The rut drives whitetail hunters. For the avid deer hunter, the magic of November (or whenever breeding takes place in your region) inspires dreams of hunting rut-crazed bucks. It’s truly a time all deer hunters yearn for. As grand as that time is, hunting during the time just prior to the rut can be just as productive as the rut.

Historically, the whitetail’s pre-rut (what hunters often refer to as the early season or October lull) has generated limited interest among deer hunters. Few serious hunters take their vacation in September and early October and many view it as nothing more than a tune-up for November. But with each passing year, more and more hunters realize that whitetails often provide more and better opportunities well before the hot-to-trot rut arrives.

1. Early Autumn Behavior

For the most part, whitetails are very secretive creatures during September and October, especially the mature animals. As September eases into October, the whitetail’s thick winter coat grows in. This heavier fur, coupled with autumn’s warm days, causes whitetails to be less active during daylight hours. As a result, most move at the edge of day and feed at night.

During this period, it’s almost like the calm before the storm. Prior to a buck peeling its velvet, sightings are consistent. However, once they’ve shed their velvet the bucks – especially mature bucks – go into hiding. This secretive phase lasts until the rut.

Throughout much of their range, bucks seem to curtail their activity drastically during late September and October. It’s almost like they are resting up for the rigors of November’s rut when they’ll be continually on the move. Does, on the other hand, seem to continue their normal movement patterns. With doe sightings high and buck sightings low, hunting the pre-rut period can be very frustrating.

However, there is a bright side to hunting whitetails early in the season. During this time, the bucks are in bachelor groups and it’s not uncommon to find several together. I’ve seen as many as seven bucks walk by my stand during an early season sit. That is a plus when hunting this time of year. A key to remember is that once the rut arrives, group behavior is over.

Unlike the rut, when buck activity can be high throughout the day, deer activity during the pre-rut or early season, can be very sporadic. This is due primarily to unseasonably warm temperatures that are common during this time. It has been my experience that from early September through late October there is far more deer activity during the last two hours of daylight than at any other time from sunup to sundown. For this reason, the evening shift will be better to hunt than the first two hours after dawn.

2. Off-Season Scouting

Scouting during late winter and spring allows me to analyze what took place the preceding season as well as learn about the bucks that survived. You’re also able to scout bedding areas actively to learn more about deer habits. One of the key aspects of scouting the bedding area in late winter is that it eliminates pressuring a buck. This, along with locating the preceding fall’s food source, helps determine how to hunt a given buck or area come early fall. Remember, those food sources are your ticket to success during the pre-rut period.

Bucks increase their body weight by up to 25% during the months of September and October. Therefore, it’s wise to scout for the whitetail’s main food source during late August and early September. Work diligently to stay out of the bedding areas. The last thing a hunter can afford when pursuing early season whitetails is to cause them to become nocturnal.

Deer activity during late September and early October is at low ebb because of the factors already mentioned. Their behavior makes them far more predictable during this time than during the rut. Before the leaves fall, bucks instinctively seem to get ready for the rut and all the activity associated with it. As a result, they crave food, and lots of it.

Food preference varies across the country, and some of the best include old apple orchards, stands of oak, beechnuts, corn, clover, alfalfa and fall-planted grain fields, which offer distinct hotspots for early season whitetails. Field crops and apples are easy to locate, but mast can be a different story. If there’s a good acorn crop, some acorns will start falling in late August. Also, use a good pair of binoculars to scan the tree-tops looking for acorns and beechnuts.

However, not every stand of oaks or every apple orchard is a hotspot. Don’t expect to ambush a whitetail coming to feed during the early season unless there is ample cover and available escape routes. If the necessities aren’t there, these food sources will only be visited during the night.

3. The Mast Connection

Next to hunting food plots probably more early season bucks have been killed in or near apple orchards than any other place. During the early-autumn months, deer habitat is in a state of change, and much plant life is stalky and not palatable for deer. Consequentially, when apples start falling, whitetails gravitate to them. It’s not uncommon to surprise a buck as he shows up to gorge on apples.

Portable tree stands are perfect for these types of situations. However, your strategy will have to change if stand sites simply aren’t there; sometimes you must improvise and set up nearby but a little way off the food source. That can work to your benefit, because when deer show up in an apple orchard, they often stay put and make it difficult to get a shot before dark. Mature bucks will often gravitate to whichever tree has the most and sweetest apples under it on a given day. Normally there will be multiple trails leading into the orchard where a stand can be erected.

To get a buck stopped, try hanging a mock licking-branch over the trail. There is a high probability that every deer (does included) that passes by will stop to work the branch with their forehead, preorbital and nasal glands. When they do, you’ll have a great opportunity to shoot the deer in the heart/lung area while it is stretched out working the branch.

Hard Mast: If the bedding area around a food source is not well defined, deer will come to feed from literally any direction. If this is the case, erect your stand where you find the most sign (heavy mast on the ground and concentrations of droppings) and move the stand accordingly if needed.

When hunting mast areas, try to find a whitetail signpost rub — a tree that is rubbed year after year — or a well-used scrape. Usually, if mast is present, the signpost rub and area around it will become more and more active as the rut approaches. Such locations are excellent places for hunting and are frequently visited by several bucks during the early season.

4. The Food Connection

Clover, alfalfa and early fall grain seedings can be very productive hunting locations before the leaves fall from the trees. Unfortunately, hunting around larger fields presents problems because deer tend to visit them only under the cover of darkness. However, if the area is made up of small food plots that are under an acre in size (hunting plots), deer will work them feverishly the last hour or two of the day or first hour in the morning. Also, it’s been my experience that evening hunts will be much more productive than morning during early fall.

If the food source holds, the locations should become better and better as September fades into late October because bucks begin making scrapes in a more predictable fashion. When these first scrapes are actively worked, a buck’s territory is smaller than it will become in late October. As a result, bucks are more predictable when it comes to hitting these scrapes again. Generally, if thick cover presents itself in areas of heavy soft and hard mast, bucks will work scrapes during daylight hours.

Erecting stands along well used trails leading to the field can provide a good deal of action. In most cases, it is important to hang the stand at least 15 feet high and a minimum of 50 yards inside the cover to get action during legal shooting light. If you are not seeing deer with this type of set-up, you’ll have to locate closer to the bedding area. To ensure silence getting to and going from the stand, rake the path to the stand with a lawn rake. This allows for a silent approach.

Trail hunting in and around food sources is at its best during early season. When hunting a trail, try to set up at least 15 yards off the trail. Being close to the deer run creates a host of problems, the greatest being a deer smelling or seeing you before it steps into range. Also, avoid placing a stand on a curve in the trail where deer can spot you when they come around it.

To continue hunting a given area when the wind shifts, secure two stand locations, one upwind and one downwind of where you believe a buck will appear. Food sources change constantly, so use portable stands. Portables allow for optimum movement within an area without disrupting a buck’s habits. Where legal and possible, you should prepare shooting lanes around your stand. After all, it does no good to make all the preparations for a hunt and not be able to shoot when a buck shows up.

5. To Beat a Buck’s Nose

A whitetail can be fooled some of the time, but you’ll seldom beat him when it comes to his ability to detect human odors. If you think you can always rely on wind currents whisking your scent away from the kill area, think again. Master whitetail hunters rely heavily on odor elimination strategies. For this reason, the best deer hunters would never think of hunting the early season without a total scent-free approach to their clothing, gear and entrance/exit routes.

If you don’t control your breath odor, it doesn’t matter what kind of scent precautions you take. Breath odors spook deer as quickly as body and equipment odors. A person exhales 250 liters of breath air into the surrounding environment every hour, and the resulting odor will spook a deer.

Breath odor can be neutralized two ways. Chlorophyll tablets can be purchased in most drug stores and do a good job of neutralizing breath odors. Perhaps an easier way to eliminate foul breath — provided you have apple trees where you hunt — is to carry an apple with you and suck on a chunk of it as you sit in your stand. Apples are nature’s toothbrush and will take away unwanted breath odors.

6. “Fingerprints” Tell the Story

What goes on in whitetail country before the leaves fall from the trees can forecast what will follow. If a scrape is in an active feeding area, check the condition of the overhanging licking branch to determine its use. Examining the size of tracks in the scrape will also reveal a lot about the size of bucks using a particular area. Research has shown that in the North, if the tracks exceed 2-1/4 inches in width, the animal will weigh more than 175 pounds. If this is the case, it’s probably a buck 2-1/2 years of age or older. Often, these early scrapes will turn into primary scrapes when the peak of the rut hits in November.

7. Calling and Rattling

Because whitetails are very social creatures, don’t be afraid to rely heavily on calling during the early season. Bucks, particularly yearlings, are very receptive to doe bleats and buck grunts. If you spot a buck that doesn’t appear to be coming your way, make two or three doe bleats or young buck grunts. Often this is all it takes to bring a buck in close. If it’s a yearling buck, don’t use a low guttural grunt (characteristic of a mature buck), because there is a high probability that the sound will spook it. However, you can use the low guttural grunt if the buck is mature. The key is to have a grunt tube that allows you to make several different vocalizations.

Rattling can work, and often does, for early-season hunters. But unlike the rut, when you rattle loudly and aggressively, your pre-rut rattling technique should consist of trying to create the sound of two bucks sparring. That’s why you might just want to tickle the antler tines together from two to five minutes to bring a curious buck to your stand.

8. Be a Weather Watcher

Learning to be a weather watcher will prove to be as important in the early season as it is to know what the deer are eating. The subject of weather could fill volumes, but basically whitetails are more active during irregular weather patterns. A rapidly falling barometer usually puts whitetails in a feeding frenzy. Therefore, just prior to a storm’s arrival will be an excellent time to be overlooking an apple orchard, food plot or stand of oaks. As stated previously, research has shown that feeding is heaviest when the barometric pressure is between 29.8 and 30.29 inches.

Whitetails will also increase their feeding activity after a low-pressure system moves from an area and a high-pressure pattern returns. Once the low-pressure system moves on and the barometer rises, deer might feed heavily for three or four days to catch up on the meals they missed because of the inclement weather.

Perhaps the greatest benefit of hunting pre-rut whitetails is being able to hunt in mild weather. There is nothing more enjoyable than hunting whitetails when the weather is comfortable. True, deer might not move as much as when cold weather arrives, but it’s a special experience to be in a treestand as the last rays of sunlight fade from the forest. So, don’t wait for the rut because if you do you may find you were late to the party.

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