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What time should I be set up by? (AM)

What time should I be set up and ready to hunt by?

  • 2 hours before first light

    Votes: 1 2.1%

  • 1.5 hours before first light

    Votes: 1 2.1%

  • 1 hour before first light

    Votes: 9 19.1%

  • 30 mins before first light

    Votes: 19 40.4%

  • At least by first light

    Votes: 10 21.3%

  • it don't matter

    Votes: 1 2.1%

  • When you're good and ready

    Votes: 6 12.8%
  • Total voters
    47
It depends on the time of year, right now late season Ohio I’m seeing them head back to bed as early as an hour or more before first light, but rut time frame you have much more flexibility, it’s a dice roll whether you’re bumping them in the dark or bumping em in gray light, or bumping them at 8:30 AM, or getting lucky and sneaking in while the deer are elsewhere. Depends on location too.
 
I don't think there is a right or wrong answer. It is all totally different in every scenario. If you know where your going, get in there and Get up an be quiet. If you have an idea, fumbling around may not be the best answer either. For every story of this is the only way to do it, will be another the complete opposite.
I think you should do what ever is the most enjoyable and is feasible for the location. If that means get there early enough and get past the tree stand guys, and slowly work your way to a good spot, or I'm headed to location x to be set up. Enjoy the hunt, and be safe. When you get there, you get there.
 
gcr0003 said:
There’s also the factor of beating other weekend warriors to spots. They aren’t going as deep as I do but if they’re set up at the entrance of the block of woods I’m planning to hunt it does throw off my morning, especially when I already have a place I want to hunt.
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On the flip side..... Waiting till after those guys have already walked in/set up and bumped all the deer around can be good too....deer walking under ur stand in the dark is frustrating.

I used to get worked up if I wasn't in and set up X amount of time before sunup..... Just adds stress. I get there when I get there
 
MattMan81 said:
I don't think there is a right or wrong answer. It is all totally different in every scenario. If you know where your going, get in there and Get up an be quiet. If you have an idea, fumbling around may not be the best answer either. For every story of this is the only way to do it, will be another the complete opposite.
I think you should do what ever is the most enjoyable and is feasible for the location. If that means get there early enough and get past the tree stand guys, and slowly work your way to a good spot, or I'm headed to location x to be set up. Enjoy the hunt, and be safe. When you get there, you get there.
Click to expand...
Absolutely agree with that. Several days this year on public I have gone in around 9 or so and hung for the remainder of the day, esp when I knew other folks were hunting in the general area. Trying to take advantage of them getting down 9:30-10 and coming back for the afternoon and moving deer around both times. Some days I saw a good many deer in those mid day hours and some days would have been more productive sleepin.
 
I hunt river bottoms. It depends on when they leave the fields. My deer usually still feeding at 1st light. I try to get there 1 hr before 1st light since the field is not that far away. I got lazy there for a while was getting there right before 1st light. I have a funny but true story. I was running late one AM and got there just after legal shooting light. As I came up the river bank to my tree, there was a shooter right under my tree. Nice 11pt. He didn't see me. I let him walk on down the trail. I was tagged out on my buck. I was hunting does. The funny part is that when I got back to the truck there was another hunter parked next to my truck. He also had permission. He wasn't there when I left in the dark. His stand was not very far from mine and that trail headed straight to his stand. He generally always arrived later than I did. Usually at daylight. Anyway, He was the kinda guy that always knew what the deer were doing and how to hunt them and would tell you how to hunt them. Yet he never killed any big bucks on that property. I kinda rubbed it in a little and told him that maybe he should've got there sooner. He said "Why?" I told him because a shooter went by his tree 5 minutes after legal time. Moral of the story. You can't kill em' from the couch! Get in early, stay late!
 
It's really situational for me. If I am hunting an early season food source like red or white oaks I usually go in after daylight. The reason for this is that i have bumped too many deer out from under feed trees walking in before daylight. I found that if I wait until about 20 minutes past daylight the deer that were under the tree will have moved off a short distance to bed up and I can sneak in quietly and set up and they will usually come back in before noon. Sometimes I can also glass the trees from a distance and make sure not to bump them out. If I am going in blind to a new spot and I am looking for hot feed sign there is no point in walking around in dark since I can't see the sign I am looking for.

During the pre-rut and rut, if I know the exact spot I am going to such as a primary scrape area I will get there well before daylight and plan to sit all day.
 
DB4x4 said:
Let me share something with you that has helped me in the last couple of years...

I too previously struggled getting up early and getting setup when I wanted. Part of this was due to my sleep cycle when I was younger and staying up late all the time. I would not want to get up, hit snooze, then I would be late.

The older I get, the more I realize, whether it's in the woods, driving somewhere, or at the airport... I HATE being rushed.

Figure out what time you want to be setup, ready to shoot. Estimate how long it takes to get there, hike to your tree, and climb. Then estimate what time you think you need to wake up to achieve this schedule.

... Then set your alarm for one full hour before that. That way, you can be a little slow and lazy in the morning. Everything takes a longer than you think, especially when you're groggy. Your 5 min shower is probably more like 10 min. Your 20 min hike is probably more like 30 min.

I have found this makes the mornings less stressful and more enjoyable.
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Dude is laying down some life / hunt knowledge.

slow down , smile , be safe , kill a deer
I try to ask myself what my plan is to do the above . I’m getting ok at 3 of the 4
 
In stand 60 minutes before shooting time. If sunrise is 8:00 am, shooting time is 7:30 am, be in stand 6:30 am, leaving home at 5:30 am.

Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk
 
Sometimes well before daylight and sometimes when it's light. It all depends on what the deer are doing. If they are up feeding late usually with a full moon then I wait for them to go to their bedding area.
If I know that they are bedding early then I go in earlier. You definitely have to know the area you hunt and how the deer move.
 
An old timer who has killed lots of giant deer told me " there's no need to go to the woods until 5 minutes before the deer show up" He said all you have to figure out is when that is.
 
If I have a spot and tree picked out, about 20 minutes before shooting light. If going in blind, gray light.
 
There should be a "after day break or situational "option . I have a funnel that's on field edge. It requires a North wind. Problem is the deer are in the field when I get there before day break. If I walk in during the dark, I'll clear the field or at least that area which is exactly what you don't want to do. So I show up at day break, glass the field and wait for the deer to leave the field. As soon as the coast is clear, then I get in that tree. As you could guess, it's more of a mid morning-late morning tree.
 
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