Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Time on stand

for the first couple days of rifle season i usually sit all day at one spot and let the impatient and hungry guys push them around. i have gotten most of my post-rut deer from 10-2 during this time. after that i typically hunt a rotation method. i try to have several stands set up that i will spend several hours at each with the last one being closest to the truck.

Assuming you hunt out of a tree or in a blind, how long do you typically stay on stand? Wondering what percentage sit all day and for those who don't, what time they call it in the morning and what time they go back out in the afternoon.

My routine is about the same throughout season. I try to be up in the stand a half-hour before legal hunting and I stay until 1030-1100, and then I'm back out in the afternoon with about 3 hours of hunting before end of legal hunting.

For the Rifle Opener in KY, that equates to:
Morning: 0615 to 1100 Afternoon: 1500 to 1750

My reasons for a 4-hour hiatus at midday are:

1) As the patriarch of deer camp, I have responsibilities.
2) Although I seldom hunted all day, I'm 58 now. It's good to get in and give myself a break.
3) I change clothing, rifles, and gear, because I usually change venues from morning to afternoon.

What I can tell you from analysis of our log is that:

The 0800-0900 block sees the most deer killed, followed by the 0900-1000 hour. Third is the last hour of daylight. We have recorded only 7 kills between 1100 and 1700 in 15 years. Surprisingly, we've only recorded 4 kills before 0800 in that same time frame, but 3 of the 4 were our biggest bucks.

Another thing I can tell you is that my neighbors, voting with their rifles concur. During the peak activity there may be 3 shot-strings per minute. From 1100 to 1700 there are maybe 3 per hour.

This ^^^^^^