Ok, I know Im going to catch it on this topic, but it's only from my own experiences... I have seen bigger bucks in the early season more often than in the rut here Va. I feel my chances are better of killing a big buck in early bow season than any other part the season. What about you guys??

My opinion is.....I have no experience in being able to hunt them when they're on their summer feeding pattern. So.....I have to wait for the rut.

I'm working on a new spot that will give me access to some ag crops......and I'm gonna try it the "other" way.

I'll let you know.

I don't know what it is, I guess they are easier to pattern this time of year..

Pre to early rut. Last week of Oct. and first week of Nov. Magic!!! 6 out of 9 bucks on my wall say that is time to be in the stand.

It's amazing..

If your season has an opening day before the 1st week of Oct. you stand a good shot at taking a mature buck. The reason is because it allows you to catch a mature buck while he's still on a predictable feeding pattern. Usually, for my area, after the first week of Oct. the bucks break up out of their bachelor groups and go to their core areas. They remain there until around Oct. 17th when they start coming put before dark to check on does around a food source. One other thing I've noticed is that the biggest bucks usually hang by themselves, not in bachelor groups. They do their own thing. Sometimes you can catch one early but they are more difficult to pattern.

I've only killed one decent buck the first week of October in the last 6 years of bowhunting. I got lucky one day and shot a 7 pointer on October 9th one year as he was heading into feed the last 30 minutes of sunlight----other than that, I rarely see bucks before the last few days of October. I could see how one could be pretty productive if they had private property to hunt and could pattern some bucks early. That would be great but that is not realistic for me.

Greg, it seems to be a window of opprotunity from the 1st week of Oct to the 3 rd week of Oct here where I hunt. When the rut comes, my buck sightings slide down a little, but just before the rut comes is when I usually kill my better bucks. Last week of Oct actually. However, Im not good at hunting big bucks in the rut I guess, I can't seem to predict them at all.

Shadow, where are you hunting up there in Nova??

I hunt on Quantico about 100% of the time as I have nowhere else to go I can't complain because it is close to home and if you work hard you can kill deer.