October Lull or No Lull?

I also live in West tn union city love early season too where are you at quadlee

 

I'll take a lull out in the woods any day than be at work. You never know what might cross your path. I hunt the same stands through out the year. Middle of hardwoods 20 to 30 yds off logging road.

 

Coincidentally I was just listening to a podcast with Lee Lakosky, Dr. Grant Woods, and Bill Winke yesterday. They were all of the same conclusion that in early October deer start transitioning to more high carbohydrate food sources putting on more fat, and thickening up their coat while in most recent years the temperatures have remained rather high. Bigger bucks tend to lay low until dark far more regularly, but they all agreed, it's no reason to not be in stand if the wind is right.

 

So many factors make hunters feel there is a lull......stand burn out....not locating nut producing trees....stand burn out....belief deer now act like in the rut....not properly scouted before season....crop harvests.....water sources.....more human activity.....all factors which attribute to one saying "lull"

 

I'd have to agree that stand burnout is probably the biggest contributor as to why I occasionally experience a slow October. Sometimes I get carried away and put a ton of time in the stand in October, but with experience comes hunting wisdom. Lately I've only really hunted weekends until the very end of October and beginning of November, then it's game time.

 

Add calling or over calling, grunting and rattling, wrong scent or using scent, bumping bedded deer on the way in, the deer you never saw that smelled you or saw you and turned with it's tail up.

 

Now that's a problem I don't have when hunting. The only thing that spooks the deer on my property during deer season are the uncollared dogs who run through my property, who's days are numbered.

 

Yeah over the years I have learned to shut up and sit there no scents etc. Honestly the last two years the less I have hunted the higher the return.

 

I know, that's what I'm learning but I'm too ignorant because I like to watch deer and study them in their natural habitat. Unfortunately I can't exactly have the best of both worlds if I do that at the same place I hunt. I probably should be more meticulous about when I hunt but it's just hard, hunting is like a renewal process for me.

 

I hunt small property like you and also live where I hunt. I do a little deer watching every day long range and just keeping tabs on the does. I was out dumping the wheelbarrow last night around nine and watched a doe and her fawns cross the fence and work their way to the food plot then the feeder. I keep track of sightings of like that and look at the wind direction and where they crossed. While it isn't hunting it is gathering intel. I get the itch opening day to hunt but we all know the first couple sits in the stand tend to be the best so why not just put that off till prime time, unless you have consistent pics of a buck on camera before dark or you have his bedding location nailed down. For me the bucks come to visit my property tends to be a doe zone they have fawns there and hang around.

 

I live in Union City also

 

Yup. I still hunt a lot but I've grown into the motto of if you want to hunt often gotta hunt smarter and back farther.

Often times when the signs aren't there or the wind isn't right I'll still hunt but know it is solely a "low percent chance" hunt....day up a tree though beats one not and at home. I have a couple properties too that just aren't the best and I'll go to those a couple times to lesson pressure on my main ones.

 

So basically I need to tell my wife that Ty said I need more properties so I can balance my hunting and not over-hunt a specific one. Ok, I will let her know you said that.

Actually it's a good idea, I just need to blame it on you .

 

Bahhaa! One of mine is a 5 acre piece that honestly sees deer really only at last light if at all...I'd rather waste time there maybe killing a nanny than at home on chores. I kinda wish public was close by but none really close...I'd spend some days there pursuing freezer filler if nothing else.

 

I probably do over-hunt my 9 acres. The next property I buy will be 30-50 and will be for building a home (a final home to live the rest of my days in). I may need to call up my old friend who has 20 acres that I used to hunt, I think I took 3 deer out of there in the 6 years I hunted it. It has been virtually untouched in the past 6 years since I purchased my own property.

 

IMO it is most certainly self inflicted if there is a lull. I am another advocate of spreading your hunting pressure around. My goal here in Iowa this year is every time I am just itching to get in a tree but the conditions are not perfect for my few good spots, I am going to go climb a tree on public land and go on nanny patrol. keeping my butt out of the woods unless conditions are right is the biggest contributor to seeing or not seeing a lull

 

I just don't believe in the October lull. I believe a couple things happen with whitetail patterns that cause it to be perceived as a lull though.

- Bucks break up from bachelor groups, and determine pecking order
- Based on pecking order, they will select the best local bedding locations. This causes them to disperse.
- Bucks that were in one spot a few weeks before have now relocated.
- Most hunters just don't know how to determine where a buck is bedding.
- Bucks change primary food sources from easy to see beans/corn to mast (acorns) and don't have to move far to find it.
- Most hunters even if they know the bedding area don't know how to hunt it and/or won't get close enough.
- Most hunters don't pay enough attention to entrance/exit routes and deer figure out they are being hunted because of this.
- Bucks start to go nocturnal because they sense pressure.

I've seen some of the most predictable buck patterns I've encountered in mid October and killed my personal best on October 1st. I'm no expert at it yet though but think that a lot of people would experience a ton of early to mid October success if they hunted bedding instead of food.

 

The bucks I watch tend to break up an go lone as soon as the velvet is off as well as more nocturnal in late September, this is with NO hunting pressure.

 

I vote Lull. My cameras for years have picked up on the bucks going a lot more nocturnal prior to pre-rut activity. This is on land with zero pressure as I seldom ever hunt until the last few days of October. So hunting pressure has zero to do with it here.

 

How close to bedding are your cams setup fletch? Are you confident they are in key feeding areas or travel corridors that are within 100-150 yards of where they are bedded?