Pre-dawn to your stand?

[DirtTime]

I used to be a 30 minute to an hour guy. Especially on public land. I wanted to be in and set up before the other guys, hoping they would push something in my direction when they walked in at first light. Towards the end of last season my area in the NZ I was getting there a half hour before first light, putting on my gear and slowly walking to my sitting areas just about at first light. I still saw deer. Usually between 8:30 and 11 am.

This year, I think I will do the same. Get to my location and get my gear set, and start heading to my sitting areas just before first light.

I have known a couple of hunters that you couldn't get to sit if you tied them to a tree. Still hunters. Head in at first light and walk all day. They always killed deer.

[wolc123]

I have always aimed to be in the stand about 1/2 hour before sunrise on opening day of gun, the first Saturday, and Thanksgiving (the "big 3" in our area).  Other days and archery & ML seasons, I usually wait until legal light prior to walking in.  I have spent most of the last 30 opening days of gun season on our farm in the southern zone, which has been in the family since just after the Civil war.   I have killed about 15 deer on those days and more than half were from 1  to 10 minutes after legal shooting light and shot from a stand.  I always check the times in the paper and do not load my gun prior to sunrise and I also unload it prior to sunset. 

 

I will never forget my first and fastest (the 1 minute buck).   That was also the shortest season I ever had.   It was my third year hunting and I was just 19 years old.  I chewed tobacco back then and I could see in the moonlight that the brown spot I was trying to spit on in the snow below my stand was getting larger as the seconds ticked away.  With about 2 minutes to go, I heard what sounded like clumsy person struggling thru the brush next to me, on the neighbors land. 

 

I kept looking back and forth between my watch and the spot the noise was coming from as I held a 16 ga slug in my right hand.   Suddenly a feisty looking buck with a couple busted off tines, and 7 remaining points, stepped out of the brush right below my stand.  I had seen this same buck several times during archery season but never in range.  He buried his nose in the tobacco spot as his last minute ticked away.

 

I prayed that the slug would find its way into the chamber, as I shoved it in and cycled the pump on my granddad's old bottom-loading, Ithaca model 37.  Then I centered the crosshairs of the old 1.5X Weaver scope on the top of his shoulder and was relieved to hear the bang and feel the heavy recoil of the "featherweight" gun against my shoulder.  The buck went into a spastic "break dance" and flopped around at the base of my tree for several minutes before laying still.   I gutted him quick, hung him in the garage and made it to college in time to take an exam (not sure how I did on that one, but I did pass the class).              

 

Our neighbors don't have any clear lanes on their land so they usually follow our adjacent lane on their way into the woods, just after first light.  Most of the rest of my opening morning kills were pushed to me by them at this time.  I am glad some folks wait until daylight on the "big-days", as we would go hungry some years otherwise.

 

My first buck came in the first minute of an opening day and my largest-racked, symmetric, "typical" came on the last just a few years ago.  I never would have taken that one had I not climbed down from my stand 3 minutes prior to legal sunset.   The only reason I did that was because the Bible I was reading at the time slipped mysteriously from my hands, falling to the forest floor below.  

 

I had filled a doe tag in the morning (thank you next door neighbor) and a freind had given me another so I had no real need to hunt until the last minute. Our meat supply was good.  As soon as I got to the ground with the same loaded 16 ga Ithaca in my right hand (sorry about the "safety" issue but it paid off this time), and reaching for the Bible with my left, a flock of turkeys landed almost on top of me.  

 

As is often the case around here, they were accompanied by a deer.  The turkeys like to hang with the deer to capitalize on their good sense of smell, and the deer appreciate the turkey's superior eyesight.  Combined, they have a nearly impregnable defense against a hunter clad in blaze-orange.   This wise old buck's line of turkeys was breeched now however, and his big rack and head popped out from behind a bush just 10 yards away.  I brought up the gun, centered the older, 1.5X Weaver scope on his neck and put him down in his tracks, with just a few seconds of legal light remaining.

 

As I have just explained here, I have pushed it close to the limit at least twice, but in thirty years, I have never been tempted by a shot prior to or after legal sunrise or sunset.   I also have no respect for those who call them selves hunters yet think nothing of shooting way before or after the legal times.  They are "poachers" in my book and there certainly is no shortage of them in these parts based on the shots I hear in the dark.    

Edited August 15, 2015 by wolc123

[Fantail]

'Pre-dawn to your stand'

I'm thinking ahh yeah.. Prime time.

Couple of exceptions perhaps. Maybe you have some cams out telling a different story. After a few outings you just might feel like breaking it up. Maybe your hunting after a storm front, or waiting for the flying monkeys to take a nap.

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[gjs4]

Are you walking through a field ? If so it has reason. It also can be a moon phase thing- where if it's chase phase with the moon midday underfoot I'd sit out for the am and gentlemens hunt 10- dark.

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