Early season hunting

[7mmremmag]

With all the negativity and people complaining about the lack of usefull threads on the forum I thought id start a thread on something that im sure is on everyones mind.
Pre season scouting and patterning deer to hunt in bow season.
What works good for you, what hasnt worked for you etc.
Just throw some good info out there that maybe some of the new bow hunters could try.

Ill start, I find the sooner I can get my cameras out the better. But I have had a hard time really pin pointing an exact area that a certain buck frequents every 2-3 days regularly. Small bucks is easy but I find the big deer that a guy wants to shoot seem so sparatic.
Like this guy, I only ever got a handfull of pictures of him. I moved my cameras around a lot trying to find where he was hanging out all the time

[super7mag]

What a brute . Hope you can narrow it down.
I got few well used trails and pinch points to set up a couple of ground blinds on. There a decent genetics in both places just a matter of getting lucky.
One will be used with a nw breeze, other set up is for a SE breeze.
Limiting myself some but think it will work with my schedule .

[7mmremmag]

Wind direction is one thing I am definitely going to take into consideration this year when hanging stands. Its one thing I have overlooked especially rifle hunting. I had it stuck in my head than if I sat 200 yards away wind direction wouldnt matter. Boy was I wrong!!!
Scent control is a major part of almost all big game hunting

[Leather burner]

I think where they are and what they are doing changes a bit from now until Sept 1, if you are hunting farmland areas. Depending on the crops, when they get harvested, how much natural feed is around.

Also I favour watering holes in the early season when its hot out. But, they drink for less than a minute, and then leave, so you need to be on your toes and get the shot off.

I quit trying to hunt where there is cattle, as I get 10000 photos of cows, or else they lick or rub on the camera. Also they will destroy your ground blind, which is annoying when you sneak in opening mornng to find no blind.

Bugs are a killer if you are trying to sit still, got some thermacells, and hopefully if i play the wind right the deer wont smell them and spook. Other thing I try, to keep me in the stand longer, is to figure out how often a target deer walks by. If its every three or four days, and I have the week off to be in the stand, chances are good i'll see it. Convincing myself to sit there and wait is the biggest challenge for me.

Felling a few tees along a trail is also a good trick to force the deer exactly where you need them to be for the perfect shot.

Nice deer 7mm, if that was two years ago and he survived, wow, good luck! Is there abundant water on the area? if not put cameras on all the water and youll find him if hes still out there. Need to find the most limiting factor for his needs - food, cover, or water, and focus your cameras there. Also, I find after I move a camera, it takes a while to get regular traffic again, so I set them and dont come back for at least a few weeks. Could be too much of your presence moving cameras bumped him out. Anyway, I hope you find him or his offspring.

[Slaya428]

Very nice buck!! hope you can connect with that big guy this year!

[dmcbride]

From my experiences the early season is one of the best times to get a chance at a big buck. In the early season big bucks usually go to the same place to feed at the same time, weather and pressure being a factor.

That being said, big bucks will change there routine if the slightest bit of pressure is put on them.

I like to do long range scouting in the early season. Watch to see where the bucks are coming out to feed or traveling to get to there feed. After you have them patterned it's time to pick a spot to ambush them. The hard part is setting up a spot to ambush them without them knowing. I like to do this when it is storming, lots of wind not blowing to where they are bedding or are coming from. It might take almost all of the early season just to wait for the perfect conditions to get into the ambush spot. This is very important in my opinion as the slightest bit of pressure and the bigger bucks will change there routine.

In the perfect world it would be best to set up mid day during a storm and stay in the stand or blind until the weather clears for the evening. Bucks seem to move a little earlier if there was a mid day storm in my opinion.

Best advice I have is don't hunt ambush stand locations with marginal wind and don't over hunt them.

[L.O.S.T.Arrow]

When It comes to Whitetails I like to find its summer range...but dont bother trying to pattern them until after harvest because that changes the entire game...so whitetails I hunt late...


Neil

[7mmremmag]

This is great, thanks for the great input guys!
Neil youve hit the nail on the head with the harvest thing. I put almost all my eggs in one basket last year for bow hunting whiteys, which I thought would be fine. Until The Outlaws (Inlaws) went and harvested all their crops!!!

All my hard work down the drain, I couldnt even find half of the deer that I had on camera!? GONE boy was I stressed out.

Once all the commotion settled down most of the bucks came back.

That is very good info dmcbride. So you check fields from your truck, quad etc with binos or spotting scope in early season to find where the bucks are feeding???? I hunt almost exclusively farm land now, but have yet to see "Bucks" feeding in specific fields consistantly. And I do a lot of driving in the early mornings and later in the evenings. What draws you to a certain location to check and see if deer are feeding in the area?

Just for the record that picture is two years old and that big boy resides in Cold Lake, and I now reside in Lloydminster.

This old boy was laid to rest 200 yards from where that first picture was taken 2 years before.


158", never had a single picture of him, didnt know he existed until I shot him on Nov 5th. Just lucky I guess


Anybody else have some pics of some nice deer they have taken in a perfectly planned scenario or even by luck?

[7mmremmag]

Originally Posted by Leather burner

Nice deer 7mm, if that was two years ago and he survived, wow, good luck! Is there abundant water on the area? if not put cameras on all the water and youll find him if hes still out there. Need to find the most limiting factor for his needs - food, cover, or water, and focus your cameras there. Also, I find after I move a camera, it takes a while to get regular traffic again, so I set them and dont come back for at least a few weeks. Could be too much of your presence moving cameras bumped him out. Anyway, I hope you find him or his offspring.

Tons of water in the area actually. I dont even hunt that area anymore unfortunately.

[dmcbride]

Originally Posted by 7mmremmag

This is great, thanks for the great input guys!
Neil youve hit the nail on the head with the harvest thing. I put almost all my eggs in one basket last year for bow hunting whiteys, which I thought would be fine. Until The Outlaws (Inlaws) went and harvested all their crops!!!

All my hard work down the drain, I couldnt even find half of the deer that I had on camera!? GONE boy was I stressed out.

Once all the commotion settled down most of the bucks came back.

That is very good info dmcbride. So you check fields from your truck, quad etc with binos or spotting scope in early season to find where the bucks are feeding???? I hunt almost exclusively farm land now, but have yet to see "Bucks" feeding in specific fields consistantly. And I do a lot of driving in the early mornings and later in the evenings. What draws you to a certain location to check and see if deer are feeding in the area?

Just for the record that picture is two years old and that big boy resides in Cold Lake, and I now reside in Lloydminster.

This old boy was laid to rest 200 yards from where that first picture was taken 2 years before.


158", never had a single picture of him, didnt know he existed until I shot him on Nov 5th. Just lucky I guess


Anybody else have some pics of some nice deer they have taken in a perfectly planned scenario or even by luck?

X2 on the harvest thing.

Drive around and find where deer in general are feeding. Then I basically hunt the field from a distance with binoculars. I found that most times it is hard to see bucks in a field from the road. When I mean hunt the field with binoculars, Treat it as if you were hunting. last thing you want to do is bump the big buck your looking for.
I've had good luck with Alfalfa fields The deer seem to come back in a week after it is harvested if there was rain. A little longer if there is no rain.