[PaHick]

I'm going to have a doe tag to use for the late season after Christmas.
I really would like to get one with the bow during this time. I have been doing some reading already n know they will be feeding hard n know they are going to be pretty spooky after our rifle season is out. So I'm thinking trying to scout after rifle esp if we get some snow.
I know they are going to be jittery here on public lands. I'm thinking hunting clear cuts in and along them on trails that lead to where they are eating at dark.

How is hunting in the mornings this time of year?
I assume evening is better? Esp before an approaching storm front or right after it passes.

Offer me any other tips for this time of year? Thanks guys.

 

[zap]

pattern from a distance.

move in when the conditions are right, set up.

wait.

thwaaack.

 

[1canvas]

Number one rule on public land, don't hunt signs. Number two, hunt afternoons and evenings. I have been hunting public lands for forty years and get my limit most years. I spent the first fifteen years hunting mornings and deer sign with little success. The sign you see is mostly done at night. My best season starts after gun season.

 

[Liv4Rut]

I am the opposite of 1canvas, all I hunt is public ground and usually have my best hunts in the morning. In the mornings I can usually circle the deer and get set up between where they are staging at first light to where they will bed much deeper in the timber. I have had some amazing hunts but you got to hunt public where they are actually living at. I spent many years hunting public ground where the deer primarily bedded on private and you simply miss them.

you either going to have to have food or bedding. If you have neither, it is going to be tough. Evening hunts are awesome as well if you have a good food source. The problem I have run into around here anyways with evening hunts on public with a good food source is that is where everybody and their brother is sitting. Nobody hunts the mornings it seems.

All depends on the spot and pressure.

 

[Reelrydor]

Even on crazy pressured lands here, just be were they are, and coming out to feed at night. They will herd up more the further after the rut/and the colder it gets. Afternoons for me, more bearable in the cold weather with a bow.

 

[1canvas]

I am the opposite of 1canvas, all I hunt is public ground and usually have my best hunts in the morning. In the mornings I can usually circle the deer and get set up between where they are staging at first light to where they will bed much deeper in the timber. I have had some amazing hunts but you got to hunt public where they are actually living at. I spent many years hunting public ground where the deer primarily bedded on private and you simply miss them.

you either going to have to have food or bedding. If you have neither, it is going to be tough. Evening hunts are awesome as well if you have a good food source. The problem I have run into around here anyways with evening hunts on public with a good food source is that is where everybody and their brother is sitting. Nobody hunts the mornings it seems.

All depends on the spot and pressure.

It's different here on public land, hardly anyone hunts evenings. When I would drive an hour and a half and get into the woods I was always walking in on people that got dropped off. There would be no cars around.

 

[12-Ringer]

In SE PA you are more likely to have most of the woods to yourself hunting mornings as opposed to evenings. Even with daylight savings time, more folks get out after work than before work and those who take 1/2 days tend to take the afternoons as opposed to the mornings.

I think you would have the most success hunting east facing bedding areas that hit the first morning sun and/or trails leading to/from feeding areas to these bedding areas (at least this is where I have had my highest degree of late season success). Of course this advice comes with the proviso that you can access these areas without blowing out the feeding areas.

One other aspect of late season bowhunting that has always amazed me is how jumpy the deer are...I mean I get it, there is very little if any cover, but they have a tendency to pick you off from great distances. As a result I have found one of the most important skills needed in late season hunts, is the ability to remain STILL. Sometimes they don't know what they saw, but it is enough to send them the other way, even with the wind in your favor. This is anther reason I love my HBS, I can sit in that thing for hours in single-digit temps without the need to fidget much and even if I want to rub my hands together or something, it happens inside the suit typically out of the detection range of ALL of the eyes. Rarely will you encounter a single deer, especially the colder it gets. I guess I should have said that too, the colder the better.

Hope this helps a little.

Joe

 

[PaHick]

Thanks for all the great advice guys!
We had a really bad year for acorns. Unless there was a fresh cut or logged area which there was not in my area. They are only going to have browse to eat. Or they are going to The fields.

What kind of browse do they eat in winter moths if there was no acorns?

 

[IDHunter3]

Find the food.....they are food centric this time of year.....