What are your early season strategies?

[Baker]

Our season opens Oct. 1. Hunt every day for 30 mins in morning and about 45 mins every afternoon till weather cools off and deer start moving. Use Thermo Cell to avoid death from mosquitos. Mostly hunt roads hoping to catch a deer crossing in daylight [ unlikely ]

Try to remove as many does as possible early to focus on bucks once movement starts late Oct.

 

[George]

Next Saturday for me, still thinking on it.

Back in the old days I would pick a stand guarding the brassica patch according to the wind.

G

 

[Cap'n]

# 1 priority is to get my daughter on a doe before muzzleloader season (Oct 22-30). Thats really when my hunting season starts. I already have stands set up on trails leading to food plots or feeders and have had cameras out all year. I know which ones are used in the evening and which ones are morning runs. Our bow season starts Oct 1 so i'll be missing the Chris Stapleton concert that night, I figure she will get her doe on opening day and Im not going to hurry home so I can go to a concert. (Although I'd love to go) Coming home with a deer in the back of the truck is something we look forward to every year, and its a great time for us to celebrate together.
After that I will read the deer sign, check my cameras and react accordingly.

 

[HB_Hunter]

I've got a couple trail cams in plot watcher mode and will spend some time behind binos. They always seem to head for the beans and alfalfa so I like to get in pinch points between bedding and the food. It also helps when those pinch points are in oak flats. I haven't hunted mornings, but I have a very easy to access stand in a great pinch point I might try this year. The white oaks are loaded and acorns always seem to start dropping the first week of September here. Looking forward to 9/3 .

 

[Doctorbrady]

Food and water. Water mostly in the morning. Food in the afternoons.

 

[Deer123]

Basically ignore trail pics up to this point because a lot of bucks will relocate in the next 2-4 weeks.. So,I will hunt around acorns in the evening and only hunt mornings if there's a front that moves in. I've found hunting mornings in early season does more harm than good unless I've got some MRI showing a specific buck being around after sunrise and even then without a super secure in/out I won't hunt him in the morning.
It's all about cold front and food early season for a mature deer.

 

[Native Hunter]

My early season strategy is not to mess up prime time season.

 

[Blizzard Ridge]

Very good point NH. This is one thing I see a lot of hunter's do every year and then they wonder why they are not seeing deer during the rut. I use the locate, scout/plan, observe, then hunt when the time is right method early season. All too often guys get in to the core of their hunting area on opening week and pound it every chance they get to be out there. I always hunt from the outside in. If I feel the need to be in a tree early (which I will) I will set up on the outside in a observation tree to see travel patterns of the buck I am after. If and when the buck starts to make regular appearances I will then move into pre-hung stands in travel corridors that may intercept that buck.

I sit half of the season with no intentions of killing my target buck but also in areas that I will not disturb the herds natural behavior. Prefect winds, remote stands from the deer on food sources. If things are not perfect I do my hunting looking through a truck window to get a visual on my target buck.

I witnessed a great example of what not to do over the last two seasons I watched a group of hunter's destroy a great 80 acre parcel due to over hunting stands and just the way and times they hunted it. I will reap the benefits this year as I have 120 acres that touches corners with them and I have the cover and food on my farm now.

 

[Drycreek]

No ag where I hunt, so nothing to concentrate deer except my food plots or corn on the ground. No observing from afar either, too much timber. But I will hunt the edges of my 217 acre place to kill a doe early and won't violate my best spots until early November.

 

[GAGE]

Opening weekend will be all about trying to get my 13 y/o daughter her first deer with a bow. That morning I am planning on setting two climbers together in the hardwoods behind our house, and then moving to a food plot at deer camp for the afternoon and rest of the weekend.

 

[Deer123]

The guys from Major League Bowhunter have the right strategy, hunt from the outside and work your way in ! If you're just dying to go hunt but you're not 100% confident in the conditions, then set in a stand on the perimeter and scout from there

 

[farmhunter]

Oct 1 opener - none or very limited close to camp morning hunting - then pinch points heading to the Beans in the afternoons. Around Halloween we get more serious about it - but we developed a plan to keep some mature bucks close - and we don't like to push them around especially in the AM. We are convinced that even with the camp traffic - the deer are fine all day - BUT the 6:00 am traffic only tells the deer the hunt is on.

 

[Chainsaw]

Cameras will watch for daytime activity in food plots by extremely low access stands and if a shooter gets his daytime picture taken, I'll hunt that stand. Other than that my early season( Oct. 01 to 24) strategy will be still hunting sections of my perimeter road/trails mornings and evenings as cross winds blow in my favor.

Habitat improvement projects including logging will continue throughout the season as weather and time permit in one section of the property as well as entrance areas off town roads.

 

[Beechnut]

Early season when it's still warm, I hunt from 10am to 2pm. They like to get up in the middle of the day to stretch their legs. I don't hunt early much but that's when I do. Sleep in and hunt mid day. I don't get heavy into hunting until the overnight low gets in the 50's.