Best areas to hunt the 1st week of November?

Ok guys ..in your opinion ...what are the best areas? sign.... field edges....bedding areas...food sources...... I am off next week and I want to optimize my all day hunts

 

I'd hunt the midwest. :D Actually, I try to set up on a funnel and sit as long as I can.

 

Tony,

Can you grab an aerial map with topo contour line screen shot off www.mytopo.com? You can hit print screen, cut, and then paste into MS Paint, and then show us where your trying to hunt. If you can do this, and circle the known doe bedding areas, it would be pretty easy to figure out the funnels, and breaklines inside the timber that a buck is likely to use when cruising for chicks.

 

I like to sit near funnels between different bedding areas or bedding to feeding.

 

Matt ... I will when I can... ina tree right now... as far as known bedding areas, that never seems to be the same.

 

IMO the rut is going to be a little late this year, so this coming week I wouldn't focus too much on the travel routes between bedding areas quite yet. I think the bucks are going to be out checking doe bedding areas after dark, and maybe if you're lucky during daylight. I believe your best AM bet is going to be getting tucked right into these doe bedding spots on the downwind side as the bucks make their way back to bed and stop off for a quick look-see. Your PM spots will probably still be good near food sources, but back off a little ways catching bucks staging before dark when they head out to nudge some tail.

Towards the end of next week things should start heating up and those travel corridors are going to be the place to be. But this weekend I'd still hold tight up on those does.

 

So should I hunt a scrape line downwind?

 

If you're hunting a scrapeline you always want to hunt downwind.

So long as they are still hitting those scrapes regularly, I'd say go for it. This is the time of the year when those bucks are finally going to hit them during the day. Most of the scraping action to this point has been after dark.

 

Justin, how do you overlay those topo lines to the aerial photos? I am getting sick and tired of flipping back and forth from the aerial to the topo view. I want some efficiency!

 

Justin -

Any specific reasons you feel the rut is going to be later this year? I'm curious.

 

2 reasons.

1. The 2nd full moon after the autumnal equinox isn't until Monday. The rut usually starts kicking in hard about 7 days after that. I think this weekend is going to suck. People will see deer and bucks will be killed, but not like the following weekend.
2. People just aren't seeing the chasing action you'd normally be seeing by this time of the year. Mornings are relatively dead, and the younger bucks (3 1/2's and younger) are coming out before dark to bump some does but the big guys seem to be laying low.

Give it another week and I think things are going to kick into high gear.

 

I had multiple bucks(3-1.5 year olds and 1-2.5 year old) and does in close proximity to each other yesterday, and no chasing at all occured. I am thinking around November 5th before all heck breaks loose.

 

I would be close to doe bedding area's in the morning Tony. I am going to hunt funnles leading into and out the next few weeks.

 

Ditto to this. Was telling my buddies this months ago, and so far holding true. One buddy saw all kinds of deer driving to spot today (including 2 shooters)...not much action after daylight though except for small bucks...I feel peak daytime big buck movement will be Nov 12-18 in IL this year, based on moon, weather, crops, and current hunting reports I get.
First and Last light are killer right now though...

 

That's my plan, I'm going to focus on a choke point on a heavy travel route.

 

Down in Pa with MUDSHARK


Its all Yours

 

Witrhout being wise guys.....tell me where the deer bed in your areas......k

 

we defintely will hook up this comin week sometime, bro

 

C'mon giuys...... where are your doe bedding areas??? Pines? thickets? Goldenrod??

 

PT - there's really no clearly defined way to find doe bedding areas other than good old fashioned scouting, sightings, and trail cameras.

On a particular farm I hunt I've narrowed down three primary doe bedding locations. One sits on the top of small knoll in a thick stand of young woods directly adjacent to an ag field, and a grassy creek bottom on the other side. The other two are both thick areas of a nearby piece of already thick timber. The areas the does particular like are raspberry thickets. The kind that kill your legs when you walk through them.

I've found these areas through years of shed hunting in late season primarily by locating a lot of beds in a concentrated area. Usually 2-3 in a group, indicating usually a doe with fawns. Additionally I've always seen does coming from/going to these areas, and when I have cameras in them I get 80% doe pictures. After awhile you just figure it out, but it takes time.