Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Morning or evening hunts??

I love watching the sun come up. But I prefer afternoon and evening hunts.

I have to hunt in the mornings. Can't remember the last evening hunt

Morning especially when bow hunting. I like to have light when tracking a shot deer.

Being Patriarch of camp, I maintain the log. Based on 20+ seasons of data:

Morning hunts are significantly more productive than afternoon hunts.
A preponderance of bucks are taken in the morning.
Doe dominate the afternoon hunts.
All of the biggest bucks have been taken before 0900 in the morning. The biggest was taken before 0700.

That's what the raw number say. However, there is a lot more going on. For instance, if somebody bags a deer in the morning, he's likely to take the afternoon off. After that, given that KY only allows one buck per year, he's likely to hunt his remaining doe tags in the afternoon, when it's warmer.

Another dynamic is that we generally like to use the hunting venues that are in the woods in the morning. This is for two reasons. First off, our deer tend to come out into open pastures more in the afternoon than the morning. Secondly, if we're going to drag a deer out of a ravine, it's better to hunt that venue in the AM, when we have all day to drag it out. Additionally, a deer taken in the afternoon needs to be dealt with quickly in order to get it to the processor before they close. It saves a lot of time if you can just run the truck up to the carcass and throw it in.

My personal tastes are that I like watching the sun come up. I also like walking out in broad daylight.

I like to hunt the woods in the morning and fields in the afternoon. If the woods are wet, the wind is blowing or creeks are running I'll hunt the woods in the afternoon. If I can hear myself walking that's negative that I can't overcome.

I prefer mornings, but don’t find them any more productive than evenings. Evenings tend to fit my schedule better, so I likely hunt evenings twice as much.

Morning hunts just have a different feel, the woods wake up and you get to hear critters moving about but I've had better luck hunting afternoons right before last legal hours.
I prefer morning hunts though.

For my area, I prefer evening hunts. I know where they tend to bed and where they like to move generally later in the afternoon. That said, we'll hunt both when we are out there.

it don't matter to me

Actually i'm kind of a mid day kind of hunter during the later deer season. I hunt mostly public land and kill the majority of my deer from 10-4. I firmly believe deer pattern us better than we do them.

Killed deer all hours of the day ...
Anytime you’re outside, there’s a chance to kill a buck

And conversely, if you're NOT outside, you chances diminish sharply?

I prefer mornings and they seem to have been most productive, but evenings are still good. I don’t mind tracking in the dark, but field dressing, etc… by a flashlight sucks. I’ve never killed a deer mid-day despite regular efforts to do so years ago. Pretty much stopped trying several years ago. I will get down and hike:scout mid day though.

All times.

Killed more bucks between 11:30 & 2 though.

Or having a big one walk by 10 minutes before you can see your sight pins.

Do you walk in before daylight in the AM??

My dad gets down when it is still somewhat light. Says he can't see to shoot. I tell him he can't see at 5:30 in the morning g either but he gets in his stand in the dark. I refuse to hunt the plot if he is hunting about 100 yards behind it. He is down and into the open while I can still see my pins.

I stay til pitch black, no need to tip deer off to your stand and where you come and go from. Plenty of deer can be 50-100yards away and just stand there watching a person climb down and walking along.

Growing up in PENN I always hunting early mornings and always enjoyed watching the sun come up in the woods. Being on your stand in the dark was kind of spooky sometimes. A raccoon climbing down a tree and jumping in the dry fall leaves sounds like a charging white rhino when your a kid

Early season, it's before dawn to midday, because I'm trying to get at a good deer that's still moving in the lower stuff. But a lot of guys hunt the lower stuff, so the deer get pushed up into the high crap, and move less in the daytime. Once the sign dries up in the lower stuff, I head up high, and will generally not worry so much about being somewhere at first shooting light, but will hunt until late afternoon. I don't evening hunt anymore. Bad experiences trying to get animals out in the dark after a full day of hunting. Can't do it anymore.

I like hunting in the morning best but I've killed more deer in the evening.

I like evening the best. It is not the most productive at times. Early afternoon seems to be for me.

It is so much fun waiting for them to show in the last few minutes of light.