So just wondering how late you sit until you get down on an evening hunt? When it is pretty dark i will draw my bow and if i can not see clearly through my peep/sight i will lower my bow down. Last night i clipped my rope onto my bow and when my bow was halfway down my tree i heard something to my left so i stopped my bow and a big main frame 10 came running in as my bow was halfway down my tree and he stopped 10 yards broadside and there was nothing i could do... he was an absolute stud.
Till it is too dark to shoot and then some if deer are around. I put the arrow back in the quiver when I can't see good enough to shoot. That being said if I can count 10 points on a rack I can still see good enough to shoot.
At the end of legal shooting time. It changes pretty much daily in PA so you have to check the chart each day.
End of legal shooting time. Sure if in deep woods it will get dark before shooting time ends. I won't shoot anything I can't identify (i.e. to ensure its not a spike or small basket). Last year I was drawn on a doe being chased by 2 bucks, the first buck I could see his nice white small basket, but the 2nd buck I could not see any rack at all. I decided not to shoot. He probably was some massive swamp donkey with dark brown antlers but I couldn't tell.
Legal hunting time or until I can't see through my peep site anymore.. also will sit long if there are deer around.
I use to sit until I could not read my watch anymore, but I bought a fitbit that lights up so now I sit until I cant see my pins (or crosshairs if I am gun hunting).
95% of my hunting is travel routes. So unless it is the rut I generally climb down about sunset. That gives me enough time to still hunt slowly back up to the truck hoping to catch something browsing. Generally all the deer have moved through by then. During the rut I sit until it's too dark to see.
30 mins after sunset. But I have stayed longer...almost an hour and a half after sunset because deer were browsing around and I didn't want to bust out of there.
I really don't have a set time. I don't want the deer to pattern me... Just kidding. It really just depends on time of year, amount of movement, weather. I would say I generally start packing stuff away when I lose quality camera light. If there are deer close I will hold off. If I'm hunting a field edge and they are out in the field, I'll wait until it's dark and use my predator call to get them to head out of the field.
