Pick your poison: Morning or evening hunting

Here is a loaded question. A guy like me could make a few enemies by taking a stand, one way or the other. It truly could be a no-win situation.

It's a potentially troubling issue because there are excellent points in favor of either choice. Taking the easy and honest way out, I can categorically state that both time periods produce superb bow hunting. The choice is yours to make, and what follows are key points for early or late hunting.

I'm in my early 70s, and personally do not care to get up long before dawn, crawl into a cold stand and wait for daylight to appear. That's just my personal feeling, but to be equally frank, I do hunt the mornings several times each season, and doing so often pays off.

The end result of pre-season scouting is to learn where this lives & travels,

There are some good reasons for hunting the morning hours providing you can get in front of the deer without spooking the animals. Morning deer, providing the wind is in your favor, means the animals may walk right past you because they seem to realize that more hunting pressure occurs in the late afternoon and early evening than in the morning.

Another factor in favor of a morning hunt is the light  continues to get brighter by the minute, even if the sky is overcast. There is a great truth to the fact that between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., deer often move well, and this is especially true during the rut when bucks get up to check for estrus does.

If my land has a problem, it isn't very easy to reach an early hunting spot without spooking deer. The animals are everywhere on their return to bedding areas from feeding spots, and it is easy to bump a deer. If the deer is badly frightened, and runs off blowing and snorting, it may spell a quick end to your hunt.

One can spook deer but if you don’t move or make noise the animals may settle down.

However, in all fairness, there have been many deer that I've spooked, and they run about snorting but soon settle down. Many things can frighten deer, and if whatever bothered the deer disappears, they often calm down and the hunter may still have a chance to shoot a morning deer.

Deer on my land often move from west to east in the evening and from east to west in the morning, regardless of wind direction. Our normal prevailing wind is from the southwest, west or northwest, but in the past several years, we’ve seen more east winds than ever before.

Morning hunts can be the ideal situation for those who work the second or third shifts, and need their mid-day rest. I know many who would prefer to hunt the evening hours but must hunt in the morning because of their job situation.

The chance of spooking deer in the morning is one sound reason in favor of hunting the late afternoon and early evening. The deer are usually bedded down in the afternoon when hunters head for the ground blinds or tree stands, and fewer animals are spooked by hunters.

Spooking deer is a fact of life but I believe more deer are spooked in the early morning.

We often drive people to their stand. We stop long enough with a four-wheeler for them to climb into an elevated coop or tree stand, or a ground blind, and then we drive off. The animals pay more attention to the vehicle than the people unless they make a great deal of noise or other commotion.

An advantage of hunting the evening hours is hunters also can walk into a stand, and arrive an hour before deer start to move, and the wearing of clean rubber boots is a must. So too is to avoid touching bushes, tree limbs or brush to leave human scent behind.

Another factor in favor of evening hunts is that darkness is approaching, and this is when deer normally move. They usually begin moving an hour before the end of shooting time, and this puts the hunter in the best possible position for a shot.

There is never a guarantee with morning or evening hunts, and for many of us, it is a matter of preference. I prefer hunting the evening hours after I finish work, but many prefer to do their hunting in the morning.

It's one of the things I enjoy about bow hunting. There are choices we can make to suit our individual needs. Isn't that great?

Posted via email from Dave Richey Outdoors