Morning Hunting Thoughts

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Boogieman1
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Re: Morning Hunting Thoughts

Unread postby Boogieman1 » Mon Jan 20, 2020 10:01 am

dan wrote:During that november and late october time frame late mornings can be good. What i see is understanding where and why bucks are moving is important to success... I think your seeing more movement later in the morning cause of where your hunting. I will try and explain what I mean... I think bucks head to bed in the graylight, and even before light during the rut kind of like in early season, but I think they get there during shooting hours a lot more often during the rut phases. However, they only cat nap... They get a few hours sleep and they are back on there feet looking for does... I also feel, that most of the bucks, doing most of the midday cruising, are not the oldest bucks in the group, and when the older bucks do get worked up enough for midday cruising, they tend to stick to thicker areas, or areas with little human intrusion.

So my point is, if your rut set ups are in funnels, or cruising areas, late mornings are probably the way to go. But if your hunting early mornings and getting out there in the dark, better off hunting buck bedding. Personally, I do both... I start at the buck bedding then shift over to funnels an hour or so after daylight.

X2! Matches exactly what I have witnessed through the years both in person and via cams. Biggest mistake I made for a long time was hunting mornings early season. Sure it can happen anytime but feel strongly in the long run a guy does more harm than good getting in there b4 daylight until a late October chill.


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tim
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Re: Morning Hunting Thoughts

Unread postby tim » Mon Jan 20, 2020 10:07 am

I could go through all my campics and videos and come up with a statistic but what I come up with would be location specific but beyond that when I’m hunting a specific buck statistics go out the window I need a specific deers statistics.for me even if I see the majority of my movement during one part of the day I’m still hunting the rest of the day
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Re: Morning Hunting Thoughts

Unread postby Jmitch » Tue Jan 21, 2020 8:06 am

I've always been a go in under the cover of darkness type of guy but most of my morning hunts are either pre hung or predetermined spots. I have experienced the late morning movement plenty of time but also would have missed some great encounters and a few kills by skipping the first hour or two. If I have the time in late October to mid November I will skip the extra sleep to spend whatever time I can in the tree.

Another thing I consider is how far a deer can see in the light. One of the properties I hunt a lot and is really good morning spot is hill country with maybe 200 foot tall ridges and pretty open hardwood hillsides and bottoms. In the daylight with no leaves on the trees from the upper 1/3rd a deer can see practically the entire hill below him and most of the bottom before it goes up the other side. In that situation I feel I can quietly enter the woods with less disturbance under the cover of darkness than I can in the daylight. This is using either grey light or a red beamed light pointed down if i need light in the more "sensitive" areas. Something I dont see talked about much
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elk yinzer
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Re: Morning Hunting Thoughts

Unread postby elk yinzer » Thu Jan 23, 2020 3:27 am

I don't know. Early season (first 1/2 October) it's kind of a mixed bag. Hunting near bedding I've seen bucks later in the morning. If I'm more geared on food sources it's a first 30/last 30 thing typically. I don't hardly ever do midday sits early season.

Once we get into the second half of the season (mid-Oct cold fronts, late Oct, all Nov) generally speaking the entire rut I see probably more "mature" bucks midday 10AM - 1PM than I do any other time. But I've seen them all times of day. When I am trying not to do all day sits to avoid burnout, I think the best window to get out of the woods and take a nap is around 1-3 or 4 PM. Do a long morning sit, take a break, and get a quick evening sit the last couple hours. That mid afternoon window has historically been slowest for me by a good margin. No way I would want to miss the first couple hours over that window.
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