Introduction
early in the season is very risky. The obvious reason
is because you might spook the buck you are after off
your property for good. It is high risk, high reward. If
you feel you don’t have another choice or your time
to hunt a particular farm is limited you could try this
tactic, but I would recommend staying away from it
and using another tactic.
For many, including myself, October can be a
very frustrating time to be in the woods. The excitement of opening weekend has worn off and your
thoughts begin to drift towards November and the
rut. Chasing a buck in velvet is long over and the rut
seems years away. You are stuck in a transition periWhy? (Food Sources)
od with a hundred different ways to go. The deer
you were seeing in September are getting fewer and
Not only does human pressure change for
fewer and the bucks on your hit list have disapdeer, but so does their food. During September and
peared. Is this a result of the “October Lull”?
early October deer are highly visible because of food
In my opinion, yes and no.
sources. Bean fields, alfalfa fields, and food plots all
draw large numbers of deer during this time. But as
Why? (Human Pressure)
October hits the beans are harvested and the alfalfa
The October lull is all a matter of perspective. dries up. Coincidentally, as these food sources begin
For deer, this time of yearr is full of changes. The ini- to decline and the acorns, persimmons, and fall mast
tial change is pressure due to human activity. Hunt- all become available. As the food sources change
ers have been hitting the woods hard for the last few deer quickly move to different forms of browse. That
weeks and deer have begun to recognize this. This
could mean eating on freshly cut crop fields or findcontributes to a significant change in the deer’s
ing acorn trees. This creates a new issue for hunters
world. The deer begin to feel the pressure of the in- that involves acorns. Once the acorn crop begins to
creased activity and change their patterns to ones
hit the forest floor deer no long have to expose
where they feel safer. For the most part this means themselves in open fields. This essentially means
they will find very secluded and isolated pockets of
that deer can be anywhere one day and somewhere
land or do most of their movement at night. This cre- completely different the next. The fields they were
ates the first reduction in activity that hunters see as using a week ago are vacant and the trails they used
the October lull. The deer on your property haven’t to get there are no longer used. The wide spread
left, they have more than likely moved to more noc- abundance of new food sources means deer will be
turnal habits.
spread out across you and your neighbor’s property.
How to Hunt It
How to Hunt It
To hunt a situation like this where you feel
that human pressure is the cause of decreased deer
activity you need to find the bedding areas. The reason for this is because the amount of time that the
buck you are targeting is on its feet before dark is
now extremely limited. So to have enough shooting
light left to tag out, you need to move closer to his
bedding area. This tactic doesn’t come without criticism though. Moving so close to bedding areas this
So how do you hunt deer that could be anywhere? Well, the first thing you can do is try and find
the acorns. This time of year is a great time to hunt
near acorns. Once you find a few acorn trees look for
any funnels and that lead towards those trees. Set
your stand up on a tree that gives you a good view
point of the trails they are using to get there and wait
for your buck to visit that acorn tree.
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