Early Season Deer
By T.R. Michels, Trinity Mountain Outdoors
If
you are getting ready for an early season whitetail hunt you
should start scouting in mid-August or early September, when you
are likely to see deer at food sources in the morning and evening.
Does, fawns, and especially bucks, load up on ripening
agricultural crops, succulent grasses, forbes (wild flowers) and
sedges (grassy type plants that grow in or near water), and
berries and mast (fruits and nuts) in late summer. Knowing this I
usually begin scouting during the last two weeks of August, and I
often see bucks travelling together and sparring. But, you
shouldn't expect to regularly see the bucks using the same food
sources as the does, because the bucks often stay closer to their
bedding areas than do the does. If the bucks visit the same food
sources as the does, they usually appear at night, much later than
the does. If the bucks use the same food sources as the does, they
usually appear at night, showing up much later than the does.
By
cruising the back roads mornings and evenings, with a good set of
binoculars, you can find out which fields the deer are using. You
may even see the bucks arrive and be able to determine the trails
they use. If you stay late enough, you may be able to see them go
to another food source. Because bucks don't travel very far at
this time of year, the bedding area should be within a half-mile
of morning and evening food sources; probably closer to a
quarter-mile. When you se a buck enter a food source within a half
hour of sunset, take particular notice of where it came from,
because the bucks core are is somewhere along the buck's back
trail, and not to far away.
Patterning Deer
When you see bucks feeding early in the morning, try to
stay long enough to see which way they leave. In the morning bucks
usually work their way slowly from more open areas to high grass
or brushy areas, and finally into heavy brush or woods, where they
feed and bed intermittently throughout the day. Once you know the
route a deer takes back to its core area, you can set up during
hunting season.
A
buck's rub route usually winds through several doe-use areas
before ending up at a night-time food source. Then it leads
through other doe-use areas as the buck travels back toward its
core area in early morning, typically before daylight. You should
be able to find several rubs along the evening route, and you
should find scrapes in the transition zones; near food sources,
along field edges and near doe core areas.
Following a buck's rub route back to its core area can be
difficult, because in the early morning bucks often travel under
cover of darkness in open areas, which means there are fewer
trees. I also believe the bucks don't hang around as long in the
morning, because they are trying to get back to the security of
their core areas before the sun comes up. For these reasons you
may not find any rubs or scrapes along the route a buck takes on
the way back to its core area in the morning, until the route goes
back into wooded areas. Even if you can't find fresh rubs and
scrapes you should be able to find the buck trails by the tracks
they leave, and by the rubs left from previous years.
Although these trails leading back into the bucks core areas may
not be as visible now as they will be later in the year, you
should be able to see old rubs and scrapes. Even if the bucks that
made the old rubs and scrapes are not still there, other bucks may
be using the same trails. These "buck trails" are chosen because
they offer the safest route of travel from a secure core area,
through adjacent doe-use areas, to night-time food sources, and
back to the core areas again.
Fall Buck Movement
In
the fall, bucks aren't just going to night-time food sources; they
usually travel through all the adjacent doe-use areas they can get
to along the way. When you are looking for buck trails, remember
that they often parallel the more heavily used doe trails,
intersecting doe trails at bottlenecks or near scraping, feeding
and core areas.
Bucks also prefer to use their own trails, generally in more
protected areas than the trails does use. Buck trails (especially
rub-routes) may be travelled by only one buck, once a day, in one
direction; therefore the trail shows very little evidence of use.
If the trail you are following shows very little use, it may be a
buck trail. If you find faint trails lower or higher on ridges
than the doe trails, or trails that run through heavy cover or
along creek bottoms, sloughs and forested lake shores, these may
be buck trails. When you find trails in protected areas, look for
large tracks, drag marks, rubs or clumped droppings.
Field Scouting
While you are scouting, you also may find doe-use areas with old
rubs and scrapes; take note of where you find them. Once you find
these areas, it is a matter of backtracking the rub route to find
the buck's core area. A good time to check this out is before the
season opens. Even though you may spook the deer, by the time
hunting season rolls around, they will have forgotten about your
intrusion and will be using their preferred bedding areas again.
If
you don't see any deer, check for beds and large droppings or
piles of clumped droppings. I usually find these large clumped
droppings in buck daytime core areas, in or near scrapes, and near
night-time bucks beds. If there are a lot of droppings in the
area, with old or new rubs on adjacent trees, it's a good bet you
have found a buck's core area.
If
you haven't found the buck's rub route, the buck's core area is a
good place to start looking for it. With a topographical map or
aerial photo to show an overview of likely food sources, roads and
bottlenecks, you can make a good guess which way the buck travels
and where it ends up. A buck's trail usually leads from a wooded
area that it uses during the day, to an open food source where it
feeds and looks for does at night, then back buy a different route
to it's core area again.
Once you find the bucks core area you usually can find the its
trail out of its bedroom and follow it by the infrequent rubs
along the trail. If you have access to all the property the buck
uses follow the entire route, from the core area, to the food, and
back to the core area again. Once you know the buck's rub route
you know where to hunt it. But, unless you have seen him
regularly, you don't know when to hunt him. If you have time to
really observe the rub route rails, you may learn what time the
buck uses which trails. Finding the rub route, and knowing when
it is used, tells you the right time and place to hunt that
buck.
Observing
When you find fresh rubs and scrapes, set up where you can observe
the bucks from a location where you won't be detected. I like to
sit on a high hill, where I can watch as much territory as
possible, or in a treestand away from the bucks trails, but close
enough where I can see them. Once you see the buck, you can back
track its rub route and look for a spot to set up on it. Or, if
you see the buck, in a location where you can hunt it during the
day, you can set up right there.
Another way to locate bucks you can't find during the hunting
season is to glass feeding areas and for field sign after the rut,
or after the hunting season is over. If you have rain or snow in
your areas, get out right after it lets up and look for sign. Then
you can track the deer right into their core areas and bedding
sites. Then you'll know where to hunt them next year.
If
you don't have time to watch a trail, you can use a trail timer
device to let you know what time deer come through. If you want to
know the size of the buck's rack without being there, you
can use a trail camera to take pictures whet the deer walk by. If
you use a timing device, be sure to get one with multiple timing
functions, so you can tell how many deer use the trail and at what
time. If you connect a camera to a timing device, the photos can
tell you everything you need to know about the deer using the
trail.
If
you don't use these devices and don't have an opportunity to
observe the trails in person, the best strategy is to find the
core area and set up as near to it as you possibly can, using
different stands for morning and evening hunts, and for varying
wind conditions. By get ting close enough to a buck's core area to
watch it, but far enough away that you don't alert the buck to
your presence, you increase the chances of seeing the buck during
daylight hours.
The Setup
Once you've found the buck's core area and travel routes, you can
choose the spots to hang stands. Never rely on just one stand
site; always choose several different sites so you have choices
when the wind isn't right. Hang your stands at least a week before
you plan to hunt from them. If you don't have enough stands for
all your hunting sites, you can still prepare the sites. Choose
the trees you want to use, hang a stand in them to see if
everything is right, then cut the shooting lanes so you are ready
when it is time to hunt. Don't wait until the day before the hunt
to prepare the site, because there is a good chance the deer may
figure out something is wrong, especially if you are there when it
comes through.
The Dispersal Phase / Fall Home Range Shift
I
often hear hunters say they can't find the big bucks they saw
earlier, while they were scouting from late August to the entire
route, from the core area to the food and back to the core area
again. When you find trails, doe-use areas, buck core areas and
rub routes, mark them on the map. If you see any deer, record the
time, place, weather, food, activity and other factors in a
journal.
With the information you gathered in late summer, it takes much
less time and effort to locate, observe, record your notes and
pattern a deer when it comes to scouting. But you scouting may
only help you to locate or hunt the deer from late August to mid
to late September. That's because the bucks may not be in the same
exact areas from August through mid-September as they are from
October through December.
The
bucks may have been in bachelor groups in late summer or early
fall. But once they shed their velvet, they become more aggressive
and eventually don't put up with each other. While some bucks may
stay in the area, others move to new core areas, where they don't
come in contact with other bucks. Some bucks may move out of a
summer home range and go to a fall home range, which may be as far
as several miles away. This dispersal usually occurs within two to
three weeks of when the older bucks begin to shed velvet. In the
upper Midwest, it generally occurs sometime between the first and
last week of September.
But
by mid-October, these bucks have moved to their fall home ranges.
If you plan on hunting after October 15, you should start scouting
all over again, because the bucks you saw in late August may have
moved to new fall home ranges. Since these bucks usually make new
rubs and scrapes, the best way to locate them is to look for fresh
rubs and scrapes in areas where they may not have occurred earlier
that year.
If
you are interested in more whitetail hunting tips, or more
whitetail biology and behavior, click on Trinity Mountain
Outdoor News and T.R.'s Hunting Tips at
www.TRMichels.com. If you have questions about whitetails log
on to the T.R.'s Tips message board. To find out when the
whitetail rut starts, peaks and ends in your area click on
Whitetail Rut Dates Chart.
This article is an excerpt from the Whitetail Addict's Manual
($19.95 + $5.00 S&H), by T.R. Michels, available in the Trinity
Mountain Outdoor Products catalog.
T.R.
Michels is a nationally recognized game researcher/wildlife
behaviorist, outdoor writer and speaker. He is the author of the
Whitetail, Elk, Duck & Goose, and Turkey Addict's
Manuals. His latest products are the 2003 Revised Edition of
the Whitetail Addict's Manual, the 2003 Revised Edition of
the Elk Addict's Manual; and the 2003 Revised Edition of
the Duck & Goose Addict's Manual. For a catalog of books
and other hunting products contact: T.R. Michels, Trinity Mountain
Outdoors, PO Box 284, Wanamingo, MN 55983, USA. Phone:
507-824-3296, E-mail:
TRMichels@yahoo.com, Web Site:
www.TRMichels.com
