Morning Stand Hunting

[buckhunter21]

I'm curious as to what you all think about hunting morning stands...From where you usually hunt with the time of the year, when you go in to your stand, etc.  Everyone loves hunting evenings and finding evening stands seem to be a lot easier than finding morning stands.
 
I've talked to many hunters about this subject and one thing that is always brought up also is when do you go in to your stand?  An hour before sunlight, 30 minutes?  Obviously the risk of bumping deer is always an issue in the morning, especially if the only way you can get into your stand is to walk through/along-side a field where they may be bedded or feeding. 

[JPH]

I like to place my morning stands inside cover, between feeding areas and bedding cover. Closer to the beds if possible.

I try to hunt them on winds that take my scent on a diagional, across approach trails, and away from the thick cover.  

I try to avoid crop fields as I walk in, and I will take a long hike in order to do so.

I like to climb into the stand and strap in about 20-30 minutes before legal shooting light. 

Occaisionaly, I will rattle-grunt softly just as shooting time begins.

I try to stay on stand as long as I can take it. But I am severely limited by two factors. I seem to get cold much more easily on morning stands. And my morning bowel cycle is often not cooperative.

[buckhunter21]

I agree with everything you have said, but what would you do if you have no other option but to walk through or next to a field on the way in?  I have that issue with a couple of my morning sits.

[Woods Walker]

Over the years that I hunted from treestands, I would sometimes be on stand a half hour before first light, especially during gun season. It gave the woods, and myself a chance to quiet down.
 
The last few years that I treestand hunted, I actually started entering the woods at full light, and then stillhunting to my stand, which could take an hour or more. I started doing this, because the majority of the time that I went in to these particular stands, I'd bust deer in the dark that were between me and the stand. After I started doing this, I'd either see the deer first on the way in, and let them move out of the way so I didn't spook them, or a few times I killed my deer on the way in.
 
It's not applicable in all cases, but don't discount it. It's worth a try!

[buckhunter21]

I'm the type of guy that likes to get in stand 45 min to an hour before first light, so going in at first light would be kind of weird for me but I've seen and heard people do it.  I just wish I had some other ways to get in to a few of those stands w/out pushing the deer out of the field on the way in sometimes.  All my morning stands are in the woods a ways in-between the food and bedding area.  I've heard of some people going in at first light during the rut if they have stands right on a field.....Hm.

[JPH]

ORIGINAL: buckhunter21

I agree with everything you have said, but what would you do if you have no other option but to walk through or next to a field on the way in?  I have that issue with a couple of my morning sits.

 
If I could not sneak in via another route, I would take the most direct route possible and get it over with. But if I did have to move through feeding deer, I would strongly consider doing what Woods Walker suggested.
 
I hunt a farm where all of my stands are on field edges. I almost never bow hunt it in the mornings. But I do gun hunt mornings and I do exactly what he suggested. I sneak to a high point and watch the sunrise. From there, I either spot and stalk or still hunt to my stand.

[GTOHunter]

I like to do morning hunts so I try to get in my stand about 30-45 minutes before daylight,if we have food plots in the upper Ridge Field I sneak in through the bottom fields and cut up to my ladder stand through the woods to go un-detected.If I hunt the bottom fields I do the opposite and walk the upper field edge and cut down through the woods to my other climging stand.I know of several Hunters that wait til daylight and get to their stands around 8:00-9:00 and stay after noon and they seem to always get a Deer each year that way!

[DeerCamp]

I like to be in my stand an hour to an hour and a half when hunting state land that has a lot of hunters. I go in with a little flashlight, and havent gotten lost yet. I dont hunt a feild but I do have  bedding area by me. I usally shut the light off after I reach an area I know that Im close to the stand. Ill sneek in and sit till light and watch to see what happens. 

[buckhunter21]

Yea, it's tough because this one area where I love to morning hunt, it's on the south end of this farm I'm able to hunt.  I can't get in from the east since the bedding area is over there, and from the west it's a no go unless I walk right through a field.  It would be nice to come in from the south but I have no permission on that end since it's on the edge of another property.  Guess I'll maybe keep walking in real slow through the field and act like a deer [8|].

[Squirrelhawker]

There have been certain areas that I have avoided due to bumping deer in the morning and thus hunted them at other times. Open fields are one of them.
Unless we're talkin about older more experienced animals, I haven't really sweated bumping deer inside the woods on the way in, particularly coming in from downwind.

Never talking in absolutes, but I find many deer are not really upset over humans in the dark and more than once I have been followed.