With the final days of October slipping by, the time of year that every whitetail hunter dreams of is at our doorstep. The frost-covered leaves will be crunching under your boots on the walk in, and the bucks will be on their feet throughout the day pursuing does as they come into estrus.
But we’re not in the heart of the rut just yet. There’s still time (though not much) to tag your target buck during the pre-rut. Here’s what to look for this week.
Pre Rut Deer Gear
There are a few key gear items that I rely on this time of year:
Follow Their Gut
With the acorn mast almost fully on the ground, the deer have had their fill of white and red acorns throughout the month of October. While they’re certainly still spending time in the oak flats feeding, they’re also transitioning to corn (in ag country), forbes, and broad leaves to keep a healthy mix in their diet. It’s important to remember that deer rarely ever rely on one single food source.
This time of year, your food plots can be a key spot to hunt your target buck, especially if those plots are near a bedding area. As does feed in your clover, brassicas, and late beans, they’re likely bedding nearby. When the pre-rut really kicks off, bucks will cruise the downwind edges of those bedding areas to scent check for a doe in early estrus. Typically, this allows them to cover more ground checking for a hot doe rather than bumping each individual deer.
Day by day, as we get closer to the peak rut, the bucks will do this more consistently in the daylight hours.
Remember that stand access is everything. If you’re bumping does from the bedding area on your walk in, you’re in trouble. Or, if you’re leaving a scent trail that the buck will have to cross to get to the plot, your hunt is probably over. So prioritize clean access in all of your hunts.
Target Scrapes
If you’re unable to hunt a reliable food source, don’t fret. There’s another option that might be even better. Hunt a scrape.
Whether you’re in the big woods, on a field edge, or even hunting suburban deer, a hot scrape in late October or early November might be the best deer attractant you could hope to hunt over. As the testosterone levels spike, bucks are asserting their dominance in an area to claim it as their own — which includes the does in the area. A scrape is a great way for them to communicate with all of the other deer that pass through.
Hunting over these scrapes after a rain or heavy frost can be just what the doctor ordered for an easy pre-rut chip shot. Remember, if you’re setting up a scrape, it should be located in a thermal hub, where a lot of scent collects in the evenings and flows out of in the mornings. These locations will already be hotspots for deer; in the final week of the pre-rut, they’re more like a thoroughfare.
To successfully hunt over a hot scrape, know your wind direction and the travel routes that bucks are using to access the scrape. No matter what, you don’t want your scent blowing to the scrape. That’s a recipe for disaster.
Prepare for the Rut
A final option for this week is more of a hero-or-zero mentality. And that’s to hunt your typical peak rut hotspots in hopes of a doe coming into estrus early.
Since the rut cycle is really a bell shaped curve, it makes sense that a few does will come into heat early, or this week. By hunting known travel corridors and saddles in the terrain, there’s always a chance a hot doe brings a big buck running through.
If you’re unable to hunt a preferred food source, or aren’t finding the fresh scrapes you’re hoping for, this plan might be more of a late-October Hail Mary, but it’s one that can work.
Final Thoughts on Hunting This Weekend
If you’ve been monitoring a mature buck throughout October using a trail camera and waiting for him to daylight, it’s likely that he’s going to do it over the next few days.
In my experience, this is the final week of the year to hunt a buck on a more predictable pattern until the late-season arrives. Because once the rut kicks off, deer activity gets more chaotic.
Read the full article here
