http://www.bowhuntingmag.com
OCTOBER IS AWESOME, featuring the year’s best
weather if you love the outdoors. All species of wildlife
are active. The fall foliage is gorgeous, and the hunting
season is fresh, new and full of possibilities. Despite
these great qualities, however, October is largely over-
looked by many whitetail hunters. Like children wait-
ing for Christmas, we tend to focus all our thoughts and
plans on the November rut. In the process, we wish our
way right past the most enjoyable month of the year.
As soon as the first cool day of late summer arrives, we
begin thinking, “If only it were November ... This is my
plan for November ... I can’t wait for my November
vacation ...” and so on. In looking ahead, we forget to
enjoywhatis rightthereinfrontofus.
The older I get, the more I love October. There’s
somethingaboutNovember’scoldnorthwestwinds
and steel-gray skies spitting snow that tugs at my
senseofadventure.I evencreateda digitalvideoseries
namedChasingNovemberinitshonor. Despitemy fasci-
nationwiththerut,though,there’s alsosomethingvery
appealingaboutOctober’scomfortable60-degreedays
withlowhumidityandgentlebreezes. It justfeelsgood
tobeina treeinOctober,evenif thedeernevershow
up.I’mnotsayingI wouldgiveupNovemberinfavor
of October, but in my mind, the gap between them is
shrinking each year.
In this article, I intend to celebrate October and offer
some thoughts on how to make the most of this great
time of year.
A Word of Warning
Before we wholeheartedly embrace October like a
prodigal son that has just returned home by running
to our best stands, we better take a step back and talk
about what October isn’t. October isn’t the time to
hunt aggressively. The bucks just aren’t moving much
in daylight throughout most of the month. It’s never a
good idea to hunt bucks that aren’t moving in daylight,
because you risk educating them with very little hope
of reward, and that only serves to keep them nocturnal.
Better to let them show a chink in their armor and then
make a move.
You only get a few good hunts (sometimes only
one) in a given spot before the deer know they’re be-
ing hunted. You want to save that first hunt for the time
when the bucks are at least somewhat killable. So, you
have to play the game very conservatively in October.
You probably aren’t holding the winning hand, so don’t
go all-in.
There are exceptions that offer opportunities for
green-light buck action in October — I’ll get into those
in the next section — but let’s start by figuring out what
the bucks are doing right now.
I never really understood deer behavior until I start-
ed running trail cameras. There was plenty of research
out there, but the context of nearly all of it was aca-
demic, not based on practical hunting situations. Trail
cameras changed that. Now we are all researchers,
and the context is totally practical. We can learn what
the deer are doing on our properties at the times we’re
hunting them.
PETERSENÕS BOWHUNTING 81
Rut-Crazed
Bucks Can Wait.
By Bill Winke
