What's the secret?

[RidgeRunner13]

...to evening hunts? I've been hunting for thirteen years now, and I have only ever seen deer on one evening hunt, and that was eight years ago. I hunt evenings still but I never see anything. I see all my deer in the morning and always before 10 am. I've hunted food (acorns and plots/crops), evening bedding thickets, trails between the two, and, shoot, even food on the edge of bedding thickets. I hunt the proper winds (until it starts to swirl).

 

[cecil30-30]

It must be where your hunting.I see deer in the evenings ( last 30 mins of light) just about as much as I do in the mornings.

 

[RidgeRunner13]

I've hunted all over here in East Tennessee and the family farm down in Mississippi. The one group of does I did see years ago was out your way. About a mile from Coalfield High School. This has just been aggravating.

 

[woodsman87]

That is strange. I really don't have a favorite time. Both are about equal to me, and sometimes in the same spots I get the same results. Sorry, I don't have an answer.

 

[in the dog house]

Yup ..... Most of my evening deer are the last 30 min. or less. I can't tell you how many I have seen\shot in the last 5 min. of legal shooting light.

 

[PcDeer]

I don't know, I see some deer in the evenings but not near as many as I do in the mornings. You would think my food plots would be afternoon honey holes but all but one deer I've killed out of or around them have been in the morning.

 

[RidgeRunner13]

What's aggravating me most this year is that I don't think I have ever put this much into a single deer season as I have this year. I know it's early in the season, but we are setup on what appeared to be a prime piece of real estate until opening morning. The day before opener we were down glassing a field and saw a doe and her fawn come out at 615 pm. Yesterday I walked back in two where they came out and setup. What seemed to be like a good area. Thicket all the way around with a stand of oaks in the middle in an opening. The deer move up through the lower portion of the thicket in the evening, feed on the acorns, and then proceed about another 400 yards through an open field to their bedding area. As usual, I didn't see a thing. Prior to that I could see that area from my other stands with no productivity coming from it. I just figured they were hanging back feeding a bit until dark. But no luck.

 

[pressfit]

I see at all times of the day. one of my bigger bucks was killed on my lunch break around 1145 in the morning.. sometimes I get in my stand at 130 -2 and see deer all day long..a lot of times I have to wait until after dark to leave so they dont see me leaving me shooting house

 

[kknights27]

Hey its always been the same for me in 4 years of hunting! Always saw them before noon and NEVER in evening. This year I managed to get busted by 3 does saturday evening. lol

 

[MUP]

Could be you may be coming in a little late in the afternoon, when they're already moving. In my case, I've busted deer trying to get to my stand at 1:30-2:00 before, thinking I had plenty of time for the eve hunt, so I started getting in at 12:00-1:00. You can never tell what they may be watching you enter the area, and just avoid it that eve. Just a thought.

 

[RidgeRunner13]

Could be you may be coming in a little late in the afternoon, when they're already moving. In my case, I've busted deer trying to get to my stand at 1:30-2:00 before, thinking I had plenty of time for the eve hunt, so I started getting in at 12:00-1:00. You can never tell what they may be watching you enter the area, and just avoid it that eve. Just a thought.

I definitely understand your point. I'm just human though. I get there as soon as I can. I can only skip so many classes though before they start failing me. And that's money taken out of my pocket lol

 

[Hunter 257W]

I had the same experience for years. Practically never saw a deer in the evening. But then I figured out what the problem was. My extremely low enthusiasm for dealing with a deer after dark was making me get up and walk out right at prime time. I'd usually walk home maybe 10 or so minutes after sunset. When I started staying until the last second of legla light I started seeing deer. Still if you total up the deer I see, the mornings probably account for at least 75%. Also whatever deer come by in the evening do so within 10 or 15 minutes of last legal light. This may not be your problem but it sure was mine.

Oh yeah, I've had the same results with food plots. Morning or evening, deer just don't come in them during daylight and I've never shot a deer in one eiher.

 

[plinker22]

I see many more deer in the AM hunts as well, but I do see deer in the evenings.

 

[RidgeRunner13]

I had the same experience for years. Practically never saw a deer in the evening. But then I figured out what the problem was. My extremely low enthusiasm for dealing with a deer after dark was making me get up and walk out right at prime time. I'd usually walk home maybe 10 or so minutes after sunset. When I started staying until the last second of legla light I started seeing deer. Still if you total up the deer I see, the mornings probably account for at least 75%. Also whatever deer come by in the evening do so within 10 or 15 minutes of last legal light. This may not be your problem but it sure was mine.

Oh yeah, I've had the same results with food plots. Morning or evening, deer just don't come in them during daylight and I've never shot a deer in one eiher.

I always stay about 20-30 mins after I just can't see anything. I've always been fairly disciplined on entering and leaving the woods.

 

[deerhunter10]

I have about half and half success in mornings and evenings. I like mornings better but I have good success in evenings. as someone says I have the best luck getting there a little more earlier than you really think you need to be. and early season for sure its all about food for me.

 

[barkscaler]

50/50 for me.The mornings are just as good as the evenings and vice versa.

 

[Football Hunter]

That is strange. I really don't have a favorite time. Both are about equal to me, and sometimes in the same spots I get the same results. Sorry, I don't have an answer.

yep

 

[Urban_Hunter]

I would have guessed you are leaving too early, but if you leave well after dark like you say then I am clueless. It is my experience in nearly all of my best morning spots that I will see deer from the same spot in the evening about 1/2 as often, 1/3 at worst. I do better in the AM for sure, but they do come in the evenings so I hunt them when I can. The only difference in behavior I have noticed is that in the pm they seem more on a mission to get somewhere and tend to mozy around less.

 

[bowriter]

I love evening hunt because you know what the catlyst is...food. Figure out what they are eating and you have the secret. Just setting up on a field or an oak tree won't work. It has to be the right tree and it has to not only be the right field but the right part of the field.

I have only hunted twice this year, both times in the evening. I killed one doe and could have easily killed two bucks, a six and an eight. I knew what they were going to, based on signs of heavy feeding, (you have to be able to descern deer feeding on acorns from squirrels), my stands were on the trails leading to the trees.

That is the secret.