Morning vs evening

[ncboman]

I hunt evenings far far more than mornings but my success ratio for morning hunts is far far higher than evening hunts.

Anyone else have this dilema?

ncboman

[dave-t.]

Yes, same thing.

When I start hunting the early rut, I try to switch from evening feeding patterns to morning scrape travels. It seems to me that the bucks like to check their scrapes before bedding down for the day, to see if anything worked them through the night.

I also like having the light of day to track and deal with the deer instead of having to track and recover at night.

[GF.]

When I worked from home, it was a whole lot easier to sneak off for the evening set than to drag myself out at o'dark thirty, and honestly, with firearms, we've got so many deer that having just that last hour or so was never an obstacle to filling the freezer.


This past season, though, I only saw deer when I got out before sun-up, even if they didn't show 'til 10:00 or so.

But you think about it the odds, just mathematically....

When I hunt the evening, I usually get about 1.5-2hrs of legal daylight. When I'm there before legal hours start, it's 5-6 hours on-stand before I have to redistribute my water load. So right off, I guess a morning hunt makes me 2-4X as likely to see something.

And to Dave's point... I've never trailed a deer in the dark but once (using the7-08 over a food plot in Alabama) and I didn't like it much. It's pretty reassuring to see good blood and know that you've got all day to figure out where it's leading...

[Twanger]

I hate getting up early, but prefer to hunt in the morning, particularly in the early season. It's cooler! :D

Since I do deer management about 10 minutes from my office, it's very easy to slip out of work a little early and do an evening hunt. I've gotten pretty used to tracking in the dark. :p About half the time the deer falls in sight, and it's no biggie to track in that scenario. Even if they don't fall in sight they are usually not a lot farther down the trail from where you last saw them... it pays to take a bearing on the last place you saw them, and also pick out an obvious landmark. Things look so different from the ground, even when it's only 60 yards away, and particularly so if it's dark.

Hunting in the morning on weekdays before work is tough because if you get something you pretty much have to take the whole morning off at that point to deal with the deer. I'm not always in a position where I can deal with a deer in the morning, and it consequently cuts down on my morning hunt count. In the late season I may do a morning hunt, gut the deer and just leave it in the truck if it's overcast and cold. I sometimes will buy a couple of bags of ice on the way to work and throw 'em on the deer if it's iffy.

Success rate? I should go back and get the actual numbers, but do believe it's pretty much 50/50, not favoring morning or night by any significant margin.

[Herne]

I hunt evenings far far more than mornings but my success ratio for morning hunts is far far higher than evening hunts.

Anyone else have this dilema?

ncboman

I don't think its a dilemma NCB - its a fact.

We had to go out morning and evening with the clients, so the figures are not skewed by number of hunts at a time of day. There is no doubt that the success rate for larger bucks was certainly well in favour of the mornings. That too when hunting to 1 hour after sunset, with much more powerful optics than many of you do.


Does with us are different because our doe season in form 1 Nov to 31 March (does only, not antlerless deer). Before Xmas of course does are not so visible. After, you can if you are hunting, go out any time and they will be feeding or in bad weather, be visible laid up under the hedges. And of course, once you have seen one, its chances of getting away are not good.

Either the lay of the land allows you ot close and shoot immediately, or in our hedgerow country, you can worm in to 200 -300 odd yards and wait for it to stand to take a pee. (40 minutes - which is a long time on your belly in mud and driving rain ;) ).

Still one is not with roe at least comparing like with like, but in general, morning every time. the only exception, in our relatively warm maritime climate, is if you have a hard frost. Then they will wait till the frosts lift, before they move from deep cover. Wet and wind - under hedges, but frost is well out of the way.(Larger deer behave a bit differently)

[Twanger]

Here's the approximate time of my 4 biggest buck kills:
8 pointer, bow 4:30pm
8 pointer, bow 4:30pm
10 pointer, ML 6:00pm (20-min before dark)
11 pointer, bow 7:00am (or so... 20 minutes after shooting light)

[purple heart]

I use to hunt mornings and evenings but rarely ever got a deer in the
morning with a bow. Now we hunt the last couple of hours before dark
with much more success. However during rifle season I rarely shoot a buck after noon time. I ve never shot a buck in the last couple hours before
dark, with a rifle.

[Sabre]

About 70% of my bucks have come between sunrise {about 7 AM during season here} and 9 AM. 20 % between 3 PM and sundown and 10% midday. Obviously if my hunting time were limited I'd want to be in the woods those first two hours.

[Waidmann]

What we sometimes do is have my son or cousin go out before dawn and begin hunting. I, being somewhat more desireous of my sleep, stay in the bed till after light. After a light breakfast, I will very quietly and sneakily slither out and head for my blind, stopping every 10 yards or so to scope the place out. I seldom see a deer on my way into my blind, however, it is not at all uncommon for someone else in my party to have a deer wander by him at this time. :) I get to my blind and hunt then till after lunch. It is likewise not unusual to see deer moving at 10:30-11:00 am--just when a lot of hunters call the morning hunt a quit and head in for lunch.

Strange how that works.

Waidmann

BTW, this is usually second-fourth day of the rifle season. Bow season is completely different.

[GF.]

Up in MN, on the rifle opener (roughly Nov 7th), we either got 'em right at dawn or between 1000 & 1100 - so if you didn't punch out in the first hour of the season, the trick was mainly in staying warm enough to stay on stand 'til they came around... Maybe that has more to do with where our stands were set up than their behavior-- I don't know for sure about that, but I do know what was the hot time period for any given stand....

Lately, around here, during the earlier parts of the season(s), the mornings have been best--probably because temperatures have been higher and it has been too damn hot for a winter-coated, winter-fat buck to be cruising much in 60-70 degree weather. Get a frosty morning, though, and you start seeing things... Ummm... so to speak ;)

I think that for suburban-type deer, it also depends a lot on the human traffic. The kids are home from school around 3:00 and are out there rasing a ruckus from then 'til dark, or they're catching the late bus home after soccer practice, or they're getting schlepped to one sort of 'life enriching' experience or another, or their folks are getting home from work and somebody's walking the dog, or.... On and on.

Anyway, long and short is that the humans limit their activities in the mornings to getting themselves put together to go wherever they have to go, and it seems to me that the parents head to work as soon as the kids are on the bus, so things quiet down and the deer start traveling again as soon as the traffic clears...

[Smokey]

My sons and I usually stay out all day. We usually hunt a ways from camp so do not take the time to come back for lunch. Our packs are sufficient for carrying what we need for lunch or snacks.

We have shot deer during all times of the day but have found that if we are not in the hunting area by first light, we see significantly less deer. I think movement after daylight in an area will alert these animals thus restrict their daily routine in moving from one area to another.

We always see more deer [whitetail and mule deer]during the mid day hours then we see elk. Elk seem to move very early and then late in the day or more so in early evening.

We have also found coues deer to completely quit moving if we move into an area after daylight. We might see them 800 or 1000 yards away but not at the normal shooting ranges. These are amazing animals missing very little in their surroundings.

So to sum up, we shoot more in the morning than in the late evening probably due to staying out all day.

[Bushman]

I'm a dark to dark gun hunter in a big woods and most of the largest bucks that I have seen have been in the morning. They have had all night to calm down and feed. Our gun season is post rut usually and most of the big bucks have the breeding done and they are not moving around as much as the little guys out looking or left overs. While I like to think that I have the woods to myself, I know that there are other hunters back there too and I think that a lot of the deer that I see in the morning have been bumped by someone else a few ridges away. The big bucks move again in the evening, but usually at last legal light or after. That is when you see them through the windshield on the way out.

[ncboman]

I KNOW why my morning hunts out produce the evening hunts.

Lots of evenings, I doan decide exactly where I'm gonna hunt until I'm on the way and often times until I am in the woods with my climber on my back.

Morning hunts are different. I usually have an exact tree in mind when I drink that first cup and am plotting my entry. I doan usually get up that early to jack around. :D

ncboman

[Herne]

Well the Germans always say "Morgen moven, abend sitzen". Not bad advice generally, even if moven isn't a German word, but the meanings clear enough.

I have found it works - mornings you have to find the deer. Evenings you ambush them on the way out to feed. Having said that, it presupposes that the deer are behaving moderately normally. If, as some you gents do, have 3 or four hunters out on a couple of hundred acres, then you probably have a greater number of hunters per sq mile than there are deer. At which point you cannot move. However, if you have some space, then that works well.

[StringJumper]

There is no question about the trends I see. Early in the season I see far more deer in the afternoon and evening. About the time of the rut this begins changing and then I see far more deer in the morning.

As someone else mentioned this could be a by-product of my stand locations...not sure of that but I am absolutely sure of the trends I see. I rarely even hunt in the evenings after Thanksgiving.

[DaveHawk]

I let the moon faze tell me when to hunt, mornings, mid day and evenings. So for the past 10 years I've had a chance if I wanted to shoot a deer or 3 at the times I hunt. So it depends on the times of the faze I wish to hunt. Mostly I do hunt the evening.

[TJF]

I hunt a lot more evening then mornings but have more success in the morning.

The one thing nice about mornings... the deer move steady and have a direction in mind when heading back to bed for the most part. Evening hunts finds them stopping right outside the bedding area, milling around and wandering all over while working their way to the main feeding area.

In the evening they tend to be more jumpy and looking for trouble verses the morning.

Tim

[bugsNbows]

I am a morning person and love to be in the woods at sun-up. However, that said, I've had better harvest results late day approaching sundown.

[LampLighter]

I let the moon faze tell me when to hunt, mornings, mid day and evenings. So for the past 10 years I've had a chance if I wanted to shoot a deer or 3 at the times I hunt. So it depends on the times of the faze I wish to hunt. Mostly I do hunt the evening.


I have studied Jeff Murray's theory since he started making that round moon dial. I did a 2 year study in my old club and had the data pretty controlled, such as eliminating any kills after deer with dogs opened, and by interviewing my club members to see if any forced movement had occurred. Long story short, the results indicated an overwhelming accuracy of Murray's theory.

I check it from time to time, like this past Tuesday ( 7/7/09) at 2pm a 4 point crossed in front of my truck. I checked the moon position later on the Naval Observatory site, and sure enough the moon was directly underfoot. That same afternoon my friend saw 3 feeding around his yard. Go figure.

We have a magazine out called Louisiana Game & Fish. There is a feeding chart by Dave Barnett. We have found this to be extremely accurate. My friend researched for a long time to figure out what it is based on. He did crack the code. He said it is based on [ the Southing of the moon. ]

[Hink]

With the rifle its pretty easy to explain. I really only hunt the first week of the two week season and on the last Saturday of the season. On the morning of day one you are in the most productive spot you've spent the last few months, years, decades locating. The pressure moves the deer the buck you want comes out and you shoot it. On the morning of day two its rinse and repeat the formula. You only get two tags and can only fill one a day. A lot of years I haven't been allowed to hunt during the evening. So mornings are 100% better than evenings. lol :) :) ;)

With the bow I get in maybe 6 Saturday mornings and 4 weekday mornings or 10 days and I probably hunt 30 evenings or more. I've never really added things up but I enjoy an evening hunt if I have to work the next day a lot more than I do a morning hunt when I have to get up the next morning.

[DaveHawk]

Lamp I have hunted the moon transit for 12-13 years now and NC can attest to my kills. It works good in un pressured areas like the DC urban area back yard hunt. I do see deer move in the big woods with the transit but not the big bucks.

[Chuck S]

I like getting up early--getting on a vantage point and waiting for daylight and then watching for deer feeding or headed to bed. Then stalk! If nothing by about ten oclock shows, I'll still hunt in areas where I know deer to bed. Towards afternoon I find a stand overlooking a general evening migration to food/water trail. So far my deer have been shot at all hours of the day with the biggest, a Whitetail trophy coming, after tracking a herd around noon one late winter day.

[DaveHawk]

The one thing I like about the moon transit is that I know when deer are up or down for getting in the woods before light or after light so not to spook them. Once I'm on stand I watching no matter what time it is. Anything can happen around here, kids running through the woods dogs out running deer, what ever I've seen it.