2 Weeks of October Nearly in the Books
Posted By
Iowa
at
10/13/2009 12:00:00 AM
With youth season finished and several of those hunts in the can for Midwest Whitetail, October has given way to some of the coolest temperatures I can recall for this early in the season. The weather has forced the deer on their feet as they are in need of increasing their calorie intake to accomodate the unseasonably cool temperatures.
A savvy hunter who already knows the pattern the deer are on can take advantage of this forced movement. While it is just creeping up on mid-October, we are still primarily on a bed to feed pattern. Scrapes are becoming more prevelant, more rubs are popping up, and there is some mild chasing going on, but the peak seeking and chasing phases are a good 2-3 weeks out.
Don't let this cooler weather fool you into getting too agressive too early. Seeing my breath on an afternoon hunt makes me want to rattle and grunt as I would during November. You might experience a very slight amount of response right now, but these reactions are more based on curiousity than dominance. Keep things light, don't crash those horns together until you smell burning bone just yet. That time is coming and you don't want to alert a mature buck from your Hit-list too soon.
Calling can be extremely effective this time of year. As the bucks are working scrapes they tend to show signs of intolerance of other bucks, especially the older ones. If you witness a good buck working a scrape, send a couple grunts his way as he might be in an aggressive mood if he is displaying scraping activity.
Finally, don't burn your best rut spots yet, either. Prematurely hunting some of your core areas might push mature deer out before the best part of the season comes around. Remember cooler weather increases movement, but the white-tailed deer's biological clock reamains the same keeping the peak of the rut in the first two weeks of November. Keep hunting the fringes and food sources for another week and a half before employing more aggressive tactics and you might tag out early on that buck of a life time!
This week's Episode 8!
See Brandon LaFever shoot a dandy 9-pointer and then tag along as he helps his friend, Zach Brashears, recover another buck shot on the same farm on the same evening! Also, learn about a grassroots movement from Appanoose Co. to promote youth hunting.
Good luck out there; stay safe and shoot straight!
