First light

[nchunterkw]

I rarely hunt mornings but if I do I try to be in about 15 to 30 min before shooting light. If I'm in too soon (like an hour and a half before) that's just more time for my scent to build up and for me to start to get uncomfortable and fidigety in the stand. I don't find blood trailing at night to be that bad. A good light, a blood light, all kinds of stuff I use. I have lost deer, but not because I couldn't track them. I flat never found them, even when going back and looking the next day never found one or the remains of one.

Just me YMMV

[wheelsquad]

How early I go out in the morning depends on the type of habitat/stand location and also the access required to get there. For example, if I have to go through a food source to get to the stand, wait until there is just enough light to be sure the deer have cleared the area from feeding. You are better off losing the first few minutes of legal shooting time if it prevents you from bumping deer.

[wheelsquad]

I rarely hunt mornings but if I do I try to be in about 15 to 30 min before shooting light. If I'm in too soon (like an hour and a half before) that's just more time for my scent to build up and for me to start to get uncomfortable and fidigety in the stand.

Bingo!

[robertyb]

I agree with the majority here about evening hunts. I lost a deer to coyotes this year that I shot around sundown. It was too dark to track her in the dense woods where she ran and when I easily found her the next morning, she was ripped up by coyotes. When a deer is hit in the morning you have all day to track it. Unless I know there are deer present that I would alert to the location of my stand, I intend to leave the stand well before the end of shooting hours. I hate the sickening feeling of losing a deer. I see a lot of deer in the evening, but morning hunts are my favorite for a lot of reasons.

That is what flashlights are for. I tracked many many deer using them over the years. In today's world if you leave them overnight the chances are real high that the coyotes will eat them before first light. I had one partially eaten when I shot it and waited an hour before tracking it one morning. If a coyote hits the blood trail they really don't care if it is daylight or dark if they are hungry.

[Carnivorous]

I watch the hunting public on YouTube. These guys routinely hunt from 10am to 2pm. The number of deer they shoot miday is unreal !

Something to consider...

[nchunterkw]

I watch the hunting public on YouTube. These guys routinely hunt from 10am to 2pm. The number of deer they shoot miday is unreal !

Something to consider...

I almost never hunt at this time either...but it makes sense. I think deer eat about every 5-6 hours so if they are "finishing breakfast" around first light, then they should be up again for a bit around 10 - 2, right? And then again at last light.

I think if I had some "wilder" areas to hunt this might be good. But where I'm at there is too much human activity during the day I think.

[Carnivorous]

I watch the hunting public on YouTube. These guys routinely hunt from 10am to 2pm. The number of deer they shoot miday is unreal !

Something to consider...

I almost never hunt at this time either...but it makes sense. I think deer eat about every 5-6 hours so if they are "finishing breakfast" around first light, then they should be up again for a bit around 10 - 2, right? And then again at last light.

I think if I had some "wilder" areas to hunt this might be good. But where I'm at there is too much human activity during the day I think.

One more thing I have noticed is my area has 3 separate muzzleloder weeks. After the third week of gun pressure they limit their movement to conserve energy and stay away from the usual game trails...

[AJ01]

Hunting out west a lot in my youth, I used a bunch of different calibers. Everything from a .270 Winchester to a .375 H&H Mag. Had a company build me a custom 7mm STW many years ago. Killed a WHOLE bunch of animals with it.
I said all of that to say this. I have seen DEAD DEER, Elk, Mulies and other critters run farther than you can image! I saw a Mulie shot with a .300 Weatherby pushing a 180g Nosler run more than 200 yards with NO lungs and NO heart!!
Shot a Bull Elk with a .375 at about 120 yards. The .375 was pushing a Speer 285gr Grand Slam. Broke BOTH front shoulders and got the heart. Bull still went almost 200 yards.
I can't count the number of whitetails I have shot that had thier front halfs turned to "jelly" by bullet velocity impact and STILL run farther than you would have ever thought!!

And to be even MORE graphic, I saw a fellow one time in a shoot out with police that was hit 23 times. 19 of those bullets would have caused "death instantly' according to the coroner's office. Yet he managed to travel down 4 flights of stairs and die on the side walk outside the complex!!!
And yet I have seen folks die from a single .22 LR bullet to the gut!!

YES... shot placement is CRITICAL, don't get me wrong. But sometimes "sheet happens"!!! Adrenaline is an amazing thing!!

[nchunterkw]

Hunting out west a lot in my youth, I used a bunch of different calibers. Everything from a .270 Winchester to a .375 H&H Mag. Had a company build me a custom 7mm STW many years ago. Killed a WHOLE bunch of animals with it.
I said all of that to say this. I have seen DEAD DEER, Elk, Mulies and other critters run farther than you can image! I saw a Mulie shot with a .300 Weatherby pushing a 180g Nosler run more than 200 yards with NO lungs and NO heart!!
Shot a Bull Elk with a .375 at about 120 yards. The .375 was pushing a Speer 285gr Grand Slam. Broke BOTH front shoulders and got the heart. Bull still went almost 200 yards.
I can't count the number of whitetails I have shot that had thier front halfs turned to "jelly" by bullet velocity impact and STILL run farther than you would have ever thought!!

And to be even MORE graphic, I saw a fellow one time in a shoot out with police that was hit 23 times. 19 of those bullets would have caused "death instantly' according to the coroner's office. Yet he managed to travel down 4 flights of stairs and die on the side walk outside the complex!!!
And yet I have seen folks die from a single .22 LR bullet to the gut!!

YES... shot placement is CRITICAL, don't get me wrong. But sometimes "sheet happens"!!! Adrenaline is an amazing thing!!

Yeah, this is amazing.....I've seen it too, especially with rifles. Which amazes me even more regarding archery. I've shot deer that just stood there then fell over dead, or ran away a few yards then ran back and died in sight. But typically they haul butt and die within about 60 yards on a good double lung or double lung/heart. Kind of opposite of some of the rifle kills where their insides are jelly yet they run a long ways. I guess it's a "shock weapon" versus a "hemorrhaging weapon"

[grouse]

I agree with the majority here about evening hunts. I lost a deer to coyotes this year that I shot around sundown. It was too dark to track her in the dense woods where she ran and when I easily found her the next morning, she was ripped up by coyotes. When a deer is hit in the morning you have all day to track it. Unless I know there are deer present that I would alert to the location of my stand, I intend to leave the stand well before the end of shooting hours. I hate the sickening feeling of losing a deer. I see a lot of deer in the evening, but morning hunts are my favorite for a lot of reasons.

That is what flashlights are for. I tracked many many deer using them over the years. In today's world if you leave them overnight the chances are real high that the coyotes will eat them before first light. I had one partially eaten when I shot it and waited an hour before tracking it one morning. If a coyote hits the blood trail they really don't care if it is daylight or dark if they are hungry.

I agree and wish that I had tried to track the deer in the dark. This was the first deer I have lost to coyotes. The outcome might not have been any different though. We participated in a timber stand improvement program a few years ago which opened up the canopy and allowed lots of ground vegetation (most of it thorny) to grow. The blood was pretty sparse at first but got better as we got closer to the deer. This was at the end of Oct. and this year the fall changeover was later than usual. Most plants still had their leaves. It would have taken a lot of luck find that deer in that jungle, but I wish we had tried.