Moving in the dark

[ctbreitwieser]

This is going to be first year hunting mobile. About halfway through this past season, I got setup with a saddle and hunted from a preset stand with a homemade platform and a 20' climbing stick. This year, I plan on being 100% mobile, but I'm wondering about the movement in and out of the woods. When hunting bedding, is the goal to get into your spot in the morning when its dark, and can check the buck coming back to bed? Or sneak in during daylight while he's in the bed, and wait till he gets out for his evening movement?

[backstraps]

This is going to be first year hunting mobile. About halfway through this past season, I got setup with a saddle and hunted from a preset stand with a homemade platform and a 20' climbing stick. This year, I plan on being 100% mobile, but I'm wondering about the movement in and out of the woods. When hunting bedding, is the goal to get into your spot in the morning when its dark, and can check the buck coming back to bed? Or sneak in during daylight while he's in the bed, and wait till he gets out for his evening movement?

For me, all of the early season and post rut im sitting the pm hunts. Waiting for him to get up from bed and move

In coming cold fronts and moon days may alter these plans and I will get a morning hunt in

[Redman232]

I've gotten to the point where I don't walk in before I can shoot. I just hate the feeling of not knowing what I may be bumping. I've killed 3 bucks before 9 am and 2 of them were rut scenarios and the 3rd was with a gun over a bed. Every other buck I've killed was middle of the day to just before dark. From my scouting there are probably 10 locations that setup better for evening hunts to every 1 spot that is better access in the morning. But that is just me, there are plenty of guys on here that have a.m. success. I think it just boils down to what you are comfortable with and what the sign/access and specific locations allows you to get away with. There is one constant morning or night (and I struggle to use the word "constant"), 99.99% of the time you have to be able to shoot them before they smell, see or hear you or your access trail.

[Steelhead125]

My best luck has always been in the evening. With that being said I don’t think deer spook as bad in the dark. At least when they don’t smell you. I bump into them quite often in the morning and they will blow or I will hear them run off but I don’t think they go that far. At least it doesn’t seem as significant as during daylight. I have also shined my flashlight on them many times when they were under 40 yards and they just let me walk on by without spooking. It’s definitely not ideal to bump deer in the dark but it also doesn’t have to end your hunt either. If you let the woods calm down and continue to your stand nice and slow they often forget about the object they saw or heard in the dark and resume normal movement an hour or two later.

[justdirtyfun]

For most hunts I stick to pm hunts. But bed hunting allows a guy to quit worrying about bumping deer getting to the spot. They are usually not THE ONE.

[ctbreitwieser]

What times do you find it best to begin your walk in? If there buck is already bedded, and most likely not getting up until just before dark, it seems it would just be waste of time to go in until later in the afternoon.

[Evanszach7]

What times do you find it best to begin your walk in? If there buck is already bedded, and most likely not getting up until just before dark, it seems it would just be waste of time to go in until later in the afternoon.

I only bed hunt mornings when I’m pretty confident they’re getting back to bed late. Early season with primary food source far away (across a river, 1 mile, etc) pre rut, rut. In early season once they’ve felt pressure you’re probably not beating them back to bed.

Best mornings are when they’ve called for a 180 wind switch in the first couple hours of light.

How early depends on a lot of factors... how tight is my access to they’re travel routes, noise- wind, leaves, etc.

[ctbreitwieser]

What times do you find it best to begin your walk in? If there buck is already bedded, and most likely not getting up until just before dark, it seems it would just be waste of time to go in until later in the afternoon.

I only bed hunt mornings when I’m pretty confident they’re getting back to bed late. Early season with primary food source far away (across a river, 1 mile, etc) pre rut, rut. In early season once they’ve felt pressure you’re probably not beating them back to bed.

Best mornings are when they’ve called for a 180 wind switch in the first couple hours of light.

How early depends on a lot of factors... how tight is my access to they’re travel routes, noise- wind, leaves, etc.

Good to know. If the bucks staying bedded until just before dark in the early season, what time do you find is the best to get into the tree? If I'm going to be wasting time in the tree by getting out there in the early afternoon then I might as well stay home and get in some more family time before heading out.

[Evanszach7]

What times do you find it best to begin your walk in? If there buck is already bedded, and most likely not getting up until just before dark, it seems it would just be waste of time to go in until later in the afternoon.

I only bed hunt mornings when I’m pretty confident they’re getting back to bed late. Early season with primary food source far away (across a river, 1 mile, etc) pre rut, rut. In early season once they’ve felt pressure you’re probably not beating them back to bed.

Best mornings are when they’ve called for a 180 wind switch in the first couple hours of light.

How early depends on a lot of factors... how tight is my access to they’re travel routes, noise- wind, leaves, etc.

Good to know. If the bucks staying bedded until just before dark in the early season, what time do you find is the best to get into the tree? If I'm going to be wasting time in the tree by getting out there in the early afternoon then I might as well stay home and get in some more family time before heading out.

If I’m only trying to hunt the last 1.5 hours of the day, on average, I’ll give myself an extra hour to scout my way in and basically still hunt my way to the kill tree. Constantly telling myself “I’m hunting now” while working my way in. Depending on the sign you’ll want the time to call an audible. My best hunts this year didn’t end up at the tree I had set out to hunt.

In Kentucky last September I was seeing buck’s get up to feed 2-2.5 hours before dark. But, they were also bedding a mile from 2 primary food sources. By week 3 the pressure had bumped that back to the norm of 1 hour- 30 minutes.