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Early Season Tactics

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BHC

Well-Known Member
Joined
Sep 16, 2011
Messages
915
Location
Wayne Co. , Tennessee
As far as hunting big mature bucks, how have you been successful in the early season? what about your setup put that buck there? Not just that you hunt acorns or something really general,but what oak trees (location) do you target and why, or terrain, or cover features... Maybe its been early season fronts.. Whatever, just like to hear your success stories and strategies, what do you really key in on those first few weeks? Mornings may be different than afternoons.... Where, when, how, and why...
 
Bean fields near water in the afternoon seem to be my most productive early hunts. They seem to bed very close by around the water, in the hot temps. Glassing the field the week before season is a must to see where the bachelor groups are entering.
 
I think not getting too anxious to be back out there hunting, and hunt only when the time is right for your particular setup.

Having a well thought out hunting plan. Pattern the deer the best of your ability and execute your plans to the very best of your ability.

Dont over hunt an area and educate your deer.
 
If you are talking early season BOW, then my best answer would be to hunt feeding locations for bachelor groups of bucks.

In big hardwoods, this means hunting acorn flats near thickets. Keep in mind you'll need to have scouted your acorn trees much earlier than opining day. Like MONTHS earlier. I suggest you fore go the mornings hunt to be there for the evening hunt. This will give you time to scout on your way in to your stand for the first time, and make adjustments for the next hunt. These hardwood bucks I find to be EXTREMELY intolerant of human scent and will often evacuate an area, at least during daylight, at the first whif of human scent.

Remember, they are in those woods somewhere every day. We make a brief appearance and our intrusion sticks out like a sore waving red flag. Especially in "off the beaten path" places we often find big bucks that RARELY get human traffic.

Killing a mature buck around the first week or ten days of bow season is more about stacking the odds in your favor. Luck plays a huge role in this chess game. It will take having multiple stand locations based on wind and food availability.I generally consider one of my buck spots blown for early season after a couple sits.

The BEST way to kill a mature buck early in the season IMO, is to have access to bean fields and be able to watch the access/entrance points where you see the target buck, or bucks, entering the field from a safe and LONG distance away.
At this time of year bucks will usually hold a summer pattern for a few days before breaking up bachelor groups.

I you can do this a few days before the opener, and find a tree the evening of the hunt with the right wind. And then get in there VERY quietly, you have a good chance.

102
 
I spend far less time in the woods during early bow season. Deer are feeding alot at night due to the heat and i don't want to booger up a good rut location....if I feel the need to hunt, I will try oak flats, but only in the afternoons, actually do most of my hunting in the afternoons because I am hunting food sources and don't want to bump deer out of an oak flat while I'm walking in .....the same goes with cropfields.....afternoon most times for me during bow season...MZ through end of season, I switch to travel corridors AND I may sit all day.

enjoy
 
BHC said:
. . . . strategies, what do you really key in on those first few weeks?
Click to expand...
Squirrels, mostly grays.

My primary hunting area has no agriculture, just lots of woods and cover. No soybean fields to watch.

Due to early season heat, much of the deer feeding (particularly by older deer) is going to be at night, and there's typically little deer movement during daylight by older deer. It's very hard to slip into these heavy cover areas without doing more harm than good to upcoming opportunities.

However, I can slip around in the more open hardwoods, and hunt squirrels. The side benefit of this is I discover fresh rubs and sign where deer are coming and going from the heavy cover areas (where I stay out of). I also discover which oaks are dropping and which ones the deer prefer. I then bide my time and wait until relatively cold weather comes in. Anytime from the opening of archery until the rut is over, relatively cold weather makes daytime deer movement more likely. It's just that we don't normally get much of this relatively cold weather pattern during the first couple weeks of archery season, but the frequency tends to increase as we move into mid and late October.

So it's not that I'm not out hunting in early archery, but I'm just as likely to be squirrel hunting instead of deer hunting, and both pursuits benefit the other. Squirrel hunting allows me to do more deer scouting than when I'm deer hunting. If the weather is seasonably normal or warm, I'm squirrel hunting. If it's seasonably cool, I'm deer hunting. That's my early archery season tactics.

And should you be in a club that disallows small game hunting once archery season opens, then just rest up for cooler weather. :)
 
Hey Wes,
Good post.
Something I have been noticing in the past few seasons though, It has me thinking a little different about heat. Not really sure what to make of it.
Seems I notice quite a bit of mature buck movement in the middle of the day. Even on VERY hot days. Even in September and October BEFORE we head out for chasing in November.

I have speculated water, food, spooked, but nothing seems to hold true. It is just movement in the heat of the day. Most likely to feed.

And not just in Tennessee but all over. I never really noticed this before bu then, I did not have the network of "spotters" who pay attention as I do now.

I do have another theory. I hate to say it aloud but it seems this movement is always when the moon is either cycled straight over head or straight under.

102
 
is it possible that deer are indeed individuals and typical patterns and trains of thought don't hold true. Maybe they get up and move when they want to and not when they are supposed to...lol.
 
I agree BH.
In fact, I tend to think that deer in general are creatures of moving when they feel like moving. When the urge hits them. I also believe that too often, people "over think" hunting. Especially mature bucks.

Deer, mature or not, live outside all year. I am certain the heat bothers them no more than any other extreme temp, or weather condition.

102
 
I have not read his books to my knowledge. But we have a network of seasoned hunters and we all have noticed this more and more as our field journals really begin to compile years of information.

Honestly, we didn't care that much about big, mature bucks until we headed North in 1999. But now, as the network has expanded to include a wider cross section of Tennessee, mid-day sightings have become more of the "norm". Even in HOT weather.

My two biggest, most mature bucks were killed at over 70 degrees. Both days had been near 80.
One was at about 4:45 PM EST and the other at about 7 PM EST.

The time of day not that weird but definitely hot compared to what one would expect.

On a similar note...there have been two facts about rutting bucks that have been born fairly consistent.

1-52 degrees seems to be a PRIME temperature to see activity. But this is a 52 degree HIGH for the day. Not low.

2-Rarely will I see peak chasing days occur back to back. I usually will see a cold snap cause great deer movement one day, and the next, even though similar temps, will show a vastly reduced amount of deer activity.
 
How many times have we gone to the store at odd times, to avoid the crowd?

How many times have we taken a different route from A to B, to avoid traffic, even though that familiar route is the norm? Humans and animals are alot alike.

Deer, as a species, may prefer to eat at specific times of the day and night, yet there is no dinner bell or buffet line forming daily. They may prefer certain routes, and hunting/ sticking solely with those routes may bring success, but that tactic may not bring the degree of success that you seek.

To kill the deer that is not the norm, many times you have to veer away from the norm....

Hunt places with very little sign, especially early season and even late season. the average hunter looks for the most sign. mature bucks don't really like other deer that much, imo. Hunt the odd hours. I can not tell you how many huge deer I have seen walking across a wide open field at noon. All alone....

The old saying "think outside the box', can not be stressed enough, when you indeed want to take a deer that most hunters will never even see or even knows it exists, much less get in position to take the deer....

My only advice to young hunters,in most cases, is to sit in the stand as much as possible, no matter the time of day or weather conditions.

even the best location in your county is worthless if he comes by while you aren't there...

good luck
 
This thread topic was labeled "Early Season Tactics".

While agree with much of the strategies suggested, most of these strategies will work poorly for you in the early season, especially during periods of seasonably warm weather. But the problem isn't the strategies, it's just the "timing" in that the deer are typically not moving much for a variety reasons during the early archery season. No matter what your favorite or secret strategies, most of them will work better in late October vs. late September.

If you only had 7 days a year to hunt, but you had to decided which days 6 months in advance, which days would you pick? Personally, I'd pic zero days in September. Fortunately, I have more than 7 days a year to hunt, and will probably be deer hunting in September, and probably thinking, "Should have gone squirrel hunting this morning."

Let me add to these strategies:

Don't wear yourself out and use up too much of your vacation time . . . . .
before "it's time".
 
Tony(D) said:
During the early season I have always found that deer travel in groups (for the most part). I have been getting schooled by the most mature out of those groups enough to say that "certain" bucks don't follow that group rule at all. I have noticed that they become loners much sooner than younger bucks and will not make themselves available.
I try to work the fields in the evening and the ridges/thickets during the morning through noon. Deer are easy to pattern but with warmer weather and hunter pressure it becomes difficult to watch scent and their feeding patterns become erratic within days.
Click to expand...

This would be a good post to copy and study.
I have found this VERY true.
 

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