I was wondering how many of you hunt in December. Here in Oklahoma the rut is pretty much over and the deer a skidish from gun season but I love to hunt deer regardless of the conditions. I know the chances of getting a good one are pretty slim but I did tag a doe in last year and learned some valuble things while in the woods.

Post rut in Va. is quite different than when the rut is on, we do see a bit of a second rut created by the young doe coming into season later than the mature doe, but the buck are far less active as the time goes by. I try to stick with narrow funnel areas that they use as escape routes from one area to another if the area has a lot of gun hunting pressure, but if there is little pressure I will stll hunt normal travel lanes between food and bedding areas.

The Tazman aka Martin Price
Founder and President of
Virginia Disabled Outdoorsmen Club

sounds good man, I am going to hunt hard until the season ends & we'll see what happens

There is an article in Bowhunting magazine this month about hunting food sources in the late season. It says that after the rut, bucks need to put on lost weight, so food sources can be a good bet.

I love to hunt in Dec. I hunt in Southern Illinois and have seen some of my biggest bucks around the middle part of the month. The secondary rut will be kicking in and it is a good time of the year of to take a real wallhanger. Hunt the food sources, use the best scent control possible, and hunt a little higher off the ground than you would in the early season, it could really pay off.

Hunting in December here in Iowa usually is good too. We do get a 'second rut' and the leadheads are out so the deer get pushed pretty hard. I'm fortunate enough to own land that has some of the only heavy timber on our square mile of ground. The leadheads get out there and make pushes through the other pieces of timber and the deer scatter and run for cover. That's when I'm sitting on the fencerows leading into my timber. Always get a doe. Just make sure that you're wearing plenty of orange! Those leadheads will shoot at anything!

KEEP IT LEGAL. KEEP IT SAFE. OR WE MAY NOT GET TO KEEP IT AT ALL.

about the lead heads, I hate gun season it is stupid I I will never shoot a deer w/ a gun again I will kill it w/ a bow or nothing. If I kill one W/ a bow during gun season I will tag it in as a gun kill. It may not be totally legal but I shot a 8pt and a doe last year w/ my gun and there was no thrill at all to it. It was like taking candy from a baby. We had a guy take a running shot at a nice 8 pt and thankfully missed and didn't wound the deer but that goes to show that these guys aren't ethical hunters and don't know what a good ethical shot is and isn't. I personally don't think any shot were the deer are moving you are taking a big risk. I have grunted W/ my mouth to stop every deer that wouldn't stop on there own and never had one spook. In all I just hate gun hunting!!!

cado not all gun hunters are slobs, as a matter of fact most aren't, it is just like anything else in life, the bad shows up like a sore thumb, the good ones you never know are there. BTW cado if it were not for the gun hunters the deer herd would be grossly overpopulated and all deer and hunters would suffer. I hunt bow, black powder and gun and I can assure you that I am not a slob hunter, read some of the threads right here some slob bowhunters post.

The Tazman aka Martin Price
Founder and President of
Virginia Disabled Outdoorsmen Club

Ya you are right there are slobs every where and every one makes mistakes too. It is frustrating at times though