Hey everyone! Its been a while but im back on the forums, back in the woods, and have permission to hunt a fresh piece of property this season! What kind of luck have you guys been having thus far? So l have literally only just recently gained access to a new 190acre parcel to hunt this season, and have not had much time to scout or set up. Mostly on a carry-in, carry-out basis at this point until i learn more about the property. Went on my first afternoon sit today, got in a little late(around 3pm ish) and kicked up 5 or 6 doe right off the bat. Bummer. Picked a spot i found a few days earlier and went the whole afternoon without much action. Saw a good size doe cruise by at about 40yds with less than 5min of shooting light. Not a terrible start to my season i guess haha. So it begs the question, how do you all feel about the early season hunting? Do most of you get out just for the sake of gettin in the woods? All that built up excitement? Or do a lot of you have early season success and connect with your hit list bucks? Im wondering if i should lay off the hunting and try to get some more scouting done for another week or two, or start getting in the stand and "hope for the best" so to speak. I can scout on the fly, but it doesnt always prove as successful for me. I just dont want to risk putting bad pressure when i dont even know how or when the deer move yet! Ive been studying maps, and got a couple trail cameras set up today. So hoping for some good news there! What is your opinion? Sent from my SM-G930V using Bowhunting.com Forums mobile app
First off I’m new to this forum. Been on archerytalk for a while now and am usually over there. For me early season is when I do a lot of my killing. I hunt a lot of small properties with the biggest being 110 acres and the smallest being 3 acres. That’s in NC, have a 1500 acre lease in Alabama that stays untouched till gun season. One of the conditions to me getting access to these small properties is that the landowner wants the deer thinned out because they eat their garden (the 3 acre spot), or crops, or they just think there’s too many. So I usually end up killing a bunch of doe in the early season, then by mid October I slow down and start focusing more on getting some bucks on the ground. I’ve killed 5 doe and 2 coyotes so far this season, so yes I have early season success, just usually not on bucks.
I hunt very low impact spots until late October. These are spots I can get in and out without spooking deer. Chances are very low ill get a shot at a buck I want but at least I am able to hunt and maybe get a shot at a few does and learn new information on the deer movement. Plus you never know if a nice buck can mosey on by. I hunt public land and spots like these are usually less than 50 yards or less off of a maintained horse trail or a short walk in off of a field edge. I still see deer every sit just no mature bucks (yet). Once it gets cold and closer to the rut I will move in closer and closer to the bedding areas and the deep timber funnels and pinch points.
I rather scout all the way up to pre rut and then put in the time, but I hunt the same parcel of properties every year and the deer don’t change much so I don’t scout much. I know most of their patterns and I plan accordingly.
Early-season I tend to use early bowhunting is scouting info, I normally run two or three consecutive cameras on area I'm highlighting that gets little or no pressure If I find a big buck cruising through there pretty consistently I want hunt that area only during the rut. I'm hunting mostly public land part of the Daniel Boone National Forest about 13 thousand acres roughly. Here in Kentucky it's still too warm for me to begin taking a dove we're allowed to tags here I'll wait until that temperature is in mid 60's daytime highs Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk
I absolutely love bow hunting anytime... that being said, early season (especially the first 2 or 3 days) have produced some great deer for me, but there is absolutely no comparing it to the rut pre-rut season.
