Have you ever been excited to find an active scrape and plan to hunt it during the rut only to watch it fill with leaves during early November? Bucks and does tend to abandon most scrapes during the chase phase of the rut. It seems bucks don’t wish to spend energy checking and/or maintaining scrapes during the rut, when checking the wind often yields much better results of finding a receptive doe.  Read more at Winchester.com. 

It’s that time of the year again. The peak of the rut has passed in most parts of the country and as winter knocks at our door, the acorns have been picked through making the deer work harder searching for food. This is when winter food sources become hunting hot spots. Last week Adam shared that our hunting tactic for tagging a hit list buck is to pattern doe fawns, especially those feeding in food plots. Knowing this pattern would occur, we began making a plan this summer for late season hunting.

A small plot of standing soybeans opened for hungry deer.

Soon after planting, the GrowingDeer Team placed Hot Zone electric fences around several different portions of soybean plots at The Proving Grounds. The unfenced areas have experienced heavy browse, but the beans inside the fence have remained relatively untouched. This has saved a high quality food source to help the local herd through the winter months. In doing this, we have also created a great late season hunting setup.

We have recently opened small portions of the fencing at these plots, creating funnels. Like most animals deer tend to take the path of least resistance, especially when it comes to getting to the dinner table (this probably applies to us humans as well!). It won’t be long before deer figure out the subtle change and begin to pour into the standing beans. This is exciting for us because these larger fields, that were hard to hunt earlier in the year, now have smaller area for feeding which brings deer within range of our stands.

As we continue to use our Reconyx cameras, we will be watching for patterns of doe fawns that are taking advantage of the now easily accessible food, with the expectations that a mature buck could be right behind her. We look forward to the next few weeks. I hope you find the chance to get into the woods this time of the year and experience a great late season hunt.

Managing whitetails with you,

Daniel Mallette

When Rae and Grant were checking out Rae’s buck, they heard a rifle shot from on top of the mountain. It was Raleigh’s Winchester .308! Check out what happens when a five year old buck called Drifter trails a doe across the plot where Raleigh was hunting.

Tip of the Week:

In areas with good habitat female fawns may reach 70 lbs during the late season. Those that do often become receptive. Often patterning mature bucks during the late season is as easy as finding where female fawns are feeding. Patterning groups of female fawns during the late season can be a great strategy!