What time to sit in a deer blind?

[Dan4570]

I personally have never seen a mature whitetail buck moving an open field mid day. (Mule deer? All day any day. They do what they like). If you're set up on an opening early season? 1st light for the first 3 hours and last light. I've seen more bucks move 2 hours into the morning and not at all until last light.

If you're setup near a bedding area in the bush? They can move anytime of day.

During the rut? All bets are off. They're chase trails or follow does with tongues wagging mid day without a care in the world. Even a few shots won't even stop them from chasing does. Just my experiences. Everyone has their own.

[Mb-MBR]

oops double post

[Bushleague]

Originally Posted by Dan4570

I personally have never seen a mature whitetail buck moving an open field mid day. (Mule deer? All day any day. They do what they like). If you're set up on an opening early season? 1st light for the first 3 hours and last light. I've seen more bucks move 2 hours into the morning and not at all until last light.

If you're setup near a bedding area in the bush? They can move anytime of day.

During the rut? All bets are off. They're chase trails or follow does with tongues wagging mid day without a care in the world. Even a few shots won't even stop them from chasing does. Just my experiences. Everyone has their own.

True that you dont see deer moving in the open during mid day, in my neck of the woods I'd say only about 1 in 20 deer goes out in the open during daylight at all. In their own element, the bush, at least if they have sufficient amounts of bush that they can move around, feed, and not eat themselves out of browse... they are pretty much inclined to move around all day. Theres generally about as much browse 30 yards into the bush as there is 30 yards into the cutblock, and the other 19 deer opt to travel and brows within the safety of this margin rather than expose themselves.

I really dont think any animal besides humans naturally ever beds down for a full 6-8 hours at a time, though with minimal bedding cover it can be an acquired behavior in reaction to humans. With more cover, and more natural predation thrown into the mix, bedding down all day is of more minimal value and the deer get up and move around periodically throughout most days.

I'm not a stand hunter, and I dont hunt open areas much... but for what its worth probably 95% of my game is shot between 9:00AM and 1:00pm. The majority around the 9-10 mark, but an unignorably large percentage of my mature bucks have been shot at noon, pretty much right on the button.

[Smoky buck]

Always easy to spot a bush hunter when you start asking time of day they have shot most of their deer

For myself between 10am-2pm has be the most productive even though I often hunt first to last light

[Bushleague]

Originally Posted by Smoky buck

Always easy to spot a bush hunter when you start asking time of day they have shot most of their deer

For myself between 10am-2pm has be the most productive even though I often hunt first to last light

Yep, at this point I am not hunting the full day, as soon as I get snow however... from first to last light every single time.

Personally, about the least productive time for me is last light, though I'd never dream of skipping it... I've shot a fair number of wolves at last light. By about 4PM I've usually just about written the day off, how does that compare to your experiences?

[Smoky buck]

Originally Posted by Bushleague

Yep, at this point I am not hunting the full day, as soon as I get snow however... from first to last light every single time.

Personally, about the least productive time for me is last light, though I'd never dream of skipping it... I've shot a fair number of wolves at last light. By about 4PM I've usually just about written the day off, how does that compare to your experiences?

For whitetail I will take last hour of the day over the first but I try my best to be out all day because you never know

Last year my buck was first light and I think it’s only the 3rd animal I have taken at first light

[Bushleague]

Originally Posted by Smoky buck

For whitetail I will take last hour of the day over the first but I try my best to be out all day because you never know

Last year my buck was first light and I think it’s only the 3rd animal I have taken at first light

I dont shoot allot of deer at first light, but I do see them within that first hour with fair consistency, I dont think I've ever killed a mature buck during that time. For some reason I really dont encounter much game at all in the evening. Possibly its at least partly a product of often being many kilometers from the trail by that point, and needing to get myself to a more sensible location by nightfall.

[Smoky buck]

Originally Posted by Bushleague

I dont shoot allot of deer at first light, but I do see them within that first hour with fair consistency, I dont think I've ever killed a mature buck during that time. For some reason I really dont encounter much game at all in the evening. Possibly its at least partly a product of often being many kilometers from the trail by that point, and needing to get myself to a more sensible location by nightfall.

By far most of my luck is mid day. I have just slightly more luck in the evening then mornings. But it’s mostly early season

[Bushleague]

Originally Posted by Smoky buck

By far most of my luck is mid day. I have just slightly more luck in the evening then mornings. But it’s mostly early season

Just one more question, under normal conditions, about what time would you say that the thermals reverse in your area? Do you find that the wind settles in at about that time?

In my area the thermal reversal often seems to be tied into the wind settling in to whatever its going to do for the day, I'd say its usually around that 9-11AM time frame where I often observe a spike in game activity. I've come to believe that those three events are all linked together.

[EZM]

Stand/Blind time is anytime - and I'm sure most of you have your area well scouted and kind of have an idea where the deer funnel trough or which way they are most likely to move. A well placed stand maybe takes a little more work, but it's worth it.

Wind is the overall factor determining and overruling everything in my mind. There absolutely no point moving into an area (or towards your blind or stand) if the wind is at your back.

It seems to me deer move into/out of more predictable areas and more predictable directions dawn and dusk (leaving from beds to fields and vice versa in the morning) but there seems to be fair amount of movement, usually in (or along) cover mid day.

I have taken many deer mid day when I'm just about to give up and move on (or I'm having my sandwich and coffee out of the thermos).

[fishnguy]

I haven’t read most of the posts in the thread, so sorry if it was already talked about, but wouldn’t the answer to the question depend on where the blind is located? I don’t do much blind hunting (and hardly any for deer specifically) and sat on a tree stand only a few times in my life (probably somewhere between an hour and two, combined, if I had to guess), but having hunted in various settings I feel like the answer would depend on where the stand is located. For instance, I wouldn't spend any time in the middle of the day at an edge of a field. Sure, there is a chance something might pop out, but I feel like my time could be better used elsewhere, even not hunting. I guess, I am not much of a sitter either. Perhaps, an exception to that would be a mulie doe tag, where, if I chose so, I could literally go to the field and shoot one any time of the day (even for that I choose to hunt differently more often than not though). Also, if you place your stand on the trail to the feeding areas, again, you probably won’t be very successful during the day. And again, I am not a sitter and get bored very quickly if there is nothing going on, so that may be affecting the way I look at it. I would definitely spend 30-60 minutes at a field in the evenings when I have time. I do that without a tag sometimes too, just looking at them doing their thing. Used to do it a lot more before than now.

My most productive hours have always been late in the evening, regardless of where I hunted. Next best is probably mornings, a couple of hours-ish or so into the day. If I sat on tree stands in the field waiting for whitetail, I would imagine my best times would be around first light. Somewhere midday would probably be best for a bush stand/blind.

[Smoky buck]

Originally Posted by Bushleague

Just one more question, under normal conditions, about what time would you say that the thermals reverse in your area? Do you find that the wind settles in at about that time?

In my area the thermal reversal often seems to be tied into the wind settling in to whatever its going to do for the day, I'd say its usually around that 9-11AM time frame where I often observe a spike in game activity. I've come to believe that those three events are all linked together.

Can’t say I have payed attention to the time of thermals well whitetail hunting but I would say your timing would sound about right for the morning thermal change for late season.

I can’t say I have considered it a factor in deer movement. The only time I put real thought into thermals was concerning about my scent on mountain hunts.

Interesting theory and now you are going to have my OCD looking to see if I notice a link between thermals and deer movement lol

[Bushleague]

Originally Posted by Smoky buck

Can’t say I have payed attention to the time of thermals well whitetail hunting but I would say your timing would sound about right for the morning thermal change for late season.

I can’t say I have considered it a factor in deer movement. The only time I put real thought into thermals was concerning about my scent on mountain hunts.

Interesting theory and now you are going to have my OCD looking to see if I notice a link between thermals and deer movement lol

I preffer to hunt timber in fairly rugged terain, specifically because the way game uses thermals makes them more predictable... so its something I tend keep in mind. Right around the time I feel the thermal switch I often hear shots or see game, and on days when the thermal drag stays downhill I typically need to hunt in totaly different areas. I've come to feel a big part of this, is that in rugged areas the thermals can often have a big impact on how the prevaling wind behaves.

Keep it in mind and let me know what your observations are if you wouldnt mind.

[Smoky buck]

Originally Posted by Bushleague

I preffer to hunt timber in fairly rugged terain, specifically because the way game uses thermals makes them more predictable... so its something I tend keep in mind. Right around the time I feel the thermal switch I often hear shots or see game, and on days when the thermal drag stays downhill I typically need to hunt in totaly different areas. I've come to feel a big part of this, is that in rugged areas the thermals can often have a big impact on how the prevaling wind behaves.

Keep it in mind and let me know what your observations are if you wouldnt mind.

My locations vary from flat to what could be declared rugged for non mountain hunting. I just follow the sign and work with the terrain I find it in. Broken ground is definitely nice to target whitetail because it makes it easier to predict their movements

I will try and keep it in mind but I am a bit forgetful. Like most hunters I am prone to focus on my personal just because it’s how I have done it.

[Salavee]

Originally Posted by Bushleague

I preffer to hunt timber in fairly rugged terain, specifically because the way game uses thermals makes them more predictable... so its something I tend keep in mind. Right around the time I feel the thermal switch I often hear shots or see game, and on days when the thermal drag stays downhill I typically need to hunt in totaly different areas. I've come to feel a big part of this, is that in rugged areas the thermals can often have a big impact on how the prevaling wind behaves.

Keep it in mind and let me know what your observations are if you wouldnt mind.

Thermal (warmer) air movement depends on temp, altitude and topography and can be particular to any individual area. Seldom are they simultainiously identicle to a very large land mass.
Warmer air can move in any direction,usually up, depending on topogrphy and that is one way hunters often get busted and don't realize it. River banks, ravines and flats are particularily notorious for this. The same applies to the fields on top. Many times I have known Elk , Deer and sometimes Moose to hole up just inside a tree line in the early AM or PM and wait for a favorable thermal to form before entering a field or ascending or descending a rver bank. Warm air thermals, although subtle, seem to be a major part of thier self protecting arsenal and are well worth paying attention to. It's much simpler to play the wind direction, if there is any, than the thermals.






.