All day sits or morning or evening….what do you do?

In the RUT thread some mention of when people stand has been brought to light. That’s an interesting topic. What stand times do you practice?

I sit in my stand all day on the weekends. I bring a good lunch and some snacks plus plenty of water. Actually the land owner that bow hunts right to the day prior to the opener of gun season takes a case of water up with him and stashes it for me. It is the weekends that most of the surrounding properties have hunting happening so deer get moved around some…that is except for this over-heated and too windy opener.

Yesterday, being Monday with no one around me in the woods I held back on hunting until about noon to take advantage of the changing weather and it worked. Other years the same strategy has worked too. Yesterday I saw deer from the stand as soon as I got my butt in it. All of the activity was from fawns though right up until that front smacked into the area. I was actually leaving because of the rain and wind when it all settled right down and I returned to the stand and collected a buck. A broadside shot from the ground did the trick as this deer was moved from thick cover a bit early for his evening romp.

What I have noticed in other all day sits is that people tend to leave the woods around tenish and return around twoish, and those are darned good times to be sitting tight. That four hour block between those times has let me put more deer on the ground during average seasons than any other period though. If the weather is due to change I always like to be in the stand ahead of that change by a couple hours if I am not in the stand for the day. If, like yesterday, it gets ugly I will leave but a drizzle or snow will not get me out of the stand. Way too many times I have seen activity go from zip to all over on either side of that shift in weather by a half hour and I like to be there. During all day sits I have collected several nice buck right at the noon hour. They were not being pushed but were definitely on the move and I believe as others have mentioned that the doe activity increases during the mid day and that gets bucks on the prowl too especially in areas, like where I hunt, that hunter activity is not much of an issue.

So what do ya’ll do: stay in the tree or blind all day or do you hunt the morning and afternoon hours? With snow in the offing this afternoon I’ll be down looking for my doe as soon as I get the current critter skinned.

I have always viewed buck hunting as an AIS sport….A$$ IN SEAT. If you aren’t out, yu have zero chance. This makes me tend to stay in the stand every reasonable minute I can. I tend to never come for lunch.

I can’t sit there all day I have a couple times but, man it is hard. I give guys like you credit that man up and do it. I go morning until about 10 then try to get back out like you said around 2. This year all my activity was before 9. I know guys that like you have shot some of there best bucks 12-1 so not sure what the best answer is just know I can’t sit all day.

I sit all day. It gets hard. I am either in a blind or metal 1 man hanger. Makes long sits tough but its always worked out. This opener was bad though. Passed on 9 doe, now I’m starting to kick my self. With work I don’t know how much I will get to hunt. This weekend will have to work. I hope with the weather change it will. I sat in the rain from 3 to last light. No movement besides a squirrel

It’s worth noting that I rarely could make it all day prior to having enclosed stands….. I often had to take a break to warm my feet. Once we enclosed and heated our stands, I found it extremely relaxing to hang out from dark until dark….there’s so much to watch, I don’t get bored.

i hunt to be around family, tell stories and throw back some cocktails. im not all that dedicated to the hunt itself. personally ive always been more into fishing then hunting and as far as hunting goes i enjoy duck and small game far more than deer.

At our camp we have always hunted from dawn till around 11 or so then head back out in the afternoon. some guys stay out longer and some guys are always the first back at camp. sometimes i wonder if they ever leave at all lol

I don’t sit all day.

Of course it gives you the best chance to shoot a big deer, but there are trade-offs too. I enjoy that time over lunch coming in to warm up, hang out with my family/buddies, and having a hot meal. For me personally, struggling through a 10 hour sit just isn’t that enjoyable. Plus I have other things to do around the cabin – winterize the boat, take the dock out, sort my ice fishing gear etc. I have those other priorities and doing shorter sits actually makes hunting more enjoyable… I always look forward to a couple hours in the woods before dark.

Good for you guys who sit all day, I am sure you’re rewarded with more deer. I’ll keep enjoying my 2-3 hour sits and sunrise/sunset and push the big ones your way.

When possible I sit all day. There might be a stand change mid day depending on specifics, but when its on ITS ON. I grew up hunting all day from the get-go, so I’ve always viewed it as normal.

I try (rarely succeed) to be in the woods all day but do not remain in a single stand for the entire time. I have several stands set up and move from one to the next based on wind and weather. I try to avoid the west facing stands on warm sunny days – never shot a deer while asleep!

I’ll hunt all day, but I rarely, if ever, sit all day. I’m not that patient and also never had the opportunity to sit in a fully enclosed stand nor one with a heater, which might change my opinion. Generally speaking though, I like to go find the deer rather than wait for them to come to me. I have a buddy that sends pics of him and his daughter making breakfast and hot dogs for lunch over his heater, and looks similar to ice fishing, so I may change my tune once my little guys get older lol.

I also have never had a enclosed or heated stand , so I do the morning and evening. I’ve always come out around 11 and will go visit with my parents for lunch and head back out for the evening hunt. In my experience I have always seen more deer in the evening but have almost always shot my deer in the morning.

I guess I should say when I’m in the woods I sit in a stand or blind for a couple hours then move. I’ve read alot of Fred bears stuff and intrigued me to stalk the deer and continue to move. This year I havent been In a stand 1 time. Just ground walking. Thats where the 9 doe I came up on and a small buck. 5 different sightings and was able to get with in 25 to 40 yards of each of them

I hunt an elevated box blind with side walls and a shingle gable roof. I’m not out of the elements by a far cry but I can set up my camp chair and organize the backpack and binocs and extra loads and primers along with my water bottles and stay very comfortable. I do stand up every half hour for five minutes and every three hours I’ll climb down [yes the guns comes with me] and do some stretching and maybe take a 15 stroll along a ridge to help keep circulation in the legs and feet up to snuff. Blood clots in legs can be a serious thing for some people and occasional standing and/or walking can help prevent them. I have caught deer sneaking along that ridge on occasions while I am taking my little walk. I’m never far from being in the stand though.

I am not bored though if deer are not moving. I take sunflower seed for the chickadees and downy woodpeckers that are constant companions. The sidewalls are capped flat with 2X4s and I spread sunflower seed atop of it. I’ve had chickadees swoop in and grab granola crumbs off the front of the hunting coat. I’ve had squirrels visit the seed on the wall cap. All this activity is natural for deer to see and if the other critters are doing what they do the deer seem to be more at ease. Lots of turkeys where I hunt too and this year there’s a group of ten toms that I watch at different times thru the day. There’s always something to see. Twice each day I see a pileated woodpecker on the same tree.

All day.

I’ve shot a lot of bucks in the middle of the day, including this guy at 11:00 on November 1st this year (it would have been 10am the next day because of DLS)

During the late pre-rut and seek-chase phase 10am- 2pm is my favorite time to be in the woods (Halloween through this week).

All the hunters are in taking a break and all the bucks are out freshening scrapes and scent checking bedded does.

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I hunt with my 3 boys and I cant sit all day and no chance any one of them could LOL. Oldest is now 19, 14 and youngest 11. The 11 year old sits with me now obviously and he is a handful. Hasnt grasped the sitting still and not making noise yet. I dont want him to grow to hate it so we try and make it interesting like taking a short walk every few hours and all of us get together for lunch, but then we try and go back out fairly soon. I will say that over the last few years I have been making an attempt to remain in the woods far longer. I used to go back to my parents house for lunch, but now we stay out and eat at the truck.

I haven’t sat all day in years. I’ve never been one to sit still for long and simply cannot do it regardless of what I am doing. I have probably shot close to half of my deer over the years slowly “bird dogging” a few points of the bluffs with good vantage points. Have I probably scared some deer? Sure. But to me, hunting is about doing it in whatever way you most enjoy it. For me, that is not just on my behind all day long.

My wife gets mad when I cannot sit down for an entire 2 hour movie at home on a rainy night.

Occasionally sit all day but mostly until 11 then back at 2 to 3. I hunt woods and swamps, not the fields and see and shoot most bucks in the morning. Sat in the pouring rain yesterday morning and bagged an 8 pointer around 8:30 am.

B-man wrote:

All day.

I’ve shot a lot of bucks in the middle of the day, including this guy at 11:00 on November 1st this year (it would have been noon the next day because of DLS)

Wouldn’t it have been 10:00 am because of the “fall back”?

Awesome buck BTW!

jake47 wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>B-man wrote:</div>
All day.

I’ve shot a lot of bucks in the middle of the day, including this guy at 11:00 on November 1st this year (it would have been noon the next day because of DLS)

Wouldn’t it have been 10:00 am because of the “fall back”?

Awesome buck BTW!

Yep, was thinking backwards lol

First time that’s ever happened

All day, every day, pending the weather. I sit in an open air stand about 25 feet up so certain conditions are just too intolerable but I have found that my success rate is directly tied to the amount of time I spend out there. The season is only 9 days long.

Hard rain, high winds, and/or bitter cold are conditions I can’t tolerate all day long.

If there are other hunters in the area, when they leave their stand around midday they will often bump deer that they don’t even know are there. And I see them because I stayed.

gim wrote:

All day, every day, pending the weather. I sit in an open air stand about 25 feet up so certain conditions are just too intolerable but I have found that my success rate is directly tied to the amount of time I spend out there. The season is only 9 days long.

Hard rain, high winds, and/or bitter cold are conditions I can’t tolerate all day long.

If there are other hunters in the area, when they leave their stand around midday they will often bump deer that they don’t even know are there. And I see them because I stayed.

There are a lot of great options to keep a guy warm in the stand these days.

The pioneer is the Heater Body Suit. I’ve had one for 12+(?) years and couldn’t even begin to count the hundreds of hours that thing has kept me in the stand.

You can hunt in any temperature. I’ve hunted all day with morning temps well below zero.

I wore it the day I shot that buck above this year. Morning lows in the 20’s, mid-day high of about 40 with a stiff wind…. I wore jeans and a t-shirt with a light jacket underneath.

Without the suit I would have had on multiple layers with heavy boots and still gotten cold with the wind.

That suit has killed more deer for me than anything else (because I would have been on the couch without it)

gim wrote:

Hard rain, high winds, and/or bitter cold are conditions I can’t tolerate all day long.

Wind I deal with. I’m still pretty cold tolerant yet but I do take meds that reduce circulation some so I have to take care in real cold weather. I hunt muzzleloaders exclusively and rain can be an issue. I play it by ear with rain. Yesterday I was thinking bad storm when it got so black and the wind was driving rain horizontally so I started down off the hill. Fortunately the blow was short in duration and I went back to the stand. It was still a heavy drizzle but the stand has a roof and the wind had really backed off after the initial passage of the front. I’m glad I went back.

It could be warm or cold, rut or post/pre rut, sunny or rain, football on or no football on I just cant do an all day sit. I get too bored and uncomfortable. I’m the most fair weathered hunter around.

Do your opinions change for an all day sit if youre sitting overlooking an open field vs sitting in dark timber?

tbro16 wrote:

It could be warm or cold, rut or post/pre rut, sunny or rain, football on or no football on I just cant do an all day sit. I get too bored and uncomfortable. I’m the most fair weathered hunter around.

Do your opinions change for an all day sit if youre sitting overlooking an open field vs sitting in dark timber?

You need to have confidence in a spot to sit all day. Big time confidence.

By far my favorite (and only) spots to sit all day are defined funnels or edges with a lot of sign.

A narrow high ground funnel between two swamps or ponds is unbeatable.

The bigger the obstructions and the narrower the funnel, the better the spot will be (especially with a bow)

Here are a couple of my all day spots (private land pics). A place like these is likely to see a lot of deer movement and a lot of deer sign.

The only exception to sit all day in a crappy spot in the state of Wisconsin is on rifle opener. The woods is a war zone in a lot of areas and people shoot huge bucks in places you never thought possible lol

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Did Tom & Crappie get the boot or just a mishap?

B-man wrote:

The only exception to sit all day in a crappy spot in the state of Wisconsin is on rifle opener. The woods is a war zone in a lot of areas and people shoot huge bucks in places you never thought possible lol

lol that must be nice. I don’t really have a spot I’m all that confident in. I’ve read all about pinch points and funnels but the property I hunt doesnt have anything that jumps out on the map like that. Its privately owned but is predominately open field. We have two separate tracts of smaller woods but both are split between us and neighbors with the majority going to the neighbors. Not to mention, I don’t do any sort of offseason scouting/trail cams/food plots (my problem, I know) and I also allow my 3 or 4 good hunting buddies hunt on the land as well. I’m always hunting the edge of woods vs. sitting in them. Doesn’t feel like the ideal spot for an all day sit but I’ve never done it so who knows!

Until early rut, it’s just morning/evening and peak times. Once rut kicks in, it’s all day when I can.

I hunted saturday and sunday in MN. On saturday, the first shooter buck I saw was around 10 am pushing 4 does. the next buck was even bigger, pushing 8 does and fawns at 11:15 am. We put up enclosed shooting houses so that we can sit all day and be comfortable. I have room to stretch my legs, stand up without hitting my head, and they are insulated.