Outside of the rut where there is no pattern. And I'm not saying it's easy. When is the easiest time to pattern a mature buck and why. I'm interested to see the responses. I'll give mine a little later.
Pretty good question, I think this has quite a bit to do with where you hunt or the type of land you hunt. For a lot of areas that have crop fields or open areas that deer can be seen while scouting, I would say that the early season summer pattern would be the easiest. The ability to see where a deer is coming each evening is monumental. Where I hunt, there is very very little opportunity to see a buck coming into an open area, and this makes it extremely difficult to pattern them. In the woods I generally hunt, I'd say that the late season feeding pattern would probably be the "easiest." When a good majority of the food sources are depleted, you can focus on the "best" area at that time and do fairly well. JMO
During deer season? The deer where I hunt are fairly predictable during the late summer and right up until a couple weeks before season opens. (once the onslaught of hunters hit the park to hang stands and basically wander all over, the deer start doing change ups) Very late season they are 'more' predictable again.
If you’re in an area were you can hunt in Sept. you can hunt the summer pattern. They like to go to the same feeding areas day after day.
I have to go with opening day as being the best time to kill a patterned buck. Followed closely by the late season. Opening day gets the nod for a few reasons. First off there are more of them around on opening day than there is in the late season. Second, they haven't been chased by hunters yet this season. Third, they are very visible in the crop fields just before the season. You have to see them to pattern them. Fourth, from what I have observed, early season bucks will feed in different areas than does will feed. Less eyes and noses to bust you. And finally, no hot does around to pull him away.
Late season!!!! I love the Dec/Jan hunt. You can pretty much count on the weather and not have to worry about a heat wave keeping then down until dark. The females are not messing with their minds and food is priority number 1.
What is your definition of rut JM..?? I mean there's pre-rut.. post-rut.. rut rut.. and each person likely defines it differently.
I would agree that opening weekend would be my best chance to take a particular mature buck that I am after if I know where he is feeding.
I liked the first two weeks of October as long as the bucks are still holding to their feeding patterns when I was still hunting the Raceway. The Raceway was hard to hunt late season because the deer traffic became sporadic due to the lack of food sources and good cover.
Late season for me. After gun season is over and we have snow on the ground it gets pretty easy to find out where the deer are traveling and feeding. There will only be a few quality food sources available and tracking them becomes much easier. There are also very few people in the woods, so a week or two after gun season closes, the deer settle down again and their patterns become pretty solid.
Going only by what I've read or heard, as early in the fall as possible while they are still on "summer" patterns, and during a cold harsh winter in the late season. Unfortunately I have never been able to experience ANY type of hunting that involved patterning a deer. Doing the exact same thing more than 2 days in a row is an oddity around here.
Rybo... same here. I do not recall seeing a buck 2.5-3.5 or older coming out in the same field 2 days in a row. Usually if you see a decent buck in a field or woods one evening, by the next day he is across the road or 2 farms over. There were 2 sets of twins last season (a BB set and a doe set) that I had patterned till late Oct. Even down to within about 30min of when they would show. Does that count???:d :d Some of the guys that use dogs around here are already running them in Aug. to get ready for the Oct. gun season so that pretty much breaks up even the doe feeding patterns.
I'm talking about when the bucks are hounding the does and even they don't know where they will be 5 minutes from now.
Not that my situation counts for anything but opening day is probably my least likely day to bag a buck. 1) Everybody and their brother is out in the woods on opening day which disrupts most any pattern the deer had. 2) My hunting spot is a park that is woods with a bit of prairie mixed in. No foodplots, no ag fields. 3) I have to tag a doe before I can shoot a buck. So... I'm hunting does first. :D
I like the pre rut, when bucks are starting to patrol thier areas and making scrapes and other scent marking.
Definitely late season up here... bow season for whitetails runs from Sept. 1 to Dec. 15th. I mainly hunt mature timber (very little agriculture here). Generally, the earlier we get snow the better the season is for me.
Oddly enough, this past season I played cat and mouse with 3 shooter bucks that entered my food plots 3 afternoons in a row beginning November 1st.. I would move, they would move, I would move, they would move... 3 straight days, and then never saw any of them again. Strange. Like Rybo, I have never seen much of a pattern in my area, early or late. And in 20 years of bowhunting, I have never killed a mature deer the first two weeks or last 2 weeks of the season.
Without reading anything but the question. I'll answer even INCLUDING the rut, the easiest time to take a mature buck is in those States that come in in Late August/ Early Sept. We all go out and glass those Bachelor Bucks Grazing in the beans, imagine if you could hunt them then. Pick and choose!
September, if your state has season starting then,,,we dont!! I had a 140" buck patterened last year up until a day before the season, he dissapered and never have seen him since. He would come out every evening the same spot in a bean field.
