Post season scouting will allow you to identify primary scrape areas, rub lines, travel corridors within cover between bedding areas. Even if the dominant buck in that area was harvested, another buck will take his place and use the same features of the property.

Prepare your trees and shooting lanes at this time too. Then in August you can make a quick check of your spot and clear out any summer growth while hanging your stands. This will keep the area undisturbed and preserve your spot as a true ambush situation come hunting season.

Several years ago my post-season scouting really started to pay off big time after I watched a DVD by John and Chris Eberhart called Bowhunting Pressured Whitetails – Vol. 1 “Post-Season Scouting and Tree Preparation”

I thought I knew everything there was to know about getting a leg up early on next Fall’s buck until I watched this DVD and read his book. I have not seen any DVD anywhere that goes into the detail that this one does. You won’t see this information on TV anywhere. It will take years off your learning curve. I couldn’t wait to apply what I had learned.

The next fall, this buck was a direct result of acting on a couple tips I learned from John and Chris.

This time of year most hunters are content to sit home on the couch and watch some football. Not me. Now is one of the best times to get out in the woods and do some post season scouting.

But first, I would recommend going to John and Chris’ site to grab a copy of their DVD. It will be one of the most valuable $15 you spend this winter.

If you’ve already seen this DVD, leave a comment below to benefit others and/or pass along this post using the icons below. Your friends will thank you.

Why am I sooo excited? Because in my opinion it is the best week or 10 day period for getting multiple shot opportunities at mature bucks in the midwest.

Why? Because this is the narrow window of time that the mature bucks are ready to breed, but the does are not. It’s called the pre-rut. That means the bucks will be on their feet during daylight hours searching for that first receptive doe, and the best time of day to be in your stand is between 10 am and 2pm.

I believe the pre-rut is better for getting more cracks at mature bucks than the rut because during the rut the bucks are locked down with a hot doe and don’t travel as much while they will spend a whole day tending that doe.

Years ago I had a hard time getting myself to sit in a tree from 10am -2pm, but I quickly learned that mature bucks cruise around looking for hot does in the middle of the day and appear to not be as wary or cautious as they are during the morning or evening hunts. I didn’t see as many deer, but I saw more quality bucks.

I believe there are a couple reason for this.

First, the does are generally bedded down at midday and its easier for bucks to locate them simply by going from bedding area to bedding area to see if any does are hot to trot. This is why I like to hunt in travel corridors like fence rows, tree lines, or any strip of thick cover that connects different woodlots, swamps, or standing cornfields where does normally bed down in security.

Younger bucks may walk through an open field during the rut or pre-rut, but a mature buck is much more likely to stay in some sort of cover during daylight hours as he travels.

The second reason I think mature bucks cruise more during midday at this time of year while looking for some action is that they rarely encounter hunters during the midday. Now I know a lot hunters are quick to dismiss this idea because they simply do not believe a whitetail is that smart. That is true, until the bucks lives through a couple hunting seasons with antlers. If they survive to their 3rd hunting season where there’s even medium hunting pressure, this makes them a whole different animal and they wise up to the patterns of hunters being in woods for a few hours in the morning and evening. I have noticed a big difference in the way they seem to be more at ease and not as wary while they travel at midday.

So instead of getting up early like I normally do to hunt in the morning, I’ll sometimes sleep in and head out to my tree around 9am. I know, I know, it just doesn’t seem right to head out into the woods at 9am. But I try to hunt everyday during this period and sleeping in once in a while helps me from getting burned out.

I never thought I would ever get “burn out” from bowhunting too much.

If you don’t already have a stand ready to go in one of these travel corridors, be careful not to spoil a good spot if you scout and  prep a tree at this time of year. Springtime is really when you should be doing all of that.

Well, I’m headed out of state for this week. Looks like it will be dry and cooler for the best week of bowhunting whitetail all year. I’ll keep you posted with any success.

Feel free to leave a comment below of your experiences you’ve had while hunting during the midday.

Good Hunting,

Randy

I like to hunt in thick cover where there aren’t very many trees big enough or straight enough for most treestands. Trying to haul a climber through the thick brush is almost impossible. I’ve used fixed position hang-on stands but found I needed multiple stands for different wind directions and to prevent overhunting one spot. Then after the season I still had to take them all down and store them.

One day while at a hunting expo I saw someone in what looked like a tree sling of some sort about 15 feet off the expo floor. I was very skeptical. But after trying it out, I was amazed how much more comfortable it felt than it looked. I knew exactly which trees from which I was going to be able to hunt. Many of these were too small or crooked to get a stand hung.

Now for me the tree saddle is a must for hunting whitetails, especially mature whitetails on out of state hunts. My whole family uses the treesaddle, That includes my 3 daughters and their husbands.
With tree saddles you can hunt out of any tree that can support your weight. That means real small diameter trees that are not an option for fixed hang-on stands, climbers, or even ladder stands, can all be hunted with saddle trees. Have you ever gone into a thick area with lots of deer sign only to find that there aren’t any trees that will work for your setup? Imagine having several trees on every side of a thick “hot spot” to accommodate any wind direction, and having those trees prepped with steps and shooting lanes well before the season, preferably in the spring. Then when its time to hunt that spot in the fall, you can easily enter the area wearing your treesaddle (which only weighs 2 pounds), and create a true ambush situation.

Try doing that with a climber or ladder stand. Even if you have a light weight hang-on stand you have 2 options, take it in with you and hang it when you arrive to hunt, or hang it well before the season and risk the threat of someone stealing it even if its locked to the tree, or allow other hunters to see your hot spot and ruin for you. In either case, the element of an ambush is greatly reduced. Also, if you choose to leave your stand in your favorite tree because maybe you have your own large piece of property, are you only going to hunt that tree and risk burning out that spot? If not, that means you need another stand or two or three. How much are you willing to invest in stands? And after the season are you going to leave all those stands up?

With a wide tree saddle, you can prep an unlimited number of trees in multiple states and hunt all of them with just one treesaddle, slipping into your spot quietly, not giving away your position, not risking theft, and being able to shoot 360 degrees from your tree.

You may think that all these advantages comes with the price of not being a comfortable way to hunt. If you look at the pictures that the manufacturer uses in their advertising, I can see where you may assume that. However, what they don’t show is the ability to be comfortable in a sitting or standing position. Trust me, I was skeptical. I’m 6′5″ and weigh 230#. But when I put one on and got into a tree to test it, I was amazed. My family and I hunt  whitetails from our treesaddles all day 3-5 times every year spread out throughout the rut.

Many guys refuse to even consider using one because they think its not comfortable or the strap gets in the way or whatever. At least find someone who has one and give it a try before you dismiss it.