Early season Bowhunting.
 

Howdy,

I need some tips for early season bowhunting. Ive hunted the rut for years but never alot of early season. Yall got any tips you can pass on? calling, stand placement, etc... thanks for your help

if you have a buck you want to hunt, personally i would wait till rut your chances of messing the spot up are far greater than you getting him.

I shoot whatever walks out. Mainly in it for the meat. And if a buck happens to walk out, I'll take him

Hunt the food. Deer are still in their summer activity patterns. Right now I'm hunting in the oaks. The acorns are falling and the deer are scarfing them up.

Not a big fan of this. It's easier to pattern bucks right now then it is during the rut. You do your homework and play the wind right, then your first time in the stand is your best chance at scoring.

Your best bet before the rut is find the food source they are hitting and catch them between it and their bed. Odds are the bigger bucks wont be on the food source til after dark. Unless your really lucky and have some incredibly unpressured deer. Hunting early season is fun.

Hunting in SE Alabama, when planning for early season archery (Oct. 15 Opening), I scout 2-3 weeks prior to opening day looking for two things specifically .... acorns on the ground from the oaks that drop early such as White Oaks and Chestnut Oaks and active travel routes to/from the acorns. My best luck has been on these travel routes.

I do not hunt in any area that I cannot easily and relatively quielty reach, walking into the wind. I try to get in early and stay late. But the older have gotten the earlier I have been coming out !!! By about noon, I am pretty much toast!

I have had a good deal of luck hunting near food plots, off the plot say 150-400 yards in the afternoons. Often it seems that deer will come to the acorns, then leave for the plots about a hour before sunset.

I have caught a few very nice bucks headed back to their bedding area right at morning shooting light, but around an hour after day break and for about another 2 hours has definitely been the peak travel/feeding times.

One food source I discovered deer like, purely by accident a few decades back and to my surprise, is the freshly fallen leaves of the Carolina Mulberry tree. For whatever reason deer down my way love these big ol' fuzzy yellow leaves ... as long as they are newly dropped. Hardly go a season has gone by since stumbling onto this that I ahve not killed a deer off these areas, including some fairly nice 3 1/2 - 4 1/2 year old bucks. I'd love to know what these freshly fallen leaves have to offer that makes the deer in my hunting area flock to them. Once they are brown arond the edges, forget it. But tender and solid yellow, the deer chew them up !

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