Morning or evening in early season

[LostArra]

What do you prefer? Which time gives you the most sightings or shot opportunities?

I thoroughly enjoy being in a stand early, well before dawn, and watch the woods wake up. It's almost a tradition to be in the woods at dawn. But recently I'm starting to feel it's a dangerous proposition to get to a stand in the dark especially if any open field or meadow is involved. We all think we can sneak in without detection but do we? When I see deer from a morning stand it's usually late morning after things have settled down from my entering.

The term "slipping into a stand before dawn between feeding and bedding" sounds great but any walking in the dark in that critical area seems risky when it comes to bumping/alerting the deer. (except for maybe young ones)

I have one area that I have abandoned as a morning location because it is almost impossible to get to the stand without alerting the wise old does. I now hunt this location in the late morning or late afternoon or both. Evenings are always better.

What about oak woods with lots of acorns dropping? Morning or afternoon? I'm definitely seeing more deer if I go in later in the morning or early afternoon.

All bets are off when the chasing starts. I get there early and stay late.

What about you?

(I am referring to bow hunting only)

 

[Bambistew]

I prefer evenings during early season and pre-rut upto late October. Then prefer mornings once the rut kicks in. Most all the bucks I've killed early season were in the evening, I rarely saw a buck in the morning, but if I wanted to punch a doe tag I'd go in the morning... Good luck!

The few spots I hunted near acorns, were usually better in the afternoon early on, and evenings as Nov approached. IMO, it has more to do with them packing on the calories and what the best food is at the time.

 

[N2TRKYS]

I hunt bottomland swamps with acorns. I get in the stand at least 30 minutes before daylight. I kill as many bucks in the morning as I do in the evenings. I can't stand the rut, because I can't pattern them then. It seems like more luck than anything else during the rut. I kill most of my bucks before the rut comes in.

 

[Lineguy7]

In western Kansas we hunt them up in the prairies, and generally early season there is enough standing corn to sneak in undetected in the mornings, so long as we have a good wind (both direction and strong enough to cover any sound). Typically, we hunt grassy areas between two fields.
As rut grows nearer, we hunt them like muleys. Glass them searching for does and then bed them down and make a stalk.
I can't speak for hunting them in oaks, as we don't have any out here, so I wouldn't know how to hunt them, except for maybe go by what my cameras are telling me.


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[Lineguy7]

So to answer your question, I have to go with mornings.


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[TBoschma]

I love hunting the evenings, mornings can be a challenge because of getting into an area undetected really early in the year I've gotten away with hunting mornings but a few weeks into season and its pretty frustrating.

 

[danarnold]

sure seems like does bust me before dawn...I love to be in the stand when the woods wake up tho

over the weekend acorns were dropping like crazy, had a couple spikes scooping them up under me till almost 10am

 

[Forestryguy]

Here in Iowa I have started hunting only in the evening. I can get into a stand or blind without getting busted as much and I have more time to hunt then anyways. The only time I will hunt the mornings is if I have a fool proof way of getting into a stand without getting busted. For me this is pretty much only doable on public ground where there are multiple ways to get into an area, and the majority of the property is not crop ground.

 

[elkyinzer]

Depends on a lot of factors for me. The situations you describe seem to relate more to generally entering/exiting your stands from the proper routes and times regardless of the point in the season.

If you are an ag field or food plot hunter, evening are better almost as a rule; if you hunt in the big woods there are a lot more factors at play. In Early October I like to hunt evenings more as they go to food sources, which are stands of white and chestnut oak for me. I look for fresh sign (usually shit is the most reliable indicator) to find which oaks they are hitting the hardest. Plus it's just a pleasant time to sit in a treestand for a couple hours after work, as long as it's not too warm and buggy. But weather can play a factor, frosty clear mornings like we have had already this year a few times can really keep the bucks on their feet. Those kind of mornings are the best times to get early season bucks on the edge of bedding cover in my experience.

I hunt very, very carefully the first 3 weeks of October. I stay out of my prime spots and do as much scouting as I do hunting. What I really don't want to do is blow out groups of does that bed in a consistent area, because those are my rut spots. I make sure not to burn myself out and to spend quality time with the family so I can disappear in late Oct/early Nov when the bucks are really running.


Come October 25 which is when I typically start to see rutting activity, I have historically seen more deer in the mornings but they can be on their feet any time of day. Then it becomes about spending as much time in the tree as you can bear.

 

[LostArra]

Depends on a lot of factors for me. The situations you describe seem to relate more to generally entering/exiting your stands from the proper routes and times regardless of the point in the season.

If you are an ag field or food plot hunter, evening are better almost as a rule; if you hunt in the big woods there are a lot more factors at play. In Early October I like to hunt evenings more as they go to food sources, which are stands of white and chestnut oak for me. I look for fresh sign (usually shit is the most reliable indicator) to find which oaks they are hitting the hardest. Plus it's just a pleasant time to sit in a treestand for a couple hours after work, as long as it's not too warm and buggy. But weather can play a factor, frosty clear mornings like we have had already this year a few times can really keep the bucks on their feet. Those kind of mornings are the best times to get early season bucks on the edge of bedding cover in my experience.

I hunt very, very carefully the first 3 weeks of October. I stay out of my prime spots and do as much scouting as I do hunting. What I really don't want to do is blow out groups of does that bed in a consistent area, because those are my rut spots. I make sure not to burn myself out and to spend quality time with the family so I can disappear in late Oct/early Nov when the bucks are really running.


Come October 25 which is when I typically start to see rutting activity, I have historically seen more deer in the mornings but they can be on their feet any time of day. Then it becomes about spending as much time in the tree as you can bear.

Thanks to all.

I hunt two different spots. One is brushy woods (locust, hackberry, elm, lots of cedars, no oaks) surrounded by wheat fields and pasture. It is a big bedding area. The wheat is planted at different times because some is grazed with cattle and the other is not and planted later.
You are correct that entering and exiting is the problem here and I've just about given up morning hunts.

My other spot is big oak woods with lots of white oaks dropping heavily this year. I am only hunting that in the afternoon/evening for now and very infrequently. All day sits to come when the rut kicks in.
I also like to be in a stand as a rain shower stops. The woods seem to come alive with deer movement.

 

[PJ321]

Mourning's are my favorite watching come alive is so amazing
That being said it's completely independent on access, movement and getting in undetected
Like Will Primo's has said many times you can't hunt them where they are, you have to be where there gonna be, if you can get there in the mourning without alerting them then go for it
That being said if it's an area that's seasonally HOT I'll push the envelope a little, not burn it out though, if it appears that you're presence is negatively effecting them then back off
That being said you only get so many chance's

 

[DougP]

I had a big 10 point on camera this year coming in as early as 5:15a and staying until daylight, so opening morning I decided to get to my stand at 4:30 and wait until shooting light ~6:30. Where my stand is, I could sneak in without a light and not walk through their bedding area and the wind was perfect opening morning. Wouldn't you know it, I get almost to my spot and I hear multiple deer running out of the food plot. Big boy never showed up, only a doe and 2 fawns around 9a. I was certainly disappointed that I bumped them that early. I had patterned them for 3-4 days coming in later.

 

[rhendrix]

My two cents:
I've only got so many sits in a stand, and so many days in a season, since having kids I usually am able to block off two weeks a year to dedicate to just whitetail. I hunt public land exclusively, and typically try to hunt the last week of october and first week of November. Given my time constraints I try to make every sit count. Having said that, I take two stands with me when I drive out of camp and typically will set up a stand on a field edge the night prior or the morning of a hunt and sit and watch for deer movement based either on preseason scouting or previous years experiences, then move in the afternoon and hunt in the area that I have either seen deer, or found a rub line or scrap line or a combination thereof. If there's multiple spots where I see deer entering and exiting an area I'll set up separate stand locations given the sign and prevailing winds in a forecast. My entrance and exit strategy to my stands in pretty basic, I don't use a light or head lamp, if the grass is dry or I'm walking into an area with lots of underbrush I'll forego shoes altogether and wear moccasins. I'll typically wear the moccasins through the timber as well if that's where the sign and deer movement takes me, but I don't always. It's sort of a judgement call based on the wind and route I have to take. If I'm going to a stand on a field edge I will try to walk at a minimum a hundred yards away from the tree line that I'm paralleling, then work my back into the timber. I treat my entrance and exit strategy like a still hunt. I take my time and make sure I'm stepping lightly, and I always play the wind, even if that means I've gotta loop around or set up in an area I previously hadn't planned to hunt. Hopefully some of this proves to be useful to you. Good luck this year!

 

[TradLife406]

I have better luck bowhunting in the evenings. My uncles farm is a lot of dense crick bottom thickets and wide open fields. There's no way to get to a field edge in the morning without running all the deer off. With a rifle though you can sit on the bluffs over looking the fields and the crick without an issue.

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[jaredlef]

I've always had more sightings of deer in the mornings and generally enjoy hunting mornings more than evenings. I hunt big woods public land and set up almost exclusively in funnels/travel corridors. I don't find myself bumping deer too much, but I also get in very early. If you can bear getting into the stand an hour or more before first light, I think it really helps to settle the woods back down from your arrival. I've had encounters with deer in morning sits after hearing snorts/brush busting on my way in.

 

[JustinSmith1754]

I love to hunt, so I am not going to pass up that morning opportunity to be in the woods. That being said, there is no doubt that you risk spooking more deer by walking in to a feeding area before light. I have harvested several deer at different times of day, so being in the hunt is key to success (obviously).

The best advice I can give on hunting whitetails in the morning is try not to set up on the feeding areas of nocturnal deer. For example, we hunt a place that has several food plots that range from one (1) to five (5) acres in size. These are great afternoon stands because you can get in there a few hours before sunset without spooking deer. These same spots will have deer in the fields before sunrise, and there is no way to get into the stands without running the deer out of the fields. Therefore, in the mornings we try to set up on travel corridors several hundred yards off of the food plots in hopes of intersecting deer leaving the food and returning to their bedding areas.

This strategy has proven successful where we hunt. I am not saying you can't kill a deer on a food plot in the morning. We have just found that we alert less deer hunting the food plots in the evenings, and hunting the travel corridors / trails / pinch points leaving the food plots in the mornings.

Great question.

 

[LostArra]

It's November and in spite of the warm weather I got my Hunt Comfort pad ready for some all day sits now.
I hope there is some chasing going on.