It’s your hunt: Make up your mind.

This buck and fawn are ready to move closer and follow a doe through the woods.

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 become 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 super 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 on this thorny topic, but to be equally frank, I do hunt the mornings several times each season, and doing so often pays off.

It’s your hunt: Make the choice. Morning or Evening?

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 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.

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

Deer on my land have always moved 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, although in the past five or six years, we have seen more eastly winds than before.

Good tips for those who prefer morning hunts.

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

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 moving hunters.

Deer where I live and hunt are accustomed to vehicles moving during daylight hours. We tend to stands, check the roads, and deer are accustomed to a vehicle driving by and stopping periodically.

We often drive people to their stand. We stop long enough 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. I wear a Scent-Lok suit, and spray my boots to rid them of foreign odors.

My choice is hunting the evenings. I like to sleep in the morning.

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 before dark, if the deer aren't spooked.

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 writing my daily weblog, 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?

Title: It’s your hunt: Make up your mind.

Tags: ((Dave, Richey, Michigan, outdoors, deer, hunt, morning, evening, buck, doe, tree, ground, your choice))



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 become 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 super 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 on this thorny topic, but to be equally frank, I do hunt the mornings several times each season, and doing so often pays off.

It’s your hunt: Make the choice. Morning or Evening?

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 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.

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

Deer on my land have always moved 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, although in the past five or six years, we have seen more eastly winds than before.

Good tips for those who prefer morning hunts.

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

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 moving hunters.

Deer where I live and hunt are accustomed to vehicles moving during daylight hours. We tend to stands, check the roads, and deer are accustomed to a vehicle driving by and stopping periodically.

We often drive people to their stand. We stop long enough 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. I wear a Scent-Lok suit, and spray my boots to rid them of foreign odors.

My choice is hunting the evenings. I like to sleep in the morning.

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 before dark, if the deer aren't spooked.

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 writing my daily weblog, 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?

Title: It’s your hunt: Make up your mind.

Tags: ((Dave, Richey, Michigan, outdoors, deer, hunt, morning, evening, buck, doe, tree, ground, your choice))

Posted via email from Dave Richey Outdoors