Who hunts mornings early season?

[Brushpile]

I've been fooling around and biding my time. When I get serious, I plan my hunts so that I can take my deer to be processed, so morning hunts and cooler weather are important. The first deer I harvested last year was on October 15th, and when I took him to be processed, there was only one other deer that had been harvested. However, in November there are 100s of deer piled up at local processing plants.

Mrs. Brushpile put her foot down on butchering deer in the house, which means that I don't hunt Saturday nights or Sundays, when the processing plants are closed.

 

[farmhunter]

I like morning hunts - but when we hunt mornings we educate the deer a little more than we want to. Deer are used to us up and around camp - but not at 6:00 am. Too much of that before the rut - and we know it in a hurry! we get away with a lot more hunting evenings.

 

[Btaylor]

Will only hunt stands on the edge of pastures with perfect wind. When I say edge that is less than 10 steps in. It makes a big difference staying out of the woods in the morning as it relates to mature bucks for us.

 

[OkieKubota]

Since all of the properties we hunt are deep woods it's pretty hard to stay out of the woods and hunt the edges when there are none. Our best tactic is just to get in early in the oaks and watch the buck parade...

 

[boot]

I have never noticed any major buck activity in the mornings during early season, with the corn still standing they just stay in it and all I see in the morning is does. Evening is a different story however

 

[PecanArcher]

I hunt whenever I can but I don't hesitate to hunt the mornings. I do feel, however, I see more activity late evening in October here in my neck of the woods. I am excited to hunt Saturday morning though, cooler temps sure will be nice.


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[ColdOne]

I don't hunt mornings until around October 23rd.

 

[g squared 23]

I don't hunt mornings until around October 23rd.

Funny you pick that exact date. My first "morning hunt date" was firmly set at Halloween in the past. However, last year I got two DAYLIGHT pictures of shooter bucks on October 24th, and two DAYLIGHT pictures on the 25th. One was an incredible, wide, old 10 pointer that we never saw during daylight (camera or in person) the rest of the year. This was an eye opener for me, and my start date for hunting bucks seriously is now the 24th.

Here is that buck. Never saw again during daylight. The one chance we had at him, I thought was "way too early"; I believe I was "killing time" on public land instead of going after him.


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[ColdOne]

Its a leap year, so if you normally start on the 24th, this year you should hunt on the 23rd.

 

[Beechnut]

Early season, according to trail cam pics, mid-day from 10am to 2pm seems best for sightings. Don't really ever hunt early season, don't see the need when the season is 4.5 months long. Would rather hunt in long johns and gloves than flip flops and a wife beater shirt.

 

[Paradise725]

Mornings very early season have always been good to me. It is not that mornings are better but the early setup I like to hunt is best in the mornings. The deer leave the alfalfa field before sunup and eat from the bordering apples and then move into the hickory nut area at first light and steadily sometimes until about 9:30 am.

Food plots evenings early season bring lots of deer but it is hard to be in position to shoot bucks then as compared to being at the favorite hickory tree in the am.

I seem to recall you showing me that hickory nut area this spring... If that deer stand could talk!

There are some setups that are great for early season morning hunting, but some properties just don't have them. If your access is bulletproof, you can get away with hunting any time of day. I much prefer hunting mornings in the early season because of the cooler weather, however I have to be careful to ensure that my intrusion isn't alerting deer.


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[Blizzard Ridge]

I was just reading Okie's thread and is the exact reason that I don't hunt mornings during the early season. Although Okie had great intel of big deer running during daylight and it still ended up in a disastrous setting where he believes he may have bumped a buck that could have possibly got killed by the neighbors.

I have always believed that more damage than good can be done on early season morning hunts. I know that some real giants are killed in the mornings. The issue I have is deer are less forgiving during the early season than they are during the rut. You can bump a buck during the rut and 10 minutes later he is walking by your stand (depends on the does). My experience is if you bump a buck early season and he either runs off the farm or hunkers down until the disturbance is clear. If this happens in consecutive days this target buck could move off the farm completely for a less intrusive home range area, which is almost as bad as the neighbor killing him.

I know I am an early season buzzkill and what is an issue in my area may not be the same as it is in your big woods areas. In my part of Illinois there is very little timber. Deer live in small thickets, fence rows and 40 acre or less woodlots. It doesn't take much to push a deer to the neighbors property when there is very little timber to start with.

I have learned the hard way through the years. I hunted a 200"+ deer a few years back and hunted him hard. I got away with a lot due to it being peak rut. Had the deer within 30 yards of me 4 times (could have spit on his head one of those times). Well I did not connect with that deer. I hunted him every day, daylight to dark for 4 straight weeks and things just never did work out that I had a shot that I liked. The rut ended and I went after him again after the gun season. I compare late season to early season. I hunted him two days in a row, seeing him both days but educating him each day trying to hunt him in the morning. Of course after that second day that deer disappeared never to be seen again still to this day. That was in 2010 so he is dead and gone and I never heard word of anyone finding him and they certainly didn't kill him (at least legally).

 

[OkieKubota]

In our area they get gun killed every chance someone gets. We are big woods...if I had that hunt to do all over again I would do the exact same thing only with my arrows because the deer certainly don't live on our 80 and don't bed here either so where that deer went he was headed already. Not sure if it got killed or another or if a coyote or hog got shot...

Bucks aren't using our place in the afternoon right now but they certainly are in the morning! They will be back and soon...

 

[Blizzard Ridge]

In our area they get gun killed every chance someone gets. We are big woods...if I had that hunt to do all over again I would do the exact same thing only with my arrows because the deer certainly don't live on our 80 and don't bed here either so where that deer went he was headed already. Not sure if it got killed or another or if a coyote or hog got shot...

Bucks aren't using our place in the afternoon right now but they certainly are in the morning! They will be back and soon...

I understand that. If that is your chance then you have to take it. Big woods is different than what we deal with in the area I am from. We hold our deer in our thickets and small parcels of woods. If we keep from bumping them, those old bucks will stay in that core area of course until they start to chase then all bets are off. Our deer would have travel across open fields to get to the next patch of woods. They are less likely to do that if not bumped.

 

[timrod]

I never hunt mornings until about Halloween, but this Saturday the temps are gonna drop out, and pressure will be going up. I have a Stand that I could seriously never burn out that is in a pretty good morning spot, and think the circumstances in N Central Illinois this weekend are telling me to get in the tree Saturday morning?

Does the cold front/pressure change your opinions on mornings in the early season? I think it's a good time to be out this Saturday if you have a Stand with good winds to protect your core hunting

 

[Buckly]

Cold fronts only change my opinions later in October not early, the last week maybe. That's just my particular property. If you've got good access and the right wind and want to be out there, why not.

 

[timrod]

I am a long ways from the property core ( November Stands) in this location, with quiet easy scent free access and wind, im gonna go for it. I just dont see the point of not capitalizing on the cold front if I can

 

[Turkey Creek]

I was just thinking about this last night as I was setting in a stand. Most of my bucks have been killed in the am. I prefer the morning because I have all day to track if need be. Cooler temps are also a factor in the early season. I guess it all boils down to what your trailcam pics are telling you and the knowing the travel habits of deer on your property.

 

[Steve Daniel]

Ive always hinted evenings only early season. With the weather projecting 80 during Illinois opener I'm considering the cooler morning. Is this a mistake?

I have always hunted mornings... Too old to change. I try to ambush Deer on their way toward a bedding area, if that don't work most of the Deer I hunt get up and do a secondary feeding near the bedding area, around
10 am. If I don't shoot a Deer, I usually slip out of the woods around 12:30.

 

[Shufigo]

At my age I don't have unlimited hunting days left, so only hunting half of the available times doesn't work for me. Also, as a previous poster said, if you're donating deer the processing house has to be open after you hunt. So I'll be in the woods early mornings in the early season - and pass up the evening shots where I can't take care of the meat. I really don't care about hanging horns on the wall any more, so whether a buck is a shooter or not is now a function of situation rather than antler size. Hopefully you'll still be hunting at age where you can feel that too. (Wear the safety harness to help you get there)