Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Going in, dark or dawn?

Hav neighbors that don’t go in till good daylight they don’t kill schit

You'd probably be more likely to spook 'em in daylight walking in, wouldn't you? Seems like it would depend on the situation, and what you have to walk through to get to your spot.

I’m a guest at the place I’ve hunted now or 8 years. The owner and his family like to get there early, so that works for me. I enjoy settling in before the woods wake up.

They also get down out the stands for 9AM. I usually sit a little longer and choose stands, if I can, that allow me to walk back to the lodge.

I’ve killed twice now on my walk back.

Since I've retired back in '16, (and even before that, whenever I was laid off or furloughed) I spend 4 weeks up on the mountain in deer camp, never going off the hill once I park the truck. If I wake up at 5 o'clock to piss and decide I've slept enough, I'll get dressed and hit the woods. If I still feel like sleeping, I'll go back to bed for a couple more hours and head out around 7-7:30. Maybe I'll make a big breakfast and go out after the kitchen is cleaned up. It really doesn't matter. I'm there for 4 weeks. Except for weekends and the odd occurrence, I have the whole mountain to myself. I am going to kill a deer. It doesn't matter what time I get in the woods each day. Sooner or later, while stillhunting for 28 days or so, a buck and I will cross paths.

I used to be on a lease like that. Not that early though, they went in at 10 like clockwork which I wouldn't mind if I could stay out later myself but they drove 4 wheelers all over during the day checking cameras and stuff. They thought I liked hunting in bad weather but really it was because those were the only days I could sneak in on foot and hunt the place without all the 4 wheeler racket

Guys that don't sit all day are going in when it's daylight for evening hunts.

Myself, dark to dark. Can't kill em at the house and my better bucks have come between 11 and 2.

Used to be pretty hardcore about getting in well before shooting light, but I’ve relaxed about it, except for the first part of the rifle season. If not on stand early on my WMA on those early days, you may end up wandering around looking for a spot instead of hunting. Still hunting isn’t a great idea with the woods full of eager folks with twitchy trigger fingers. On days when the crowds aren’t present, slipping in (or out) at the edge of shooting light has worked out for me a few times.

We keep game cams set out at numerous locations.

We have vampire deer that only come out at night. The others, when we see them in the daytime is typically between 10 AM and 2PM.

I like getting into my stand at least 1.5 hours before shooting light if I'm deer hunting. Used to be that I would sleep till shooting light. Now I use a thermal scanner for watching the woods come alive during that time.

Its amazing to see.

ya,

GWB

I am one who likes to be in early, plenty before light as well. I did a lot of deer hunting in northern MN. I too enjoy watching the woods wake up. I walked steady pace, in the dark nothing too loud, didn’t want to surprise anything. I’d hear animals move off easy, they own the night. They come back.

I enjoy trying to figure out what I’d hear walking near my stand before the light. Most deer taken were in the first hour, then again pre noon. I think the pre noon bucks were the rut wanderers more than any other reason including hunter movements.

The area up there I was in was awfully thick bush country. You can walk past deer standing still 15 yards away just as easy in the light as you can in the dark.

In Montana… totally different of course. My morning starts when the binocs become useful.

Osky

I like to get out about an hour before sunrise, legal shooting 1/2hr before sunrise. I just like sittin there and watchin the woods wake up.
Now I grew up hunting whitetails in Illinois on private land. Out west where I am now, I usually get out late morning and try and stay out till dark.

My deer lease is 140 miles each way so sometimes if I drive in and run late I miss first light.

This year I missed first light and had to make a bathroom stop on the lease. I hustled to my stand and it was daylight…..about 45 minutes later I shot the biggest deer to date. I really thought I had ruined that days hunt by being “ late”.


As a rule though I enjoy being in stand well before dawn.

I go in without a light ever. If I had to it would be red but I've never found the need for a light. I prefer to be in at least 30 to 45 minutes before legal light. Sometimes sooner.

While I can only recall actually wanting to shoot a deer at first light I did once on opening day. Biggest whitetail I've ever taken. A bit over 160 gross for TX hill country it was not small. I tried to let it walk over to my buddies but he begged me to kill it before it accidentally walked by his uncle who has more luck than....

Anyway back on topic. we almost always have deer out before light and at first light. Its rare not to have deer out that early. Of course if we sit all day we also usually see deer almost all day long too.

As noted by others it can depend on your location a LOT. We can sneak in undetected no matter the time.

One stand on our own property though, where I would like to be closer, the deer are there in the morning no matter how early you go basically. I suppose if I went at 2am I would beat them according to the cameras. That close in stand we can only hunt in the evenings. But if we hunt from a box stand 280 yards away there are deer there every morning mostly usually as it gets light enough to see or within 15 minutes past legal start.

It depends on the stand and the approach to the stand. If deer are likely to beat me, I wait till I can see as I approach. If the stand is on an exit from food to bed and I don't have to bumble through the food, I get in early.

I used to be settled in a little before daylight but most of my hunting now is on public land and 1-2 hours away. I no longer try to do that. I get out of the truck between 9-10AM and I'm walking in about the same time most hunters are walking out. I usually hunt till 4-5PM and am walking out about the same time most other hunters are going back for the evening hunt. I don't really want to kill something right at dark, process the meat, get it back to the truck then drive 2 hours home.

I see just as many deer as I used to see and generally have the woods to myself. Killed my biggest buck at 1PM and a respectable black bear at 4PM.

If I'm hunting closer to home or if I'm camping where I'm hunting, I get in earlier and stay longer. But I still see just as much game at mid-day.

Dark. I like to see and hear the woods come alive with the sun. It's probably one of the main reasons I still hunt. That and time with my son.

Depends on my mood, honestly. I used to go in long before daylight, because that's what everyone else did. They were also on the way out of the stand at 10 am, whereas I plan on sitting all day. 20 years ago, I started going in around daylight and I don't think it's cost me anything. I've spooked deer going when I've gone in during the dark, with and without a red or green light.

I've never actually laid eyes a deer before 7:30 am, ever, in 30 years of hunting. So I usually wait until dawn is breaking so I can see what's around me. I do miss watching and hearing the wood wake up though. I've also only ever seen one buck before 9 am during the rut, when rifle season takes place. All the bucks I've killed have been between 1 pm and 5 pm. I've seen them at last light too but never killed one that late.

Early muzzleloader weekend this past year, in October, I went in 1.5 hour before daylight on Saturday because I knew the neighbors would be out on quads around daylight, and I spooked deer in the field where the blind was set up on the edge. I didn't see anything until 9 am (doe), then again at 1 pm (different doe) and then yet another different doe at 4 pm, which I decided to shoot. It was a bad weather weekend, 30 degrees at 6 am and it was 73 degrees at 4 pm. Next day, went in again in the dark and again spooked deer in the field and didn't see a single thing in the field for the rest of the day. I got out of the blind in the afternoon and mosied along a property line on a creek down in a gully and promptly jumped a couple of does that took off onto the other property.

I think it really just comes down to figuring out the movements in an area. At another place I hunt occasionally, along with my cousin, deer are moving through there right before daylight or right at daylight. Last two years, they each killed a buck just after 8 am on opening rifle weekend. Three years ago, he shot one around 2 pm. Never seen a buck moving through there in the evenings, except one little 4 pt a couple years ago. Everything else we've ever seen in the evenings were does, at that particular spot.

i have killed most of deer at 9:30am - 11:00am, #2 time is 1:00pm - 3:00pm, 4th is lunchtime, 5th is nearing dusk and the 6th is dawn till 9:00 pm.

when i get in my stand, it's around 8:30am. i used to be one of those guys that was in his stand an 1hr before daylight. 7 or 8 years ago, i said to myself, why are you in a stand before daylight? i didn't know. i did the times i shot deer and 8:30ish sound about right.

I've had a bad stroke about 12 years ago, right arm/leg are kaput, so traipsing about woods, i am not. i will drive my Polaris 800 to a spot on a trail and then i'll hobble my butt 60 or so yards to my homemade ground blind and sit there all day.

i have shot bucks before, but never on the first day, expect one. i shot the buck on the first day about 2ish pm. i would kill doe on the first day, but i have only one buck on the 1st day. it was a heavy beamed 8pt at 50ish or so yards with my Ruger #1 and 130gr Nosler BT with IMR4320.

I like to be in before the sun comes up. Not because I have taken a lot of game at first light, but I have taken some. I just enjoy watching the world wake up around me. One of my favorite parts of hunting is watching the day materialize out of the darkness.

Lots of variables at play,but in an area where i know other people will be hunting not to far away i think the earlier the better.Sure ya spook a few unknowns on the way in but it allows them time to forget about you as the other hunter possibly spook them back to you.

Early here also, but I shot most of my many bucks between 10 and 2. Especially with the rifle.