SEVR Broadheads // 7 Steps To Your Early Season Buck —
(Article courtesy of Tom Carpenter of Deer & Deer Hunting)
I never say anything — and I try to just smile and nod — when I hear hunting friends and acquaintances make statements like these as the whitetail bow season kicks off.
- It’s so warm now, I think I’ll wait until it cools down a little bit to hunt. No use getting too excited.
- Oh, I can’t stand the mosquitos and other bugs. Need some frosts to knock them back. Speaking of which, wouldn’t hurt to get some of that vegetation knocked back, too. Sure is thick this year.
- Oh, I like to wait for the rut. That’s when the action gets good anyway. I live for the rut.
For those counts, as well as all the other related excuses hunters state for sitting out the season’s first week or even two, I just chew my tongue, probably tilt my head a little, and think: Say whaaaat?
Whitetails are still in their summer patterns — as predictable as they are ever going to be, period — and will likely stay for that first week or two. Take advantage. Hunt. Bugs and warmth bothering you? It’s hunting season. Make a plan for mosquitoes and other bothers. Dress light. Toughen up. Hunt. Living for the rut? Weather and moon and finicky deer can put the kibosh on that. So can emergencies at work, with family, in your home, and among all the other things life throws at a human being. And there you sit, having passed up a week or two of prime hunting. Live for now. Hunt.
That said, you don’t have to be out there all summer long trying to figure things out. In fact, getting ready a couple weeks before bow season opens is the best plan of all, because deer are more likely to be patterning like they will be during the season’s first summery weeks or two. Here’s how to get after it.
1. Scout Hard But Smart
The usual advice one gets on scouting for early season hunts is to sit in your vehicle or at a vantage point on summer evenings and use optics to glass deer from afar. Good idea, yes, but realistic only in certain situations.
The approach can work in farm country, hilly places, ranch land, rolling terrain, the prairie states — places where whitetails come to open areas to feed as the sun sets. What if you hunt flat country where it’s hard to get a vantage point? Or big woods in the East, Northwest, South or Upper Midwest? Or an area where openings just aren’t visible from roads or trails?
Sooner or later you’re going to need to get on the ground and hunt up a good spot to set up. Even if you watch deer in a hayfield from afar, do you know exactly how they approached the field? If you see whitetails working the same meadows every evening, you’re going to have to get there and find a tree to hang your stand in.
You will need to put boots to the ground. In your search, explore the magic early-season trinity of food, water and bedding cover when looking for whitetail sign and unraveling their travel system between resources. The trick is doing it once, quickly and with minimal impact.
2. Set Stands With Stealth and Care
Combine on-the-ground scouting with the process of setting your stand(s). Why come back again when you can do it all at once? Even summer whitetail bucks are not very forgiving when it comes to making a little intrusion onto their turf. Why push your luck?
Get in, do your work and get out. Do it between the hours of 11:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. During the warmth of a late summer day, these are the times when deer are shaded up and least likely to be moving as you take a walk to try and locate whitetails’ approach and exit trails related to feeding areas you confirmed with your glassing or other scouting. Any whitetails you might disturb now are likely to just sidle off and not think twice about it.
Don’t dawdle or stalk: Just look for good spots, decide which ones to set up at and hang your stands. Move and work with purpose. That won’t bother deer as much as hanging out for a long time or sneaking around.
Hang more than one stand. Whether you’re covering on one trail or approach zone or setting stands at a couple places, make sure you have options to hunt in different winds. You don’t want to be stuck sitting on the sidelines when the flow is wrong. I like one stand for west and north winds, one for south and east breezes.
3. Cut “Look” and “Kill” Corridors
Your work isn’t done when stands are hung. Now it’s time to cut corridors through early season’s lush leaves and brush to be able to see and shoot passing whitetails. Don’t just trim out one lane and call it good, rather, trim out two lanes.
Create a “look” corridor and a “kill’ corridor. Like a couple of spokes extending out from your stand and intersecting the trail you’re watching, these lanes serve two purposes.
The “look” lane warns you that deer are passing and lets you get a look, have a little time to get drawn prepared and drawn. Draw your bow as the whitetail(s) pass between lanes. Then use the “kill” lane for aiming and releasing your arrow.
In thick early season cover, it is challenging to see a deer coming, evaluate it, draw your bow, aim and shoot without any lanes (or only one lane). Two corridors offer opportunities to both evaluate the deer and prepare for a shot.
4. Create Quiet Approach Lanes
Use a pruning shears, hand saw and garden rake to clear a final, silent approach to any setup spot. Absolute stealth during the final 20 or so yards of your approach is an essential detail you can control.
Use the hand saw to cut any brush in the way and the pruning shears to trim out horizontal branches and twigs that could swish or slap against clothing. Employ the garden rake to clear a path of twigs and forest duff, right down to the dirt. The leaves won’t be falling for a while, so you should still have a pretty quiet approach come hunting season.
5. Plan Covert Approaches and Exits
Early season setups often focus on situations revolving around feeding, so it’s important to plan a smart route to your stand that won’t disturb the deer you are going to want to hunt.
Most early-season hunting is done during the late afternoon and evening; this dictates approaching your stand from the feeding area, since the deer are probably beyond it. If you’re conducting a morning hunt, make a plan for coming in the back door: Avoid the feeding grounds and execute your movements under complete pre-dawn darkness.
In the same fashion, you need to think through and identify your no-impact exit routes, especially for those evening hunts.
6. Employ Standing Crop Solutions
Crop fields and whitetail country go hand in hand in many places.
Therein lies the challenge: How to hunt whitetails in a jungle of cornstalks. But whether it’s a five-acre corn patch tucked away on the backside of a farm, a 40-acre field of the stuff, or a full quarter-section of 160 acres, there is a method to the not-so-madness of trying to kill a deer when the crops are standing.
- Watch a seam. Set a stand (treestand or ground blind) at a seam or edge between the corn and other cover — usually timber, a brushy fenceline, a wetland, or a brush-filled or cattail-choked ditch.
- Identify a prime micro-site for a stand on the edge of the corn: look for shaded areas, wet spots or other zones where the corn didn’t grow as tall; any field-of-view you can glean is invaluable.
- Stake out a point. Look for points and peninsulas of cover (timber, prairie grass, wetland cattails) that jut into the corn or beans. Described another way: Seek out pieces of cover that the crops wrap around. Whitetails will readily use these swaths of cover to loaf and to travel between sections of the field. Place a stand right there.
7. Hunt Water
Early season isn’t just for hunting the feed. You don’t have to limit your hunting to just evening and early morning sessions.
One of the best places to set a stand is near a water source surrounded by cover – a place that whitetails feel safe venturing for a late morning drink. The hours of 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. are prime for this kind of watering activity, as is the late afternoon.
Every hunting spot is different, so you’ll have to figure out where your water sources are. Three of my better water locations include a woodland creek crossing, a thicket near a spring at the base of a wooded hill and a shady trail along a mid-size stream.
Conclusion
Sitting out the first week or two of bow season is choosing to sit on the sidelines when the game is on. Work with the steps outlined to put together your own plan to get ready for what may well be your best chance of the season to arrow a buck. Then get out and hunt.
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Our thanks to Deer & Deer Hunting for this feature – check out the full article here: https://www.deeranddeerhunting.com/content/articles/7-steps-to-your-early-bird-buck
