Who here has killed a buck 3 years old or older in the morning between 10/1 and 10/20? Would like information about the hunt and why you think you were successful at doing this. I personally have killed 3 of them in mid-October on morning hunts. If memory serves they were something like the 16th, 18th and 19th. All hunts coincided with cold fronts and being either in or directly next to a bedding area. Going to try and pull this off again this year to give myself some sort of early season challenge to work towards. Just looking for some additional experiences, advice, etc. This topic was stirred up during a talk I did the other night with Dan Johnson from the Nine Finger Chronicles podcast. He specifically mentioned Cody D'Acquisto (Andrae's son) has been very successful the past few years killing big bucks in October on morning hunts, which is something that's kind of been poo-poo'd by some of the armchair hunters out there the last few years. Anyone who is interested can listen to Cody's interview here: https://sportsmensnation.com/podcasts/aggressive-whitetail-tactics-with-cody-dacquisto Thoughts?
I Killed my biggest buck on the 13th of October around 9am hunting a pinch point between a bean field and an overgrown meadow. This section of woods narrowed to about 75 yards wide. Cold front came in that morning and it was overcast most of the day.
I never have and have found it very difficult to hunt deer in the morning where I normally hunt. But, I haven't been aggressive hunting near the bedding areas during this time. Maybe it is time to change things up. Be very interested in hearing everyones experiences.
I feel like I remember either Dan or Mark trashing morning October hunts on Wired To Hunt and I feel like it was Dan. Maybe I am wrong. I haven't listened to his podcast for a while or Wired To Hunt for that matter.
I feel like everyone trashes October morning hunts these days. Don Higgins was the first guy I remember crapping on them a few years ago in his first book and since then it's been a landslide of everyone jumping on that bandwagon. I think it's refreshing to see a guy like Cody come in with some aggressive tactics and have success doing it. For me personally I usually take the first few weeks of October pretty easy. I don't go into some of my better spots, usually hunt mostly afternoons, hunt the edges, etc. I can't say I've seen a noticeable improvement in my opportunities later in the season. So why not take some chances and try to get a little more aggressive? Outside of having limited spots to hunt and not wanting to totally blow them up I don't really see a major downside in trying it.
Was it Cody or his pops that also used the tactic of bumping bucks off of their bed and then hunting over that bed for when they returned? Hard to argue with either of their tactics when they work. As far as mornings I think that if you have a buck patterned and he is coming through the same spot every morning, why should you wait until later in the season? Or even if you don't have one patterned, I think its proven year after year that deer don't follow a set outline of how they should behave or that they have to wait until October 25th to move during morning light.
Andrae was the first person I ever heard do this. And while there's no question that it works some times, I would be willing to bet 99% of the time it doesn't work. If it was as simple as jumping a deer, setting a stand and sitting over the bed we'd all be killing bucks like it was going out of style. I personally don't agree that any of us can ever "pattern" a buck outside of very early in the year or late in the year when they are hitting specific food sources on a regular basis. Again, if killing them were as easy as finding this pattern and setting up on it we'd all be killing a lot more bucks. I think there's three key ingredients that can certainly make killing a good buck on an October morning a real possibility. 1. Knowing where he's bedding a good amount of time. This can be through sightings, trail cam intel or a heavy concentration of buck sign found by in-season scouting. Obviously bucks bed in different areas throughout the year so you never know 100% he'll be in there, but you have a good idea. 2. Having the right weather conditions. You need cool/cold temps to keep him up on his feet long enough to kill him. You only get so many of those in early-mid October. 3. Good access. You need to be able to sneak in without bumping him both from getting too close or winding you. To me this is probably the hardest part as he's likely not all that far away. If you can get a cold front that comes through after a rain which helps quiet your approach that's the perfect storm. Take those three ingredients and a little bit of luck and you can be in the game IMO.
I've been lucky enough to kill 3 mature bucks in the last 3 years in early October. Seems like the 7th, 16th, and 19th, or something like that. All 3 have come from hunting travel corridors in relatively large tracts of mature public forest. None of the 3 was associated with a cold front. Just travel and mast, which is everywhere here. If you aren't hunting, your not going to be killing Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk
Hunting in the southeast for me has usually be early season in sept and usually in November. Not usually seeing mature deer in October. We will see what's in store for this year though. I will work hard to try and make something happen.
10/18 and 10/19 (my wifes b-day ). Both times were similiar scenarios, lots of fresh rubs and scrapes had started showing up and some cooler that expected morning temps. Both days were overcast with some showers. Both bucks responded to light rattling relatively quickily. I was positioned a few hundred yards from ag fields in a mix of stripped pines and some hardwoods probably 150 yards from thicker pine bedding.
I have never had much luck in the mornings but.. it has a lot to do with my stand placement and access. Where they tend to move and feed in the morning is not very approachable with a south wind and north winds are somewhat rare in October. I shot a nice 8 point on October 12th about five years ago, north wind and a high pressure front allowed me to slip into that particular spot and he came through around 9:15am. Most all of my large bucks have been taken around October 24-31 in the evening hunting just inside an edge to a food plot in what I call a staging area or the week of Thanksgiving during rut mid afternoon in the food plot.
I've never killed one in the morning during that time frame....But I've never tried. It's not that I don't think it can be done, my trail cams say it can, but my main concern is bumping the buck out when I try to leave, if I don't catch him coming in. The last 6-8 years have revolved around 2 or 3 bucks each year for me...And I'm all for being really aggressive at times, but with all my eggs in 2-3 baskets, just not sure if that's the right time or place. It's definitely intriguing.
Last season I killed a 5 year old KS buck on the 17th. I actually spotted him against the horizon while walking in, put a stalk on him in a milo field and was able to connect. The weather was fairly cool, but not a drastic cold front. He was pestering does a little bit as well.
I killed a rat buck the last year I hunted PA on the morning of October 9th. Rob /PA, Matt /PA, and my buddy Dan were all in camp that weekend. He's not a giant but the taxi felt he was a 3 y/0. I knew he was frequently bedding directly north of that stand about 150 yards. The bedding area was cedars, and I was setup next to a massive white oak. Pretty sure it was the only food of any sort close to that bedding area. He stepped out of the bedding area around 9am to eat acorns and ended up heart shot. I've been fortunate to kill a couple of decent ones early in the season since being in IL. They haven't been in the morning, but the strategy would be the same for me. Setup just close enough to bedding so that you can't get busted. If there isn't some risk of bumping the deer you probably aren't close enough. But if conditions and wind are right, why wait? I feel they are more predictable then than they are in late Oct/Nov, but the key is having some pattern of how/where they bed, and what they do when they get out of that bed. I also don't believe that most mature bucks lay down in a bed before light and just sit there all day. I believe they will have a core area they will get up and move within where they feel comfortable through the day. Science tells us that ruminants eat several times a day. They eat, lay down, chew their cud, digest, and then do it all over again. If I was focused on trying to kill a mature buck in the morning I'd be looking for things like the best patch of acorns, briars, honeysuckle, or other preferred browse that was very close to where I felt that deer was bedding. The key is the bed though.
Roughly 0800 on the 7th, actually saw him 2 days in a row at that time, around 11 for the 16th (and when I went back for my climber after locating him, I spooked another mature buck that was headed directly to me around 1230), and the last was about 5pm. Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk
I’ve killed 3 in that time frame, oldest of the 3 was on October 17th around 9am, I saw no deer that morning and figured why not try to blind call, did a rattle sequence followed by grunts and a wide 8 with tall brows came charging in off the ridge/bedding, Shot em at 15 yds. Another buck was at first light on the opening day, first week of October. Hunting a travel corridor from ag to bedding, last one was 2nd weekend of October public land in Ohio, case of pot luck. First time hunting that spot, super thick area that opened up to pines and a field. Came from thicket and shot him at 20 yds. I slowed down a lil from when I was younger about going every morning I can early season. If I have the free time and the weather is looking good I dont hesitate to go to some of my “good” areas early season.
