Do you go early and try to minimize noise disturbances? Or do you go late to minimize the amount of scent you spill into the area?

My preference is arrive as early as possible to get set up and minimize noise and movement. I try to hunt the wind as much as possible so scent “shouldn’t be an issue”.

I say that with as i sit in a ground/brush blind and hope my scent is being carried away by thermals and wind. Wind is to my face so i should be good right?

i check the wind but beyond that I get in when i get in.


Places i hunt normally have at least a few deer staying around the feeder all day, so it really doesent matter if I'm 30 min early or two hours....i normally run something off. in the morning's i get in 30 min before light


The only time i have gotten in the blind abnormally early is when i was trying to kill a big Sika Buck....i was bumping him in the AM walking to my stand. I got in about an hour and a half before daylight and ended up getting him about 20 min after sun rise.

Unless something real important is going on at camp or otherwise, I like to go out before daylight and stay till after dark. Eliminates a lot of problems except eating and drinking and the byproducts of same. I killed some of my best bucks in the middle of the day but besides that it eliminates an entire exit and reentry(walking/driving). This is especially true if you are hunting fairly open country. However, I am well aware that hardly anyone does this. I have never understood the need to go back to camp even after asking many many why they do it. The only thing I can come up with is that hunting and killing is just not that important to them, and that is fine. I have come to the conclusion that a lot of guys would not stay out all day even if you guaranteed them they would kill a huge buck. Everybody is just different(thank goodness.) Besides upping the odds of killing a big buck I also just like being outdoors so I dont want to go to camp. I will always remember Pitch Pred describing how he sometimes sits on a high ridge with a great view at lunchtime and builds a fire. Ive never built a fire but the rest is probably my favorite thing about hunting.
edit. I just realized this is in the bowhunting section so maybe all of my post would not apply.

if you have the country to do it, its very fun staying out all day. When we hunt out west we bring a lunch and hunt from sunup until sundown most days. If we are close to camp we may come in for a lunch/nap some days but most of the time we are out all day.


If I'm hunting out west I rarely come back to camp mid day