What time are you hunting in the morning?

[mtnbound]

For me, it depends on what the moon is doing, what the animals are doing, and what the hunting pressure is. There have been many mornings spent sitting in the dark at 04, with nothing heard until they start to go to bedding areas after first light. Other times with a full moon, there's no talking until late morning. Just observe what's going on and adapt.

 

[TheHammer]

I’m typically hunting right out of my tent or walking very short distances and being in a good position. Setting up in the dark sometimes bites ya. Depends on the situation from the night before. Usually being in a good vantage/transition point 1/2hr to an hour before is ideal imo.

 

[WCB]

Depends....would I start actively calling in elk before i can shoot them no not in general. But spent many mornings well before light listening to bugles...as shooting light started to creep in the elk had defined a line of travel and shortly after shooting light they pretty much shut up. I knew where they were going and where I needed to be relatively to "cut them off".

Guys in the same general area said they hadn't heard a bugle for days. Common denominator is they weren't heading out until it was light enough to shoot.

I've seen guys who have a routine that has killed hunts. Because "it's useless" to change their routine according to them. "too hot to be out"..."too windy" etc. They'd rather sleep in or nap or eat or drink.

There are definitely times to sleep in and come in early etc. But as a hard and fast rule...nope.

 

[Indian Summer]

I like to sit in the dark for about 30 minutes. Set up if I’m in spot where I can use the spotting scope. I’m busy in the morning so I don’t eat before I leave camp. So I’ll sit there with my ears wide open having a bite to eat until the sky turns gray and things come alive.

What I do during the day or that evening, or maybe even the next morning, can be based on what I see in the first few minutes of light. The last thing I would wanna do is show up late.

 

[nphunter]

Depends on what kind of hunting I'm doing, if I'm in the timber in a roaded area I try to be in the woods well before daylight trying to locate the elk with a bugle tube. I've been as early as 4am and once I find the elk I park and wait until close to daylight, I don't want to get to the elk in the dark but I want to be as close as possible by shooting light.

If hunting open country I like to arrive at my glassing spot as close to glassing light as possible, I don't like driving into areas with my headlights on in open country so if there is a full moon I drive in via moonlight or wait until it's twilight so I can see the two tracks and drive in that way.

Some areas the animals don't get into until later, I have one deer spot that bucks don't drop into until their final bed for the day around 10-11am, same with elk, a lot of times it's well after daylight before the elk show up. Last saturday I killed a bull at 8:00 am and had a whole herd show up while we were just finishing quartering him up at 11:30.