Hunt

The first few weeks of October are almost a season on their own. Everything changes, leaves are turning, farmers are harvesting crops, weather fronts are fluctuating, and bucks are easing into their fall patterns and ranges. It’s also the period known as the infamous October lull. Spending most of...

September is a celebrated month among the hunting community. While some hunters focus on bugling bulls or rutting antelope, September is equally tantalizing for whitetail hunters. While keeping areas fresh for the November rut can be a sage strategy for whitetailers, you might be missing out on some...

While many hunters value agricultural fields as reliable food sources for deer, one negative aspect of standing cornfields is that mature bucks rarely leave them. Standing corn makes for secure bedding, feeding, and breeding. These reasons give bucks little reason to stray very far. Rather than...

Hunt with me just once, and you’ll know at least one thing about me: I focus a lot of my whitetail attention on scrapes. Even in September, which goes against conventional whitetail wisdom. I think I make a sound argument that September and early October is the best time to target a mature whitetail...

Once November hits my internal countdown clock begins driving me into a mild panic as each day passes without killing a buck. I know I’m not the only one. A lot of us have been programmed to believe that the first two weeks of November are our absolute best chance to kill a buck all year, and if it...

I wasn't a math major, but I can figure out addition and subtraction when it comes to hunting. There are 24 hours in a day, seven days in a week, and 30 days in November. Of that time, legal hunting hours make up 45% of the month. Factor in the days that aren't available to hunt because of work...

Every week this fall, I’ll be providing updates on whitetail buck movement for the entire country. These reports are based on intel from whitetailers in each region and my own observations as a traveling deer hunter. For more info like this, subscribe to the Rut Fresh Radio Podcast and Whitetail...

It’s easy to think that once the rut is in full swing you ought to be spending every possible waking moment on stand. While this certainly may be a valid argument, does it mean that you should sit your best stand day in and day out? Some believe it’s impossible to burn out a rut stand simply because...

Having a good ground game is as important to a whitetail hunter as being able to kill deer from a tree. Versatility is your friend, and there are times of the year—like the late season—where one style can offer up an advantage over the other. If you’re looking to arrow a buzzer-beater buck, your...

Most hunters live for the rut and invest the bulk of their vacation days in this unpredictable yet exciting time of year in the whitetail woods. But Neil Dougherty isn’t most hunters. A wildlife habitat consultant with decades of land management and whitetail success under his belt, Dougherty would...

I used to think the late season was a very difficult time to kill a nice mountain buck. In Pennsylvania, rifle season kicks off during the first few weeks of December, and although some great bucks get killed every season, few hunters are consistent from year to year. In most states, hunting...

Ask anyone what is the key to late-season whitetail success, and I can almost guarantee you the first word out of their mouth will be “food.” Food is the name of the game when we get late into the year, and the reasons for that are clear. Deer are now almost entirely focused on recovering from the...