Variability of older buck sightings, mornings versus evenings

[BSK]

I've kept pretty detailed records for my hunting over most of the past 20 years including weather, wind, location, and times. The trend I noticed is if I stay in my morning stand past 1030 my chances of seeing a mature buck greatly increase. I have seen and harvested several before 0900 and one or two after 1600 but the vast majority of 3.5 year old+ bucks have been between 1115 and 1330 and the most bucks seen are generally form 1000 until 1400.

Several of the GPS collaring studies that universities are doing are also showing that these times tend to be a major movement period for deer as well with a few researchers suggesting that you are better off to stay in bed until 0800 and then go out when everyone else is heading to the house/camp.

I hear other hunters talk about very late morning and mid-day buck movement all the time, but on my personal property, in 22 years of running cameras, I had never photographed an older buck moving between 10:30 AM and 2:00 PM. In fact, for morning activity, most older buck photographs have been before 8:30 AM. However, this year is totally different. A TON of buck movement between 9:00 and 11:00 AM