October Whitetails | Strategies for October Deer Hunting


TrophyBucks.com

You’re chomping at the bit. After months of dreaming about big bucks, and watching your favorite hunting videos over and over, the season is finally here. The temptation to dive right in and start hunting your best areas is like a moth’s attraction to fire. It’s almost irresistible, but it’s a fatal attraction.

October offers opportunities, but at times it can be very tough. Rather than hitting your best stands with gusto and burning them out at times when they’re not very productive, take a long-term approach to the season. To make the most of October you have to understand what the deer are doing in three separate periods.

When the season first opens you have the rare opportunity to hunt big bucks when they're still on some semblance of a pattern. Through the summer they've become almost predictable, and this lifestyle carries over into the first part of the bow season. The bucks will be doing some random browsing, but it’s hard to hunt a “browsing pattern”. To hunt them most successfully the first week of the season, you have to find a concentrated food source.

Usually these feeding patterns are short-lived, but I got a full two weeks of excitement out of one buck a few years back. He remains to this day one of the biggest I’ve hunted. I first saw him feeding in a soybean field ten days before the season opened, and I hunted him there for the first two weeks of the season. I saw him in the distance three times before I finally got my shot. Then I missed. It’s a long story - as are all stories filled with excuses – and it’s a sad one, but I leaned a few lessons.

That buck was a great teacher. He showed me that if you find a food source that’s really pulling deer and hunt it carefully you may get more than a just a couple of good hunts. You may even get a shot at a huge buck.

The hottest drawing cards are generally agricultural crops, specifically legumes such as alfalfa, clover and soybeans. Deer will switch over almost exclusively to carbohydrate sources such as corn, sorghum and winter wheat later in the season. When you find a secluded field of high protein legumes you can bet a big buck will be there somewhere gorging himself most evenings in an effort to put on weight before the rut.

I've also sat in some pretty incredible stands when apples and pears were dropping. Bucks detoured past the trees morning and evening, seemingly trying to grab freshly dropped bounty before other deer beat them to it. Everywhere they’re found, pears and apples are preferred food sources during this time of year.

Unfortunately, bucks don't stay relaxed for long. You've got to get them as soon as the season opens because two forces tend to work simultaneously to interrupt their lives of leisure, at the same time making them a lot harder to hunt.

First, pressure from other deer hunters and small-game hunters increases. After a summer vacation filled with peace and quiet, this invasion puts bucks on red-alert and is a sure indicator that it's time, once again, to get serious. The smart ones will become much more nocturnal as a result of the first consistent human contact.

The second force that works against you is one over which you have no control. As a buck’s testosterone level begins to rise he becomes increasingly cantankerous - eventually turning him into a hermit. Even if unpressured he’ll begin turning into Ted Kazcinski by the 10th of October. This takes him more-or-less off the market for about two weeks. But, before that happens a window of opportunity exists when bucks are still fairly visible and patternable.

But, just because they can be patterned doesn't mean they're easy. Without the rut and its many distractions, bucks are primarily concerned with only one thing: staying alive. They won't tolerate any nonsense from sloppy hunters. If there's any reason at all for a buck to avoid a particular part of his range, he will. If they sense the slightest bit of hunting pressure, mature bucks will be out of reach - at least until the rut, and maybe for the whole season.

By now you should have figured out that tagging a big buck during the first two weeks of the season depends on your ability to keep the buck from knowing he's being hunted. The same hunting strategy you've used effectively during the peak of the rut just won't work now. You’ve got to become ultra-sneaky.

Skip the mornings: It may be tempting to try to hunt the buck in the morning near his feeding area, but doing so is fool’s gold. More than likely he'll realize what you're up to long before you ever get into position. You may also be able to arrow him near his bedding area in the morning, but that is a fairly high impact strategy - a tactic of last resort. You run the risk of moving him off his pattern before you can get enough information to tag him near his feeding area. Sleep in, do some work in the office, whatever, but, it's best to forget the mornings during this part of the season. Or, if you simply have to get into the woods, at least hunt somewhere you don’t mind messing up.

Long-range scouting: Hunting a big buck is a lot easier once you've actually seen him. Ideally, you'll watch him do something at least twice so you can establish some type of pattern - but even one sighting is better than nothing. Several sets of big tracks may indicate that a big deer is using a trail, but how do you know you won’t put him off his pattern by simply scouting him this way? And how do you know he’s not coming out after dark? Hang back with binoculars and learn as much as you can about the overall situation before committing yourself to a plan. Don't focus single-mindedly on the bucks, either. You need to know what the other deer using the feeding area are doing too.

Rarely will the big buck be the first to come out in the evening. More than likely he'll be preceded by several does, fawns and young bucks. If they catch your scent they'll sound the alarm and you can forget about Mr. Big. Take all the factors into consideration before you pick a stand location so you won't mess things up the very first time you hunt the buck.

Be conservative… to a point: The worst thing you can do when choosing a stand site is to commit yourself so deeply into the feeding area that you run the risk of spooking the buck but not deeply enough that you can actually get a shot. You may have to move closer in stages. Hang back and observe things from conservative stand sites until you find the buck's weakness, then go for broke.

Stand accessibility: Early season bucks can’t be strictly patterned. You can’t set your watch by their behavior. They won't bed in the exact same places every day, nor feed in the same places every evening, nor always use the same trails in between. Unfortunately, even at it’s best, early season hunting is still a guessing game, and luck will still be a factor.

You have to put in your time. If you don't get the buck the first time you hunt him, you need a good plan for getting back to your vehicle without spooking non-target deer that are already feeding. Try to place your stand where the deer will be out of sight shortly after they pass, giving you an opportunity to climb down and sneak away without being seen. Use the terrain and cover to your advantage. Your exit route will likely take you well out of your way, looping back through the timber or following a creek or erosion ditch in the opposite direction.

The period from roughly October 10th through the 25th (in most whitetail states) is the hardest part of the month for tagging a nice buck – maybe even the hardest part of the whole season. Hunting pressure and testosterone make bucks extremely reclusive. They'll still feed but not as heavily, and seeing them during daylight is rare. If you want the honest truth, this is a good time to stay out of the woods. Get things done around the home and clear your schedule so you can focus on the better weeks to come. If you hunt your best areas now not only is there little hope that you’ll be successful, but you’ll also decrease your chances for taking a good buck later.

Since bucks are almost entirely nocturnal, you can only hope to catch them soon after they rise in the evening or right before they bed in the morning. The closer you can hunt to a buck's bedding area, the better your odds of taking him. But, it's really a catch-22 situation, because the closer you hunt to his bedding area the more likely he is to realize you're after him and clear out. It doesn't make much sense to push a buck hard at a time when he really isn't active.

If you are going to give the transition period a try don’t waste your precious vacation time. Hunt before and after work. The first hour and last two hours of each day are far and away the most productive. And confine your efforts to areas you don't plan to hunt during the rut.

First, try to figure out exactly where a buck is bedding. (You may have to actually bump him from his bed to find it.) This is where you have to hunt him. Depending upon terrain and cover, place your stand as close as you dare without the risk of spooking him - you'll probably have to stay at least 100 yards away unless there's plenty of cover and the wind is blowing hard enough to cover any noise you make.

Look for funnels that offer some hope of predicting where the buck will go when he leaves his bed. Sometimes a big rub will also tip you off to a possible travel route. Figure out a way to get in and out of your stand without being seen, heard or smelled. Give it your best shot. Your odds aren’t good, but at least they’re better than zero.

During the last week of October bucks will be seriously gearing up for the primary rut. They’re moving more than they were in mid-October and hitting traditional buck sign more reliably. Scrape lines are the key to success at this time.

There are two keys to successfully hunting a buck along his scrape line. First, you have to find the right sign. The rut hasn’t broken loose and bucks are still sensitive to hunting pressure. Too much scouting right now can educate a buck to the fact that he's being hunted. Smart old bucks pick this up quicker than younger bucks. If you’re after a big one make a special effort to keep the woods fresh. The type of animal you tag may be a direct result of how carefully you scout!

I prefer to do most of my in-season scouting using an aerial photo while sitting at home on the couch. I'll never spook a single buck that way, and neither will you. Learn as much as you can about the lay of the land before setting foot on it. You should be able to predict where the travel routes and the scrapes will be with reasonable accuracy. Now, make a quick pass through the area.

This isn't the time to study every piece of sign (save that goal for after the season), but rather it should be a single opportunity to prove or disprove your hunches. Stay off deer trails as much as possible, and give known bedding areas a wide berth. Look for fresh scrapes located back away from the field edges. Thick cover nearby is an added bonus. Such scrapes offer the best hope of being visited by a good buck during daylight hours.

Scrape hunting in late October requires that you hunt back in the timber. Some of these strongholds can be ticklish to hunt. It seems that bucks love to scrape in the cool, damp earth found at the bottoms of draws and ravines. This is a great place to find sign, but a very dangerous place to hunt. When the wind blows, it will swirl through broken country like eddy currents in a trout stream. Every deer in the area will know a man is nearby. Resist the temptation to hunt these spots, focusing instead on locations where you can better control where your scent blows. You may have to hunt the scrape area from a distance on routes you feel the buck may use as he goes to freshen them.

The month of October is really three different seasons, each with its own challenges and opportunities. While none of these periods are as exciting or as a productive as the primary rut, at least you’re hunting. A bad day in the woods is still better than a good day at work. And when you hunt October carefully you may be surprised at what you can drag out!