Or like Lee and Tiffany Lakosky say…. BBD.

Bowhunting whitetail during the pre-rut in 2009  had a lot of bowhunters frustrated because of all the corn still standing in the Midwest. And for my two sons-in-law Joel and AJ and I, we were no exception.

Only 16% of the corn had been harvested by the first week of November according to the Ag dept. That’s the lowest number on record. We sat on stand (or in our treesaddles) 6-9 hours a day the first week of November and saw very does being chased. The standing corn was everywhere. It actually messed up our funnel situations we had planned on all year.

So we had to change gears and go to the harvested soybean fields because we had heard a neighbor who had 52 deer in their cut soys a few nights after they harvested the whole field. That’s a crazy number of deer no matter where you live.

So after prepping a new tree near the soys a few days earlier, I settled into my treesaddle around 1am for the rest of the day. Nothing showed until four does came out from the other side of the soybean field on my left 150 yards away. They moved my way and I decided to take the lead big doe at 25 yards.  When my 2-blade Rage went though both lungs, she just wheeled around and stood there. I had never seen that before. She started wobbling and then just tipped over.

Only 15 minutes of shooting light left when two more does came out from the same area and spotted the dead doe lying there. They walked over to within 2 feet of the dead doe when I heard footsteps coming from the woods on my right. I strained my eyes through the twilight to see a deer with a couple big white mainbeams. This was a shooter.

Once he crossed the fence row into the cut soybean field, I could see him a little better. I just tried to focus on his body making it to the next shooting lane through the branches. As he walked toward the two does, I put my 30 yard pin on him and let it fly.

I watched him as he took off across the field hoping he wouldn’t make it to the other side. He slowed down and tipped over about 15 yards short of the other side. Whew!

When I walked up on him in the dark, there was no ground shrinkage  at all. My best buck with a bow. He was a 3 1/2 year old and I figured his rack would score in the 130′s. It came out to 137.

The next day AJ saw a shooter buck similar to mine from the same tree but couldn’t get a shot off. Then Joel hunted from that tree the next day and saw an even bigger buck. Talk about a hot tree.

We will definitely be going back there in the spring to prep several more tress giving us multiple options for bowhunting whitetail in different wind. directions.

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

It’s the period after the first few days of the bowhunting season until the pre-rut heats up around halloween. This is the time that a lot of hunters are scratching their heads trying to figure out where all the big bucks went.  So where did they go?

They didn’t go anywhere. Most of them are still hanging out in the same place, except only when it’s dark out. The mature bucks figured out real soon when the bowhunting season started that its not safe to wander around during daylight hours. So if you’re only hunting mature bucks, here’s one of my bowhunting whitetail tips for the October lull…..Go Fishing!

If there’s any hunting pressure where you hunt, then you can bet that in most cases, the big bucks in your area are bedded down an hour before light in the morning and won’t expose themselves until it’s too dark to shoot. They didn’t reach their 3rd set of antlers by being careless. That is until the pre-rut.

The pre-rut, which starts generally around halloween in most regions, is when they start to think with something other than their brain. This is when you want to put your time into sitting on stand. And not just the morning and evening hunts but preferably midday from 11 am to 2 pm.

Here’s why. In areas of even moderate hunting pressure, mature bucks have patterned hunters better than the other way around. That’s why they bed down before the hunters arrive and don’t go out to feed until after dark. However, they also know when hunters quit hunting in the morning around 10 am. and when they go back to their stands around 3 pm. That’s why big bucks will move within areas of cover between 11 and 2.

Many hunters have a hard time believing bowhunting whitetail tips like this because these bucks prefer to move within cover, so this activity goes unnoticed to most hunters.

So this year, take a morning during the pre-rut and climb into your stand around 9:45 and sit until 2:30. As long as you’re not on a field edge or in an open woods, but rather between a couple bedding areas with good cover, you will increase your odds at a mature buck. After all, if you go bowhunting whitetail like everyone else, you’ll get results like everyone else.

So go fishing during the October lull is a great way to keep you from over-hunting your area until the pre-rut kicks in.