Is there some secret I'm missing? Or are people just more inclined to hunt mornings? I am seeing NO deer in the AM, but am seeing does consistently around sundown. Granted, this could be due to my stand location or one of a million other factors. I am currently hunting large swamps with steep inclines into relatively open maple stands.
I think I'll give you my take, even though this is just my take. Let's say you hunt a game trail between point A to point B? For argument's sake A can be anything where a buck was, and B is where a buck beds. If you are between those two spots, I'd think mornings would be best. My camera intel, and like most other hunter's camera intel suggests bucks move at low light and in the dark. So there they are in bed, don't get on their feet until after dark, and go out eat, drink, chase women, and that party goes on until early morning. Drunk, with full bellies, smelling like hot estrous, they go to bed. I think catching them going to bed is far easier in daylight in the morning, than catching them come out of bed in evenings with legal shooting light. So for me, I think mornings are better for bucks.
So ask me which is easier for me to hunt? Yeah, getting up early on my day off is tough. I have to rise even earlier, take a shower, get to stand early enough to let the deer I may have spooked settle, in hopes of catching a deer going to bed after partying late. So while I feel the opportunity is greater in the morning, I find evening hunts much easier to make happen. Get out there while it's nice weather, the hunt (unlike the morning) ends at dark, so they tend to be shorter, while in the morning I may be on stand 30 or more minutes early.
The best part is the variable of the rut. Deer can be up on their feet at any time of the day, so that little window in my opinion is best hunted as much as possible. Even during the rut, I think my buck encounters are highest in the morning. I believe my numbers are likely 60% kills in the morning, while I would venture to say I likely hunt the mornings 35% of all hunts throughout the year. That tells me mornings are better where I hunt. This is really about bow hunting, because all bets are off during gun season. Of course most people get out for the gun opener, and most deer are caught off guard, and most deer are bumped via hunter intrusion of the highest magnitude (statewide), and while my observations have shown that the people around me, hunted like they were bow hunting. I'm talking very minimal pressure. That doesn't mean I didn't hear shooting, but in my little piece, nothing. After all, I could care less what rapid fire Joe did over there 2 miles away, or before legal hours Billy did in the dark. I'm concerned about what might transpire amongst the people I know around me, and what they might have shot amongst the community of deer we all share. I believe the gun opener is a good indicator of hunting pressure on deer who haven't had much, more than it is on when deer move more (day or night). And gun season is less about hunting and more about shooting in my opinion, and seems almost anticlimactic even when you kill a good one. I am prejudice though, because my real love is the bow, and deer that don't act molested, and even though our area is less like that, that cannot be said about everywhere.
During gun season, most hunters are moving in and pushing deer. Making mornings more successful. Lunch time is another time for gun hunters. Generally, I think morning are better because deer bed typically before daylight and when the daytime winds pick up around 8:30 - 9 am, the deer adjust and move farther under wind noise.
Outside the rut and gun pressure. Evenings are definitely higher odds as bucks are on food patterns.
My current (lack of) understanding is that they are eating and whatnot at night and then heading to bed in the early AM. So why are these dudes up at noon?
