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Pre-Rut Hunting Tactics For October Whitetails

Talk to many bowhunters today and this is when they’ll say they most want to be in the woods. True, peak rut is a great time to be in your tree stand from sunrise to sunset. It’s when you’re likely to cross paths with the local monster that many people have spotted after dark, but very few have seen while seated in a tree stand. The peak of the rut makes those big bucks goofy.

Unfortunately, peak rut is also the time when you might encounter lock down. That’s when the chase has ended and a big, mature buck has successfully won the heart of the doe-of-the-moment. The buck and his doe lock down together to breed, and neither moves around much, if at all, for a day or two. It can be a lonely time on stand for a bowhunter – and still be the peak of the rut.

Eager bowhunters would do well to expend just as much effort during the early part of the rut in mid to late October as they do during the peak rut in November. You’re not necessarily going to get the king of the woods – those guys know better than to move around during daylight at this time of year – but you certainly have a good chance of encountering a heavy 3.5 year old with respectable headgear.

Why’s that? Well, the pre-rut period is when there is a lot of buck activity. They’re rubbing trees. They’re making deer scrapes. They’re sparring. They’re wandering all over the place looking for that first, hot doe. You’ll know when the early rut is on because the woods suddenly will come alive with bucks.

A few years back, a deer hunter was hunting a tree stand in a woodlot that he felt sure was a prime location because of all the trails, deer droppings and old buck rubs he found during his summer scouting missions. On his hunts in early October, he’d spot one or two bucks one day and none the next. It sure didn’t seem like the place was on fire early on.

One day around Oct. 20, he was walking across a huge grass field to his tree stand in the dark when his headlight caught a patch of bare earth off the side of the trail he followed through the woods. A fresh deer scrape! He squeezed a little doe-in-heat scent on the dirt and then proceeded to his tree stand.

Shortly after sunrise, he caught some deer movement out in the field to his right. He turned his head and watched a buck trot into the timber and right up to the deer scrape. He put his nose to the ground, pawed the dirt a few times, then started to move off through the woods, away from his position. That’s when he burped at him with a grunt call.

The buck’s head snapped to attention and he glared in the deer hunter's direction. In the slanting morning light, he saw a glob of saliva drop from his jaw. With an air of defiance, the young eight-pointer stomped through the leaves as he slowly circled downwind of his perch, about 50 yards away.

When he went behind a tree, he grunted again. The buck continued his circle and when he went behind another tree, he gave him another grunt, because he thought he was growing wary of not seeing the deer he’d been hearing.

The next time the buck appeared, he was stomping away from me and he grunted yet again. That last grunt call was almost immediately followed by a loud snort that seemed like it came from right under his tree stand. Startled, he looked behind him and saw a big, heavy 10-pointer bound away about 40 yards before stopping to look back at him.

He’d been so focused on the young buck that he never noticed the big guy coming to his grunt calls. And judging by where the snort came from, he’d walked to within easy bow range. In retrospect, that buck’s approach is probably what caused the other one to head away from me.

Two more bucks cruised the woodlot that morning. They both trotted through with their noses to the ground and no amount of calling could shake their concentration. Neither came close enough for a shot. Three days later, however, he tagged a 130-class nine-pointer from that same tree stand. And it was not one of the four bucks he saw three days prior.

Hunt Deer Scrapes and Buck Rub Lines

In the early rut, bucks spend a lot of time making deer scrapes and rubbing trees with their antlers to mark their territories and advertise their state of sexual readiness. Since there aren’t a lot of does coming into heat just yet, the bucks visit these markers frequently to keep them fresh and to see if any intruding bucks or receptive does have entered their home range.

Actually, if you’ve ever noticed, scraping and rubbing activity actually decreases as the rut progresses and more and more does come into heat. A buck’s signposts are meaningless at this point. Once he finds a receptive doe, he’s going to follow that deer wherever she takes him – which might be far, far from the deer scrapes and buck rubs he was making in October.

For now though, when new deer scrapes seem to be showing up every day and more and more trees are being shredded, work them. They are evidence that bucks are around and, while there are no guarantees, they give you an idea of where you just might intercept one.

Generally, you’re going to find buck rubs and deer scrapes along main travel corridors used by the main herd – does, yearlings and immature bucks. If that’s what you’re after, then set up your tree stand or ground blind nearby.

Mature bucks, however, forge their own paths through the woods. They don’t walk the same trails

As all the other deer. So if you find a deer scrape or rub line that doesn’t seem to be on a defined deer trail, pay attention to it. It just might be the calling card of the big boy.

Whenever you hunt a deer scrape, don’t just set up right on top of it. Get downwind. When the owner of that deer scrape returns to freshen it up, you can bet money he’ll approach it from downwind. Even more likely, that buck might swing by the deer scrape to check it for a doe’s scent simply by passing it on the downwind side and taking a whiff. He doesn’t have to walk right up to it to check it. And during daylight hours, quite frankly, he probably won’t.

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