Late Season Advice

[mrpenguin]

Hey Gents,

I got about 3 weeks left in the season to fill my whitetail tags.  Right now I'm brewing up tag soup... so, does anyone have any advice??

Basically, I set up my tree just off 2 fields with an old logging road leading right up to them. There are multiple deer trails on both sides of me, droppings, and a nice rub line about 10 yds off.  I am hoping with the weather fluctuations I'll get lucky when the second rut kicks in: )

[Chris O]

Im not an expert by any means but the best advice I've got was to move around. I went four years on tag soup and this last year I started switching it up, scouting different trees in my same woods and now Im seeing way more deer and on a more consistent basis.   Good luck!

[joevan125]

Sounds to me like your in a good spot to get one on the ground.

[woodchucker]

DRESS WARM!!!!!!!!!!  

[Littlejake]

Look for food,and hunt it more reliable than the second rut.Ditto on the dress warm part too.

[digicon]

I don't know how it is in Conn. but here in Kansas it is food,food and food.  Set on cut cornfields and beanfields.  Nearly all of the deer (does) are congregated in or around these fields.  If they come in heat this time of year it's relatively easy to find the bucks.

The bucks aren't exerting a lot of energy this time of year they will certainly breed any does that may come into heat within these doe groups but are not covering large amounts of ground to seek them out.

I don't know if this will help you at all where you are at or if you even have any agriculture to hunt but if you do, key in on it.

Hope this helps,
Mike

[mickeys4]

While sitting in one of my stands yesterday it occurred to me that since all the leaves have fallen and even though the stand is situated in a cluster of trees I must be relatively easy to detect.Movement regardless of camouflage is what makes you visible.Like the camo commercials where they have three or four guys in the frame and you don't see them until they move.I could detect birds and squirrels hundreds of yards away when they moved.I cannot remain motionless for hours sitting in a stand if you can you're a better man than me.I think that if I were a hundred yards away I could easily detect myself up in that tree.Being in a stand gives me a better opportunity to see things further off and it also gives me a chance to be seen from further away.I think that I would be a lot better concealed in a brush blind on the ground than in my stand this time of year.I only have this week remaining in the season I believe I'll stay on the ground,find some blow downs,natural brush blinds or rhododendrons near a well worn trail and hunker down.

[sou-pawbowhunter]

Mickeys4 has some very good points, to which I would add, You will be warmer in a blind of any type.

[frank bullitt]

Sounds like you are in a good place, like said, food, and where every the does are.

I'll hunt on the ground or in a stand, whatever the conditions dictate. And the wind needs to be right!

Don't be to concered about time, either. If you can only spend an hour before dark, and can get there without to much noise, do it.

I'm hoping for no snow, and a second rut also!

Good shootin, Steve

[smoked]

Hunt the food source!

[Roy Steele]

Here in WV  you've got to hunt a food scource.If a doe dose come in heat the doe's will be where the food is anyway.That where you want to be.

[bornagainbowhunter]

food food food, gotta eat to stay warm

[ken denton]

Take a day and scout your area with binoulars from the ground staying for the first and last 3 hours of the day. Look for big buck tracks where you can set your stand. If you see where they are crossing, set up your stand in the middle of the day and try it. Ken

[RRock]

Food. Where I hunt, they'll bed upwind of the food source and usually within eye sight of it if there is some thick cover to get down in. It can be pretty darn tough setting up on them without blowing them out. Having said that, thats usually the case when it gets darn right cold.

[Bowmania]

We don't know if your in a good spot or not, because we don't know the most IMPORTANT thing - wind direction.  In general, in the evening you should be on the west side of a field - animals have to move with the wind to get to the field.  The bigger bucks will let the does and fawn check first.  If your sitting on the east side in the PM, you might just as well be pissing towards the field.

It's vice versa in the AM.

Bowmania

[Bonebuster]

Late season deer are much less tolerant of ANY type of intrusion due to firearms hunting pressure.

If you are seeing tracks and other sign and no deer, they are either detecting you, or are moving under the cover of darkness.

They are SOMEWHERE during daylight. Yours is a task of finding where they are, and placing yourself close enough to their daytime hideout as to get a chance at them before dark. The next task is to do so without spooking them in the process.

Do you have snow? If so, locating them should be easier. If not, pray for some, as it will make locating them easier.  :D

[John Kennedy]

Find the acorns, hunt the favorable lunar feeding times hard,wear grey based camo,and be as still as you can.