As a long-standing member of the outdoor community, I’m occasionally invited on “writer hunts.” These little get-togethers involve hand-picked hook-and-bullet scribes, with gear makers there to introduce products, often including the opportunity to test drive new gear the public won’t see for many months. Hunting is the obvious hook, but I enjoy these affairs as much for providing an opportunity to spend time with like-minded people, if not true friends.
I add the latter qualifier because of the fact that standard writer hunts, at least when whitetails are involved, typically take place in October, during the so-called October lull. This is a reality of the increased likelihood of open slots and/or lower outfitter rates — because most of their clients want to hunt the rut, so those dates book more quickly and fetch higher rates. This makes success hit and miss — depending on the local rules of engagement, and especially weather and latitude. For instance, I’ve been on some highly productive early October hunts well removed from rut dates that hinged entirely on the practice of legal baiting.
Through the years I’ve also learned proactive rut-time ploys can prove surprisingly productive during October. The rut is an alluring and productive time, no doubt, but I believe as deer hunters we’ve come to lean on those dates too heavily. I always seem to miss some productive days at home, for instance, waiting for rut festivities to really take hold, as if I’ll be chastised for arriving to the party early.
An October Lesson Driven Home
This was really driven home during a particular mid-October Illinois hunt. Weather had turned crisp, winds were favorable and deer movement was acceptable, though there was a conspicuous lack of mature buck sightings amongst our group of eight. With the exception of one hunter: Mike Mattly, former communications director for Pradco Outdoor Brands. He passed on several bucks any of us would have happily killed — some sure Pope & Young qualifiers among them, and Mattly knows how to field judge deer. He had the leisure of waiting, having access to other Land of Lincoln properties and subsequent hunts scheduled on possibly better properties. His sightings were far from random luck running in only one direction — which certainly happens — but instead his position as Code Blue spokesman and his absolute belief in its scent products.
The rest of us had conceded to the notion of the October lull and that only luck would bring success during our pre-rut dates. So we waited patiently, hoping for providence to shine. Not Mattly, he went proactive — deploying gel tarsal scent and creating mock scrapes with Code Blue Grave Digger products. His strategy brought bucks beneath his stands. The rest of us had received the same products to use, but simply didn’t believe in them in relation to the dates when we were hunting.
A Lesson Learned
That lesson remained on my mind when invited to Illinois again a couple years later, this time during the third week of October, a hunt hosted by Heartland Outfitters — where I killed my first Pope & Young-quality buck many moons ago — and old friends Gary Sefton and Michael Jordan (the one who didn’t play basketball). I was determined to make something happen, arriving with scents, rattling bags and deer calls. You know, standard tools of the Midwestern whitetail rut.
That first morning in Illinois, guarding a gorgeous clover food plot, suffering jet lag after being transported suddenly from Pacific to Central time and the early wakeups required of whitetail hunting, I fell back into my practiced October mode — which is to say I sat still and did my best to stay awake while hoping the clover would provide its advertised allure. I got a couple of glances of promising antlers, had a couple of does pass in range, but looked forward to a hot lunch and short nap. The warmer afternoon hunt passed in much the same manner, but without the antler-sighting jolts. Pretty typical October stuff.
With a solid night’s sleep and a move to a more commanding stand, I started the morning by deploying a scent line, soaking the drag mop in Code Blue Doe Estrous and attaching the line to a long switch to separate that trail from my own. Under the cover of darkness, equipped with rubber boots and pant cuffs drenched in Atsko N-O-Dor scent-destroying spray, I walked one edge of that peninsula of cut corn, beneath the stand at the finger point, and 100 yards up the opposite flank of the corn edge. After returning to the stand I hung the drag mop on a lone corn stalk 25 yards before the stand.
When I could just see to shoot, I produced my first calls, shattering the morning stillness by rearranging the interior parts of a Primos Big Buck Bag. The idea was to reproduce the sounds of two young bucks pushing and shoving without real malice, simply establishing pecking order, as is the natural order of things before the rut really turns nasty. I added a couple of attention-grabbing smacks occasionally, increasing range a touch, but this was more antler “tickling” than all-out battle.
A buck appeared 20 minutes later — whether attracted by scent or calls or pure luck, I could not say. He was cutting across the long finger of cut corn when I hit him with a couple of doe bleats. That stopped him in his tracks, but after scanning intensely for long minutes he continued about his business. I tried the doe call again with the same results. So I twisted my Primos Revolver Grunt call to imitate a mature buck, producing three guttural bursts. That buck came on a string — to 18 yards to be exact — standing long enough for me to get a thorough gander at his antlers.
These were the kind of antlers that — at least for me — induced the twitchies, but no call to action. Heartland Outfitters owner “Doc” Russell, in the standard pre-hunt pep talk, had asked we hold off on anything scoring less than 145 inches. Like much of Illinois, there had been a blue-tongue outbreak a few years before, which had hit the top end especially hard. Doc’s properties were rebounding quickly, but he understandably wanted to give younger bucks a year or two to grow to full Pike County splendor. As an outfitter, this is perfectly understandable. As a visiting hunter who has endured 12 hours of commercial airline hell, it’s somewhat frustrating. If that buck had been an Idaho public-lands buck, there would have been no hesitation.
By the third day, I’d enjoyed two more encounters mirroring that one. Interestingly, I seemed to be the only one enjoying such luck. I asked various members of our party if they had laid down any scents. If they had produced any calls. Some variation of “too early” was the typical reply, as if my experiences were some sort of anomaly.
Early morning of the forth day I met Sefton on the lodge stairs.
“Patrick, I need someone to kill a deer on this deal.” I took the hint.
From Out of the Fog
The morning dawned cool and foggy, visibility variable as veils of mist played through the field and surrounding trees. That is why I almost missed him, a brief hole through the mist giving me the briefest glance at a heavy-bodied buck wearing white antlers. He was moving at a brisk pace, obviously going somewhere. And then he was lost to the fog. I grabbed the grunter and produced an overly loud blast, followed by a long pause to assure the buck was listening, and then three subtle tending grunts. And I waited, my bow still on the hook.
Fifteen minutes passed and I called again, producing more restrained grunts, probing the swallowing fog shifting before me like gauzy layers from an artsy stage set. And then he was suddenly on me, 30 yards out and closing fast, coming head on. I cussed under my breath for not going through the motions of preparing for a shot, reaching for my bow slowly. The Cabela’s O2 Octane camouflage was obviously doing its job, the soft Wooltimate outfit hushing my movements.
Clutching my bow seemed to take centuries, but I was thankful I’d left my thumb-activated release clipped to the string loop. Things were happening in a hurry and I was scrambling to catch up with developments. At 25 yards the buck angled to my right, requiring a conspicuous shift in the stand seat, hitting full draw as he entered a clean shooting lane. But he passed through too quickly for me to get settled in. I swung to a needle eye through oak branches and produced a mouth grunt as the buck’s shoulder showed. He paused, I was already on him, instincts took over and the Rage Hypodermic took care of the rest. The buck ran in a tight circle and went down right before my stand, not 25 yards away.
The Takeaway
The 4×5 buck missed the P&Y minimum by a smidge and Doc’s 145-inch recommendation by much more. My early whitetail hunting efforts were filled with deprivation, so I’ve always had a difficult time passing mature bucks in all but the most exceptional circumstances. Corn-fed venison is also good stuff.
And, of course, the following morning — on the last day of the hunt and looking to fill a doe tag — I rattled/grunted in a more impressive buck, a 5×5 scoring about 140 inches. This didn’t hurt as badly as I would’ve predicted and I remained content and happy, especially since I was the only one to tag a deer that week out of a group of eight.
It’s important to understand that when it comes to white-tailed deer, I’m not particularly lucky. So when I kill a deer and seven others in the same camp do not, I have to ask why. These things are normally difficult to pinpoint, but that week was different. I was hunting as if the rut had already begun, while the others played it conservatively, waiting for something to happen to them instead of making it happen. With Halloween looming, the bucks were perfectly willing, even if the does were not. By taking a proactive approach, I turned what can often prove to be a slow time frame into a fun and rewarding outcome. Just like trick or treating, you don’t get any candy if you don’t ask.
Hunt Early or Hunt Late
I’ve often heard deer hunters relate how they generally avoid early seasons, afraid of alerting bucks that will become easier to hunt during the November rut. While I get the idea of keeping bucks in the dark, the latter assumption is debatable.
It is vitally important to avoid blowing it early, burning out stands you might need later to create a successful rut hunt. Great care should be taken while getting into and out of stands to avoid bumping deer, especially from feeding areas, even if that requires getting up earlier and walking farther.
As important is not becoming lax on scent control. During our Illinois hunt, we employed a comprehensive scent-control regime. Clothing was washed in Atsko Sports-Wash Laundry Detergent and stored in scent-proof containers. We showered in Atsko’s Sports-Wash Hair & Body Soap. Before entering stands we sprayed down liberally with N-O-Dor Oxidizer, and once on stand deployed Ozonics’ HR-300 ozone generators. Between hunts the Ozonics Dri-Wash Descenting System was used to further clean hunting togs.
The best way to kill big bucks — and assure stands last well into the season — is to never let bucks know they are being hunted. A little extra precaution early on goes a long way toward success later.
Save That Meat
One often overlooked aspect of early season hunting is assuring valuable venison is protected from spoilage. I, for one, depend on healthy venison for our daily meat and can’t stand the thought of losing a single morsel. Though October mornings can dawn chilly, midday hours often climb into the 70s or 80s, introducing the risk of spoiled meat.
The first step to assure top-notch table fare is field-dressing deer as quickly as possible after the kill, because the natural bacteria in stomach and intestine content is the first to turn, this “infection” spreading quickly to taint surrounding meat and reduce quality. Second in importance is to get hides off deer ASAP, which allows meat to cool more quickly.
In extreme cases (or while traveling far from home as we were) meat should be deboned to save space/weight and frozen when possible. When this isn’t practical, placing meat in a cooler is second best. I have always shunned ice when feasible, because I prefer that my meat doesn’t become wet from melting ice. Sometimes using ice is the only viable option, but I much prefer handy cooler packs such as those made by Arctic Ice. They are infinitely reusable and create no mess.
I typically line the bottom and sides of the cooler with purple Arctic Ice Tundra packs (-15-degree freezing point), stack meat inside this cavity, and add blue Chillin’ Brew (28-degree freezing point) over the top. This system keeps meat fresh for days while in camp, and especially during a long airline trip home, even in the hottest weather (or if a flight is delayed).
— Patrick Meitin is a widely traveled bowhunter and former big game hunting guide. He hails from northern Idaho.
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