Here I am, sitting here on October 4th and looking at the 10 day forecast in Southwest Michigan with no cold front in sight. Ten freakin straight days with highs in the low 70s, and lows in the high 50s; it seems as though September has carried into the first half of October and just like all of you other avid whitetail hunters, I’m not happy about it. It seems as though in the past decade, we’ve had a few warm days like this in the early part of October, but this is the first time in recent memory that we don’t have at least a few days in the first half of October with highs in the mid 50s and lows in the high 30s or low 40s. Those are the early season days we live for as archery hunters; the bucks are on a bed to feed pattern, and the low temps get them on their feet well before dark. Unfortunately, barring some drastic change to the forecast, it looks as though we aren’t going to get one of those perfect early October days. Therefore, I would just hang up the bow for a few weeks and just twiddle your thumbs until we get some colder temps…..JUST KIDDING. I’m not a big fan of folding in poker, so you bet your ass I’m not folding these next couple weeks; let’s talk some strategies to help us notch an early October tag this year even if we have to do it looking through the sweat dripping off our forehead.
A buddy of mine Trevor killed this mature buck less than 100 yards from his bed last October in Michigan. If you’re over 100 yards from their bed, the only luck you’ll have is getting a picture of that buck on your trail camera after dark.
DITCH THE AG FIELDS
Now I say this with a grain of salt, because everybody has different goals and objectives when they venture into the whitetail woods. If you are just meat hunting and are looking to notch your doe tag or fill one of your buck tags on a young buck, then you can absolutely still make that happen on a standing bean field in these warmer temps. If you’re hunting mature whitetails though, unless you’re hunting a private farm in Iowa, I don’t think you’ll have much success sitting at the edge of a dry bean field on a 70 degree evening. This warmer weather is more than likely going to have the deer on their feet a little bit later in the evening, which means they’re going to hang around in their cooler bedding area or staging area later in the evening as well, so the chances of them making it to their primary food source during legal shooting hours is minimal. The deer are still on a bed to feed travel pattern, but while looking at that pattern on a map, look closer to position A of that pattern (bucks bed), and farther away from position B (destination food source). Which leads me into topic number 2…
PRESS BEDDING AREA
Usually this time of year, bucks are bedding in cooler areas that they can be shaded throughout the day and provide cover for when they get up on their feet in the evening. Hopefully you’ve done enough scouting leading up to the season that you know where those areas are once October rolls around. If you haven’t, hope isn’t lost-you can still do your scouting in season, but if you do bump a buck while scouting it can potentially have a more dramatic effect than if you were to bump him a couple months ago. (Especially in a state as pressure packed as Michigan) Back to my point though, in these warmer temps, bucks are probably getting up out of their bed in the evening a little bit later than they would on a brisk 50 degree October night. Now I’m not saying they are waiting until dark to get on their feet, but they might be waiting until dark to head out to the corn field a few hundred yards away from their bed. Which means the bucks are more than likely hanging out very close to their bed for the last 30-45 minutes of daylight. Mature bucks are bedded in certain areas for certain reasons, and usually you’ll find that he has something to browse on close to his bedroom; maybe he’s bedded close to an oak that has dropped some acorns he can snack on under good cover, or it could be close to a little water than he can sip on before making his way out for his late night dinner. Staging areas with food sources such as acorns, fruit trees, maple leaves, and other natural browse that are tucked right up close to bedding are my absolute favorite spots to hunt in October no matter what the conditions. I watched a buck get out of his bed just last night, and just hang out and browse on surrounding cover for 30 minutes before he made his way out toward a bean field once it was dark. In those 30 minutes, he never strayed more than 30 yards from his bed. That just paints a picture of how much you have to press those bedding areas if you want to get a shot at one of those big boys in legal shooting hours. If you’re more than 100 yards away from his bed, especially in warmer temps when he is in no rush to go eat, more often than not you’re not getting a shot at him before darkness falls. Simply put, you’re not notching your tag on a mature buck on a 70 degree evening unless you’re knocking on his bedroom door.
Use these warm temperatures to your advantage and spend an evening over a water. Deer need a drink on hot days just like we do.
WHAT’S BETTER THAN WATER ON A HOT DAY?
Let me ask you this: Do you crave a drink of water more on a cold day or a hot day? I’m guessing like any other human, you’re answer was on a hot day. Well whitetails are no different. The hotter the weather, the better an evening sit over a watering hole will be. If you have the ability at one of your hunting locations, public or private, to hunt over water that has a lot of cover around it, you could be in for a helluva evening hunt. Every watering hole is different, and whether it’s moving water or standing water, the more cover that surrounds it the better. Evening sits over water than is surrounded by cover on a warm October day can be money, because those few sips of water are just as important as any food that deer is going to consume that night. Would you want to go eat a bunch of dry food on a hot day without a drink of water? The answer is no. The same answer goes for deer- if you have a solitaire water hole to sit over on a 70 degree day, you’re going to see deer come in for a drink before they head out for dinner. Hunting over water in cover is the same as hunting over a pile of acorns in a thick staging area; deer are going to feel more comfortable in cover and they’re going to come in before dark. I keep thinking back to an early October hunt I had a few years ago up in north Michigan at my hunting camp. It was 74 degrees (very warm for Northern Michigan in October), and the only reason I was hunting is because we were at deer camp 4 hours from home, and I didn’t drive all that way to sit on the couch at camp. I was sitting close to a food plot about 75 yards away from a pond thinking to myself that I wasn’t going to see a deer that evening. Long story short, I was so wrong. I watched at least a dozen deer that evening make their way from a bedding area toward the pond and a couple of them were bucks. Not one deer stepped into the food plot until my feet hit the ground after climbing down the stand. If I had been hunting the pond that night, I probably would’ve killed a buck, but instead I didn’t have a deer in bow range all night. Use these warm temps to your advantage and find yourself a water hole to sit close to-just make sure to get your buck processed that night so the warm temps don’t cause the meat to spoil!!
Like I said at the beginning of this article, don’t let the warm temperatures in the coming weeks cause you to fold your cards and wait until the rut. Hunting season is too short and goes by too fast to sit on your couch because it’s “too warm.” If you’re not afraid to sweat, get your butt in the woods and make it happen. Mother Nature isn’t promising perfect conditions in November, so you’re better off playing with the hand you’re dealt the next few weeks. Make some adjustments-stop waiting on the edge of an ag field, press the bedding area, find some water to hunt over, and you just might make this warm spell an October to remember. Stay safe, hunt hard.
-Steve Crawford