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Morning vs. Evening Deer Hunts - Empirical data on success rate

LoadedLimbs

LoadedLimbs

Well-Known Member
SH Member
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Jan 22, 2020
Messages
977
Location
Connecticut
Over the past season I've had a number of conversations with whitetail hunters in my fish & game club about whether they have more success being in the stand before daylight & hunting the early morning, or getting in the stand in the afternoon and hunting until the end of legal hunting hours. I have received conflicting answers ... some tell me they see more deer and have higher success when they get into position before daybreak. Others tell me they have equal success with hunts in the morning and hunts in the evening.

When I take a hard look at my 4 decades of deer hunting, my success rate has always been better on morning hunts than on evening hunts. I'm more of a night-owl than a morning person, and I don't like getting up super early to be in position an hour or two before daybreak, so I've spent more time on afternoon/evening hunts than morning hunts. But most of my deer hunting success (both in sightings and in kills) has been on morning hunts ... so my limited data set tells me I need to put more energy into morning hunts and less into evening hunts. But it's a limit data set, based on my hunting and my style. I'm interested in everyone else's experiences, and seeing if the majority has a success rate biased more toward the start or the end of daylight.

When you look back at your time in the woods during deer season, what has been your experience? Do you see more deer at one end of the day than the other? Do you kill more deer at one end of the day than the other? Can you explain why? (i.e., Is your time spent in the woods biased to one end of the day or the other?)
 
This is a tough one. Morning's, if I know just where I am going, I like to get in well before daylight if it is a rut spot. These I try my best to sit all day, and if not, at least until noon or 1. Early season I am torn on mornings because I am usually hunting mast trees and deer will often be at the trees at that time of day and head out to bed at or near first light. Sometimes it's better to let them leave naturally, go in and set up in grey light, and wait until they come back about 9 or 10. I sit until at least 11 AM. I have seen way more deer sitting past 10 than getting down at 10. That was a game changer. It is also a lot quieter going in when you can see what you are walking on, and it is very difficult to locate a hot feed tree in the dark if you don't already know where it is.

I have killed my biggest bucks in the last 20 minutes of shooting light.
 
It may depend on where you are hunting. In big woods without specific food source evenings are tuff since they can feed anywhere. When you have acorns or crop fields evenings are much better.
In semi flat country most of my deer sightings are between 9am and 10am.
Typical morning, wind is supposed to be out of the west. The deer dont know that. You get to your stand and the wind is lite and variable. Then about 9am the wind settles down and comes from the west. In hill country deer may only move a few yards to the other side of a ridge. But in flat country they may move a good distance to find a safe bedding area for a west wind. A major wind shift, front coming in can also cause a bedding movement.
 
Morning is my preference because my eyes suck and seeing in low light gets more difficult each season.

Personal reason is that I enjoy hunting while everyone in the house is sleeping.
 
Folks, I agree with the sentiment that where you are hunting (i.e., food source, bedding, travel lane, etc.) will affect the result. Frankly, that will probably be part of the explanation to answer WHY you think your success rate has been better at one end of the day than the other (if that's the case).

In my case, I see and kill more deer in the early morning, and I hunt a mix of locations that includes proximity to food, proximity to bedding, and travel lanes. I can't explain my results, because I put more time into afternoon/evening hunts in the same mix of locations. I suspect that there is probably a good reason why, but I haven't figured that out.

But what I'm really after, is not so much your preference for hunting morning or evening, but your RESULTS when you reflect on your personal experience. Do you see more deer at one end of the day than the other? Which one? Do you kill more deer at one end of the day than the other? Which one? Can you explain why?
 
In 10 years of hunting my uncle's 60 acres in Michigan I've killed 2 bucks in last ten minutes of shooting light and had opportunities at another two. I see a ton of deer in the morning but usually not shooter bucks. A shooter for me is at least a big 6. I've only had one opportunity at a morning shooter but my scope was fogged up so I didn't shoot. My uncle's property is unmanaged with a ton of neighboring hunting pressure and is surrounded by ag. I hunt from October 1st thru the end of December.
 
Some spots morning, some spots evening. I like midday for some spots. Hope that helps.
 
I don't see or anticipate much empirical data collection resulting in asking people about their recollections of their hunts.

Closest I can think of would be Dr. Sheppard's work with Bent Creek Lodge. I believe after a few decades of guiding people on that property and logging it in a database he created they put folks in the woods in the morning and on food plots in the evening.

Mississippi State does a lot of research in the SE and may have something I haven't seen.
 
Since you are in the NE, I think if you have large public tracts nearby, you should try tracking when the snows hit. It is engaging throughout the entire hunt. Success can come early or late.

Tracking aside, midday movement seems the most variable in my experience. I know one spot that gets good movement midday due to pressure, other than that it's been just chance. But I've seen some doozies in the mid-day.

I probably see more deer in the morning, but it's split on nice+ bucks so far as I can count, with evening.
 
My guess is that people's success depends heavily on their preferences. Different regions will also make a difference. I’ve always preferred evenings in Michigan but when I lived in South Carolina for four years the deer seemed to move more in the mornings which I attributed to colder temps in the morning and hot evening temps for a lot of the season.
 
morning simply because less people have what it takes to commit to getting to places deer live in the dark well before they normally wake up.

Less people = more deer, more relaxed deer.

If you held all variables constant with a hunter's effort, location, time of year, hunting equipment, other hunter's habits/pressure, and he only hunted in the mornings versus the evenings, he'd see more success. For no other reason than there would be less hunter pressure in the mornings.

Sure, there are exceptions, but people much more willing to do uncomfortable stuff at 2pm than they are at 2am...
 
Where i hunt from few years of camera data and about 30 years of experience on high pressured deer.
i hunt public thats high presdured and private in Jersey that probably gets more pressure thsn most public does.
Hunting Mornings are for me good the first few weeks of the season and of course the rut.
The pressure on bucks is low then after it picks up with more and more human intrusion the bucks start getting back to thier beds earlier and earlier.
Usually This does not take long few weeks thats it.
I think more farmer activity with driving, plowing, harvesting or whatever they do that time if year, this also puts pressure on the deer especially the bucks.
Hunters are starting to scout and hang stands, bait piles, checking cameras, etc.
deer know when humans invade the woods and it changes them and their routines
Especially if you have all of this going on all of a sudden within a few weeks or even a month.

Rut, well thats a different story all together.
bucks will or seem to move all day and all night covering miles of territory to track down some love ❤️ But most bucks that are moving like this are the young boys 1-1/2-3-1/ years old. They just cant help themselves. Lol
Even during the rut most of those older more educated bucks are in beds overlooking or downwind of some good doe bedding well before first light.
When the does move the bucks move.
still all day sits are high quality hunts on some really good secluded doe bedding.
Then when the rut is over my mornings are over for the year.
Don’t get me wrong you can kill deer in the mornings all year but, the way i hunt which is going after older more educated bucks.
mornings are pretty much beat most time of the year.
pressured bucks outside of the rut are most likely back in their beds long before daylight.
afternoons should be focused on and locations are or should be good buck bedding or really close secluded food areas that have hot sign coming in and out.
Even that time of year afternoons are tough.
gotta be probably withing 150 yards of that bedding or youre beat. Especially fot the old boys. They Diddnt get old by walking all over tge place during daylight hours.
This is where entry ways are so important. how you enter to your spots are gonba make or break you.
Especially late-season.

Mornings =First two weeks of season and pre rut til rut.
Evenings = whenever the hell you can go out and hunt.
anytime of the year the most important thing is location location location.
i always ask myself this when scouting
“ If 10 guys were here waiting to kill me would i feel safe traveling through here in daylight hours ? Especially when i know they can see me.”
 
kyler1945 said:
morning simply because less people have what it takes to commit to getting to places deer live in the dark well before they normally wake up.

Less people = more deer, more relaxed deer.

If you held all variables constant with a hunter's effort, location, time of year, hunting equipment, other hunter's habits/pressure, and he only hunted in the mornings versus the evenings, he'd see more success. For no other reason than there would be less hunter pressure in the mornings.

Sure, there are exceptions, but people much more willing to do uncomfortable stuff at 2pm than they are at 2am...
Click to expand...

I supposed folks don't like walking out 2 miles in the dark and being late to dinner.
 
Plebe said:
I supposed folks don't like walking out 2 miles in the dark and being late to dinner.
Click to expand...


I have a significant personal data set. More deer sightings and more kills per minutes spent hunting before noon versus after. This goes across 25 years of hunting, several states, public, private, terrain, etc.

It has almost nothing to do with micro deer habits and everything to do with macro deer habits. I can attest to it. I’ve spend about 25-30% less time hunting before noon versus after noon across that span. And I’m what you’d call a dedicated hunter. In fact, one of my goals two seasons ago was to begin focusing on morning hunts and doing whatever it takes to do it. Because the data was so unambiguous. And yet here I am today, still hunting less in the morning than the evening. Because of one reason - I value sleep too much.
 
kyler1945 said:
I have a significant personal data set. More deer sightings and more kills per minutes spent hunting before noon versus after. This goes across 25 years of hunting, several states, public, private, terrain, etc.

It has almost nothing to do with micro deer habits and everything to do with macro deer habits. I can attest to it. I’ve spend about 25-30% less time hunting before noon versus after noon across that span. And I’m what you’d call a dedicated hunter. In fact, one of my goals two seasons ago was to begin focusing on morning hunts and doing whatever it takes to do it. Because the data was so unambiguous. And yet here I am today, still hunting less in the morning than the evening. Because of one reason - I value sleep too much.
Click to expand...

In my small experience, on public I sometimes hunt, guys pack up early and push deer to me. And, despite being an early riser by habit, sometimes I'm not the first in the woods even in the wee morning hours. Guess it's different elsewhere.

I usually hunt all day. I've had a longtime preference for mornings though, and as I've said, I generally see more deer. But evenings have been good to me as of late for encounters with nice bucks. For me it's been a wash on nice bucks so far as I can tell.
 
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