Some really good buck hunters I know don’t hunt their best covers and stands until around Halloween and into November, as the rut starts rocking. Their strategy is sound—put no pressure on the bucks until there are moving more with their guard down, and especially in daylight. But I don’t believe that kind of thinking and approach are best for most guys. You’re busy, and you hunt when you can.
If that happens to be now in early October, great. The woods are turning beautiful, there are fewer hunters roaming around than there will be in November, and there are good opportunities to get your buck.
My friend Grant Woods, one of the premier whitetail scientists in the U.S. and a seasoned archer who hunts much in October, offers this advice for hunting a big deer these next few weeks. As you will learn, it’s all about finding out what the deer in your woods are eating right this minute.
“If you’re not seeing bucks, you aren’t hunting in the right places. Deer change their behavior as they go from summer to fall patterns. Our telemetry studies don’t show any let-up in feeding activity during the so-called ‘lull’ in October, you’ve just got to find them.”
“One of the main reasons deer sometimes seemingly disappear during early bow season is a change in their diets. They are feeding more on browse and mast inside the cover where they aren’t as visible. Mast is a very strong attractant, and bucks will abandon their summer forage patterns when acorns start dropping. You may have patterned a buck during the summer on a lush field or food plot only to have him disappear when the season opens. That is usually due to a change in his diet. Find out what the deer are eating, and you’ll find the bucks.”
“One thing you can do is get inside a deer’s gut. Find out what the deer are eating right now. Use an antlerless tag (when and where legal) and shoot a doe to see what she has been eating. Or gut a buck or doe that a friend or neighbor shoots, and see what’s inside its stomach.”
Those fresh food fragments you find in a deer’s gut (acorns, grain, greenery, leaves, whatever) tell you where to hunt. Move your stands into areas thick with the specific feed that the deer are gorging, and you’ll spot more animals…and maybe shoot a good buck.
Early October is freezer time for me. Can’t eat steaks and burger without deer so now is the time for me to catch up with a slick or 2 if needed. I do agree that the very end of October starts the ‘magic time” for the big bonies to be trouncing around, but I hunt public ground anyway so every hunt is an enjoyable one for me. Catching up to a big bonie for me…..hunt the crossing zones between bedding areas at times when others don’t. The last week in October and the first week and a half in November….it can happen at any time of day. Noon is as good as 8A.M. It only takes 5 seconds to drop a hammer and Why would I give up hunting days……He may be coming in now!
You are excused, but my pet gripe is using “that” as a personal pronoun.
Have fun with the children.
Note: to my building principal, Mr. Smith. My kids are currently taking their mid-sem. exam, and thus I have a bit of time to write a “short essay” (sorry, guys) on early Oct. bowhunting vs. waiting ’til prime time. Also, I mean to write Lakoskys (without the apostrophe…which is totally against one of my pet peeves about young people writing, who over “utilize” the possessive apostrophe in practically any plural noun….UUUGGGHHHHH!!! BTW, I’m a Social Studies teacher by trade….so go figure.)
I normally don’t get out much in early Oct. I agree with the idea of not ruining an area right now. That’s not to say that people can’t score on the mature buck they’ve watched all year either. Certainly, many careful hunters pull this off every season. I am a High School teacher and many of the kids have asked me if I’ve been out yet, etc. When I tell them I don’t go out much until the 3rd week of Oct. they can’t believe it. Then when the best time to hunt comes around they aren’t seeing deer any longer, because they’ve spooked them so bad they’re either very nocturnal, or they’ve moved to less pressured real estate. I hunt areas that others hunt, so I’m not hunting any of the amazing areas like the Lakosky’s or the Drury Bros.; nope, these are spots that my farmer friends also hunt, etc. I can’t say I kill the buck I’m after every season, but I do have enough success that most people around here assume I’m hunting areas with no other hunters, or that I have this magical, heavenly spot where mature bucks just come in and lay down for me. I can assure you that is not the case. When I do get out around the 20th of Oct. I’m hunting bucks that haven’t been spooked, and are still acting somewhat naturally, and on less pressured patterns. This is when I also have folks who’ve hunted all season tell me that they don’t have big bucks where they hunt, or that they’ve “totally gone nocturnal”. I agree with Dr. Woods that you have to find those early fall feeding patterns to have a chance at a mature buck in the early parts of the month. And, if you find the right bedding-to-feeding pattern (and the food is one, or maybe more white oaks dropping nuts like candies) then you’ve found yourself the right spot for early Oct. action. But, and this goes for all areas (whether super pressured, or lightly pressured) you’d better be careful in laying out your strategy. Good luck everyone!
In our neck of the woods- NE GA, the Red & white oaks are starting to really drop and a group of 5 doe/fawns and yearlings were sucking the acorns up over last weekend. Heard them crunching way before they got in sight. There is a big’un in there too…….