' m an evening hunter 90% of the time due to work schedule. Love the mornings when I can get out though. Most my deer harvested over past 30 years have been PM deer. I' ve hunted AM 5 times this season so far. Number of deer seen is about half of what I typically see in evenings.Steve

RE: Morning or evening
 

I' ve always had most of my luck in the mornings. I think the thermals pushing the scents skyward play a big role in that. In the afternoons/evenings when the thermals go earthward it makes it tougher to get a " shooter" in bow range when your scent is circulating right around his head.

RE: Morning or evening
 

Bingo. That is the key. Before prerut, feeding cycles during the evening I have most of my luck.
During any rut activity I see them at all hours.

RE: Morning or evening
 

Nothings as good as seeing the woods come alive in the morning with the rising sun. For that reason I prefer mornings.

RE: Morning or evening
 

It depends on where I hunt. Some places the deer move better in the mornings and some better in the evenings. I would prefer to hunt in the mornings.

RE: Morning or evening
 

me during non rut i like to hunt evenings during rut mornings... but you cant for get about 11-2 in the morning and early afternoon alot of big bucks have been shot at this time.... mostly when the rut is on, they get up from there beds and the buck are looking for does..

RE: Morning or evening
 

I' ve been deer hunting for about the last 20+ years. I have had killed all my deer but one between the break of dawn and 9 a.m.. My only evening kill was on 10/09/03 it was about 5:40 pm. I might add the doe was my first bow kill also. So, the odds are in my favor (in my opinion) is a morning hunt. However, for what it' s worth. My neighbor has been hunting about 30+ years and he prefers evening hunts and kills 99 % of his during that time & he hunts about 2 miles from where I do... Go figure ? ? ? Long and short of it, hunt whenever you can, for as long as you can, and make the best of it and enjoy God' s creation...

RE: Morning or evening
 

I see more deer in the evenings but they seem to mostly be does, I see more bucks in the morning but not as many deer. I have harvested all my bucks during the morning.

RE: Morning or evening
 

Surely there is no correct answer to this question as it depends on so many different variables.

One aspect that I haven' t seen mentioned is the placement of your treestand relative to the deer' s anticipated actions. Do you hunt near bedding areas - which implies that it is very hard to get into your stand in the afternoon without spooking deer. Do you hunt near feeding areas? This makes it more difficult to approach in the mornings as the deer are typically active in these areas. If the deer know that you are in the area - they will run away or be very, very cautious as they approach.

I know a lot of deer hunters in this area and they seem to fall into two different camps - those who drive their trucks around glassing for deer (always in the afternoons after work) and those who prefer to go into the woods and find out where the deer are bedded. Those who glass for deer in the afternoon are finding areas where the deer are feeding in the afternoon - and they prefer / swear by afternoon hunting. Those who walk the woods and find where the deer are bedding and hanging out during the day almost always prefer to hunt in the mornings.

With all that being said - in my area I prefer to hunt in the morning because everyone else seems to prefer hunting in the afternoon. A lot of these people have to work until 4 (though they usually slip out a little early) and then they all collectively seem to think that they can slip out into the woods for a quick hour of hunting. After several times seeing large deer run away from an approaching hunter I would much rather be in the woods when no one else is around. For that particular reason - most of my successful stand sites are very close to historical bedding areas and I hunt (probably) 75% of the time in the mornings.

I also have to agree with an earlier post - hunting near a bedding area in the morning during rut is unbeatable. Even if there are not deer active in that area on this particular morning - large bucks may come in to the area to see if there are does bedded there. In our area, this buck activity seems to occur around 11 - 12 in the morning - a time period when most of the hunters are not in the field (think the mature bucks realize this?).

RE: Morning or evening
 

Mornings have generally been more productive for me. I also like the fact that I have several hours of light to track my deer.

RE: Morning or evening
 

i like to hunt in the mournings when i can. i hunt close to the bedding areas, so i see alot of deer in the mourning becouse when they get off of the fields in the mourning and into cover they tend to take their time coming back to bed.

RE: Morning or evening
 

i have never shot a deer am, 8 pm none am! probably cause i dont go much am,,, i can get out early and hunt everyday! ive never gotten a slammer so maybe my game plan is wrong!