When a branch snaps 100 yards away, your head quickly turns to the sound. On a crisp, fall morning any sound will, or should, get your attention. The rustle of the leaves, the distant sound of geese taking off from their evening roost or the snap of a twig should bring your mind to a heightened state of awareness.
We all have been there during the first few days of archery season; every little thing brings us back from our daydreams. How to pinpoint the sound can, at times, be difficult, especially as the years go by and our hearing isn’t as good as it used to be; this is me being politically correct here.
Picking up the sound and from which direction can be difficult. There are a bunch of options on the market to help some of us who are in that boat. What I found is fairly simple, but at the same time difficult, so let me explain. Always be on high alert. Keep your phone in your pocket. Look for the small things to keep your mind busy.
When you hear the rustle of the leaves, find where the sound is coming from. Don’t just mentally blow it off as a squirrel running around. Pinpoint the sound and look for the sound. Don’t give up until you find the source of that sound.
If you need a mental break, take one — not a long one — but take time to relax your mind for a few minutes. This is not a marathon, it’s hunting and should be relaxing.
With Oct. 1 less than three weeks away, it’s time to make sure you are ready. I trust that we all have shot and fine-tuned our equipment. Know your kill zone with whichever “longbow” you choose but that is all for naught if you’re not seeing deer.
There is a growing group of stick-and-string hunters that don’t worry about the early season and hunt the rut. While this is good for some folks, I come from the school that if I am able to legally hunt, I’m in the woods. There is something about feeling the sun rising on your face on a cool morning, so there is nothing that could keep me out of the fall woods.
Having a game plan is important. In our case, we have a series of game plans for each hunting location. Between trail cameras to boots on the ground, the plan is coming together, but I always have a backup plan in order to take the wind, the weather and hunter experience into consideration.
The one thing that I and other hunters can control is having areas to hunt that will fit into any situation that is thrown our way.
There are many good bucks and fat does to take during the first part of October. In early September, velvet comes off deer antlers and their testosterone is beginning to rise. Bachelor groups are breaking up and food sources are changing.
Some hunters love this time of the year because deer are almost totally focused on available food and are unmolested, so their patterns are generally predictable.
The key to success during the early season is keeping on top of food preferences and making the move when the deer do. There are patterns available, and if you are diligent, you can get yourself in the right place at the right time. The key to using this technique during the early part of the season is knowing when to make the move before you realize the deer have moved.
During the summer, hard-core deer hunters are always scouting, whether it’s checking cameras or glassing fields as you drive by. Many times, mature bucks will not enter a field in a position they can be seen from a distance. They may use a ditch, grassy waterway, or finger of trees to enter a field and avoid stepping fully into the open until the last moments of daylight.
Traditionally, it’s common for deer to change trails or entry points. Rather than pick one and hope for the best, it’s often better to place a stand — what I call an observation perch — in an area with high visibility of the entire field. A high corner on a field edge, for example, would allow you to spend an evening on-stand in an area that might offer a shot, but has a better chance of giving you a view of the most common entry points for feeding deer.
Deer, especially mature bucks, choose staging areas where they can see the field at all times, but primarily, they just hang out and wait to see if deer already in the open are feeding calmly. These areas can be identified by the sign bucks leave while loitering. Droppings, tracks, rubs, and sometimes scrapes are signs of their presence.
These areas are some of the best places to shoot a big buck in the early season because they spend a considerable amount of time here during the last hour of daylight. Place your tree stand where you can take advantage of the wind and do not hunt the stand until the wind is right. You may only get one chance to shoot a big buck in one of these areas, so make sure everything is right before you make your move.
Trails that follow the edge of a crop field can be hard to find because they do not get much use, but they can be just the ticket for an early-season buck. Like the two sites already mentioned, these are the results of mature bucks’ reluctance to enter the open in daylight.
These parallel trails will be from 6 to 30 yards inside the edge of a field and are in distinct trails, so they are usually identified by a few tracks rather than the bare earth of a well-worn path.
Bucks use these trails to scent-check the field and to connect observation spots or staging areas. A buck may show up at the edge of a field an hour before he is ready to enter. These trails seem to give him something to do while he waits. Walking these trails gives him a sense of security and helps him determine whether the coast is clear.
Most times these trials will be on the downwind side of a field, and since deer tend to enter a field from the downwind side, they may cross an entry path. Where a parallel trail crosses an entry path is a good spot to set up a treestand on the downwind side. You may be back in the timber too far to have a clear view of the field yourself, but that’s a fair tradeoff for an increased chance of shooting a mature buck.
One thing we all need to keep in mind is to not let the deer pattern you. It’s your job to pattern the deer. That is why I use the two-set rule when hunting any stand. The two-set rule is pretty simple. I never hunt a stand for more than two sets — morning or afternoon sets or vice versa. Then I will let the stand sit for at least three days. During this time, no matter what the conditions are I don’t hunt the stand. This is when experience and patience is important.
Staying flexible during hunting this time of year is important. This is one reason I hang several stands that offer different set-ups depending on what conditions are or what the hunting situation is.
Food sources are key during the early season, just as much if not more than any other time of year. From what I have been able to see and from reports from others, the hard mass crop looks to be excellent, while the soft mass crop looks to be a little off this season. Good thing I wasn’t selling apples this year.
Knowing what deer are feeding on and when they are feeding will help increase your odds of seeing game and getting some early season meat for your freezer.
Early archery season is an exciting time. There is no reason not to take advantage of some good weather and great fun.
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This past week, I heard from good friend Alberto Rey and he asked me to share The Children In The Stream/4H Youth Fly Fishing Program is into its 24th season (since 1998) and classes began this past Tuesday.
The fly tying/ fly fishing classes will occur every Tuesday from 7-8:30 pm in the Costello Room in the Rockefeller Art Center at the State University of New York at Fredonia through May 16. There will not be any classes on Nov. 22, Nov. 29, Dec. 20, Dec. 27 and Jan. 3.
Field trips are also scheduled periodically throughout the spring in Canadaway Creek.
The program is open to children over 12 (younger if accompanied by an adult), faculty, staff and community members of all ages. Classes and supplies are provided at no cost. No long-term commitment is necessary.
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