By Ryan Fair
There’s nothing quite like that first sit of the season. As hunters we have waited a grueling 7 to 9 months to hit the timber again chasing whitetails, depending on your location. You have spent your spring and summer scouting, planting plots, running trail cameras, and prepping hunting locations. Now it’s time for the moment of truth, opening day. While there is a lot to be excited about, keep in mind you can also do a lot of damage. When hunting early season whitetails, you must be smart and strategic.
If not, you will send all your local deer to your neighboring properties before you ever have a chance to truly hunt them. Let’s break down some early season tactics to keep you in the game from the start of the season up to pre-rut.
Scouting is key.
There are a few different ways to scout deer this time of year. Whether it be behind your favorite spotting scope, Vortex binoculars, or by monitoring movement through your Tactacam Revels. The main thing you want to know is that you have a buck to hunt before you head to the timber. Once you locate a buck it’s time to get a pattern on him, whether it be a bed to feed or feed to bed pattern, you want to know his every move. Pay attention to the wind direction he prefers and how he uses the wind to his advantage. I will start collecting this data as soon as he sheds velvet but remember this pattern will be short lived. Once I collect all my data, I will place myself in a safe position where I can access undetected to hunt him. You may only get one or two chances to hunt this pattern so pay attention to every little detail.
Time to bulk up.
As the days get shorter and the calendar inches closer to November, the bucks start to go through some major changes. As soon as they shed their velvet, they start to build testosterone more and more each day. They will break away from their bachelor groups, start to spar, frequent scrapes more often, and start rubbing trees. They know the rut is getting closer by the day and with that comes running their body’s ragged. For this reason, during early season bucks will start to bulk up on food eating more now than they have all summer. Now is the time you want to key in on a great food source and slip in undetected. You never know what buck you might see. The key food sources to hunt are soybean fields that are still green, the edges of corn fields, feeders, and food plots. Agricultural fields will start to be harvested during this time frame so they can shift to new food sources in a hurry. As I type this blog post up our Rakk Fuel food plots are starting to get visited more frequently by the same bucks as well as some new faces. If this pattern keeps up, I believe we may see a good buck go down in the coming weeks.
Deer candy.
One of the whitetails favorite foods are acorns. They are packed full of nutrients and must taste good as well. It’s almost like candy to them. Whitetails will seek out oak trees in the early season, sometimes moving long distances for acorns. For this reason, hunting oak trees packed full of acorns can lead to great early season hunts. I like to find oak trees that are next to bedding or cover that are packed full of acorns during the summer. I will then hang a Rivers Edge tree stand within shooting distance of said tree and hang a Revel camera to monitor. Once the acorns start to fall and the deer show up my camera will alert me. As soon as deer start to show up and you can get to the stand undetected, get in there. This can be a great place to tag an early season buck.
Have a backup plan.
Like I said earlier, we have all been patiently waiting since the end of last season to get back into a tree so have a backup plan. By this I mean if you have no good bucks in your best spots don’t go in and hunt them. Find some public land close by or knock on some doors and get permission for a new area. This will allow you to get out and hunt while leaving your best spots unpressured. Nothing ruins a hunting area faster than human pressure and the last thing you want to do is ruin a good spot just to sit in a tree. I always enjoy these hunts because you never know what to expect. You may find a new honey hole or better yet tag the buck of a lifetime. Regardless of what strategy you use it is time or about time to start the game of cat and mouse that we have all been waiting for. Brad has already arrowed the first good buck of the season for the team and the rest of us can’t wait to get out there. From all of us here at Working Class Hunter, good luck and have fun.
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