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Late season morning hunts

jatorto

jatorto

RazorbkBuckKiller
I know most people say they only hunt in the afternoons during late season. Does anyone out there have any tactics for morning hunts? If a cold front comes through with snow and all don’t you think they would be up and moving. I know it’s bad to bump deer this time of year but i figure If you can get in bw food and bed without spooking then I feel it could work.

Just trying to find some motivation to get out of bed in the morning.
 
You can’t shoot one from your bed. Hope that’s motivation!
Best time is obviously last hour of light in afternoon but i have also had luck last season in the middle of the day in timbered areas near bedding areas. Seems like if it’s cold out their belly’s get rumbling mid day any they will browse on anything in the comfort of hard woods. Mornings are not best but still possible so I would go out but maybe not my best spot so i don’t burn it.
 
I hunt every morning of late season in a blind. Strategy is a little unique. Rather than having a blind on food, I have my blind as close to bedding as possible without risk of bumping them. Unfortunately for me the bedding is a neighboring property so I’m just trying to catch them coming back in the morning. Most days I’m sure the bucks are bedded down before my alarm goes off but with snow & cold temps there’s always a chance a bruiser will feed a little longer than he should. Keep in mind I rarely hunt it in the evening.
 
Personally I think it is a bad idea with lots of negative consequences with very little upside. Do people get it done? Sure. But more often than not it is likely doing more harm than good.
 
I go every chance I can, mornings included. My best morning hunts come near bedding and catching deer going back to bed. I'll try to sit back aways to avoid being too intrusive, but I've had some good opportunities over the years in the morning.
 
LYON said:
I go every chance I can, mornings included. My best morning hunts come near bedding and catching deer going back to bed. I'll try to sit back aways to avoid being too intrusive, but I've had some good opportunities over the years in the morning.
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Agreed.
Don't hunt your best evening spots in the am. I like to try to fill leftover doe tags in the morning and focus on bucks in the evening.
 
I always hunt mornings late season. Don’t have much time to hunt so when I can I’ll be out. Main spots I have been hunting in the mornings is in between big crop fields and bedding and catch them on their way back to bed. Had good luck this last week doing this seeing around 10 deer a morning with some good bucks. Of course it’s not as good as evening hunts in my opinion but if I could hunt every evening and had more time to hunt then I probably wouldn’t hunt as many mornings. It’s tough but I think it is worth it if you’re smart about it.
 
The only time I will hunt mornings is if the deer on the main farm are traveling a long ways to food and I know the majority of the deer are getting back after sunrise. This has been the case a few years when certain fields didn't get picked or tilled. On normal years I only hunt evenings as on our farm you can get in without spooking deer on normal conditions.
 
If I'm after a buck I would take 2 afternoons over 10 mornings if it's about success. Does I prefer mornings so I can deal with them during daylight.
 
Tough to motivate yourself to get out of bed during these cold dark mornings. I’m always amazed by how skittish the deer are after gun season. I was an estimated 6-700 yards away on a gravel rd in my pickup from two feeding in a cut bean field yesterday, they hung around for about 5 minutes before bolting. Makes me wonder if enough guys rd hunt that it makes them react like that.
 
I hunted X-Mas eve morning. Saw 9 does but also bumped more than normal getting into this bedding area stand. I have mixed feelings on AM right now. If you want to fill doe tags, could be productive. Killing a buck in late season AM hunts - jury is still out in my mind.
 
Shoot does in the mornings right now in spots I'm not concerned about trying to kill a buck in an evening. Hunt hard in the evenings. That's our plan
 
Agree with both sides of above.
I'll be really honest.... I don't hunt AM's cause I'm a lazy bum by this time of year. ;) I usually have little issue locating evening bucks though too & if I'm hunting smart - seeing em. If I tried on those same bucks in the AM, I think it's possible but I'd probably goof some stuff up too. Echo above... IF you can do it without goofing something else up OR you had unlimited spots where it didn't hurt - you for sure could do it and see em. LOW PRESSURED ground will have AM movement on mature bucks on the right days. Getting in undetected is the 3rd element there - so that's 3 things you gotta have in your favor.
In my teens and 20's I'd do it because I was just so crazed to be out every minute. As I'm a 39 year old Senior citizen now, I have to be a little more strategic about my hunting schedule. Evenings when cold - I'll ambitiously make time to this day though & likely forever. Oh man, you guys..... 4-5 am alarm & hiking out in 5 degrees in AM - props to you guys!!!! I'm getting chills now thinking of that alarm going off and heading out! ;) You guys be laughing when you slam a slob some AM though and post it on here. Good luck to you all, this cold weather is what we need!!!
 
Conventionally people avoid hunting mornings in the late season with good reason. They are hunting food sources so you have a high chance of bumping deer off of these sources. Our group doesn't really have access to hunt the food sources but rather the travel routes to and from the food, and for that reason we have shot some of our biggest deer in the late season mornings. Just shot my 2017 late season deer on Dec. 28th at 8:50 am. So it really depends on what kind of area youre hunting.
 
I rarely hunt AM's this time of year unless its down to the wire and I have a great travel area from food to bed. But I also still have my statewide bow tag and trying to find motivation to get back out period right now, AM or PM. Knowing come June or July I would be begging for a cold AM to sit, will help get me out there a few more times:)
 
So let me ask you guys why you dont hunt mornings in the late season? Is it just something you guys have always heard? From Experiences? The type of hunting area? Really the only reason to not hunt mornings is that you are only food sources and going in to those spots during the mornings would bump those deer. I completely get that point. But based on my late season experiences the bucks, just like late season, are the last ones to move through. Like I said in my other post, I shot my deer last thursday at 8:50 am after roughly 20 does had already moved through and I was getting to the point of getting out of the stand. The same thing happened two saturdays ago. I had watched a pile of does move through and heard a gun shot that was not supposed to be there and wanted to go investigate. While it was too early to be getting down, I was curious and as I had stood up and turned around, here was a mature buck coming down the fence too me.

Late season mornings have proved to more effective for us, especially at seeing and shooting mature deer. Now for numbers, the nights are unparalleled. Perhaps its just the area we are hunting but the two encounters I talked about above happened on different farms.
 
I hunt the feeding areas in the afternoon because getting between the bedding and feeding area was not an option for me. I've shot deer during the morning, but I had to get in early and was lucky enough to have my old portable home made blind to use. I'd sneak in before light and if I did bump deer, they didn't go far because they weren't sure what I was.
 
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