All day hunts... who does it?

[Jason Broom]

I think it's a lot easier to do this, the further north you go...the days are just shorter. Like most, I do several all-day hunts per year, usually around the first week of November and again on the first day or two of rifle season. When the deer are up and moving around, I like to be in position and sitting still. On better properties, it probably doesn't matter nearly as much.

 

[Bigeight]

Since starting to sit all day during my "rut hunts" , the number of quality bucks I have encountered has at least went up 10x, and I'm trying my best not to exaggerate.
I've shot about 1/2 of my 3.5 yr old or older bucks in MI between 10-2, but the number of sightings of older deer is about triple in the middle of the day.
Last year I was fortunate enough to hunt an amazing piece of property in OH with minimal pressure and great age structure. Probably a better view of what older deer do during the day when 700,000 hunters aren't after them

I hunted the 4-8th those days and encountered (best guess on ages) close to 14 different bucks that I believed to be older than 3.5 yrs of age (perfect weather). I only saw 3 of them when "normal" hunting times would be: 3 hours of the morning/3 hours evening. The movement between 10-2 was like a circus every day. Not a lot of young bucks, but the old bucks are mid day cruisers from what I observe, and have observed in MI over the years as well. If I HAD to choose a time to go out, it would be about 9:30 - 2:30, and skip the hours on each end during the rut. I ended up shooting a 5.5+ yr old buck in the shoulder blade at 11:30 on the 8th ....he came in with another buck as well that was 5.5 or older. Both were cruising and came to the horns.
I went back for 1 day on the 24th of November and saw 1 shooter at 1:30 in the afternoon. My friend killed him 30 minutes later about 400 yards away. 6.5 yrs old and scored 161"

Off my soapbox about my observations, I know every property is different....

Mid day movement for an older/experienced buck just makes sense to me. These bucks are experienced in the rut, and know how to work efficiently to find estrous does, and do it in a fashion that they don't waste energy, or time. They don't cover every inch of the property running like mad. Why search for does when they are scattered throughout a property on their way to/from bedding and feeding as spread out as they can be over a larger area?
Wait till they are all IN bed in known bedding areas, not moving, and search down wind of those areas in the middle of the day? Just makes sense to me when targeting old bucks that know the property/know how to search. JMO

Biggest help for my hunting has been switching to Millennium stands that make an all day sit feel like sitting on the sofa

 

[tracer]

Once the rut is in full swing, I will hunt all day.

 

[SIWhitetail]

I usually do 2 or 3 at home and then hunt all day on my out of state rut trip every day. From 2009 to 2012 I killed 4 good bucks on all day sits. Now, two of those happened before 9 a.m. so that's not much of an all day sit, but it was intended to be. The other two happened at 12:30 and 1:15.

 

[DocHolladay]

I hunt all day during November as that is when we see most of our rutting no activity in my area.

 

[Blizzard Ridge]

From Nov. 1st through our Illinois gun season I will hunt daylight til dark every day that I can be in the woods. You just never know when that big buck is going to decide to get up and stretch his legs or move on to find a new doe to breed. I have days in the woods that I have seen more buck movement between the hours of 10 and 2 than I did during early morning and evening sits.

 

[blumsden]

I'll sit till 12 or 1 but thats usually it for me. Hard to go back out after that unless i'm seeing a lot.

 

[Landon DeKeyser]

Sitting all day is important during the rut, or anytime it is cold enough to get the deer moving. Sometimes I have a hard time with this, but I recently have regretted NOT sitting all day. I just wrote an article about it on my blog. I you need some extra motivation check it out here. http://lifestylelost.com/index.php/2016/11/14/hunt-midday-hours-monster-whitetails/

 

[Kujo]

Never sat an entire day, done lots of 5-6 hour sits. Who hunts all day dark-dark? What's your strategy? It would be work, but feel like it would increase my odds. Advice?


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caught this at 12:20 Nov 12 on a camera set on a scrape (camera says 1:20 but I didn't reset it on daylight savings)
though he's not huge it just goes to show when the rut is on you better be in the stand.
i have more pics of the chase under trail cams thread "scrape action"

 

[g squared 23]

I tried to pull an all day hunt this year, but my wife/grandma/brother/uncle INSISTED that I be home for dinner. So I gave into peer pressure and bailed about 1 after seeing a couple of 3.5s during the morning.

Next year is going to be different. I wasted too much time in the woods during the warm weather of October. Which landed me zero mature buck sightings and almost cost me my marriage (wife is pregnant and irrational). So next year I'm not stepping into the woods until November 1st and I'll try a few of the all day sits.

 

[Landon DeKeyser]

I tried to pull an all day hunt this year, but my wife/grandma/brother/uncle INSISTED that I be home for dinner. So I gave into peer pressure and bailed about 1 after seeing a couple of 3.5s during the morning.

Next year is going to be different. I wasted too much time in the woods during the warm weather of October. Which landed me zero mature buck sightings and almost cost me my marriage (wife is pregnant and irrational). So next year I'm not stepping into the woods until November 1st and I'll try a few of the all day sits.

Haha yeah time in the woods is a carful balance when it comes to relationships. I am pushing the boundaries right now. My fiance is catching on. I say things like "but babe hunting season only comes once a year. Ill be home more when its over!" Now she is starting to respond with " Yeah but then its ice fishing, steelhead, turkey, bass, salmon, and then deer season again" haha

I had an all day sit pay off last week. I wrote an article about it here http://lifestylelost.com/index.php/2016/11/22/hunting-and-gratefulness/

 

[Bigeight]

Hunted Monday and Tuesday all day. Low of 18° and 38 ° for a high on Monday and got up to 44° on Tuesday. Saw deer the WHOLE day. Best 2 bucks I saw were at 11:15 and about 3:45 each day. Not exactly mid day, but not the first and last 2 hours either.
I saw some really nice bucks around 12-2, but nothing I was really after. Unbelievable movement all day regardless
Would have missed some amazing movement/action if I went in for lunch....

 

[g squared 23]

I tried to pull an all day hunt this year, but my wife/grandma/brother/uncle INSISTED that I be home for dinner. So I gave into peer pressure and bailed about 1 after seeing a couple of 3.5s during the morning.

Next year is going to be different. I wasted too much time in the woods during the warm weather of October. Which landed me zero mature buck sightings and almost cost me my marriage (wife is pregnant and irrational). So next year I'm not stepping into the woods until November 1st and I'll try a few of the all day sits.

Making plans for this year, did a search for “all day sits” and found this old thread. I’m not sure what I ended up doing in ‘17, but LAST year in ‘19 I tried an all day sit and killed my best buck ever at 1:18 on November 10 after not seeing squat all day.

So plans for this year are to attempt the same thing starting November 1st as I’m going to have the same wind for that magical stand. But 45 degrees and 15-25 mph winds with gusts to 40 ? Idk if that’s gonna be possible.

 

[DocHolladay]

. But 45 degrees and 15-25 mph winds with gusts to 40 ? Idk if that’s gonna be possible.

I like to sit in the woods when it’s windy, in the biggest tree I can get in. It helps feel the wind less. If you can sit 20-50yds off a field, you can still see into it and hunt the woods too. I usually sit all day during November, at least until after thanksgiving. I young bucks start pushing does the last week of October and the mature bucks start sometime during the first 2 weeks of November. Pack plenty of drinks, snacks and a lunch. I like to take trail mix and granola/Clif bars for snacks and a sammich of some kind for lunch. A carbonated drink for lunch(Mt Dew is my fav) and water before and after. If it’s gonna be really cold, I take extra Clif bars, they seem to help me warm up from the carbs in them.


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[weekender21]

I’ll hunt all day but generally won’t sit in the same tree all day. A great morning/mid day spot might not be the best afternoon spot.


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[jlane35]

I’ll sit a few times all day with the bow during November. I once tried the 9 am-2pm sit. It was really windy and I thought to myself, “the wood stove is nice and warm”. So I didn’t get up. I was walking into my stand and saw movement near the base of the tree. A beautiful 8 with a doe. I crouched down and sat until they wandered off in the opposite direction. So now I try and do sits from first light to 2pm or so if I can’t make it all day.

Rifle season I sit all day. When guys go out and in for lunch I see an uptick in deer movement.

 

[KSQ2]

I don’t sit dark to dark anymore; type 1 diabetes makes it too complicated and takes some of the joy out of it. I do hunt a lot of mornings and evenings with a pretty short lunch break between.

 

[Drycreek]

I’ve done some all day sits. They kinda wear me out unless I’m seeing lots of deer. I’m pretty patient though since I retired. I figger I can either sit at home or sit in the stand, and I can’t kill ‘em in front of the tv for sure. I usually will confine those all dayers to the first three weeks in November. I remember about three years ago getting out of my stand about noon, going to the camp house, eating a sandwich and going the two miles back to my stand only to see a nice buck in the back of the opening where my plot was. I managed to sneak into the stand without alerting him since my stand is in the brush and he was 125 yards or so away. He wasn’t old enough to shoot on that particular place but if he had been, same scenario. He hung around just long enough that I could have killed him, but what if he had been older and just a few minutes earlier, or me a few minutes later............

 

[Tap]

All day for me in November. Dark to dark. 11 to 12 hours at my latitude.
I do it in a tree saddle.
Mid day action can be amazing.

 

[Deadeye]

Well, Last year on Opening Day of Archery I went to one stand, then back to Camp for Lunch and a Nap. Headed back out to a different stand for the evening sit. As I rounded the turn in the trail to my Stand, there was a huge body Deer standing 30 Yards from my stand eating out of the Feeder Box, at 3:00 PM.

After that I did as many All Day Sits as I could. Shot my Buck early morning and my Doe after sitting all day and in hours of rain. But during those All Day Sits I saw lots of Deer Movement and actually moved one stand site strictly because of it. I noticed almost all the Deer I saw from that stand crossed my lane at the same area, after season checked out why and found a huge Hub of Trails focused down into One Trail to cross over a thick thick hedgerow.

Also since my Hunting Property is 5 1/2-6 hours drive away for me, while I'm there I'm going to take advantage of it. I put two new and better seats in two stands/blinds just to help me sit longer.

Oh and if I snooze or Cat Nap, So What? Better to grab a 5-15 min Nap in the stand than to walk out 15-30 minutes, nap for 30-60 minutes then walk back in again. Less Scent to get spread around on the ground and you never know what you might see.