If you hunt whitetail deer with a bow you know just how difficult it can be to just lay eyes on a mature buck let alone harvest one. There is nothing better than time afield for honing the skills to consistently harvest mature deer. Early season scouting tips for big bucks can extend your deer season. Articles like this one can help you understand what you’re experiencing in the woods. Mature whitetails may act a little differently than younger deer and if you want to target mature whitetails you must approach your scouting as well as hunting a little differently as well.
I chase big bass throughout the warm season and have found that big deer and big bass take a different approach if that’s what your after. If you enjoy seeing a lot of deer and some sparring and bucks chasing does all around your stand then by all means continue to enjoy those times. If you want to harvest really mature bucks then you just might have to forgo the multiple deer sightings. There are definitely times when big bucks are out there in the action with the herd but these times, especially during shooting light, can be few and far between. Learning about mature deer can help you harvest those that hang back and approach every movement with caution. Early season scouting for big bucks can help you learn about big bucks. I hope this article can shed some light on those questions about big buck behavior.
Early Season Deer Rubs
You should begin your scouting early in an attempt to locate the first rubs of the season. Mature bucks almost always make these rubs because their testosterone levels rise sooner than lesser bucks in the area. When you locate good rubs between say September and October, depending on what part of the country you hunt, mark the spot or hang a stand because you are in the living room of a mature buck. These rubs are not easy to locate, as they are few and far between not to mention the foliage can still be thick limiting visibility during the early season. Take your time and you can find these important sign post.
There is more going on during the early season than you might think. There are fewer mature deer in the woods and this is why this activity goes unnoticed oftentimes taking place well away from fields and food plots. Mature does often seek out the more mature bucks in her area to breed. This all happens earlier than all the movement we enjoy in November. This is mother nature’s way of assuring that the strongest bucks breed the strongest does. The purpose of early season scouting is to locate one of these areas that have early rubs, and get a stand hung. The action will be slow but when it happens you just might be surprised at the buck that has been living in your deer woods for years.
Stay Off Those Fields
When searching for early rubs stay back off the fields. More times than not the earliest rubs will be in the thickest cover and not down where the does come out to feed. When you locate some early season rubs pay close attention to the tree or sapling. A great way to tell if you are in a big buck’s area is if there are licking branches on the rubs. These are little branches or sometimes fairly large branches that the buck has chewed on and rubbed his brow to leave scent to let other deer know he is there. Locate several of these in a small area and you might want to stop and hang a stand because you are close to where that buck spends a lot of his time and to move around much more could just push the buck out of the area.
Early Scrapes
Early season scrapes are also a sign that a mature buck is around. Oftentimes scrapes made by these mature bucks are just territorial sign post much like the rubs were but if a scrape shows up early, where you found the rubs, and it has been aggressively worked then more than likely you have an early season rendezvous between two mature animals in your area. If this scrape has a licking branch above it then hang a stand and hunt. Be aware that you might have only a couple deer in the area to bust you but they didn’t make it to old age by being stupid so be careful getting in and out and be absolutely sure the wind is right or the deer could shift just a couple hundred yards in any direction and avoid your stand location like the plague.
It’s that time of year so get out there and do some early season scouting. Look for early rubs and scrapes in the thickest part of your hunting ground where the big bucks spend most of their daylight hours. Practice strict scent control. When hunting these bucks silence becomes as important as scent control. You might only be less than 100 yards from the buck you are hunting. Thick areas do help deaden sounds and allows for little mistakes but you have to be aware of the sounds that could spook the deer. I think it is a good idea to hand a stand, before going to you hunting area, just to see how noisy your stand can be. I always pay close attention to what causes the noise and wrap that area with tape to eliminate that harsh metal to metal clank that will alert a wary old buck.
Scout For Deer After The Season for Next Season
The season has ended and you’re sitting at home with nothing to do. A great cure for cabin fever is a late season scouting trip to your hunting area. Many hunters consider pre-season scouting as a week or two before the season opens but pre-season scouting can be as early as February or March. In my opinion the best time to scout is soon after the season closes and there are several advantages to this approach. My favorite reason to scout now is to get out of the house and into the woods.
I usually only hunt in November and by scouting in February or March I already know the trees I will be climbing when November rolls around and I can focus on fishing instead of trying to find a weekend to scout. I believe that the best reason for scouting this time of year is the fact that you’re not educating mature deer in your hunting area. Impacting your hunting area with human odor, even a month before the season, can alter the local deer population and its use of your hunting area, especially on public land. Here are a few things to look for and consider during your late season scouting trip.
Lay Of The Land
By February all the leaves have falling from the deciduous trees and the sign is very visible throughout the area. This is the time to just focus on the lay of the land and try to visualize the travel routes of the deer in your area. If you have hunted this area then you have an idea of the direction the deer come from or go to and now is the time to follow their trails and figure out where they went and why. It is always advantageous to know where the deer are bedding and where they are feeding. This allows you to select a tree in between and mark that tree on a map and study that map at home and mark wind directions for that tree so you know when to hunt it and when not to hunt it. Knowing the deer’s travel routes will allow you to choose when to hunt that spot with confidence and all of this is best obtained now when the woods are not so grown up and these travel routes are easier to find.
Staging Areas
If you watch deer hunting videos you have seen successful hunts along field edges and open woods. These areas make for great videos and are even a good approach when hunting low pressured whitetails on private land where the deer pressure is strongly regulated but for most hunters we are limited to hunting public land or heavily pressured private land where field edges and open woods just does not come into play for harvesting a mature whitetail. Yes there are always exceptions but to increase your odds you have to focus on thicker areas of your hunting ground.
Staging areas are places that big bucks will “hang out” while waiting for the cover of darkness before moving on to the open woods or fields. Locating these hot spots in your deer woods can offer some fantastic opportunities for harvesting your next trophy. Staging areas can be close to these open areas or several hundred yards away. It really depends on the pressure in your area as well as the cover to and from the open areas which is usually the deer’s feeding areas. Does congregate in these areas and mature bucks know it and will parallel these does but will stay back until they feel safe to move in.
Staging areas are usually located within small patches of thick cover somewhere between their bedding area and the fields or open woods. These thick patches can be very small and I have even seen bucks use a single fallen tree to stage at. These areas are noticeable by the amount of buck sign with rubs, scrapes and droppings concentrated in a small area. Staging areas are much easier to locate in February and is a great place to hang a stand when November rolls around. While bucks will use the same staging areas season after season they may only use this staging area during the rut because he is hunting does to breed so this is yet another great reason to scout after the season because this sign not only would be hard to find in a grown up woods but might not even exist until the pre-rut. In February this sign is very visible even if the buck is finished using it for the season.
Locate Bedding Areas
Thick areas are usually where the deer bed during the day but locating where deer spend their day can be vital to a successful hunt. During February you can penetrate these thick areas and look for heavy browsing which indicates a deer’s core area and where they choose to be most of the day. This core area can be vital in setting up a stand come deer season and knowing precisely where these core areas are only tips the odds in your favor. I have started on the edge of possible bedding areas before and slowly moved my stand deeper trying to figure out where the deer were bedded. This is time consuming and can either lead to no deer or spooking deer but by finding these areas now you can also locate great stand location and be ready when the time comes.
There are some hunters that consider bedding areas a “sanctuary” and should be treated as such and this is a great practice on private land or hunting clubs but for the public land hunter bedding areas can be your only way to get a shot at a mature buck, especially once the bullets start flying. Scouting now and locating core areas where the deer bed will only add valuable information to your scouting logs. Once these areas are located and trees are marked then you can stay out of these areas until the season,. Knowing where the deer are heading when you spot them is vital and can also help you devise an educated move into the bedding area, without going too far, if hunting the fringes just hasn’t paid off.
If you have never scouted this time of year you should give it a try. Remember to always practice strict scent-control even on late season scouting trips and get in and get out gathering information as quickly as possible and don’t linger too long. This might seem extreme but I spent many years hunting public land without seeing any bucks and when I adopted this method of scouting and began taking it seriously I began to see a lot more deer and have even harvested some good bucks. This is a great time to be outside and enjoy a day or two in the woods scouting for next season while also searching for a couple of backup areas as well.
Check out Poor Man’s Food Plot
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