For those of you who hunt deer... do you get up before the crack of dawn, so you can be ready for them nice & early? Well... stop it! Apparently, Bambi actually prefers to be gently nestled down all cozy-like in the wee hours of the morn... and doesn't even start moving around until 10 a.m. or so (I'm feeling a real deep sense of kinship with deer all of a sudden... My People! ...Fellow Night Owls!)

Anyway, a large Pennsylvania study that tracked them with GPS monitoring implies that some old hunting wisdom may actually be a bit off-kilter. Anyway, here's the link and you can judge for yourself:  https://lancasteronline.com/sports/outdoors/10-year-pennsylvania-deer-study-shakes-up-what-hunters-thought-they-knew-column/article_833aa0d8-06eb-11ee-952e-8b9e8519a8d8.html

The real question is do they call it pork roll or Taylor Ham?

Around here, the deer begin moving around 6am (according to my cameras). They generally lay down around 10, and get back moving around 5pm. 
 

That’s summer hours anyway. Fall and winter are a bit different. 
 

Nights with a full moon, they seem to stay out late, presumably to party all night. 
 

When heavy storms are forecasted, they forage before and after the storm. 
 

While I think the article contains good data for that particular region, in my experience, they do different things in different areas. 

I've only been hunting for about 10 years now.  I'm FAR from an expert.  But I've harvested all my deer either early in the morning or right around dusk. This past year it was at 8am on the opening day of the firearm season in PA.  I almost wanted to wait but it was a nice sized doe.  

You go out really early to be in your blind and settled in so you don't bump the deer and so you can get settled into your blind as quietly as possible.

Just like the lottery,you gotta be in it to win it.  If you aren't in your blind it's 100% certain you will not get a deer.  So the more time you spend in your blind the better your chances are.

Plus it's pretty cool seeing night turn to pre-dawn then becoming daylight.  And just being out there and enjoying the nothingness can be very relaxing.  

45 minutes ago, gleninjersey said:

Plus it's pretty cool seeing night turn to pre-dawn then becoming daylight.  And just being out there and enjoying the nothingness can be very relaxing.  

10,000% agree!!!