Deer hunting at noon

[Byron Quick]

My stepfather is a contrarian when it comes to whitetails. He sleeps in, gets in the woods about 11 AM and seldom uses a stand. While scouting, he takes a rake and pruning shears. He'll clear a trail of several hundred yards of leaves, sticks and debris to avoid noise while walking. Use the pruning shears so that he doesn't have to brush against limbs. Then he takes two or three steps and waits a few minutes. Then two or three more slow steps and so on.

He claims that many deer are on to the morning and evening stand hunters. These deer move during the middle of the day when most folk are back at camp according to him.

Hard to argue with his results. He kills nice deer every season. He almost never hunts deer in the morning or late afternoon.

 

[mete]

In heavily hunted areas the deer will move when hunters leave the woods to go for coffee or lunch .One friend knows hunters habits better than the deer's and profits by it !! But deer don't sleep all day.Learn their habits.For example one time deer move in this area is between 12:30 and 1:30 ,that's the does . Bucks may follow does but can be seen almost any time. If I can't hunt early I just go out between 12:00 and 2:00 .Another movement is at 4:00 . You must learn the deer's habits !!! BTW I don't walk through the woods I sit and wait near their trails .

 

[redneck2]

First day I ever deer hunted in my life. Got an 11 pointer, 213 dressed. 11:30am

The only absolute during deer hunting is "there are no absolutes". You can scout all you want, but when hunters walk the woods all day and the rut is on, everything pretty much goes out the window

 

[killzone]

choose a spot to spot

I usually take my time first two days and take my GPS with me and mark the spots I like on it > distance and angle too.I come up with path ways and draw an over view of my hunting check points so I dont have to re position for the rest of the hunt as much as I normaly would. I pick my favorite spots and watch for activity. I take notes and note what was interesting about that certain spot.(Even colors, land marks and the access) That way when I get back to my cabin I can picture a better image of which spot is hotter than that otherone,,,, Its more fun anyway. my notes also help me with my jurnal. For some it my seem complicated but I never had a hunt where I could not take anything .... Oh wait.... that is bull,,,, I've had a few... BUT doing what I do It almost never bothered me....that is forsure,,,
Best Regards
KZ

 

[birddog]

A friend of mine who is the most accomplished whitetail hunter I know, has killed most of his record-book bucks at mid-day. If you can, hunting all day is the way to go.

 

[Browns Fan]

Quote:
"He sleeps in, gets in the woods about 11 AM "

Sounds like my type of hunting!

 

[Art Eatman]

I've done pretty good in the middle of the day. I was fortunate enough to hunt for several years on a ranch with lots of ridges of some 100 feet of relief above the valleys. Bucks tend to lay up on the downwind military crest, near a saddle. When spooked, they'd run uphill and upwind. "Real" bucks, anyhow; little bucks and does will run any old which way.

So, work a ridge where you can go crosswind or slightly upwind, just at the downwind edge where you can watch that area just below the crest. Kick Bucky out of bed, and if he's worth taking, bust him.

It can get busy; he's running, you may be running and shooting and cussing...

, Art

 

[fisherman66]

Sounds like fun Art. You don't by chance hunt near or in Palo Duro Canyon?

 

[mustanger98]

It seems to me this noontime (10am-2pm) hunting would work real well where the deer expect hunters in the morning and evening. I've heard plety of times if you stay on your stand during that time you may see the biggest buck you ever saw. Thing is, where I hunt, they tend to expect me during that time and after 4pm. My Daddy killed a nice one early in the morning this last Christmas Eve because he was there when the deer wasn't expecting me in that spot.

 

[mustanger98]

Around here, the bucks just hole up in thick cover and that could be anywhere.

 

[Oldnamvet]

The bunch of guys I hunt with (and a lot of the others from the same area) get to their blinds at 0500 and then leave from 1000 until 1400 for lunch. They claim that the deer don't move during mid day. I pack a lunch and stay in my blind. Last time I filled both my tags during that time, one at 1215 and another at 1245. Just had time to field dress one and drag him up to my blind before the other showed up. When my buddies were coming back to the field, I was loaded up and ready to go back to the resort for a hot shower and a nap. All those guys moving around in the woods push the deer every which way. An opportunity for someone with patience.

 

[Art Eatman]

fisherman66, my present playground is down here near the border, sorta west-northwest of Big Bend National Park. Desert and mountain country.

Art

 

[Charles S]

All those guys moving around in the woods push the deer every which way. An opportunity for someone with patience.

That has been my experience also.

I have had great luck in the middle of the day.

Last year I shot my first buck with a bow. I made the shot at 13:15.

Charles

 

[Byron Quick]

Around here, the bucks just hole up in thick cover and that could be anywhere

All my experience with deer hunting has been in Georgia. Our bucks hide all kinds of places, not just thick cover.


Buck I hunted for a couple of years had gone completely nocturnal. I finally realized where he was spending the day. There was an old chimney in the middle of a field, with about a hundred feet of honeysuckle vine on the ground, and a few scraggly plum trees. He was spending all day lying in the honeysuckle with the plum trees camoflaging his rack. Just watching the world go by.

Drove by a buck one night that was watching traffic. He was leaning against a clay bank that had grass hanging down from the top over him. His left feet were curled up under him on the clay bank.

They'll hide in much lighter cover than you would credit until you've seen them there.

 

[Smoke]

If I want to shoot a deer, I just go out any time of day and pick the one I want.
Can be in and out inside 20 minutes. Ain't nothing to shootin' an old deer.

Smoke

 

[fisherman66]

Hey, your pretty good with photoshop!



Alright, that was jelously comming out.

My parents live in Lincoln National Forest in NM. I drive by field like that all the time. 30 deer is not uncommon. Of couse they are all protected in that National Forest.

 

[Sam]

I hunt the Lincoln all the time fisherman66. No one bothered to tell me it was closed to hunting. Where is that in the proclamation?

Out here deer have a habit of bedding down around mid day. I find it to be a good time to sneak up on 'em and everyone else seems to have left the field.

Sam

 

[scout26]

Man look at all those decoys !!!!




(Very carefully ever so patiently waiting for the opening of archery deer season here in Illinois.)

 

[fisherman66]

Sam;

I'm not sure of the lingo, and perhaps I am wrong and it is just the village limits.

They live in Ruidoso.

 

[Sam]

In the village, hunting would not be good and is not allowed. Lincoln National Forest covers 1/4 of the state.
Hunting is allowed in NF but not in National Parks.

Sam

 

[MudPuppy]

I think it just depends on the area--I could be full of it, but it seems to me deer in areas that don't see a whole lot of traffic move a bit during the day, but if its an area with plenty of folks out and about during the day, the deer may still come around near dark or real early.

 

[fisherman66]

Thanks for the clarification Sam. I will check into that and out of state licences. A crowned elk mossied though their front yard one day. They have a really nice picture. Last time I was there a couple black bear tore down the hummingbird feeders. Lots of pictures of those guys too.

I get such an itchy trigger finger every time I visit.

 

[bean357]

Smoke!

heh, heh...."decoys"

 

[20cows]

I believe your stepfather is using the method Elmer Keith called "still hunting," IIR. It was his favorite way to hunt. As a side note, Keith often smoked a pipe while doing this, so he could keep track of the wind direction. It requires a lot of patience. You can't be in a hurry.

(I don't think he did all the pruning beforehand, though.)

 

[mustanger98]

I "still hunt" too, from a blind (white pine limbs in fence mesh). In my part of the country, I don't have to smoke to read the wind for two reasons. 1) My shots will mostly be within 50yds if not closer; not far enough to really effect the bullet's flight. 2) I watch the way grass and leaves are effected by wind, as well as the flag I put out as a scent bomb when I was using scent lures (won't be using that this year because they ain't collected from deer in my part of the country and so smell different).