With the season fast approaching I am wonder what is your early season strategy. Where will you be set up, do you hunt mornings or evenings mainly. For me hunting in September I will be hunting an edge row that splits a corn field and an alfalfa field. The cameras make it look likes evenings will be the best. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I will be on the corn or the fresh cut corn looking to slam a doe. I'm still chasing the bucks around right now as the fields were rotated this year. It changed things up and flipped it upside down or something. I have a finger between alfalfa and corn that I will be on and a finger between corn and corn. I have seen plenty of does in there so far. No bucks though. But the corn by me doesn't even have ears on it yet. We will see what happens near the end of August. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Problem is the does switch up and move after October because the farm cuts all the corn and alfalfa. I hunt a dairy farm and ft whatever reason the deer don't care for the acres of alfalfa. They don't go into the fields much to eat at all. It's very strange. Too much food around I guess. "Farmer food plots" all over that I don't have to plant but they don't use them. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
In the hard woods, it's all about the white oak groves and the green acorns! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Good strategy. Field edges and water sources are best in early season. With so much leafy vegetation and hunting in the timber, you lose light quicker. I seem to do better with evening hunt in early season.
I will more than likely be tucked up tight against the point of a swamp that leads to a small oak flat...
Up at my parents, on the edge of a bean field for the beginning of Oct, behind my house in the oaks close to my clover plot from about mid oct to the end of oct. Then as soon as a good cold front hits in the beginning of November, I have a stand deep in the woods nearby a bedding area. At that point in the season, I'll be switching between my deep woods stand at the back of the property and the one up front in the oaks, by the community scrape, close to the clover plot. That's what I have planned based on my first year hunting this piece of property last year. I'm going to try to stick to it and not try to blow the 40 acres up by being in the same spot too much or hunting to often.
Most of the time I'm hunting public land where I walk in or kayak in a long ways. Normally if it's anything over a mile of a walk or paddle (most of my places are), I stay all day long even during the early season. I've got two places picked out, one that borders a soybean field, and another a corn field. Both have nice funnels leading too them from a thick bedding area with a lot of water. Another spot I've got picked out is down in the river bottoms with another funnel that goes between a soybean field on one end, too a CRP field on the other. the Northern side of the funnel is a lake, and the Southern side is a very large field that for whatever reason they always mow down too almost nothing in September and the deer stay out of it during daylight because it's very open, and visible from a road.
Afternoons only for me prior to pre-rut if I'm hunting a mature whitetail buck. In my opinion you will cost yourself far more bucks than you will ever kill if you try to hunt mornings. Seems to me there are very few scenarios where the risk is worth it. The only way I'm hunting a morning is if I'm after a doe and I can hunt a stand that is nowhere near where any target bucks. In the afternoons I'm waiting for mild or cooler weather. Here in KY that means highs in low 80s or better yet in the 70s. Then I'm hunting a food source where I'm seeing or getting daytime (or close to daytime) pictures of a shooter. It also has to be a place where access is perfect. This means I'm seldom going very deep into the woods. I'm not hunting acorns except in rare instances. All I've ever accomplished hunting acorns is educating the deer. I know some folks like to hunt acorns (or have no choice) but it's not for me as long as I have corn, beans and foodplots. This all adds up to very limited chances for me to in hunt early season. Our September weather ranges from bad to horrible 95% of the time. That said... you get a really good weather afternoon and it is on. My last 3 bucks have been killed on cooler September afternoons. Last year I didn't hunt till 9/26. It was our first reasonable weather afternoon. I killed a big deer and I was done. I'd take that every year.
Considering our season comes in first weekend of September and it's usually about 95 degrees I may or may not hunt. If we get a cool snap I will. If I do corn piles are the ticket. Oaks start dropping later in September and then the deer move on to those. Evenings are usually the best.
Early season I only hunt evenings. If it's not too hot, I'll hunt two giant white oaks if they are dropping this year. If not, I'll hunt the edge of my thicket. When the rut rolls around I'll do dark to dark hunts on any days I'm able to hunt.
I don't normally hunt before Oct 25 here in Illinois, but I only went out 3 sits all season last year. Didn't have time with my first baby being born. This year however I will be out, hopefully catching an early season cold front and I'll be sitting over beans. Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk
I'll be in a stand over my 40x30 yd food plot about 300yds from my house. The plot has clover and bush beans for early season; turnip, sugar beets and corn for late season.Bucks seem to be coming in the morning right at first light.
I used to have an old hunting buddy that would say in the morning stay close in the evening go far. I hunt a 510,000 acre plot and a 51,000 acre plot of public land. For the most part I have a few spots right off the road that I hunt about 70 yards in the woods. I've had good luck killing them in early season like that. In the afternoons I may go 3/4 to 1 mile. Hi hunt the mornings because I wait on deer season all year long. I want to spend as much time in the stand as I can. My morning places are not my good spots so I could care less if I bust them out of there. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
For me, early season is going to be spent learning to locate mulies in Wyoming (Region A). I have spent the last few months reading everything I came across and reviewing Onxmaps to locate food/water sources on public land. Should be an exciting trip. Sent from my XT1254 using Bowhunting.com Forums mobile app
I enjoy hunting mornings for the cooler temps. It also allows for getting into your spot under the cover of darkness. I have spooked many deer heading to my spot for evening hunts even when I leave early lol. I wil be in a stand about 30 yards in the woods off a corn field with the creek behind me hoping something funnels through.
Here in VT I'll be setting up on a bottleneck between some bedding areas that's about 50 yards in from a feild edge. They cut this hardwood/pine split to avoid hitting the field and catch bucks cruising this looking for does come the rut. Early season I'm still catching early morning buck movement returning to bedding from night movement and catching does in day light crusing this bottleneck. Few bear have been hammering through as well this spring so that's not me excited for bear season 9/1 and bow opens 10/4
It's hard to say for me. Over the last several years, my property has evolved. These days I don't start to get mature bucks on my trail cameras until around early October. Once the bucks break up their bachelor groups they start trying to locate their fall territory. This is typically when 2 or 3 quality bucks start to show up on my property. I've been pretty fortunate and have taken 3 bucks in the last 4 years off my property that were just under 150". Only one of them was on my trail cams in September. So, I'm most likely going to hunt some observation type stands to see if the deer are still moving around the property like I expect. Then, if a mature bucks starts showing up on my trail cams, I'll start to formulate a strategy for hunting him. I'm hoping this guy shows up. I had to pass him the weekend before gun season started because I had already shot the buck in my avatar. I know he made it through the season because I have February trail cam pics of him. Haven't seen him yet on my trail cameras this year though. Hoping he keeps to the pattern.
Travel corridors in between bedding and food sources. Also, find the white oaks that are dropping. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
