Mature (4 year old plus) movement

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All mine in the early season have been in the evenings. After bow season ends, I believe every single one has been in the mornings. Nothing midday, not even on camera
 
Majority of mature bucks I've been fortunate to take have been in the early morning hours.....have one that was taken last 30 minutes of daylight.....my largest buck was at 1:10pm mid day cruising alone going back into bedding area.... another midday buck was at 11:15am.....but no doubt majority have been in the early morning hours.....also worth noting....both midday bucks as well as many of the early morning bucks were taken during peak rut periods.
 
I will admit...for 2020..... midday activity has been the worst I've experienced in years.... contribute the lack of activity to the above average temperatures....hoping the temps this week will improve daytime movements.
 
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Mine have been about 50/50 morning/evening. My biggest was 2hrs before dark. 2nd biggest was 2hrs after sunrise. Third biggest was 45min before dark. 4th biggest 2hrs after sunrise. 5th biggest right before dark. Overall through the years most of my bucks and encounters were mornings, but my biggest matures are a split.
 
JCDEERMAN said:
All mine in the early season have been in the evenings. After bow season ends, I believe every single one has been in the mornings. Nothing midday, not even on camera
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Do agree that during the early parts of bow season that evening sightings can be higher than mornings....I just hadn't connected as often.....I need to work on that...lol
 
As far as times, during the early season, mine have all been after 6pm. In the mornings after bow season, all mine have came before 8:30am. Majority have been before 7:45am
 
Biggest deer I've shot or seen on camera were between 11:00 and 1:00. Numerous 3.5s early morning. 1 5+ chasing at daylight.
 
Interesting. I'm looking at 5 on my wall and all came within 30 mins of sunset except 1 and it was at about an hour and a half after sunrise. About talked myself out of morning hunts but I'll keep it up.
 
duckriver said:
Interesting. I'm looking at 5 on my wall and all came within 30 mins of sunset except 1 and it was at about an hour and a half after sunrise. About talked myself out of morning hunts but I'll keep it up.
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Keep talking and you'll convince me also. Which wouldn't take much. For some reason morning hunts are hard to get out there early enough. Lol
 
DRSJ35 said:
Keep talking and you'll convince me also. Which wouldn't take much. For some reason morning hunts are hard to get out there early enough. Lol
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The last 3 years I hunt evening twice as much as mornings. Just seem to have better luck then. See more deer then too. But it seems a lot of guys have better luck in the mornings. I've even thought about sleeping in and getting out there about 8-9 and hunting the rest of the day
 
I didn't quit hunting mornings, but changed how I do it. No more before daylight crap. Now I hit the woods just as I'm able to see. I'm more sneaky, quiet, and if I bump a deer going in I can see what it is. If gun season i can usually get a shot off if I want. I always hated blowing deer out in the dark and spending the rest of the day wondering how bad I messed up.
 
For me, woods deer get killed in the mornings. Field deer get killed in the afternoon. I've killed great bucks at both times but my 4 biggest bucks have been in the morning.
 
I've killed 10 -12 bucks over that age and I'll say I mainly kill in the morning. But my 2 biggest came right before legal shooting light one evening and the other was at 12:15 in the day. I think to kill big bucks you got to be in the woods, no matter the time.
 
I don't claim to be an expert on aging deer, and some of the "mature" bucks I have seen or killed may only be 3.5 year olds. With best estimations between trail cam pics of live deer, body shapes, and my checking teeth, I know most of those I would call mature that I have killed have come in the morning. I have taken a couple in the afternoon. My youngest daughter killed a couple the past few years in the afternoon that were over 200 lbs live weight, I believe those were both over 3.5, possibly 4.5. My wife's best 2 were in the afternoon, both of those were without a doubt mature bucks. Her best was before 4 in the afternoon and I am pretty certain he was 4.5+.

So I would call it a split between morning and afternoon. Of the morning sightings/kills, most of those have been within the first hour of legal shooting light.

Honestly have not had any luck mid day. Even trail cam pics of older bucks mid day movement on our property is minimal.
 
I've killed more of my older ones in the evenings. But I see more activity of rutting or just more deer in general in the morning.
If I had to pick, I'd still pick morning over evening.
I think it has been an anomaly that I've shot more in the evening. it also could be I get to go more in the evening because I hardly ever go before work, but I go after work often.
 
I think it has more to do with your setup than time of day.

In fields, I've usually seen my biggest deer in the afternoon, but not always.

In the woods, morning movement has been better.
 
I have had about a 50% split in my encounters with big bucks. I'm using an evolving approach throughout the season in order to make that happen. In the past I have been unilateral in my hunting approach and it has limited my prior sightings.
 
DoubleRidge said:
I will admit...for 2020..... midday activity has been the worst I've experienced in years.... contribute the lack of activity to the above average temperatures....hoping the temps this week will improve daytime movements.
Click to expand...
I had some mid day movement today. Seen a decent bit of it on trail cam as well.
 
I hunted pretty much all day. The brakes seem to have been put on our rutting activity. And I've noticed I have gone from seeing 8-10 does a day to 8-10 over the course of the week
 
duckriver said:
I hunted pretty much all day. The brakes seem to have been put on our rutting activity. And I've noticed I have gone from seeing 8-10 does a day to 8-10 over the course of the week
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I believe we hunt relatively the same area. We are seeing the same thing. We had some activity last week, but starting on Saturday, everything just shut down. Partially to the extreme heat and partially to being locked down. It usually picks back up the first week of December
 
JCDEERMAN said:
I believe we hunt relatively the same area. We are seeing the same thing. We had some activity last week, but starting on Saturday, everything just shut down. Partially to the extreme heat and partially to being locked down. It usually picks back up the first week of December
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That sounds about right. Last Saturday morning was great. And dead since then. I hope it picks back up. What part of the county are you in? PM if you'd rather
 

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