Preferred Hunt Start Time

What time do you prefer to start your hunt?

  • First light / Legal Shooting Time in your State

    Votes: 10 30.3%

  • 9-10am

    Votes: 16 48.5%

  • Later than 10am

    Votes: 5 15.2%

  • Whatever my schedule allows

    Votes: 2 6.1%
  • Total voters
    33
Carguy2Banker

Carguy2Banker

Active member
For years, we started hunting 30 minutes before sunrise (legal start time in my State). The first spot on those early morning hunts would sometimes produce great shooting opportunities on opening morning or when the weather is really cold, but after that, it seemed we will hunt for a couple hours before getting back into settled in birds. I visited South Dakota one time and thought it was strange to wait until 10am to start hunting.
After that trip, I started monitoring my best results and it seems that 10am-3pm (when it's not too hot for the dogs) produces the best results for me. Call me lazy, but I'm a mid-morning start guy now.
 
Long drive I’ll start hunting around 9am that gets me out of the house around 5 or 6. A shorter drive I may not start hunting until 10 or 11 . I do a lot of day trips. I like to spend time in the field proportionate to the time spent driving there and back.
 
About an hour after sunrise, maybe hour and a half. The birds have eaten and the sun is a bit higher, where it seems to not be in your eyes on every flush. But I start more often than not at 8:00AM, regardless of the sun's position. The early start insures getting me back home and the birds dealt with before noon most days. It helps having a 10 minute drive to the best hunting available.
 
Rarely am I hunting at 10. Sometimes 11. Sometimes 2. Sometimes 6. Depends on time of season, whether daylight savings has ended, & several other factors. I tend to like starting a couple hours before the majority of them head back out for their late afternoon feeding. When sunset's at 5, that means by 2:30-3:00, many of them will be inaccessible until they go to roost.
 
remy3424 said:
About an hour after sunrise, maybe hour and a half. The birds have eaten and the sun is a bit higher, where it seems to not be in your eyes on every flush. But I start more often than not at 8:00AM, regardless of the sun's position. The early start insures getting me back home and the birds dealt with before noon most days. It helps having a 10 minute drive to the best hunting available.
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You bring up a great point about allowing the sun to get up. Referencing back to wildcats post about "Things he's Learned", how do roosters always know how to fly in the sun???
Additionally, my opinion may also be skewed because I typically never have to drive more than a couple of miles from town to be hunting on good habitat.
 
I used to always be out for first legal hunting light. Seemed like it was good for a few birds, and as someone said above, early season it can still happen. As the season progresses, seems like most of the birds are in feed before shooting light. I don’t know if that’s from education(pressure) or maybe as it gets colder they burn their calories quicker and need to feed earlier to stay warm? Later in the season I might go out around 8:30 or so and walk some good wheat stubble and get the dogs aired before hunting the better cover.
 
I usually start between 11am - noon. I don't remember the last time I started before 11am or hunted on opener.
 
Historically we were hunting public ground in Kansas, 6 hour drive from home, so to make the most of it, started hunting as soon as it was legal and light enough to see color. Get there after sunup and somebody would already be in the field you planned on.

Now we hunt 13 hours from home in South Dakota, mostly private ground. Its nice to get up at 6 or 7, members of your crew fight over who gets to fix breakfast, so after a couple pots of coffee and filled up on biscuits and gravy and hashbrowns and fried eggs and bacon, its a 10 am start.
 
Hunting on my private farm access in Kansas has always meant about a 9am start and hunt until lunch, take an hour or so break, then hit it until it was time to road hunt. The last couple of years hunting SD has been a nice twist with the 10am start. The time to enjoy breakfast and coffee, get the dog up and around, then hit the fields is enjoyable.
 
Carguy2Banker said:
For years, we started hunting 30 minutes before sunrise (legal start time in my State).
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We did the same thing on opening weekend. The huntmaster had his watch set and by god rain or shine we started walking at 30 minutes before sunrise. Almost always someone would shoot a hen because it was so dark you couldn't identify what was flying. Several of tried to get him to wait a few minutes but he wouldn't do it. Since we were hunting his ground I went along but didn't shoot until it was light enough to identify what I was shooting at.
Now that I'm retired I'm seldom out before 0900.
 
I used to get all jacked up and want to be out at the first daylight hunting but I realized I didn't have any more luck than at other times and its also a lot colder. Now its wake up, have some coffee/breakfast and head out around 10am for the first hunt.
 
airmedic1 said:
We did the same thing on opening weekend. The huntmaster had his watch set and by god rain or shine we started walking at 30 minutes before sunrise. Almost always someone would shoot a hen because it was so dark you couldn't identify what was flying. Several of tried to get him to wait a few minutes but he wouldn't do it. Since we were hunting his ground I went along but didn't shoot until it was light enough to identify what I was shooting at.
Now that I'm retired I'm seldom out before 0900.
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Oh well you turn yourself in naturally LOL
 
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