OT; But it can apply to leverguns.

[bigbore442001]

I am trying something a bit different today. As a rule I go hunt out of my treestands at the crack of dawn and sit for three hours or so. After that I need a break and head back to the house. Then I repeat that process in the afternoon until the sun sets. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. It is part of the deal when hunting.

I search and post regularly on other sites and someone on another site commented on how this particular week that they have not seen any deer early in the morning nor late in the day. All of the deer seen have been during the mid morning times. One posted attributes this to the moon phase. In a nutshell animal movement is more active during the moon transit or what is called moon overhead times.

I am going to try this today. As a rule at the time I am posting this, I am already sitting up in my tree. Today I am goint to leave trhe house and be in my stand at 8:30 AM and hunt until noon time or so. Again I never hunted at this late period during the day so it will be interesting. According to the US Naval Observatory the moon transit or moon overhead time for my area in Southern New England is 10:08 AM. I figure it can't hurt to try something very different.

I will add that where I am hunting with the bow there is very little pressure so the deer aren't spooked like they are on opening day of shotgun.

So..what are your thoughts on this?

[Pisgah]

Many years ago, I relized that at some time in the season deer began to seem scarce. Most of my hunting buddies diagnosed the situation as "the deer have gone nocturnal." Of course, that is always possible; but when I started hunting in the middle of the day, I not only started seeing deer again, but bigger deer.

You can't hunt 'em at night, and if that's when they are moving you are out of luck; but there's daylight for half the day, and enough deer are moving at all daylight hours to justify being out there, even at high noon.

[fordwannabe]

On the property we hunt most of the deer have been taken between 10 am and 1300, but we still go out early and stay late otherwise it wouldn't be hunting! Tom
Yes I'm hardheaded(LOL) but it works for me. Tom

[madman4570]

Go in at Dark, come out at almost dark!(the legal quitting time that is)for first 6 days(if need be)
After those first 6 days then same deal except around noon break for about an hour at the house etc. for some hot soup/tea (ya, getting soft I guess)But its nice to live where you hunt!
Most of the time I see the most deer from dawn-9am and 3pm-to quitting time!
If/when they do go nocturnal thats when hunting them afoot on damp ground (especially walking the log roads)with the right wind can pay off big. Glassing the area ahead real good!

[firefuzz]

Biggest deer I ever killed was a 9:55am. I always hit 'em early for the first couple of days, then I don't even leave camp until after daybreak. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

Rob

[Lastmohecken]

Well, the deer are always out there, somewhere, no matter what time of day it is. It's getting close to the rut, so you might see one, anytime, anywhere, very soon.

I have killed most of my deer, usually very close to dust in the evening, but then again I am bad to hunt the edges of fields at that time of day, where if I had been in the wood deeper, I might have taken some of them eairler in the afternoon.

The other best time for me has often been around 9am to 12am during the rut, but during eairly bow season, very eairly can be a good time.

A lot of big bucks are killed mid day say 11am to 2 or 3pm.

If you are out there, you have a chance, if you are not, then you don't have a chance.

But me, the older I get, the more inclined I am to only hunt morning until maybe 10am and go back out around 3pm till dark, but I have probably missed some good opportunties doing that.

[DLMcDorman]

I am definitely no expert but I have seen and killed some of my bigger whitetails between 10:00 and 2:00. I allways attributed this to people leaving/returning from lunch and their movement causing a corresponding movement in the deer. At least that gives me a rationale for staying put all day.

[Rusty]

I have a Garmin GPS that has a program built into it that predicts solunar tables. I've used it time and time again when I go fishing in local ponds and lakes. The tables list major and minor feeding times throughout the day. I know these tables work while fishing, there's no reason to think they wouldn't work for deer hunting as well.