# Don't Hunt the Mornings?



## gpb1111 (Feb 19, 2005)

I have read in several magazines that you shouldn't hunt mornings in the early season because it may screw up the location for the rest of the season. What is your take? 

Also, I refuse to bait deer, which means I try to hunt them by interpreting sign to locate their natural foraging habits. Does this make a difference for hunting deer in the morning?


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## M.Magis (Apr 5, 2004)

There are way too many factors to say one way or another. As a &#8220;rule&#8221;, that&#8217;s ridiculous. I&#8217;d say you have a better chance of messing up a stand hunting evening rather than mornings. But, it really depends on the individual stand.


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## bobk (Apr 30, 2004)

As a rule I say it is best to hunt whenever you can get in the woods. I really enjoy hunting the mornings. Nothing like watching the woods come to life in the morning.


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## fshnteachr (Jun 9, 2007)

I hunt public land and there are always people in and out of the woods. I don't think it matters one way or the other. I think it is silly to simply say don't hunt mornings.


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## weasel (Mar 25, 2007)

i know a outfitter who guides hunts in logan co and champain co around the west liberty area his name is joel snow and all his clients last week only hunted evening as the deer are in the fields at night feeding . they killed a big 11 pt and a big 9pt last weekend.


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## Mad-Eye Moody (May 27, 2008)

It certainly can be true in some circumstances as mentioned above. When you go into the stand to you blow deer out in the morning? Are you hunting food or bedding area routes? In some cases it would be good to stay away in mornings but I could make cases to stay out of some areas in evenings just the same. If you really pay attention you will find some places that are better morning spots than evenings and vice versa.

Btw. I am not expert. But I hunt evening to mornings 3:1 yet still kill more deer per hunt in the mornings when bow hunting.

But anymore I go when the weather, work and the wife allows.


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## crappiedude (Mar 12, 2006)

It just depends on the stands I hunt. 
One stand I hunt I catch the deer coming off the fields in the morning. Another stand is located 1/4 mile away and I catch the deer coming into the fields in the evening. I have 1 other stand and they come and go all day long if the oaks are dropping acorns. Deer will show up in a good oak stand any time of day or night.
My least favorite stand is the field stand, the big boys seem to show up in the last minutes of day light.


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## ezbite (May 25, 2006)

bobk said:


> As a rule I say it is best to hunt whenever you can get in the woods. I really enjoy hunting the mornings. Nothing like watching the woods come to life in the morning.


exactly, get out there at anytime..


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## gpb1111 (Feb 19, 2005)

Thanks for the input. I'm going to try a morning hunt this weekend on some travel corridors. I'm hunting a specific buck, "The Boss", and want to give myself the best chance. Here is the trail cam pic from July:


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## jschoenherr (Mar 6, 2012)

I have also read in magazine and internet articles that hunting mornings in the early season is not a good idea, but sometimes I get the impression that they are referring to states with earlier opening dates (I think some states have the bow opener while bucks are still in velvet). I'm not really sure if this is true or not, but it doesn't keep me from going in the morning.


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## vc1111 (Apr 13, 2004)

There is a lot of hogwash written in some of the magazines.


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## FISNFOOL (May 12, 2009)

I hunt squirrel prior to deer season. See deer in the morning often. I actually use a ladder stand on private land for early squirrel season to get above the ground clutter and see the squirrel moving around on the ground. There are a lot of acorns down around my stand, and hickory trees nearby. Then later I hunt the same area walking around when they are cutting nuts.

Same stand I use for deer later on. I guess the deer get used to me being in the area. I do place scent cans around at specific clear bow shot spots by the stand. Last year I even had a buck walk next to the stand just prior to dawn.


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## alumcreeker (Nov 14, 2008)

My biggest buck to date was killed at 830 am oct 7 I actually have never shot a mature buck in the evenings but that's me and my spots are always better in the mornings I love mornings all year

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## FISH DINNER (Jul 23, 2010)

I agree with some others on here, that it all depends on your stand location. If you are hunting near a bedding area, you may want to stay away in the early morning. If you are further along a travel corridor however that leads back to their bedding area, I would say go for it. There is plenty of deer movement in the mornings, the key is to beat them to where they want to go, not meet them where they are already at.


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## BanksideBandit (Jan 22, 2010)

I cant get in the woods a ton because of work and i hunt public so as much time on stand i can get the better, morning or evening. I do have morning and evening spots depending on personal experience and where they are bedding. 

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## sherman51 (Apr 12, 2011)

i guess i am one that totaly dissagrees with this one. i have been hunting since 81 and have taken atleast 40 deer over the years. and atleast 30 of those deer have been taken in the mornings. i have just never had much luck hunting the afternoon hunt. but just enough to keep me hunting both.
sherman


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## BaddFish (Jun 20, 2009)

I can't hunt mornings becouse I walk through their feeding fields to get between the woods and their bedding area and the food. Every doe in the area will know my whereabouts if I go in the am- don't care how early I get up.

I hunt mornings in the rut only.


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## Carpn (Apr 5, 2004)

It depends like others say. While its definitely true that plenty of deer get killed in the mornings during early season and then again late season deer are on such a feeding pattern it is often counterproductive to go out in the morning and educate deer through making noise and leaving scent . Thats not to say you can't ambush deer in the mornings returning to bed . Its just usually way better to just evening hunt food sources and transitional areas between bedding and feeding . Rut hunting I would rather hunt mornings without a doubt tho.


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## Ozdog (Jul 30, 2007)

I've only killed one decent buck in the evening. In my own humble opinion killing any deer comes down to not eduacating the deer & putting yourself off to the side of travel routes to & from bedding / feeding areas. Trolling bucks are always traveling up wind of where the does are bedding so travel routes there are also key. Any wheeljack (myself included) can write a magazine article.


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## buckeyebowman (Feb 24, 2012)

I think taking any of these suggestions or opinions as a hard and fast rule is a mistake. For instance, my brother in law killed the biggest buck of his life, 170+ class, at just before 8AM. I usually see more deer in the morning than in the evening. My personal "magic time" is from around 8AM till about 8:30AM. And it doesn't seem to matter where I hunt! I've thought about this, and I figure it has to be a function of where I choose to place my tree stands.

I don't know how in depth these articles went in describing the particular situations they were confronting. Obviously, most of us try to place stands between bedding and feeding areas, looking for funnels and pinch points that restrict deer travel to as small an area as possible. In the morning, when you might expect deer to be out in the feeding areas, if you have to tromp through the feeding area to get to your stand then yes, I suppose you could hose things up a bit. Some route planning is definitely in order. For instance, I used to hunt a spot where, if I took the "easy" route to the stand, I'd be walking through where the deer were. Once I figured this out I scouted a new way to the stand, to the point of having to cut a path through a wretched briar thicket, in order to sneak in the back door. That's when I started seeing deer. If, because of the lay of the land, something like that is not possible where you hunt, then it makes sense to stay out of there in the morning. This season I have a stand up in a spot I definitely consider to be an afternoon stand. The only way in, and the prevailing wind, would be blowing my scent out into the crop field in the morning. In the afternoon, the situation is reversed. The deer are coming out of the woods and thickets toward the crop field and they are upwind of me. You need to analyze every stand situation to determine when it's huntable.

And, as far as spooking deer for a "whole season", I don't believe that for a second! Several posters mentioned hunting on public land. Well, on public land you're going to have the "public" bumping around, which means human scent wafting about. I've hunted public land too, and I can tell you that deer, *especially* deer on public land, are far cooler customers than most folk would believe. Some hunters like to indulge the myth that deer are these ultra sensitive creatures that can't abide the merest whiff of human scent. That the slightest intrusion into their territory will send them, quivering in abject terror, into the deepest, darkest thickets never to be seen again! Please! I've seen otherwise. I've sat in a stand and seen deer react to a nearby gunshot, from small game hunters, a shot that made me jump, by not reacting at all! They kept right on feeding! Eventually, one of them picked up her head, looked around, swiveled the radar dishes she had for ears, and detecting no immediate danger went right back to feeding. It takes repeated intrusions to blow deer out of an area.


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## ironman172 (Apr 12, 2009)

mornings would look like a good time for this guy 

.


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## buckeyebowman (Feb 24, 2012)

A chocolate racked buck! How cool is that? Love getting pics of them in the daytime. Hope you get a crack at him!


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## Mad-Eye Moody (May 27, 2008)

Yesterday morning at7:30 am I killed my biggest buck of my life. 12 point. Not monster class but very very very nice. Saw four other deer as well.


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## Mad-Eye Moody (May 27, 2008)

buckeyebowman said:


> And, as far as spooking deer for a "whole season", I don't believe that for a second! Several posters mentioned hunting on public land. Well, on public land you're going to have the "public" bumping around, which means human scent wafting about. I've hunted public land too, and I can tell you that deer, *especially* deer on public land, are far cooler customers than most folk would believe. Some hunters like to indulge the myth that deer are these ultra sensitive creatures that can't abide the merest whiff of human scent. That the slightest intrusion into their territory will send them, quivering in abject terror, into the deepest, darkest thickets never to be seen again! Please! I've seen otherwise. I've sat in a stand and seen deer react to a nearby gunshot, from small game hunters, a shot that made me jump, by not reacting at all! They kept right on feeding! Eventually, one of them picked up her head, looked around, swiveled the radar dishes she had for ears, and detecting no immediate danger went right back to feeding. It takes repeated intrusions to blow deer out of an area.


+1. On Thursday evening I jumped the same buck I killed yesterday morning about 100 yards from the stand I killed him in. He went ripping, tearing and crashing through the brush and was obviously very spooked. I figured I wouldn't see him again. That lasted 14 hours.


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## mpd5094 (Jun 20, 2005)

Awesome buck Mad Eye Moody!


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## buckeyebowman (Feb 24, 2012)

Whoa! Way to stick with it Mad Eye! Congrats, he's a beauty! Nice big body on him, too. And looks like his neck was swelling for the rut.


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