[Reyn]

I usually hunt from around 05:50am til 11am. Its light enough to shoot around 06:30 If i hunt afternoons i like to hunt from 12:30-1pm til dark which is 5pm.

I havent hunted afternoons but once this year due to prior engagements. Shot my last deer 2weeks ago at 10:15am.

[omcjf]

It all depends on how cold it is and how much I can stand. I try to stay out until at least 11:00 a.m. and then back at 2:00 p.m. But 2 years ago, on an unusually warm day I decided to stay out all day and shot the biggest deer of my life at 2:30. I don't think I would have seen him if I'd gone in.

I always tell my son that you have no chance of shooting a deer if you're not in your stand and there is a direct correlation between the # of hours in a stand and the # of deer you'll have a shot at.

[Geno]

Sun-up to sun-set. Regardless of the temperature, rain, shine, clouds, wind, snow or even boredom. Sun-up to sun-set. Yeaup...that's a mighty long time to hold one bladder. :what:

[41magsnub]

Doc.. two words: tactical catheter

[MCgunner]

I'm a pansy I guess, but I get out of the stand by 9, on stand about 30 minutes before good shooting light. On my place, not really any sense in staying past 9, not much movement. Oh, I COULD see something, I guess, but it ain't worth it. I'll get something by 9 and if I don't, I don't. LOL. I have NEVER seen anything down there in the afternoon, but I've started hunting it some and staying a couple hours into the dark with a spot light just in case a hog moves. After deer season, I plan to get down there by sundown and staying to maybe 10 before coming in, especially on moonlit nights. :D Hogs often move just before sundown and into the evening as they've been holing up in the cover all day and are hungry.

[paintballdude902]

i like getting out there areound 10 am then hunt till 2 pm ive had best luck around then soo im not gonna mess with success

[hoghunting]

I am like Doc in that I'm in the stand or pop-up by dark AM and out when it's dark PM. Some of my largest deer and quite a few hogs have been shot at mid day when others are at camp.

[dakotasin]

i try so absolutely hard to never, ever be in a stand. i failed one year, though, and got stuck in a stand for an hour or so. thank goodness i came to my senses and got out. haven't been in one since - doubt i'll do it again.

[omcjf]

Uhm........ok.

[birdbustr]

I like to get into the stand at about sunrise. No dark for me. I used to, but I have only seen a handful of deer at first light. Most have been between 9-10:00am and then again at the last hour before dark. If I am hunting at my in-laws house, and can walk to and from the stand and house I like to be in my stand or walking to-from at 7-10:30am, 12-2:30pm, and the last 2 hours of sunlight. If I have to drive to the hunting area, I will usually skip one of those blocks of time.

[Vern Humphrey]

I carry a small pack with a pair of boot blankets (Mickey Mouse-sized Thinsulate foot covers) and an empty quart milk bottle. I usually go out to my stand in just shirt and trousers, and then strip off and put on fresh, dry clothes before putting on my coat and other clothing. The sweaty clothes go into a plastic trash bag.

I have a big, heavy set of Fujinon 7X50 binoculars that allow me to see when it's still too dark to shoot, and a pair of 8X32 center-focus binoculars that allow me to see through brush.

I bring a book, but no coffee or other diuretics, use my hearing amplifiers, and can sit comfortably for hours, and still be alerted by sound.

[marksman13]

Just depends on how much movement I am seeing. I'll sit all day if I am seeing deer. If I'm not seeing anything I'm on my way out by 9AM. I usually get back to the stand by 3PM that afternoon and hunt til dark. I would rather hunt the afternoon than mornings.

[alsaqr]

Most of my deer have been killed from ground stands or tree stands in the afternoon and this is when i hunt. My guns have very good low light scopes and many of my deer have been killed after sunset. In OK it is legal to hunt up to 30 minutes after sunset.

[stiab]

I love to deer hunt, but am a wimp in the mornings and prefer to sleep in (I'm retired). I hunt every afternoon, from 3:30 to dark. I have killed 12 deer in the last 3 years using this m.o. I do not bow hunt or black powder hunt, but admire those that do. All my stands are within 100 yards of my house, so prep time is minimal. I really have it made, and realize that.

[Reyn]

I really have it made, and realize that.

Yes you do. I would love to have land with a good population of deer that close to my house.

[stiab]

Yes you do. I would love to have land with a good population of deer that close to my house.

Most people would not trade houses with me (all 750 square feet of it), but I can walk straight out my back door and it is 1.3 miles before you come to the next house. That does have it's advantages! You are welcome to come and hunt if in central NC sometime.

http://pic20.picturetrail.com/VOL1600/481405/6919788/235849719.jpg

[omcjf]

Stiab -
That sounds like an ideal place to live. I don't have it as good as you but I do have 15 acres with quite a few deer, turkeys and a lot of pheasants so it could be worse. Unfortunately, my shop is on the same property so I spend much more time than I'd like in there and not nearly enough out back. I'd love to retire to a setting like you've got.

[Flyrodder]

I agree with omcjf that you can't kill them on the couch. Well, unless you are hunting at stiab's place.

[redneck2]

First day I ever deer hunted I killed a 11-point, 213# at about 11:30. I didn't know enough then to understand that you can't kill a deer that time of day. Evidently, the deer hadn't read all the magazine articles and books either.

I don't think there's a flat answer to the time thing. If you're out in a feeding area, you'll most probably see the deer first and last light. The closer you hunt to a bedding area, the more likely you are to see a deer any time of the day. During the height of the rut, all bets are off and anything's possible.

[Eric F]

30 minutes before sun rise to +3 hours then about 2 hours before sunset + 30 minutes

[Loyalist Dave]

I generally don't get into a stand when on public land, as they can't be permanent, and I make too much noise when puttin' one up. So I get up on the side of a finger looking down into a draw that is wooded, similar to being up in a stand; it's pretty steep. The deer like to use the wooded draws as covered approaches to the fields where they get at the crops. They get used to that so even after the corn or beans are gone, they still follow the pattern.

There is usually no deer movement in the mornings, then 99% of the other hunters in the area make a great crashing noise as they all break for lunch at say 11:00, while I stay quiet and in place. Then around 12:30 - 1:00 the deer, who heard the exiting hunters, get confident, so they start to move. All of the deer I've shot on public land has been after lunch and before 3 p.m. I'm usually packing up the car and heading for the deer butcher when the afternoon hunters are rolling in.

On private land I get in at first light, and stay until about 11:00. The deer have a "schedule" of behavior you could almost set a watch by on the private land that I use. If they bed down on the property, they get up between 7 -9 and that's when I get a shot. I got one at 7:30 this year with my flintlock. Otherwise they don't return until after dark, so no point stickin' around.

LD

[Kimber1911_06238]

stiab, looks like a little piece of heaven to me!

depends on where i'm hunting. in some areas the deer move throughout the day...others they don't.

during the rut, the more time you spend on stand the better.

I usually get down around 10, just because i have other things to do, if it was up to me i'd always stay on stand for as long as i physically could do it. when the high temp for the day is in the teens, it's hard for me to stay for more than 4 or 5 hours.

[stiab]

stiab, looks like a little piece of heaven to me!


Thanks Kimber, it feels that way to me. I own only 6 acres, but am bordered by a thousand acres of hardwoods and pine plantations. Much of it is hunted, but some is not, and our deer density here is 45 per square mile, as per the experts. Plenty of turkey also, but I'm not a turkey hunter. I sure enjoy watching them.

[Flyrodder]

stiab: You need to try spring turkey hunting. IMO the most exciting thing in hunting is to hear a turkey gooble and come in to your calling.

[BIGR]

This year 5:30 A to about 11A for the morning hunt. 2:45P-dark for evening hunt. I shot 2 deer on the same day at 10:35 AM. Took 4 deer after 5PM this year. Most of the deer I have taken in the past 4 years have been of the evening after 4:30PM.

[Reyn]

My 3 deer this year were killed at

7:30am
10:15am
9:30am

I just changed shifts and dont get off til 11pm which makes getting up at 4am tough. I might try some afternoon hunting.

[bdg146]

At least 30 minutes before first light and I stay until sun down.

To everyone that says it's not worth hunting in the afternoon and instead they head into camp, I'd just like to say thank you. It's tough to stay attentive all day, but around 10-11 AM, you get a lot of hunters who head back into camp, and they inadvertently push a lot of deer around. It's like having 10 people putting on a drive for you and they don't even know it. :)

[scotjute]

Last year quit hunting around 10. Was on an aluminum ladder about 9' up nailing a duck-house to a post out in the open by a pond around 11:30 when a nice 8 pt suddenly hops out of the woods and runs straight at me!
About 30 yds away he saw me and veered off to the side.
Have seen at least one other buck moving in middle of the day. Perhaps that's a strategy they have adopted that works.

[CoRoMo]

I tried to wait for as long as I could, at a good spot this year, but left after less than an hour of waiting. I can't stand to sit there and hope for a dumb one to walk by.
I took off hiking to where I thought I'd find one, and bam!
Dropped a nice mule deer on the first morning of the season.
I'll go find them from now on.

[Vern Humphrey]

Was on an aluminum ladder about 9' up nailing a duck-house to a post out in the open by a pond around 11:30 when a nice 8 pt suddenly hops out of the woods and runs straight at me!
Years ago, some friends and I arranged to have some timber company land available to us alone. Scouting it, I found a stand already built, overlooking a fresh scrape. I sat in that stand three days running, and never saw a deer. I would sit there until about 11:00, come down and then come back around 5:00 PM.

For some reason on afternoon of the third day, I walked over to the scrape (which I had been religiously avoiding lest I leave a scent there) and found fresh tracks!

The next morning, I came out to the stand at about 10:30, and had just got comfortable when a nice 9 pointer came out of the swamp and proceeded to thrash the brush around the scrape.

[Rembrandt]

Varies....somedays from dark-to-dark. DNR ask volunteers to record their bow hunting hours and number of deer seen....to my shock I bow hunted 165 hours for deer this year.