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Strategies for Hunting Post Rut Bucks

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Tips and Tricks for Hunting Post Rut Bucks

For deer hunters, we have a calendar all our own, a calendar that non deer hunting folks don’t understand. Other folks live and work and play with their traditional calendar, and they celebrate normal holidays and plan vacations around things like beaches and summertime. But deer hunters, well, deer hunters live a life around a calendar that has more to do with deer than anything else. We divide our weekends, our vacations, and our free time into our passion. Deer hunters think of days and weeks in their relationship to the rut, to moon cycles, and days in the stand.

A serious deer hunters calendar looks something like this:

April to July – Early preseason, it’s time to make a plan for next year’s hunting season. Take stock of the deer herd and wait. There is an excitement around the planning and things to come during the preseason.

August to October – Preseason and pre-rut, this season is all about getting ready for the next. Game cameras, food plots, mineral sites, treestands and ground blinds; preseason is the time to put in the work and make it count. Any time on the hunt during this season is a bonus, and can be super hit or miss. September and October bucks can be patterned, but it’s nothing compared to what is to come.

November – November is its own, it’s special and it’s when the peak-rut occurs. Deer hunters long to spend time in the woods in November. Big mature bucks are at their most vulnerable during the pre and peak rut, establishing territories and finding does that are ready to breed. If there is any one time to be in the woods, November is that time.

December and January – Late season and post-rut, big bucks can still be hunted successfully during this time of the calendar, but it takes some switching things up from pre and peak-rut tactics. Deer have changed their priorities and food and survival have moved to the top of the list, and you have to hunt like it.

Finally February to March – Postseason, the honeymoon is over. It’s time to recover from the grind and make notes from everything the season was and what it wasn’t. Hunt for shed antlers, figure out what deer made it through the season, and dream about what next season has to offer.

Don’t Get the Post-Rut Blues

So here it is, post-rut and there you are with a buck tag still in your pocket. The pre and peak-rut have come and gone, and for whatever reason, it hasn’t come together for you yet this season. Does are starting to get back together, and those crazy days of deer on their feet in the middle of the day are winding down. Don’t let post-rut hunts get you down. The truth is, post-rut can be every bit as productive as the pre and peak-rut season. It is, however, important to consider your tactics when you are looking to hang your tag on a post-rut whitetail. Here are some important tips, tricks, and bits of information to keep in mind during your post-rut hunts.

 

Groceries 

With the breeding season over, bucks have changed their priorities. After weeks of fighting, chasing, and breeding; whitetail bucks are in need of important nutrition and calories.

Finding the feed that deer are using is critical during the post-rut season. Odds are the acorn mass of the fall is either long gone, or rotten. High calorie feeds are critical during this season, look to soybean fields, corn stubble, or late season food plots with mature turnips.

This time of the year, patterning deer and hunting the wind are as critical as ever. Keep tabs on where deer enter and exit the feeding area. The majority of the activity tends to be at dawn and dusk. Keep the wind in mind, both when entering your stand, during the hunt, and when exiting the hunt. Get there early and stay till last legal shooting light, the odds are good that a bruiser buck will show himself in waning light.

Seclusion

Post-rut is about recovery and survival. Mature bucks don’t get old by luck alone. The truth is, a mature whitetail that made it through the rut is both smart and lucky. Now that the breeding season is over, bucks will be looking for hidden and secluded areas to lay low and recover.

Only a few weeks, or even days ago, your strategy to tag a monarch whitetail probably involved does, bedding areas, and travel corridors. Those areas can still be productive, but as the rut winds down and bucks become solitary some of the best locations will be little out and of the way, hard to reach pieces of cover. Look for deer activity, tracks, or beds in little hidden thickets, cuts, and creeks. Secluded areas within close relative distance to a food source can be perfect. Running a few trail cameras in these spots can be productive, just be careful moving in and out.

The Second Rut

November has come and gone, and the whitetail breeding season along with it, but maybe not. Absolutely, the peak estrus cycle of most whitetail does occurs sometime in November, but here’s the deal; in areas with large doe populations and young does from this spring, a second rut may be in the cards.

Many factors will affect the primary rut including buck to doe ratios and weather. If your hunting area has a large number of does there is a chance that some of them were not bred during the November heat cycle. Those deer, along with the young does born this spring will potentially have an estrus cycle sometime in December. If that happens, and you are ready, the action can be just as good, maybe better than November.

Maybe November was hot with a full moon, and the rut happened primarily during nighttime hours. The second rut can be your chance at redemption. Pay attention to deer behavior, and don’t be surprised if tactics like grunts and antler rattling are productive. When you have an encounter, it’s critical to take that bucks temperature by reading his body language to figure out how aggressive and effective your tactics can be.

Make it Happen

The truth is, no amount of planning and tactics will guarantee you a deer. Get out there and put in your time. During your late season, post-rut hunts consider hunting reliable food sources that the deer are keying on. Look for mature bucks recovering from the rut in secluded pockets of cover, and if you’re lucky, you’ll get to hunt the second rut. Don’t let a long season wear you down, this is a great time of year to be a deer hunter.

Late Season Tree Stands

Positioning Tree Stands for Late Season Deer Hunting

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Transitioning Tree Stands for Different Phases of Deer Season

Archery season is over and by this time many hunters have sighted in their rifles for the annual firearms seasons in most states. If you have not already harvested a buck, you are likely anticipating these remaining days in the woods. Anything from bad luck in your tree stands to a nocturnal trophy on your trail cameras may have lead you to this point. Either way, late season deer hunting is a whole different ball game.

 

This time of year deer have been pressured by other hunters, gone through the peak rut and are dealing with the onset of winter. A trifecta of changes that whitetails deal with and change their patterns because of. Deer hunting strategies, particularly stand placement, have to evolve over the course of the season to follow mature bucks through these changing times. Your stands from archery season are, most likely, not where they should be for late season whitetail hunting.

 

Phases of Deer Season

Seasonal phases of whitetails should influence how you hunt and where you hang your tree stands. These phases can occur rapidly, so understanding them and knowing how to change your stand locations is important. This general background on the phases of deer season will lead us to our objective of setting up late season deer stands and discussing other tips for late season bucks.

 

  • Phase One: Early Season

During the early season, whitetails are focused on food. Tree stands should be concentrated around food plots, agricultural lands and mast producing woodlands. This is also where your trail camera setups should be placed to gather as much knowledge of the local deer herd you will be hunting.

Does and younger bucks will move towards these defined food sources in the last hour or so of daylight. Early season deer hunting stands placed downwind and at a point where you can access them with little to no disturbance are usually good bets for meat hunting. However, more mature bucks are going to be feeding in the early morning hours or after sunset. Here you want stands positioned near staging areas. These areas can be small food sources between bedding areas and the main food source or habitat features like saddles or wood rows where bucks will hang out until entering the food source.

 

Additional Content: Mock Scrapes in the Early Season

 

  • Phase Two: The October Lull

Not long after deer season starts, deer seem to disappear. Full food plots and soybean fields quickly turn to ghost towns. The reasons for this drop in deer activity are debatable. The October lull can still be hunted but understand that deer are changing their patterns in response to food source changes and preparation for the upcoming breeding season.

Successfully hunting the October lull does not necessarily mean a change in tree stand placement but rather a change in hunting strategy. Focus on hunting cold fronts, sitting all day and finding acorn crops. Since the rut is looming, the last thing you want is to over hunt a good area and ruin it for the rest of the year, including rifle season. Avoid hunting tree stands in prime areas and save them for later in the year. Hunt, or move, stands near bedding locations and heavy mast areas for your best chance in this phase.

Additional Content: Hunting the October Lull

 

  • Phase Three: The Pre-Rut

As October comes to an end, the October lull gives way to the onset of the rut. Pre-rut bucks are actively out producing rubs, scrapes and defining territorial boundaries. These signs are useful in how to pick a tree stand location. Setup along active scrape lines and ambush points for bucks working rub lines.

Bucks are active in this phase and daytime sightings are common. They will be clearly staying within their defined home range but out during shooting hours and harvestable with the right tree stand placement.

Additional Content: Hunting the Pre-rut

 

  • Phase Four: The Rut

The time every hunter looks forward to is the rut. Does are coming into estrus, bucks are chasing and the deer movement throughout the day picks ups. This time of year, usually around the first week of November through December (varying depending on your location and a host of other factors), is when you should have tree stands up in major travel corridors. Doe movement in these areas will have bucks following. Rut hunting 101 says stay all day in your stands because the mature buck’s schedule is completely out the window. He can appear alongside a doe or be called in at any time and if you are not in stand it is an opportunity missed.

Additional Content: Rut Hunting 101

 

  • Phase Five: Lockdown

The chase is over and bucks have their pick as most does are now in estrus. Mature bucks will lay with does anywhere from 24-28 hours until breeding is complete. Thus, mature bruisers are likely vacant from an area for a few days, leaving only younger bucks still searching for a mate available to harvest.

Emphasis hunting tree stands near thick cover and other doe bedding areas while hunting the lockdown phase of deer season. Be patience as a buck will eventually come out of lockdown and move again in search of another doe.

Additional Content: Hunting the Lockdown

 

  • Phase Six: Post Rut

Buck activity picks up slightly as mature whitetails seek out the last remaining does that have not been bred.  Stand placement in the post rut hinges on those same areas you hunted during the peak of the rut, such as main travel areas and funnels. Travel thoroughfares are likely spots to catch a mature whitetail pursuing an unbred doe.

Food sources also come back into play when hunting post rut bucks. Deer, in general, are depleted and are looking to regain calories lost over the course of the last month or so. Cold fronts play a role here as the bulk of winter months are looming. Acorns and remaining agricultural fields are good tree stand locations generally but especially as cold fronts approach your hunting location.
Additional Content: Hunting The Post Rut

These phases of deer season are not a complete, definitive guide by any stretch. Each phase is far from having a clearly drawn line or timeframe from which one can decipher the end of one phase and the start of another. However, they do put into perspective the idea of how a whitetail changes during the course of a hunting season and some basic approaches to deer stand placement strategy over the course of the season.\

 

Late Season Deer Hunting

With the rut behind us or perhaps just finishing up, the rest of the hunting season can be lumped into what is called the late season. Sure, some second rut activity may start up here and there but for the most part, rutting is over and bucks and does are back to turning their attention to food sources. Hunting bucks late season often marks the start of rifle hunting in most states. Late season stand placement either means transitioning your tree stands back to early season areas on low-pressure properties or focusing on pressure points near food sources for pressured deer.

Whitetail 101 Episode 17 from Muddy’s Trophy Pursuit on Vimeo.

 

 

With the rut concluding, bucks are back to food sources. The need to replenish reserves for the looming winter are great. The catch is, food has changed since the beginning of deer season (phase one). Somewhat unlimited forage has been cut, picked or killed off by frost by this time in the year. December and the months ahead until spring leaves mature whitetails with fewer options to fill up on. Mast producing areas and winter food plots are prime areas to target for late season deer hunting. Also, areas with remaining standing corn or cover crops like winter wheat or rye can also pull deer out.

 

positioning-tree-stands-for-late-season-deer-hunting-pic1

Trail cameras are going to be very helpful to identify which food sources bucks are using. The colder temperatures synonymous with late season hunting can push bucks into food sources earlier in the day, earlier than you have seen them all year. With trail camera tips for late season deer hunting, you can effectively mark these timings and position late season deer stands accordingly.

 

Late Season Deer Hunting Tree Stand Placement – Food Sources

 

 

  1. Inside corners of food plots or fields are used by mature whitetails to enter and feed in food sources. Setup down wind, preferably in a tree stand on a bottleneck just off of the field.
  2. Habitat hubs are places where two or more ridges, wood strips or creek bottoms converge. If you can find one of these stops on a known buck’s travel cycle (think bedding to food) with your trail cameras you are in business.
  3. Defined edges can be anything from a change in timber types (oak to pines) to a cut field edge along an oak stand. Either way, deer will travel edges, especially around mast producing areas to pop out into food sources.

 

Another late season deer hunting tactic during this “last phase” of deer season is going to be pressure areas. If you are hunting on public land, rifle season is going to see an increase in hunter pressure. Deer, especially bucks, are not going to wander out into open oak flats or fields to feed with hunters roaming around. The pressure will have them forced back into heavy cover areas adjacent to food sources. They will still feed but positioning tree stands will be much more important.

 

Late Season Deer Hunting Tree Stand Placement – Pressure Areas

 

  1. Heavy cover will hold bucks that have been pressured out of their normal routines. Transition tree stands to areas that are adjacent to reliable food sources.
  2. Off the grid is a late season deer hunting tactic to find undisturbed bucks away from any late season hunting pressure. Hang a stand deep in the backcountry or on a farm that has not been hunted, along well-used
  3. Alternative food sources are places for stands that can relieve some late season pressure. Instead of sitting over a food plot, look for cut corn fields with some standing rows or groups of hickory or beech that will draw in deer.

 

Late Season Deer Hunting Tree Stand Placement – The Right Tree

 

Late season bucks require transitioning your archery stands to late season locations. Those who blindly hunt in stands without understanding tips for late season bucks will have a mediocre hunting season at best. Once you know where to move your stand, a good tree to put it in makes all the difference.

 

Tree stand setup tips should include a tree that is:

 

  • downwind of where you expect to see deer or where they will be coming from.
  • as far as possible off of the hunting area, food, sign, travel areas, etc. as you can comfortable shoot successfully.
  • multiple stemmed for concealment and positioning accessories.
  • large enough in diameter for good stand placement

Trophy Pursuit: Persistence from Muddy’s Trophy Pursuit on Vimeo.

 

Late Season Deer Hunting Tips

 

Changing up your tree stands in the late season for whitetails is only part of being successful. Your strategy also has to adapt as deer are looking winter right in the eye. After you have your stands positioned for the late season, here are a few hunting tips to increase your chances on a mature late-in-the-year buck.

 

  1. Hunt late. Buck activity coupled with the cold temperatures makes it more productive to spend your time hunting the afternoon and evening rather than the early morning.
  2. Practice shooting, again. Range time is great over the summer but remember that late season deer hunting will have you shooting with heavy clothes and gloves on. If you have not already practiced shooting in these situations pre-season, then hit the range again before you sit in your stand with a rifle.
  3. Weather watching. Whitetails will be motivated by storm fronts so keep an eye on the weather and plan hunts around approaching and departing winter storms.
  4. Keep checking trail cameras. Vital information can be observed from late season game cameras. Keep them up and checked regularly to pinpoint where to ambush that hold over buck.
  5. Explore new areas. Late season is a good time to grab a mobile tree stand and explore some new hunting spots. Setup when you come across good sign (trails, scat, old rubs, etc.) and use it as an opportunity to also find a new spot for next year.

 

In the end for those of us still in the woods with an empty tag, late season whitetail hunting is all that remains until we cap yet another hunting season. Successful or not, each hunting seasons has its ups and downs. Pressured, tired bucks require a different approach such as transitioning tree stands and thinking about late season hunting strategies. Late season deer hunting is not for the faint of heart. But, these late season tips can be your ticket to success if you still need to fill a buck tag.