Morning hunter/Afternoon hunter
Wisconsin
Time for a new thread perhaps?
What is your favorite time to hunt - outside of the "all day guys."
Are you a morning hunter or an afternoon kinda guy?
Personally I hate getting up early - but, I'm a morning guy!
Love watching the day start and if I am lucky - I got plenty of daylight to track!
How about you?
Pm Early season, AM late October. All day in November, bow or gun. PM late season.
Evenings early and morning during rut. I don't hunt deep in the woods til Oct.20. Can't wait to sit my rut stands and see what comes through.
rickflare -
I am much like you in that regard. Tough to slap the alarm at that hour but over the years, I just have had better luck in the morning.
Many guys however are shooting some nice deer in the afternoon hours, just not lucky I guess!
The BEST time is "When ever you are there"! Mornings or nights. Don't make a difference! Just go!!!!!
PS: You snooze! You LOSE!!!!!!!!!!
Good Luck this Fall!!!!!!!
I'm with bobbin hood...When it's light.
It's been tough to squeeze out time to be in the woods the last few years. I want to soak in every minute that I can.
Enjoy the mornings more, but seem to have better success in the evenings.
I'm the opposite, I like the afternoons/evenings but had way more success in the mornings.
Bloodtrail….. morning for me till the rut then all day.
Get out when you can! Absolutely - I wish I was a afernoon guy, but for my time, morning have worked.
I should do more all dayer sits...couple three four bowhunting - yet gun season many mnay more. Weird.
Theres no easy answer. Mornings : for big timber with low pressure. Evening : for big timber with high pressure.
Suburbs : first 2hours and last 1 hour.
I hate mornings, not for hunting just mornings. LOL
Off going days from duty work I will definitely be in a tree that evening!
I like evenings more. It just seems it's hard to move about in the wee hours of the morning without disturbing deer on the way in. I do like sitting during twilight to sunrise, but as the morning progresses I get antsy and start thinking about my evening sit. With evenings the anticipation builds until you can no longer see. I get up at 3:30 for work, so I like to sleep in when I can.
I always figured that in the darkness of morning, deer were afoot - most times at long distance from me and moving about. The mornig action seems to "start" faster and trails off....as the afternoon action trails on and on and then festers as the sun dips on the horizon!
To each their own, ya gotta like what your doing, when your doing it. I just find it all interesting and the reasoning behind it!
Cool!
Whenever my schedule allows me to get out.
I prefer mornings because it's typically cold, dark when you walk in, sweat less, and the woods sort of wakes up. I am fortunate to live just two minutes from where I park my truck, so I hunt a lot. If I feel hungry, I leave my stuff in the tree, and head home. I also prefer my own throne, so I may head home for that as well. I can be back in the woods in no time, so a break in the day doesn't hurt. I will hunt every day of the season though, and will certainly be hunting the evening as well. I don't rush out too early in the afternoon, and mainly focus on the last two hours.
Now I also take 4 weeks of vacation starting the last week of October, and hunt long days. I will sit probably 7 all day hunts in that time, when peak activity dictates. I will tell you my favorite time to see deer is 8 am to 9 am. That seems to be the time I see bucks running/sniffing those hardly used intersecting trails.
Afternoons more only if I hunt early in the season. Mornings for sure for pre-rut thru gun season. I have taken most of my mounted bucks during the 10-1 time window during the rut. At least all my years I used to hunt Buffalo County, that time of day was the big buck time to be in the woods. Lots of days I would see nothing until I would see a big shooter, or a big group, chasing a hot doe at 10 or after.
I love being in the woods in the morning, from late October through gun season on. I don't hunt early season much, but when I do it's afternoons. That all said my biggest and most mature bucks have been shot in the late morning early afternoon time frame during the rut/pre-rut.
First four weeks probably 3:1 in favor of evenings... Late October through middle of November it's all about the mornings, but when the rut hits hard I will sit at any open time for as much as I can. Late season once again it's last couple hours of the day.
I try and do 10 all day sits in early November, get burned out, sleep in till 10 am, and have had great luck mid day in the peak rut as well.
November,
IMHO you are sleeping a little too late on your sleep in days. Be set for action in those rut traffic hot spots a bit before 10:00. 10:00 has been GO time for me.
Mostly afternoons for me. I like morning hunts, but only if I have a stand set up that I can easily get into quietly. Most of my hunting is out of a climber. I hunt 99% public land, and I am always moving to the heaviest activity for the time of year.
Toss up for me. It's hard to get up at 4:00 am sometimes but I'm always happy when I do.
On several occasions during the rut I've had bucks follow me to my stand in the morning darkness and that can get interesting. Last year a buck followed me and stopped less than 20 feet away as I was getting dressed at the base of my tree. He passed directly through my scent, crossed my trail and put his nose to the ground, grunted and continued on his way. I guess he had something else on his mind. All I could make out in the darkness was his silohette and a decent white rack.
He left before You even got dressed? Did He at least ask for your number and promise to call?
Cheesehead Mike, I have that happen often also. Two years ago I was walking in on Halloween morning in the dark and actually got charged by a buck. I think the only thing that stopped him was my sudden flashlight beam AND my girlish scream. He stopped just short of hitting me and actually kicked dirt, leaves on me.
No and I feel so cheap!
Two years ago on November 5th I was heading out on my property in the early morning darkness in the pouring rain. I'm not sure why I was even heading out except that the day before I saw 11 different bucks from stand. I had my raincoat hood cinched tight and I was looking at the ground with my headlamp trying to keep my face dry. I looked up and there was a set of glowing eyes coming at me down the logging road. I froze with my headlamp shining into the glowing eyes. It was a yearling 6 point and he kept coming straight at me until he actually had to veer to my left so he wouldn't run into me and practically brushed against me. I couldn't resist and slapped him on the hind quarter as he passed by. He donkey kicked and damn near kicked me in the head. It was pretty amazing. The pouring rain obviously affected his senses and my scent.
Mike, that's pretty cool. I wish I could say I did something manly like that. But I wasn't kidding when I said I screamed like a girl. I have had close calls with bears and wolves and never been as frightened as I was by this buck. I think a lot of it was because it happened as I topped a steep ridge in the dark, and he was on me fast.
Mornings for me, I am up at 430 everyday anyway so why not go hunting. There is something about watching the woods come to life as the sun comes up it kind of recharges the internal battery.
