Mount Dave,

Depending on when your early season starts plays greatly into your strategy for hunting bucks. The feeding phase of the whitetail buck begins to change once he sheds his velvet and produces testosterone. This usually takes place around the first week or two of September. Here I began hunting August 30th. Bucks are still traveling from bed to feed, regulary in their summer "feeding phase", but as the daylight deminishes, so do the sightings of the most mature bucks at the edges of fields and clearcuts (foodsources) I always log what time of night I see a big buck enter a field or clearcut in JULY and AUGUST, knowing that if he just hits it at dark.... then, by August 30th my opener for bow, I will have to move back in the timber to intercept him near his bed, since the days will have become much shorter by almost 1 hour compared to the July and August late lighted evenings.

As many of the guys have said already you may have to move back in off a food source once you see some bucks you want to hunt. This depends on your starting date of archery and could easily depend on the PRESSURE your area gets. If a buck feels comfortable in the daylight of evening then you may beable to hunt him on the foodsource edges. Here I hunt public land. ELk hunters hammer the woods starting August 30th and the whitetail bucks get educated really quickly that hunting season is on for another round.

Each habitat and hunting situation is different with the variables that we could throw into an equation, know your variables and make a sound game plan accordingly.

I do believe this, the best time to pattern a MATURE buck hands down is in his summer feeding phase, if you can hunt that early, and I have about a 2 week window here to do that, but the best of the best is the first 4 or 5 days of that window. Once he sheds his velvet here, begans to notice alot of ELk hunters running around in the mountains, and calling bulls, he knows the game is on and he changes his daylight activity.

The rut is great hunting and most will argue that the scraping phase or breeding phase is the best time to hunt mature bucks, and I would agree if we say bucks, but hunting a specific buck, I give the summer feeding phase the upper hand, they are much easier to pattern this time of year. Its tricky though, 100 degree weather, scent flows like water release from a dam and the squeeters are always a pleasure that time of year. That's what makes if fun though!

I am watching about 35 public land bucks right now, this summer. I have 5 different areas I am hunting. I have one particular buck I really like. He is a very tall tined 5x5 that should gross in the high 150's and may surprise me and make 160's...I have watched him 3 times now in the past 2 weeks. All three times that I have went in there he has showed up, I am watching him from about 1000 yards away. Each time he is showing up at about 8:00 p.m. and hes always alone so far. By August 30th, it will be dark then. I already due to the structure of the land...have a good Idea where I am gonna set up on him. He feeds out of the timber into a huge clearcut, from the top of the highest ridge on that clearcut. He has come out of the timber each of the three times off that ridge, by opening day I should have him dialed in. Now that his tines are almost fully grown, I plan to video from here on out, along with the othe bucks I have been keeping tabs on and of course I hope to see even more before the summer is over. This is a great time to be scouting, my favorite.

Good luck,
Shed