was wondering when your success happens?  my schedule allows me hunt mostly in the evenings, and rarely in the morning.  just curious.

I have killed more nice bucks in the evenings than in the morning.

Evenings.

I have taken more deer in the evenings, but better bucks in the morning, especially during the rut.

I love evenings.
Since deer and hogs like crepuscular light (usually), I feel my chances decrease with increasing daylight, and improve with decreasing daylight.  It is a confidence factor for me.
My anticipation level rises as the light decreases and decreases as the light increases.
The darker it gets, my anticaption rises until I can't see to shoot.  The lighter it gets, the more "antsy" I get and want to go back to camp and eat breakfast!
And most of my success has come in the fading light of evening.
No science here, just prefer and have had most success just before dark.
John

I have killed more deer in the mornings than evenings but I hunt more mornings.
I think the best hunting can be in the evenings though and it does get more intense as the light fades. The downside is it is usually 90 degrees and many of the deer will run and I end up tromping around in the dark trailing and cleaning deer.

I love hunting evenings.  I don't have to get up early to get out.  But I would much rather recover a morning shot deer.

I would say it is a toss up.  Often it depends on where I hunt.  I have two spots where I have shoot 9 in the mornings and only one at night. The area I grew up in, and have hunted all my life, I shoot about equal morning and night.  For bucks it is definitely mornings during the prerut and rut.  If you hunt in travel areas between doe bedding areas or down wind of a good doe bedding area you will get a lot of buck movement late morning to mid day.  I think it is the best time to catch a buck on the move in a pressured area.  He can stay in bed until dark, but it is hard to leave the ladies alone when the sun first comes up.

I have seen more deer in the evenings but have hunted more evenings.  I have seen better bucks in the morning and prefer to hunt the morning.

I like it because of the anticipation of seeing animals after the light comes up.  Also when it is still dark and you have animals all around, it's priceless.  Definitely my favorite time to hunt.

Charlie

I am like many of you, I had seen more deer in the evenings and prefer to hunt then, but it seems like i have killed more deer in the morning.  I'm not sure why, maybe just dumb luck.  Of course I am yet to get my first trad bow kill, so that may change as I get deeper into this.

Don't forget mid-day awesome time to catch a buck cruising for does  :D  

Tracy

Seem to be the odd man out on this one. I kill more bucks in the morning than I even see in the evenings. 8:30am is my witching hour. I think it has to do with were you hunt relitive to the feeding -bedding area distance. My go to stand is almost right between the two. If I sneek into my stand before first light and bump deer that are bedded I might as well turn around and go home. They returned to bed early and I won't see hardly a deer. Full moon seems to get me the most. By the way, I really hate getting out of a nice warm bed! But I really like shooting deer more!!
 GLENN

I like mornings, catching the deer half asleep from being up all night.  

K.S trapper got it. I have seen more mature deer in the middle of the day than any other time, especially during the rut. Mornings have been better for me than evenings. Matter of fact I don't think I have ever seen a mature buck on an evening hunt in the last five years. I do hunt a bit more often in the mornings than the evenings.

I enjoy evening hunts better, but see and kill more deer in the early mornings. Like others have said, the later it gets in the evenings, the better I feel my chances are. The later the mornings get, the less confindent I feel seeing game.

I haven't harvested a deer yet but, I've seen most of my deer early morning and some mid afternoon. Not too many in the evenings for some reason.

Is it legal to hunt them in the morning?    :eek:  

I am always up at the crack of 11 - and I hunt evenings.  

I always liked evenings best and see more deer in the evenings. For me I think it is the areas I hunt, mostly food sources. Deer are pretty predictable on coming to food if you have found the right food source in the evenings. Not so much in the mornings and I often run them off going in in the morning. Now that I work evenings and mostly hunt mornings I need to learn to hunt mornings better.
Mike

Deer seem less alert in the mornings.

If you can get in position without spooking them, I think mornings are best.

Had this same discussion with a long time hunting partner just the other day.  For years (30+) I favored evenings for the same reasons mentioned above.  

However, after considering the best hunts and best buck sightings I have switched to favor mornings.  Even though I have clearly hunted far more evenings over the years and shot plenty just before dark I must admit I have seen more bucks, better bucks during morning hunts.  
 Theres no question I would rather sleep in, stay warm and hunt evenings, but my past experience is pushing me out of the rack early.

As far as the best hour?  For me it's 9am can't tell you how many bucks show up around that 9am hour.

I have learned I can hunt many more consecutive days if I hunt in the evenings.  I, like most folk, am up until 10-11pm anyway.  I am not up at 4:30am normally.  Too many consecutive days of 4:30am will wear me out.