TR, How about late season?
 

I live and hunt in West Central IL. Our bow season runs well into January. Due to time constraints, I usually hunt the rut as much as possible, then hold out for the late season.

I like the late season for a few reasons- Less bowhunters out and about, and concentrated food sources. It seems the deer settle down and get back into the mode of bedding, eating and relieving themselves. Less available food makes it easier to peg where they will be feeding, and cooler temps usually assure they will show up before sunset.

I have a buddy that has 800 acres of hunting ground, of which well over 500 acres are timber or other cover. He know longer farms the tillable, except to plant winter wheat for deer, done in 5 separate fields. Part of his ground borders a federal refuge, where no hunting is allowed. It is also pretty much inaccessable, so not much human intrusion. My buddy doesn't bowhunt, nor allow bowhunting until after IL's first shotgun season the third week in November. After that, I have the place to myself.

Given these conditions, and assuming hunting will be done the first two weeks in January, how would you go about scouting specifically for bucks? Will they still be rubbing on their way from bed to feed? Will the be back in bachelor groups? How can one use wind direction to predict how the deer will enter the wheat fields?

I'd love to hear how you would approach this situation.

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RE: TR, How about late season?
 

Thanks Braddy.

BTT for TR's input...

RE: TR, How about late season?
 

Forget me.

Braddy's got it.

The only thing I can say is; if you're talking about December you should have a late breeding phase, when some of the does come back into estrus and when the 1/2 year old fawns may come into a first estrus.

But, older bucks (that have been worn out from the rut) look for food to put the fat back on that they lost during the rut. Key in on food sources, where you find late season food sources you will find does, and the bucks will find both. Locate bucks core areas, and food sources, and scout for old rub-lines, trails and fresh scrapes that tell you where the bucks travel. Then setup between the two. The wind dosen't matter to the deer (just like Braddy said) but it does to you. Stay upwind.

Read up on how to "Pattern a buck" somewhere.

The same thing holds true for January, especially food sources.

Let us know what happens.

[email protected]

T.R. Michels

RE: TR, How about late season?
 

So, best bet is to scour the edge of food sources looking for big tracks, trail them back to see where they're coming from and try to find a staging area to set up in?

I'm thinking I'll probably set up an evening or two and do some glassing of the fields to see what I see before starting to hunt. This may be tough to get done though, due to work and all, my best bet may just be to show up, scout, hang a stand and hunt, one field at a time depending on what I see...

It seems like my biggest issue is finding the necessary time to do all my homework. Got any tips for dealing with demanding wife and bosses? :)