Early season?

[dantheman]

I hunt southeastern NE. Season opens Spt. 1, planning on hitting the timber where the acorns drop, hoping to get a velvet buck, But dont want to ruin my honey hole for Nov. I have seen really good activity during early season in years past, but I don't want to educate mature bucks... Stand is currently set in 100 acre oak forest area where acorns are plentiful, but its cattle land with plenty of clearings and CPR nearby with access to 400+ acres. not many other decent treestand locations nearby though, mostly honeysuckles and pines, any advise???

 

[6x6]

Hunt it smart for the 1st week of the season, a long time untill rut. Cattle country deer are pretty forgiving in early september.

 

[Rich77]

I wont head in early unless ive got a certain buck patterned. I have never tagged a buck before the 4th of november. If i had a shooter figured out early i would be all in for killing him on his summer pattern. It seems to be a terrible transition period here in iowa during the first few weeks unless you know a shooter like the back of your hand.
I thought i had one pegged back in 2011 and i set up in the dark on the morning of oct 1st and sure enough he came by at 20 yards but it was dark enough that i couldn't even tell it was a buck and the trail cam told the story. A full 40 mins before legal light. You may only get one chance so you better make it count

 

[bigbuckhunter88]

If you have a deer patterned I would give it a go or two, but I wouldn't push the envelope unless you think you have a better chance killing one early season as oppose to the rut. I know of a few farms where if I had a buck patterned early season he would be easier to kill than one during the rut, but I haven't found a shooter on those farms early yet. You do have a decent advantage compared to us Iowa guys because your season starts so much earlier. You could catch one on a summer pattern and have almost a month to kill him. The one thing I would watch is the amount of time put in that stand if it is your only one. You can easily bump deer or educate them and then make your season a hard one.

 

[hoosierhunter]

Your season starts a full month ahead on Sept 1st. Don't worry about screwing up your "rut" time. The deer have completely forgotten about anything that happened from Sept 1-10 by Nov 1st. Besides, you KNOW for sure he's around and on a pattern Sept 1st. Nov 10th he could be literally 5 miles away and in someone's pickup.


Worst case scenario in my mind is that you bump him or get busted from your stand. He's waaaaay more tolerant of this in Sept as opposed to any other time during your season. You simply back off at that point and recalculate.

 

[mightymouse]

Your season starts a full month ahead on Sept 1st. Don't worry about screwing up your "rut" time. The deer have completely forgotten about anything that happened from Sept 1-10 by Nov 1st. Besides, you KNOW for sure he's around and on a pattern Sept 1st. Nov 10th he could be literally 5 miles away and in someone's pickup.


Worst case scenario in my mind is that you bump him or get busted from your stand. He's waaaaay more tolerant of this in Sept as opposed to any other time during your season. You simply back off at that point and recalculate.

Hoosier and I have agreed on here in the past about early season tactics and it appears as though we do again this time.

If you have a buck patterened now why are you going to wait until later? Be smart about your stand location and keep access and exit clean. If you have him patterened than don't push in too deep, trust your scouting and let him come to you on the pattern you've discovered. If you bump him or spook him than fall back and spend a few weeks scouting from afar if possible. If he was hitting a green field and you just boogered him up once in early September he may well be back to that same field or maybe that same routine before the deer start breaking off those feeding patterns in early October.

 

[dantheman]

Thanks to all for advice. I don't really have a specific buck "patterned" good pics of a 9 and a heavy 12. Like I said in years past they pound the acorns during early season. should i just hit the stand for first couple weeks and hope for the best, if nothing else bag a slickhead to fill the freezer then hold out till early nov. or set up a blind on the timber edge and try to catch one on the move. stand is 10 yds or so off landowners 4wheeler trail for when he's runnin cattle in that section, so i can get in and out with little noise, wont hunt mornings till nov. but i bumped two does last time i checked the cam... again, advise is very much appreciated....

 

[bigbuckhunter88]

Id try to do some long distance scouting on the field edge and see whats coming to that. If either of the target bucks are coming then try and get one there. Only hunt the right winds. If you have a camera on the acorns and they are hitting that, then hunt that when the wind is right.