Ok how do you hunt morning stands

[headgear]

I 2nd the eye adjustment thing, you can see pretty well once you get use to the woods. I setup in the dark with no light all the time.

I generally hunt over his bed or on the edge of the bedding area in the mornings, it all kind of depends on the lay of land and how well I know the area.

[dan]

I would also like to stress, if your hunting area is small, don't think you have to be out there in the mornings outside the rut... A lot of guys think they are not hard core if there not out there in the mornings, but you might just be damaging your hunting. Its better to hunt smart, than to hunt a lot.

[Casper]

I don't hunt bucks outside of the rut in the mornings. The only way I would hunt a buck is if I thought it was impossible to get close enough in the evening or if I sat the spot the previous evening and giving the next morning a crack. It is a great time to kill a doe in the out of the way spots, then strictly hunting bucks in the evenings. I get into the tree about an hour before shooting light, better to be early then late.

[Brad]

Thats kind of what I was thinking too, for me my evenings stands always had more deer sightings, and I think that is because I can put 100% into each hunt. I have tried morning stands a few times over the years but for me they always seemed like a fly by the seat of my pants operation outside of the rut. I had one good spot that was always great in the morning, but that was due to it being in the woods, and I had a short 50 yard entry and exit to the tree, so the deer never knew they were being hunted until it was too late. I also like to try and shoot my bow before I go out and that can't happen in the morning. I would like to find some morning spots, but I am WAY more confident in my evening stands.

I would also like to stress, if your hunting area is small, don't think you have to be out there in the mornings outside the rut... A lot of guys think they are not hard core if there not out there in the mornings, but you might just be damaging your hunting. Its better to hunt smart, than to hunt a lot.

[BCam]

I think " if " you are hunting a morning outside of the rut , being settled in your stand an 1.5 - 2 hrs. before light is key. I agree with stanley about starting your hunt later in the morning during the rut, especially if you have a hard time doing a full all day set. Just my observations here in the areas i hunt....

[Bucky]

After the 1st week of season I don't hunt AMs until first cold snap around Oct 20th.... Unless it is light misty rain, just quit raining, big drop in temp, or cameras tell me I need to try a buck.

I have a buddy that watches deer bed in the marsh from a high vantage point and then goes after them on the ground. Last year it worked on a Slob

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[Ack]

If you just want to go out and shoot a doe, sleep in and go out around 9:00 am or so. First, you will make far less noise going into the woods in the daylight than in total darkness. Second, the deer will be on their feet late in the morning, even outside of the rut. Third, there will be nobody else out there, at least on public land....most guys hunt evenings during the week. If anyone is out there, they will typically clear out no later than 10:00 or so.......the deer know when they can move safely.

I've hunted this timeframe quite a bit over the last several years and see deer just about every time out. I typically hunt in a woods setting with a lot of ground cover/saplings where the deer feel comfortable moving in the daylight. Buck stands are saved for evening hunts early in the season, that is until pre-rut and rut time rolls around.

[Milk Weed Seed]

If your gonna hunt mornings be prepared to do a lot of walking long distances. For example: I have a double stand I bait heavily with corn just for taking my kids to. In the am we walk about a mile and a half down railroad tracks, to it. In the evening I park on the road above it and only walk maybe 120 yards to it? It's a doe bedding area with smaller bucks looming around. The kids love to see the deer come in and feed.

I have had some succes hunting the edge of standing cornfields in the am on trails leading to bedding. They walk what I call the "ditch". The grass and weeds between the corn and woods. I know a lot of guys here may dissagree with that but that has been experience at one farm I hunt. I access it via a stream beds and always head in very early.

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[headgear]

If you just want to go out and shoot a doe, sleep in and go out around 9:00 am or so.

I've done this several times, I use to alwasy bump deer in the morning so I would show up an hour or so after first light. 9:00-10:00 alwasy seemed to produce deer movement, especially early season.

I sometimes hit the woods late during the rut too, I would just bump deer going in before first light. I like to sneak in late morning and catch some of that great mid-morning and mid-day buck movement and not have to sit in the dark for hours. It is also nice when going way back not to have to leave 4 hours before first light to get there early. Plenty of other times I have seen bucks chasing right at first light so this is by no means a golden rule but something I use once in a while.

[Bwhtr125]

I would also like to stress, if your hunting area is small, don't think you have to be out there in the mornings outside the rut... A lot of guys think they are not hard core if there not out there in the mornings, but you might just be damaging your hunting. Its better to hunt smart, than to hunt a lot.

I rarely hunt mornings for this reason, even during the rut. My spots are very small with bedding and feeding being very close together and deer typically bed within a hundred yards of feeding areas and sometimes closer. Just the way it is hunting suburban deer on Long Island, New York. Doesn't make for much of a transition area and it is extremely difficult to slip into a stand when so many deer are on there feet in the early morning. To further complicate things, due to limited quality bedding, bucks (including mature animals) and does many times bed in the same areas. With bedding so close, high hunting pressure, and an abundance of does most mature bucks are bedded before daylight, even during the rut. Sometimes will slip in mid-morning, as Stanley mentioned, but most of the time I creep into my stands very close to bed areas about noon when most deer are bedded. The majority of the matue bucks I have taken over the last several years have been killed between 1 and 3 PM, including my three highest scoring PY bucks. In the areas I hunt, I see alot of movement in the early afternoon hours and then actually a lull just before dark. Not what you would typically expect, but seems like these bucks get antzy after sitting in their beds and start to seek does within these bed areas.

[Bigb]

I'm not going to lie, you guys got me scratching my head a bit. All of my hunting consists of 3 or more hour drives from home so when I get to where I hunt I want to spend as much time in the woods as I can. I guess I hunt an area that has a lot fo elevation changes with flat ag fields that differ in elevation by 150 ft with thick woods and ridges between them. When I do enter in the morning, I know I sometimes bump deer but even if I entered at 10 AM im going to bump deer. I just go in very quiet and use the elevation changes to my advantage so deer on ridges below me can't see me. For me I guess I need to utilize the time I have in the stand so for me I save the best spots (farther back in the property) for the evening hunts but still hunt the morning spots, I'm just careful on how I enter and if I bump a few deer I stop, relax for a minute then continue in slow. My mentality is deer run in the woods when humans aren't there so any deer that see them jogging off don't know if I was a coyote, a raccoon, another deer or a human. As long as I'm careful in my last couple hundred yards I'm happy.

[dan]

Big B. I think your misunderstanding my issues with morning hunting... When I discuss deer hunting tactics, I am referring to mature bucks.
I think most average hunter believe that deer move around in the morning just like they do in the evening, and thats not true. Mature bucks tend to bed before daylight. Some think as it gets light out, they notice and start heading to bed, again, not really true...
Hunting mature bucks near there beds for over 3 decades has really opened my eyes up to the damage morning hunting can do to your hunting areas. When I was younger I used to hunt every morning and every evening. Outside of the short rut window, I noticed most of my success, maybe as much as 90% was in the evenings. I found that Big bucks are bedded prior to daylight ( sometimes by more than an hour ) and when going in I would kick the bucks out of there beds most of the time and although I got some morning opportunities, they were rare outside of the rut ( morning hunts rock during rut ) So when my friend Andrae kept knocking one booner after another down in the morning it was quite shocking to me. While interviewing him for a video he said his favorite time to hunt all season was the morning. I stopped him right there and said "Andrae, all I do is bump already bedded bucks when I hunt bedding areas in the morning... What gives? " His answer was " Dan, your not paying attention to the moon guide, are you?" I said something like "hocus-pocus" or pixie dust or something and he said that he is very patent and waits for the days that claim great feeding in the morning and those are the days that the big boys get back to there beds just late enough that you still have some shooting light... Then later that year he invited me to his Iowa farm and we were going thru the thousands of trail pictures he had and he got out the moon guide and you could go back and look at the peak amounts of picture and correspond it to the guide and his pictures would peak at the same dates and times the moon guide picked for peak movements. There were some exceptions. But for the most part it was right on...

The trouble with getting there super early is that the buck will likely bed before you can shoot. Its hard to have a good shot on a bedded buck, and its likely not getting back up till evening, so your there for the long haul. I have found mature bucks to be very good at sensing danger at close range. The longer you are that close to a buck the more likely he is going to bust you.
Pick the right moon phase, or hunt a calm morning after an evening / night storm that keeps the buck in his bed longer the night before putting him on his routine later.
One thing you must consider when doing morning hunts is that bucks don't come back to there beds in the same manor they leave them.
In the morning they often like to approach beds with the wind to there back. The reason I believe they do this is to smell if a predator is tracking them. So don't automatically expect them to come down the beaten trail to the bed in the morning. They might, but I see a lot of the older bucks come in wind to back... Just the opposite of what a lot of guys preach.

[BCam]

Something that has gotten me oppurtunities in the past is sitting between bedding areas. If where u hunt is anything like here...high pressure unmanaged private ag., than you have a lot of hunters doing a lot of wandering about an hr. Or two after light. That equals deer getting bumped constantly. Kind of relying on a little bit of luck but u can hunt spots that wont booger up your honey holes. I dont have a lot of time to hunt these days so i take every opp. I can get. I have personally screwed up on 2 really great bucks putting the ol sneak get away on other hunters after they bumpef them without knowing... Again the only reason i think this works is because of pressure and the lack of remote bedding .... This still doesnt mean hunt every morning.. weekdays wouldnt produce because of lack of am hunting. Weekend is game on.

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[eastwoodhunter]

This will be my fourth year hunting and i have always hunted mornings and evenings rut or not. I am glad to find this out, now i'll hunt mornings during the rut and after some storms only!! And when the moon chart predicts a good morning. I have always liked evening hunts better, but it is great to be out in the morning when everthing is waking up for the day.

[Tadmdad]

Interesting thread, I think a book could be written on this subject alone. A couple of thoughts after reading through the posts, many different viewpoints and people are hunting different areas and terrian, no one rule fits every situation. Like mentioned before there isn't a "never" or "always" when it comes to hunting.

Dan makes some very good points in his posts, and I think he points out some clear differences about hunting a specific buck vs deer hunting, he is focusing on the habits and tendencies of the target buck and isn't worrying about any other deer, and if the non-target deer are being spooked so be it. It takes many years of experience, observation, and success/failure to hone those skills.

When deer hunting, entrance/exit to stands can be very important, if you are alerting animals to your presence, wheter it be visual, sound, scent. You should recognize that over time, that a "hot" stand can go cold and I think that why many posters are talking about getting to a stand early or late, as to not bump deer, more concerned about deer sightings than a specific buck. Deer are very adept to patterning danger, so if you enter/exit a area or stand they same way several time, you should recognize that you are danger and probably have been patterned by the deer. Seen many times hunters posting here, how a buck beds at a certain location, wheter on a ridge, point, etc. So that he can watch a trail, parking lot, where ever danger is approaching from, and on most occasions a buck will have a well defined escape route, reacting to the danger.

One of our groups favorite midday tactics is based on this tendency, and how deer react to the presence of danger and escape routes. Being predominately a still hunter, I'm always focusing on bedding areas, and approach, and how a deer reacts to the presence of danger. If I can identify his escape route, and appoach from a certain direction, and how he reacts, we will setup what we call a "2 man nudge hunt", it's a backdoor setup, with a front door appoach. When approaching the backdoor we are setting up on the escape route, while another hunter uses a slow, quiet approach through the front door, want to bump the buck out of his bed, but being cautious, we want him to recognize danger is approaching, but not to identify it's human danger, or he will usually bust out at mach 2. Have found that if a buck uses the same escape route several times when bumped, and with the right conditions, more times than not, he'll end up on the buck pole.