Early season mornings...

[tree_ghost]

I have often heard that in the early bow season morning hunts for mature bucks are very very tough and it is better to sit them out and hunt the evenings or just hunt mornings for does. I was sitting here thinking about it and I don't recall ever seeing a mature buck in the morning before the end of October. I'd like to know what your experience with hunting early season bucks is? Have you found any common factors that have increased your ability to be successful in the early season? Maybe food, bedding, travel corridors, water etc... Also have you found hunting early season mornings to be detrimental in the fact that you educate the deer more quickly?


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[Mission08]

I have seen a few mature bucks on opening weekend hunting mornings. All were on travel areas from bean fields back to bedding areas.

 

[J_W]

I think it's detrimental to future hunting on a small or medium size property, but it also depends on how the place lays and how you can access/exit productive travel areas.

 

[Buzzard Breath]

Good subject. On the primary farm I hunt, I always hunt the first 5 days of the season. It's pretty easy to get setup between their food and bed and I've had some luck at killing mature bucks this week. I'll then avoid the property until the last week of October. I love calling and decoying bucks and have found that I have the most success doing this at the end of October, primarily mornings. They tend to hangup in the evenings, waiting until dark to move in. Much like coyotes.

On heavily hunted public land, deer get bumped throughout the day and I've seen mature bucks at all times through October. I do notice that I have more sightings of them doing more natural movements at the end of the day and hardly ever in the mornings.

 

[Stykbow]

I take a very simple approach to hunting. Deer gotta eat, drink, and sleep regardless of weather. I hunt every morning and evening I can. While I've not killed a nice buck with my bow I see them every season on morning hunts.


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[tree_ghost]

Good subject. On the primary farm I hunt, I always hunt the first 5 days of the season. It's pretty easy to get setup between their food and bed and I've had some luck at killing mature bucks this week. I'll then avoid the property until the last week of October. I love calling and decoying bucks and have found that I have the most success doing this at the end of October, primarily mornings. They tend to hangup in the evenings, waiting until dark to move in. Much like coyotes.

On heavily hunted public land, deer get bumped throughout the day and I've seen mature bucks at all times through October. I do notice that I have more sightings of them doing more natural movements at the end of the day and hardly ever in the mornings.

Do you find that the buck beds are found in a similar area as the doe beds?


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[Buzzard Breath]

Do you find that the buck beds are found in a similar area as the doe beds?

I may end up proving myself wrong, but I've noticed the does typically want to bed in patches of the thickest stuff they can find. Most of the time it's towards the mid to upper elevation of a ridge. The bucks tend to bed in more open woods in a smaller thicket, think a single tree top that has fallen in an open woods, and it tends to be towards the top of the ridge, or right on top if it is a narrow ridge and the buck has good views and escape routes down both sides. The bucks approach these ridgetops from the sides by staying at the same elevation until the ridge drops too them, so my stands are always just off the side.

In the early season, I make sure I get into my stand waaaaaayy before daylight and make sure I do it slowly and quietly. Which is sometimes hard with a climber, but it's pretty much what I use these days. Days are long, so the middle of the day is made for napping back at camp. It makes those early morning hunts a lot more tolerable.

 

[J_W]

Interesting. I see much the same, but I also see doe groups bedding closest to prime food sources in areas they cannot be approached without alerting.

 

[muddyboots]

I just hunt does until end of October. Then I move to my good spots.

 

[landman]

Good subject. On the primary farm I hunt, I always hunt the first 5 days of the season. It's pretty easy to get setup between their food and bed and I've had some luck at killing mature bucks this week. I'll then avoid the property until the last week of October. I love calling and decoying bucks and have found that I have the most success doing this at the end of October, primarily mornings. They tend to hangup in the evenings,

I like your style of hunting

I know of a outfitter in KY that hunts first 5-10 days bow season
then no hunting until Rifle season

I personally don't hunt a lot in mornings first part of bow
unless weather hits right with the wind in and
area I have setup with ladder stand

 

[ROUGH COUNTRY HUNTER]

I love hunting in the evenings,but my mature buck sightings are equal between morning and evening

 

[tree_ghost]

Do you find that the buck beds are found in a similar area as the doe beds?

I may end up proving myself wrong, but I've noticed the does typically want to bed in patches of the thickest stuff they can find. Most of the time it's towards the mid to upper elevation of a ridge. The bucks tend to bed in more open woods in a smaller thicket, think a single tree top that has fallen in an open woods, and it tends to be towards the top of the ridge, or right on top if it is a narrow ridge and the buck has good views and escape routes down both sides. The bucks approach these ridgetops from the sides by staying at the same elevation until the ridge drops too them, so my stands are always just off the side.

In the early season, I make sure I get into my stand waaaaaayy before daylight and make sure I do it slowly and quietly. Which is sometimes hard with a climber, but it's pretty much what I use these days. Days are long, so the middle of the day is made for napping back at camp. It makes those early morning hunts a lot more tolerable.

I agree with you 100% on this. I also agree that if your hunting early season mornings it really needs to be imperative that your in your stand way way before daylight. What I have found in my experience and research is that bucks will tend to enter the food source last in the evening after the majority of other deer. But on the flipside of the coin they will usually be the first to leave the food source under the protection of darkness and head back to the cover of bedding. To me you have a few key pieces to the puzzle that have to be met in early season in order to kill a mature buck
1. You have to know where he's bedding
2. You have to have a bullet proof entry to the stand where you aren't blowing deer out
3. You have to be in there and set up well before dark. I will also add to this that it's important not to get to close to his bedding area that if he's already in bed when you get in the tree that you blow him out on your exit.


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[AT Hiker]

Count me in on the first few days of season then late Oct crowd.
Early season mornings are tough if you hunt food sources, for me deer are already in them and hunting their travel patterns not far off the edge works if you can get in without being busted.


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[Mike Belt]

I do 90% of my bow hunting in the mornings. I've seen 90% of my better bucks during the other 10% of my bow hunting in the afternoons. When hunting fields or food sources (acorns) usually those better bucks don't appear until just before dark. If you can figure out where they may be bedding and where they'll head you can up your shooting light by setting up closer to where they bed if possible.

I agree that while bow hunting you educate many of the deer you're attempting to hunt later into the season. Although while early on a buck may be more "patternable" in his immediate area, he is also probably on the verge of leaving his summer range. It doesn't take much to push him on his way and it doesn't take much to tip the does off that they're being hunted as well. As much as I like sticking a deer I'd opt for bow hunting the first week and then completely skipping hunting until just at pre rut. I'm all for hunting a more optimum time frame.

 

[Andy S.]

The handful of mature bucks that I have seen on early season morning bow hunts were all coming to white oaks that were bombing, as was most other deer in the area. If you told me I had to kill a mature buck with a bow, I would focus on evening hunts alone as it seems more of them are on their feet right at dark (last 30 minutes), but your setup has to be perfect to make it all come together before it gets dark.

 

[Andy S.]

I've seen 90% of my better bucks during the other 10% of my bow hunting in the afternoons.

Same here Mike.

 

[tree_ghost]

So it seems that the common thread here to be successful in killing a big buck in the early season in general is finding a bucks bed...
Buzzard Breath gave us some great tips on locating buck beds in hill country of east TN but what about in middle or west TN where it's predominately flat?


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[Os2 Outdoors]

Count me in on the first few days of season then late Oct crowd.
Early season mornings are tough if you hunt food sources, for me deer are already in them and hunting their travel patterns not far off the edge works if you can get in without being busted.


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I'm in the same boat here, except that I'm fortunate enough to have enough land to hunt that I can hunt relatively new deer up until about Thanksgiving.

I do hunt mornings. Basically everything you need to know has been stated. Bullet proof entrance, early to stand, know where he lives, etc.

tree ghost I killed this 6 1/2 year old buck easing back to bed a few years ago September 14 in KY. He was coming from beans along a swamp and standing corn. Bullet proof entrance along the water. Note worthy here is he had 8 other bucks with him, very nerve wracking with that many eyes an noses under you at 10 yards lol

Do you find that the buck beds are found in a similar area as the doe beds?

I may end up proving myself wrong, but I've noticed the does typically want to bed in patches of the thickest stuff they can find. Most of the time it's towards the mid to upper elevation of a ridge. The bucks tend to bed in more open woods in a smaller thicket, think a single tree top that has fallen in an open woods, and it tends to be towards the top of the ridge, or right on top if it is a narrow ridge and the buck has good views and escape routes down both sides. The bucks approach these ridgetops from the sides by staying at the same elevation until the ridge drops too them, so my stands are always just off the side.

In the early season, I make sure I get into my stand waaaaaayy before daylight and make sure I do it slowly and quietly. Which is sometimes hard with a climber, but it's pretty much what I use these days. Days are long, so the middle of the day is made for napping back at camp. It makes those early morning hunts a lot more tolerable.

I agree with you 100% on this. I also agree that if your hunting early season mornings it really needs to be imperative that your in your stand way way before daylight. What I have found in my experience and research is that bucks will tend to enter the food source last in the evening after the majority of other deer. But on the flipside of the coin they will usually be the first to leave the food source under the protection of darkness and head back to the cover of bedding. To me you have a few key pieces to the puzzle that have to be met in early season in order to kill a mature buck
1. You have to know where he's bedding
2. You have to have a bullet proof entry to the stand where you aren't blowing deer out
3. You have to be in there and set up well before dark. I will also add to this that it's important not to get to close to his bedding area that if he's already in bed when you get in the tree that you blow him out on your exit.


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[Os2 Outdoors]

So it seems that the common thread here to be successful in killing a big buck in the early season in general is finding a bucks bed...
Buzzard Breath gave us some great tips on locating buck beds in hill country of east TN but what about in middle or west TN where it's predominately flat?


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In my neck of the woods, northern middle Tennessee. Food, food, food. He will bed pretty close to the dominant food source at the moment. Sometimes literally within a 100 yards.

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[tree_ghost]

Count me in on the first few days of season then late Oct crowd.
Early season mornings are tough if you hunt food sources, for me deer are already in them and hunting their travel patterns not far off the edge works if you can get in without being busted.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I'm in the same boat here, except that I'm fortunate enough to have enough land to hunt that I can hunt relatively new deer up until about Thanksgiving.

I do hunt mornings. Basically everything you need to know has been stated. Bullet proof entrance, early to stand, know where he lives, etc.

tree ghost I killed this 6 1/2 year old buck easing back to bed a few years ago September 14 in KY. He was coming from beans along a swamp and standing corn. Bullet proof entrance along the water. Note worthy here is he had 8 other bucks with him, very nerve wracking with that many eyes an noses under you at 10 yards lol

Do you find that the buck beds are found in a similar area as the doe beds?

I may end up proving myself wrong, but I've noticed the does typically want to bed in patches of the thickest stuff they can find. Most of the time it's towards the mid to upper elevation of a ridge. The bucks tend to bed in more open woods in a smaller thicket, think a single tree top that has fallen in an open woods, and it tends to be towards the top of the ridge, or right on top if it is a narrow ridge and the buck has good views and escape routes down both sides. The bucks approach these ridgetops from the sides by staying at the same elevation until the ridge drops too them, so my stands are always just off the side.

In the early season, I make sure I get into my stand waaaaaayy before daylight and make sure I do it slowly and quietly. Which is sometimes hard with a climber, but it's pretty much what I use these days. Days are long, so the middle of the day is made for napping back at camp. It makes those early morning hunts a lot more tolerable.

I agree with you 100% on this. I also agree that if your hunting early season mornings it really needs to be imperative that your in your stand way way before daylight. What I have found in my experience and research is that bucks will tend to enter the food source last in the evening after the majority of other deer. But on the flipside of the coin they will usually be the first to leave the food source under the protection of darkness and head back to the cover of bedding. To me you have a few key pieces to the puzzle that have to be met in early season in order to kill a mature buck
1. You have to know where he's bedding
2. You have to have a bullet proof entry to the stand where you aren't blowing deer out
3. You have to be in there and set up well before dark. I will also add to this that it's important not to get to close to his bedding area that if he's already in bed when you get in the tree that you blow him out on your exit.


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That's an awesome deer Matt! I imagine you were scared to breath with that many bucks around you.

I agree that the bucks, and in particular the mature bucks, will bed as close to the food source as possible in my area too.


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[easy45]

I've had some great hunts in oak flats and around persimmon trees in between bedding and crop fields, the key was always finding a way to the stand without spooking the deer out of the fields


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[Mike Belt]

Great buck Os2.! I would imagine that that many bucks at close bow range was a major rush. Aside from the antlers I think when you are attempting to get a shot off it's just as exciting if they're all does. My major coup was with 18 does and fawns from point blank range out to 20 yards. Getting into position, drawing, and making the shot and doing so in between several sets of eyes staring up at you at any one time while some of them are even touching the base of the tree you're in is one of the highlights of my bow hunting career...especially since I was singling out a particular deer and making a good shot count.