Plan A: I would monitor with trail cams.

If i seen a nice buck, i would stay out, but try to catch a pattern using the cameras to set up a future stand site.

If i see does through out the season, i would come back when they start to seek.

If the does leave, find the nearest food source and try to follow that doe family group (assuming that it is a doe family group you are seeing).


Plan B: Get C'mere Deer! The worlds foremost authority in fishing says its the best hunting product out there! All you'll see is monster bucks!!!

I don't know what type of area you are hunting Jeff. Here I get on trails that don't scream anything. Faint trails with heavy tracks in them. They are not used daily. They are used in cycles. I havn't figured out what triggers which way a buck will travel but the bucks I have scouted over the years definantly mix it up. I think its justpart oftheir survival instincts. I thought it had alot to do with wind direction at first but it didn't prove to be that to me. I see young bucks on a regular basics with regular routines, but when I see a mature buck it seems like three to seven days is the norm before seeing him again.I'm trying to figure out these cycles. I got my own theroies but nothing that has proven itself to a point that I could call it factual.

This is the third time I've heard "cycles" in the last week.....having never heard it before.

ALL mentions were by people who know big bucks. I'm intrigued to talk more about this...as I've never heard mention of it, until lately.

You....Troy and Gri22 have mentioned in writing, now.

When you break the code, you let me know! I could use and edge.

what time frames are we talking then? Late october ( what I consider prerut) through November (rut) the food sources are consistent here. Acorns drop, nearly all crops are harvested by then....Am I missing something?

I'm talking opening day until the rut. ANY time leading up to the rut.

Our season opens here in early September (it' slate, this year). What the does are eating now is NOT what they'll be eating come the rut. Heck what they're eating at the beginning of the rut might be different than what they're eating near the middle or end.

I don't think "mast crops" is definitive enough.....or at least it isn't here.

But....that's for a different thread.

My point was.....where you see does in the early season is not necessarily where you'll see them come the rut.

oh no doubt! Sept to November is night and day changes....I thought you meant over the 2-3 weeks from say late october to early november.

Yea food sources still puzzle me sometimes, it seems like most of the acorns are eaten up long before the end of the season and when the crop fields are harvested...what does this leave the deer to eat
?

When I think "acorns" Tembry...I used to think of them all in the same light. I don't do that anymore. I think they eat them all winter long....but I think they prefer toeat some of them first.....then down the line they go.

If they look hard enough....they won't run out of acorns here.

Depends. As usual there are so many variables its hard to write in words.

Many times a move is preferred by myself. But not always.

A doe or two even three may not validate a move. But the presence of many does over the two sits would cause an immediate move for myself. Especially if the animals were younger.

The phase of the pre-rut would also play a role. A BIG one.

This is a very vague answer I know. But I believe in right time for right buck.. if the timing is correct and the cover is adequate for the deer I want I will hunt it more.

Unlike everyone else, I would want to know why you think bucks are traveling these routes before I make a decision/answer.