Hunting Forum

Welcome to the boards tumlinc.
I usually find it better to hunt mid-day and evening following a brightly lit night.

WELCOME ! I am one of those that stays in the field ALL day when I hunt. I always stick a sammich in one of my pants pockets along with snacks and at least one bottle of water. Those who know me always look for me after legal shooting hours and a couple of times when hunting with new hunters I have had them come looking for me when I didn't come out of the field during the lunch time hours. There are those who hunt the early morning or late evening hours but I choose to stay all day and have killed many deer and hogs that have been spooked by those walking out of the fields for lunch. I have heard my whole life that the hours between 11:00am-3:00pm are not very good times to be hunting yet I have killed some of my biggest deer and hogs during these times. Deer and especially hogs feed most all the time with the exception of course of when they are sleeping. Deer generally will get up and feed or drink about every 4 hours and hogs will feed and drink at anytime they can. So basing my hunting on this info is the reason I stay ALL day in the field. I have never based my hunting on the moon but instead the biggest factor for me is the wind and how hard it is blowing. This is simply my own opinion and the way I choose to hunt and is nothing more nor less.

DAWN TILL DUSK AND IF IT'S LEGAL HUNT THE NIGHT ALSO. if it's a full moon you won't need artificial light

I'm with Dawg and yote. All day. Take a lunch. You can't see 'em if you're nice and cozy in a restaurant, house, etc... Kinda like they say in the lottery....
ya gotta be in it, to win it.

I see you guys talking about hunting all day. Is that also a good practice even when the moon isn't full? I'm having a problem of deer being almost completely nocturnal down here because we just aren't having cold nights down here. Pretty frustrating at times.

I watched a hunting show where they talked about this and one guide said he doesn't bother going out the morning following a full moon.

I always felt that the only way to find out is to be out there. There are too many other factors that affect the deeer movement. Time of season, was it a cold or warm night, clear or cloudy, and how hard the wind is blowing. It is those windy days that I have had the least success.

yep. gotta be out there. Do deer go nocturnal ? Sure. Do they move during the day? Sure. See, the issue is that they don't pay any attention to what all of the "experts" on TV and in the mags say they should do.... they do whatever the h*77 they happen to feel like at the time. Again, you won't see anything sitting in your living room so by being in the woods, the worst you can do is break even. Plus enjoying being outdoors.

I keep telling myself that I ought to keep a journal on deer sightings , guess I'm too lazy. On one of the mornings that I had seen the most deer it was just a couple of days before the full moon.

I have killed deer during all the times when a lot of the so called professionals say to not bother with. One of my favorite times during the day is when most others are going out of the woods for lunch or whatever and all the while making deer thay have not seen move more. As I said deer will move at least every 4-6 hours to feed or drink though it may be a very short distance from where hey are bedded. when it gets tough I usually setup on either a feeding plot or near a water source in hopes of catching the ones that will be using these sources.

I like your philosophy Steve. You know, even if the conditions are not good for hunting, you may have a 98% chance of NOT seeing a deer. If you're in the bed or at the table, you have a 100% chance of not seeing one. Odds are always in our favor if we just go!

I tend to concentrate my mid-day hunting based on the new moon and the full moon. I also use Scout Look, for wind patterns and major and minor feeding times. Since I have to take and pick up Travis from school, I also have to manage my mid-day hunts around his school schedule. My biggest source for determining when and where I'll sit during the mid day, is my trail cam photos, from previous months. Luckily since I still hunt on my private property, I'm not affected by other hunter's movements, so based on wind and weather, coupled with prior pictures, and the two major moon phases, I hunt accordingly. On a side note, I will also study the "game movement" chart in the NAHC magazine, and the local prime hunting and fishing times printed in my electric co-op magazine and the SC DNR calendar along with Scout Look, and if two or more of them are basically in agreement, I will often hunt on those specific days, during those specific times.

yeah rthomas4 and everyone else great information, thanks for sharing....

hey rt; how accurate do you find the mag tables?

Steve, it varies. Sometimes the NAHC mag and Scoutlook jive, and other times it's ScoutLook and the co-op mag or maybe the NAHC mag and the DNR calendar. Believe it or not, all four will sometimes be basically the same, and it's usually around the new or full moon. Now, to say I've actually killed deer on all of those times would be totally false. Many of those times I haven't even seen a deer, but may have pictures on a trail cam from a location where I wasn't sitting. Or, I might see a 'yote, or a fox but not a deer. Remember they are called "game movement" times and not "deer sighting" times.

Oh right... I'm always in the woods all day when I go so doesn't matter much to me, I just always wondered how good of an indicator it was. My GPS has hunting and fishing "best time" tables on it too and I never look at that either.... I just goes... ;-)

Since my season is so long, I very seldom actually sit all day. I will usually go either in the morning or the middle of the day, and then again in the evening. Sometimes, I'll be in the woods before sunup, back out at noon, and then again back out closer to sundown. I have to go back to the house and take my medicines, go get Travis, run errands for my mom and my aunt, go to the doctor, or many other things that prevent me from sitting continuously......but you have to remember that I'm seldom more than 500 yards or so from my back door whenever I'm on a stand. If I had to travel to hunt, my time spent in the stands would probably be vastly different.

i am with the (big dawg) u got to be there. i hunt from oct. til feb. in MS atleast 5 days aweek if not 7 or 2weeks then take a day or two break .shot  deer all day after the moon , but the most of them around noon . find them by talking right back to them, if u not out there u cant hear how your deer talk in your backyard