Late October Hunting Tactics
As deer season now heads into the last week of October, Bill Winke host of Muddy’s Whitetail 101 discusses changing hunting tactics from early season to mid-season. The mid-season, what many hunters would regard as the best time frame to hunt bucks starts during the last week of October and runs through November. This frame contains the rutting action that is so widely anticipated. This time period starts the beginning of late October hunting tactics.
Early season bow hunting often takes place during the afternoon. Early season hunting focuses on food sources and a deer’s pattern from bedding to that food source. Morning hunts often are less fruitful in the early season as deer go back to bed early, often before daylight, and it is often hard to get in and out of these sets in the morning.
Once late October arrives and deer movement begins to pick up preceding the rut, a hunter needs to change his October hunting tactics. The main tactic shift is from hunting just afternoons to mornings and afternoons. Morning hunts become successful do to bucks more or less taking their time getting back to bed. Instead of working straight to the bedding area a buck will swing back and forth or take a long way around to scent check certain areas such as field edges or food plots, and check scrapes.
Bill also touches on his recent 2016 harvest. Bill killed a giant mature Iowa buck last week. “Lefty” was the focus of Bill’s 2016 season, and all throughout his video blogs, episodes, and even his web show Whitetail 101 Bill focused on patterning lefty with his Muddy trail cameras. After weeks of patterning and scouting, Bill finally sealed the deal in an area one of his recent episodes touched on, cut corn fields.
Watch the full episode of “Lefty” here: Quest for “Lefty”
For more deer hunting videos and weekly hunting, web shows like this visit Muddy TV. Also be sure to check in every week for new hunting tips, tactics, and strategies at Muddy’s Blog.
