When do you see the most deer?
 

I have noticed a steady enough trend that I am almost through hunting in the early morning. I never see deer on morning hunts, even when it's cold. On the hunts from mid-afternoon to dark, I have seen the most deer. In fact, every deer I ever shot was right before dark.

I know that in the morning they are heading to bed down or are out moving to keep warm if it's cold. Maybe it's due to the screwy weather here in Alabama that past couple of year, where it's warmer than it should be coupled with good acorn crops that keep them in the woods. Just curious if anyone has noticed a trend.

I think in can vary during the time of year when you hunt...

but I've seen deer all day long, morning, night, I prob see more in the evening, but then again I'm not often times in my stand an hour before 1st light which I think matters quite a bit, ie you get in your afternoon stand at noon....an hour before dark deer have no clue you are there....etc... imagine getting into your morning stand 4 hrs before 1st light? so maybe this matters...

if you are walking in at dawn... it's no surprise you don't see morning deer.

my dad has only shot deer before noon I believe...
bow, gun, all over 140" btw... and an 183"

just a coincidence I believe, unless you're doing something majorly wrong...

there all over the place at dusk around here. Even knowing that, I'm still heading out in a few....... just in case..........

Depends mostly on the food source. If it is an agricultural rof ield-type food source, I see most in the afternoon. If it is a woodland food source, I usualoly see most in the mornings. That means it will vary greatly depending on which stand I hunt. This year, I [I]saw[I] the most in the afternoons. However, I killed the most in the mornings, But it was actually about even, 3/4.

I typically hunt the hardwood forests. With the minimal amount of pressure those deer typically get, I see them all day long.

They move around as they want to. Mornings and evenings are still the biggest movement times, but you can see deer all day long if you are patient and quiet.

Then again, if you are not in the right place for feeding that day, you could also see nothing. Hunting in the fall last year was tough because we had a massive acorn crop that did not draw the deer to any one location. They could go to any oak ridge and feed.

It made patterning the deer this year rough. Between the bumper acorn crop and the downed trees from the big wind storms, the movement was just different enough to not get a clear picture of the overall movement.

Generally, while I'm driving down the road...
A few years back I read an article somewhere extolling the virtues of identifying your hunting turf as either a morning or evening spot. The author largely based this on food sources/availability as well as cover& prevailing winds. As I paid attention in the field to the author's premise it actually did seem that of the two farms I was hunting in the same small valley, one was an a.m. & one a p.m. spot. One grew corn & hay, the other hay only; exposure was different also.
Now, I've always preferred the p.m. watch as I can hunt my way in, move more quietly while taking fewer branches to the eye and, honestly, sleep later. However, barring a storm, my "backyard" turf, 30 acres or so behind me, usually sees heavy deer movement in the a.m. while afternoons are dry.

From my day cam early in the season, I saw deer all morning till 10:30AM, NONE from 11AM to 3 hours before dark, and then most deer from 2 hours before dark til dark.

Lately, I see the most deer when we have hamburgers or spaghetti. There are NO deer to be seen anywhere around here during day hours in this late season time.

Don't get to hunt mornings much but when I do I see very little deer. I hunt evenings mainly and see more around 16:00 to 17:00 than any other time.

It took me a minute, but I got it! :biggrin:

Depends on their pattern. Simple but therein lies it's perfection: In the AM, deer (mostly) move from feeding to bed. If you're hunting this route, you will see more deer. Likewise (most) deer will take water on their way to a bedding site unless the pattern is such that the water is more convenient (closer to cover) on the PM route.

If you are hunting a route from bed to feed, this would be a (mostly) PM endeavor.

Conversely, if you hunt an evening route in the AM or a morning route in the PM, you will see less deer.

It's up to you to know the difference.

Hamburgers threw me off but Venisonburgers would have given it away!

I see the most in the evenings. I took my first archery AM deer this year, but thats the first AM deer i've seen in archery in the last three years. In the evening I typically see deer each hunt. During gun season they get moved around eniough that I see them whenever.
-Jake

Not to be a smart alex but if you aren't seeing deer in the morning then you are hunting in the wrong place...

I don't necessarily hunt the same areas in the morning that I do in the evening...

Get back into the woods, near the bedding areas, they are back there...

During the pre rut especially, I'll see more bucks in the morning than in the evening, they are cruising, looking for does...

btw...Morning hunts to me end around 10:30 or 11, don't leave the woods at 9:30 when everyone else is...Let them run deer back in the woods to you as they are leaving...

We hunt the forest and just don't see many deer in the evening at all. In fact I don't think anyone in my party has killed a deer after 3pm in 10 years and that is no exaggeration.

I usually see the most deer when I am not deer hunting.

But all four deer I have taken were shot in the morning. Last year I saw a lot of deer in the afternoon in the early season, and I saw a lot of deer in the morning during the rut. This year I didn't see many deer at all.

NC,

I don't disagree with you. I think the 150 acres that I bow hunt just doesn't have deer in it in the AM. Like I said, I've hunted it regularly and haven't seen very many there in the mornign. In the afternoon I'll see 5 or so almost every hunt.
I gun hunt a different area and a lot more property. Deer run all over that all day long during the season.
-Jake

A lot of variables. Depends mostly on where you're setup for your morning and afternoon hunts. I've killed 90 percent of my bucks on morning hunts. None of which were sitting over an open field. Find little pinch points, draws and funnels leading to their bedding areas. Pay attention to the wind.

I'm not much of a field edge hunter. I dont' care to see the deer come out 5 minutes before shooting light expires. They have to come from somewhere prior to that. Get back in the timber a little bit and invade their staging area.

i have seen the most deer ant night but i have killed the most deer in the morning

I see about the same number of deer in the either way. However, all my bucks I've shot except one was in the morning before 9 am. I haven't seen a deer since I've shot a 6 point about a month ago. I'll still go every chance I get, morning or evening.

The last two years I have little time to hunt and am forced to hunt around home. It is rural, but there are a lot of houses scattered in around me. I see the most movement in the middle of the day when no one is home. On a Saturday I see almost none. Deer pattern people quickly. I shoot most between 11:00 and 1:00.

for me it depends on where I am hunting, some of my spots are morning only, some are night only, it all depends on their patterns.

Trend yep - Evening no!

Hunt food plots and agriculture fields. I see most deer on cold mornings where there is a frost on the ground, little wind and no moon the night before.

The deer will come out and feed in the places where the rising sun starts to burn off the frost.

I see the most in peoples front yards on my way to the hunting grounds, before sunrise and on my way home, after sunset. HAHA..........grrrrr.....ehh thats hunting!

I don't even go early morning anymore. Trail cams also tell me they rarely move early morning most likely due to the wolves. They used to move first light. Now when they move it's 2-4 hrs after first light. Night is better.

Like most have said...
 

a lot goes into what, why, when, you see deer. Me, I have morning stands, midday stands, evening stands. With that said, time of year( feeding or rut), what happened to them during the night (yotes, bear, wolves) moving them around. Wind direction. Hunters walking and pushing them, scent. Jeez I could go on. My advice is find a site with all the welcome signs, set up a stand 25' or higher, get in it and watch them starting in early spring (before the leaves) thru the summer. Watch for travel with different wind directions, where buck clubs come in and out, doe packs travel and so on. In other words, gotta be dedicated and do the hard work, there are no answers on the internet for YOUR "particular" position, just have to do the work, or chance it and get lucky, it's your time, use it wisely.;):deer:

My prefered method of hunting mature bucks is to set up close to where they bed because they don't move far from bedding in daylight. What I have noticed over the years is most big bucks are bedded before legal shooting in the mornings (outside of the rut) So to combat this, I only hunt mornings when a moonphase or wether condition tells me that bucks will be arriving at the bed later than usual.

seeing them all over while squirrel huntin... here in the thick wooded areas, seems there up and down all day..... meaning eat some, sleep some....

I used to see a whole bunch of traveling to and from bedding and feeding areas during early morning or just before last light on days that the barometric pressure was quickly dropping to the 30 mark (or around that) I would purposely sit in those travel route stands on days when I knew this was happening. I also would notice deer where out in clover,wheat and sometimes corn fields about 2 days before a low pressure system would be on its way. I use to notice this activity on those days anywhere from 40 minutes before last light. It just seemed like they came out of the woodwork on those days. I really don't know why? I didn't see this the day before a big storm system or even the night of. It seemed to happen the most when it was 2 days before.

Anyways, since I don't live in upstate NY anymore, the place I see the most deer is usually at Bass Pro shop.:cry: