"Slipping in" when deer are bedded/late morning or afternoon.

[8mm Enthusiast]

Due to health reasons, it is difficult for me to wake up prior to 4 AM which means I can't always drive out far in the mornings and arrive on time to get setup on my trail in the dark.

I have had to improvise on recent hunts and have been forced to setup farther away from my ideal spot as shooting hours were fast approaching and I didn't want to kick stuff up for others.

This brings us to the idea of "slipping in" when the deer are bedded down during the warmer part of the day and being settled in well before the second round of activity picks up around dusk. What experiences do you all have hunting deer in the afternoon and can it truly be as productive as hunting the mornings?

 

[salmonchaser]

Well I just finished season 58. I’m still not convinced the pre-dawn insertion works better than starting in at legal shooting light. With white tails I think it is the best ploy, even with mountain whitetails like we were chasing in Montana last week. Mule deer and Columbia blacktail or Sitka blacktail behave differently. One they don’t pattern as readily as white tails and more importantly they are a heck of a lot easier to walk up on. It seems like white tail can be counted on to use the same trails regularly, mule deer not so much particularly if you hunt them away from agricultural ground. For mule deer and elk I’m more inclined to get in early when I’ve access to private ground and that does pay off. On public ground that I know well I’ve got a couple of ridges I’ll go in by head lamp on opening morning. After opening morning my experience has been I’ve bumped elk while sneaking in as often as I’ve been able to make it to my overwatch and find elk.
I do like the afternoon sit. Typically I’ll work the dark timber into early afternoon then find a ridge, get partway out (you can still walk off a cliff using a headlamp) and sit and glass for the last 90 minutes. Seems like every time I say to my self “how can there not be anything out there” just at dark they show up. In Oregon I’d rather not shoot something just at dark because it just gets harder. I really don’t like doing so in Montana, particularly when hunting by myself.
Now with my second cup of coffee and recalling past hunts I’ve had quite a bit of success slipping into a good area mid day, setting up and getting my opportunities at last light.
White tails are fairly new to me. Think I killed my first one about 10 years ago. I spent 10 days in Montana, near Thompson falls specifically chasing a big white tail. I saw a few small basket bucks, caught glimpses of good mature bucks that did not afford an opportunity and could have shot 3 elk had I a tag or a decent mule deer deer every day. Those white tail are sneaky devils.

 

[Chuck R]

Honestly I prefer late afternoon to evening hunts, most of the time the deer are heading out to feed and are a little more predictable. It also has a set ending point, legal shooting time, so I'm not sitting in a stand thinking "just 10 more minutes" for another 1-2hrs. I head out around 2:00 PM, most movement is about 30-60 minutes before sunset, and I really like overcast days because I think it screws up their "clock" and they'll move earlier.

So I normally hunt them in the am enroute to bedding areas, in the evening enroute to feed. If the weather's crappy I might still hunt in mid-day. Morning hunts I'll double lung them, evenings depending on the terrain and my familiarity I might break shoulders just to reduce tracking.

IF you're hunting the rut, all bets are off, they can and will move about at anytime.

A couple times a year, in the last half of the season when most of the bucks have gone nocturnal, 5 or 6 of us will put on drives at about 1000 AM on some of the smaller patches.

 

[Ridge_Runner]

during the rut, 10 till 2 is the hours to hunt, I never go to the woods til I can see.

 

[RL338]

I don’t go out no sooner than an 1/2hr before sunrise. Opening morning I walk back to my stand in the woods. After opening morning I drive my 4-wheeler to the stand. I send so much time in the woods with it , the deer know me. Most of the time I drive by and they stand and watch me go by.

 

[Wolfshead]

We always hunt mornings on opening day, and after that maybe once or twice.
I prefer going in mid day, and hunting evenings.
To simplify my thinking, in mornings Bucks are traveling from food to bed, and in evenings, traveling from bed to food.
I feel that they are more predictable traveling from bed to food.
As has been said, the rut is different and they can be doing some different things, in which case, I’m setting up down wind of Doe bedding, and hoping to catch one scent checking the Does.
Even then however, you go in and set up mid morning/day or so.
Of all the deer I’ve taken, I can only think of three taken in the morning.

 

[Charlie-NY]

I much prefer evening hunting, which is when I have taken most of my whitetails. However, when the bucks are actually chasing does, any time in the field is a good time. Even midday can be the perfect opportunity. Bucks are too preoccupied to use any of their natural instincts for survival.

 

[Blkram]

Watch your moon phases too...it will also provide peak hours for animal movement that can help you plan your hunting day.

 

[JD338]

Most of our stands are positioned on ridges and allow for entry from behind using the terrain for cover. We also rake a path for silent entry. For the morning hunt, our green led headlights illuminate our travel. Once in a while we see deer and our silent down wind approach doesn't really spook the deer. The bedded down deer seem to let us walk on by and the ones that are on runways or in the food plots either let us pass or simply just walk away. They rarely run off.
Afternoon hunts we just sneak into our blinds 2-3 hours before dark. Having a raked path and silent door/hinges on the blind is a big help.
I've killed just as many deer in the morning as the afternoon.

JD338

 

[wvbuckbuster]

Morning, mid-day and evening have killed deer at all three times. During the rut you're liable to see deer at any time especially a buck running does. Last Wednesday evening shot a ten point came into a grunt call. This morning about 1005 shot a four-point running a doe. I just happened to be in the right place at the right time.