Do you deer hunt all day or mornings and evenings?

"Do you deer hunt all day or mornings and evenings?"
Yes, but there's probably a few differences between mule deer hunting and whitetail hunting. For instance, I've never even seen a real "deer stand," yet I've been successfully hunting mule deer since I was 14 or 15 years old - 60 years ago. ;)
 
I normally hunt of the afternoon and evenings. But my farm has little mast, it’s all cover, cedars and browse. The deer love my land because I don’t bother them, I don’t bushhog or cut much. They love briars and wilderness, and safe spots. So I’m likely to see deer anytime. But I ain’t a early morning person.
 
My biggest bucks have usually been taken in the morning. In the evening its usually a cull buck or doe that gets taken. This probably has more to do with location of my stands and my hunting habits than anything else. I'm more likely to let does and cull bucks pass in the morning, in the evening its "screw it, I'm putting something in the freezer".
I usually get down about 11 and go back about 1- 2pm. The only time I hunt all day is if I'm in a blind, far away from home, or hunting a specific buck that I really want.
 
If I hunted behind my house it would be (about) the first 4 hrs of light in the morning and the last 4 in the evening and be willing to shoot one at any time.

Since I hunt 2 hrs away I get 4 hrs in the morning. Climb down and trek back to the car to eat and maybe drive to town for a coffee. My evening hunt may be 5 or 6 hrs but I generally put an hour before dark limit for shooting anything but will stay until dark in case Mr Big comes out.
 
Late afternoon hunter here. I have a hard time getting up in the early morning. Looking for squirrels this year we found a spot where about 20 deer come to on a regular bases in the eve. Never saw anyone parked there during deer season. Im going to park away from the spot. So i don't give a hint. Its a smaller woods. Most people go on the mountain side across from the new spot.
 
Generally speaking O Dark Hundred for perhaps 3-4 hr. while making my way up on high ground . IF I've not seen anything I'll glass check wind and try to move into an upwind position of favorable bedding areas . I'll set wait and glass until about 3-4 hr. before dark . Then IF I've seen nothing move off down towards camp . I like every other hunter I imagine look for signs and may hike 15-20 miles round trip given the terrain and area . I have zero trouble sleeping after putting in a day .

I prefer ambush hunting and is one of the reasons I seek high ground ,the other being after shooting something carrying or dragging downhill is preferable to uphill . I'm not 20 or even 60 anymore :eek: Of all the years I've hunted in all the places ,I've NEVER been in a Stand !!. Been in plenty of blinds waterfowl mostly but some in open country with NO natural cover . Any of you ever hunted antelope know about that .
 
I used to be in before light, have a PB&J sandwich, a candy bar, and an apple with me.

Eat the apple and throw the core out, hoping for a deer that liked apples.

Stayed until dusk looking for a late deer, sometimes it worked, but your eyes started seeing weird things as it grew darker. In the Catskill Mts, except for rare occasions, you could count on freezing your butt off all day.
 
Mornings and evenings, mostly just evenings now though. My lack of prior success sitting through the day and desire to take a break/nap, or whatever else stops me from doing it. If I hunt mornings and afternoons, it will likely be in different spots.
 
Scout21 said:
I'm curious if you guys stay out all day when deer hunting. I've always enjoyed heading in for lunch after the morning hunt. I'll come back out for the last few hours of daylight, which is usually the time that I get my deer.
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This was exactly how I did it in Tn.


Fine Figure of a Man said:
Never had the patience to sit in a deer stand all day. I once had about a four hour maximum, now it’s about half that if I go at all.
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I'm the same- my limit now is 3 hours

Bazoo said:
But I ain’t a early morning person.
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Me too.

Hugger-4641 said:
My biggest bucks have usually been taken in the morning.
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That was the case for me in NC and Tn. In this part of Fl., I see much more activity in the late afternoon (last hour of daylight) than any other time, so its real easy for me to choose to only hunt in the PM.
 
Mornings and evenings for me. I don't have the patience to sit all day. I wish I did.
In our lease, we have 2 different tracts of land that are several miles away from each other.
Usually we'll hunt all day, but we'll sit a stand until about 10:00 am, then go to the other tract of land, trade the rifles for shotguns, and drop the hounds and try to get a race going. Then back to the stands 2-3 hours before dark.
 
I'd stay out all day if I could... Maybe half the time I do... I like to stalk and explore also... My time hunting is as much a "break" as it is a hunt... I do stay away from others though so as not to mess up another hunter's plans... I'm always on stand long before other hunters around here even begin to stir... which usually lets me know if anyone else is going to be in the area also... Again it's a break from the craziness... My version of meditation...lol and I've taken animals morning, noon and evening... Although late morning has been my most successful time...
 
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When I was younger I could and would climb a tree before daylight and stay up until dark, would spend from day break to dawn slowly stalking through the woods. Not only can I not do that now, physically, I also don’t want to. I just don’t have the time to do what I used to, nowadays I’m pretty much a mid day and evening hunter.

December and January are my busiest two months at work, normally about 10 off days from Thanksgiving to February. And I work shift work so I sleep in when I get the chance. Ive heard rumors of something called retirement, maybe then I can hunt as much as I want.
 
I've observed mule deer are definitely more active in the early hours from first light and that they are more likely to bed-down or at least move less after sometime around 9AM, especially if it's hot like anything near 40 deg. F. In the pre-light hours, I favor getting from camp to where I think the deer will be and moving into an advantageous position. It could be a bush or small tree that will provide some concealment or some rocky peak from which a large area can be glassed or just a ridgeline that can provide concealment while traversing. I've staked out water sources and ridgeline crossings before and had some very close encounters with does and fawns, but the buck encounters have all come from glassing and stalking and not still-hunting. As long as I can see the deer, I am either going to continue moving closer or waiting for the deer to move closer. If I am not seeing deer, I know I am less likely to see them in the late morning and by 11 AM I am probably going to be transitioning my activities. If I have a camp, I could go back to it to eat and rest, but I could also be moving my camp or resupplying my camp. I might have a camp that's a few miles from the truck and I could push it a few more miles beyond the wilderness boundary so that I can begin the hunt the next morning deeper in. If I've been out more than a few days, I might do a resupply run. This year, the camp was in weather down to -5 deg. F, so I needed a lot of fuel to melt snow or liquid water from the truck. I was 7 days out there, so that involved a lot of food and water.

The deer are more active again at some time after 4PM. The exact time depends on how late in the season it is, and whether it's daylight savings or standard time. This is a time that I'm likely to be looking for deer, looking for where they are and thinking about how to get there, but I am unlikely to take a shot. This year, the bucks were found at 9400 feet, thankfully in the morning. Imagine if one were shot at dusk at nearly 10,000 feet and had to be dressed and hauled out in subzero temperatures with the wind blasting on a moonless night while it was snowing in a wilderness where there are no trails, and that is if it could even be found after dark. I tried to be in camp by 5:30 (DST) because everything could be black by 6 and it was too risky.

So I'm hunting all day, but shooting is something that's done pretty much dawn to mid-morning only, not by rule but by probability and practical necessity.
 
I have always hunted til about lunch then we leave our stands, go have lunch as close as possible, then come back and hunt the afternoon/evening. If I had to travel a good distance to hunt I'd bring a sandwich or some finger food that less scent heavy and stay all day. I haven't had a place to hunt in 24 years until this year so I will be making the best of it.
 
Bugster said:
I haven't had a place to hunt in 24 years until this year so I will be making the best of it.
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that’s a very long stretch. Glad you’ve landed somewhere!

In response to the op, I usually do mornings and evenings. If I were single I’d stay out all day. If I were on a trip and the family was back home I probably would also. I, like many others, have seen and taken deer in the middle of the day, but when dogs need walking and kids need tending I think giving up the middle of the day to help out is more than fair.
Also, there are times (like this week) when people come hunting with me and some can only do half the day or sometimes another guy will join us for the afternoon that wasn’t there for the morning. As the land owner, I am in charge of who goes where. Be it someone showing up later or my wanting to offer fair access to hotter sites, managing the situation means I need to get out long enough to handle that at least.
tldr: that’s a long way of saying there is value to all day sits but that’s not practical for all of us consistently.
 
Early and late in the Bow season, mornings and evenings. During the rut I may hunt all day. Have shot some of my nicest bucks with a bow between 10:00 and 2:00 during the peak of the rut. During the gun season, after opening morning, I see the most deer between 11:00 and 1:00, when all of you other hunters go to lunch and push them to me on your way out and when you come back for your afternoon sit.
 
I'll hunt as long as I can until I have to
have a bm, then I just as well take a break
and go eat and rest a bit.
JMHO- although I won't pass up an
evening hunt, I prefer the morning
because I dislike dealing with a dead
deer in the dark. And unlike a lot of
hunters in the colder regions, I'm not
hanging a deer overnight to struggle and
try to skin after many hours of stiffness.
The hide comes off ( in my experience
anyway) at least twice as easy from a
still- warm carcass. Way easier for me
to get the hide off in good light and it's
just minutes after that to quarter and
ice it down and clean up and coffee time
 
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