Early Season Tactics 2 Print E-mail


As an example of how susceptible adult bucks can be, Nick relates the story of a 137-inch nine-pointer he arrowed one opening week of bow season in western New York. He was hunting with his wife, Sarah, and he put her in stands near the edges of cornfields with ripe apple trees nearby. The place was loaded with deer, and several good bucks. No other bowhunters were in the area, and Nick was careful to see that he and Sarah didn't alarm the animals.

They only hunted afternoons, for fear of spooking deer as they approached stands in pre-dawn dark. During a week of bowhunting, Sarah missed the nine-pointer twice, but the buck never knew he was being hunteduntil he wandered by Nick' stand.

"Yeah. I shot my wife's buck," Nick admits, smiling. "But, hey, she had two chances, and I knew we needed to get the buck that first week or we'd likely never have a chance at getting him at all. Once other hunters got in the woods, that buck likely would have gone nocturnal, or been shot by someone else."

Nick says it's smart to be on hunt property long before the season opens, looking for tracks, trails, old rubs, and scrapes. Find choice food sources. Walk perimeters of fields. Learn where deer are feeding and bedding, walking, and getting water. You can't spend too much time afield, he insists.

Late summer and early fall, deer usually are easy to pattern, especially when they haven't been harassed by hunters, says Nick. Most whitetails are feeding in crop fields, around oaks and "soft mast," clear-cuts and thick browse areas early and late in the day. In dry conditions, deer bed around thick draws with water, and they'll visit water holes for drinking. When you're driving a vehicle and glassing with binoculars, such places can quickly pinpoint spots harboring deer, which then must be walked and carefully scrutinized before stands are set. Talk to farmers and friends in rural areas to learn where they're seeing deer, and when, and be sure to ask about bucks. It's surprising how many large bucks are downed every opening day in places where someone had regularly spotted the deer and reported it to a bowhunter, says Nick.

"Timely good buck location information isn't always available, so when it drops in your lap, be sure to take advantage of it," says Nick. "Check out the place where such a buck has been spotted during the 'off season, because the best chance to collect him is during the opening weeks, before he realizes hunters are on the prowl.

"You might begin a day bowhunting such a known buck at the site where he'd been regularly seen, which frequently is a field corner or field ditch bottleneck. Then, knowing plenty of hunters are afoot, you might move at mid-day to a funnel or neck-down area leading to the closest thicket or potential bedding area.

"Be sure to have several different hunting locations pinpointed, and stands set, at least a week before opening day. If you have only one area to bowhunt, have several different stands hanging in various places, affording good chances to see and tag deer according to wind direction and the 'temperament' of the animals-spooky, calm, in pre-rut, etc.

"I 'grade' the spots I can bowhunt opening weekend, and I only tap the very best locations when conditions are absolutely perfect. Frequently, I hunt the least good spots first, particularly 'peripheral' areas if hunting conditions are less than ideal. It can be wise to save the best interior or 'core' spots for when weather and wind conditions are perfect, especially on large tracts of private land."


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