All my biggest have been before 9AM. I used to hunt more mornings though. All were also killed after January 15th.

90% of my rifle/bow deer were in the afternoon but that's heavily skewed by how much I hunted in the afternoon. School, jobs, dog hunting in the morning, etc. have all contributed to way more hunting in the afternoons over the years. Much better success rate on bigger bucks in the morning though. Minimal midday success but I hope that changes today.

All my bucks 3.5+ have been 8-8:45 to 10-10:45 like clockwork. Private and Public Across 5 different counties in North, Central and West AL

65% morning/ 35% afternoon ( (100 bucks/ plus minus)

Mine have been spread all across the day. It’s always nice to kill them in the mornings, and get all the “work” done while still having daylight to see. Especially in mountainous terrain, cause it can get tricky in the dark up there.

I hunt two areas about 30 miles apart in same county. One area mornings up through mid day has always produced better. Afternoons have always been very slow there. The other location has produced much better in the afternoons. The trend has been the same for both areas over the past 20 years or so.

Most big bucks I've killed between 10AM and 5PM. I've killed some early morning but more after 10AM.

Vast majority of 4+ year old bucks in the afternoon - late afternoon.
My main place the morning movement is a fraction of afternoon movement.
Game camera pics show the same thing with respect to deer movement in general and shooter bucks in particular.

Every area has its own personality and tendencies when it comes to morning vs. afternoons.

I have probably killed more big deer between 9:30-11:30AM than I have any other time. Probably a tie between 4:00-Dark and Daylight-9:30AM.

I hunt travel routes in the Morning and plots in the Afternoons.

I usually sit till 11:30 when I hunt mornings. See a LOT of deer 9:30-11:00. Even outside the Rut and I believe a lot of that has to do with other people moving around not necessarily hunting but people just doing "stuff" in the middle of the day on Saturday or leaving their own hunting locations and pushing deer around when they ride out or get back to the truck and start slamming car doors, talking loud, etc.

When it comes to mature bucks moving in the morning 9:30 to 11:00 is much better on my place then 6 am to 9 am.
Don't know why.

I also hunt woods and travel routes in the morning. Food plots in the morning is crappy hunting on my place.