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MATURE Buck Movement Oct 1 - Dec 1 - YOUR Experience?

Whenever I hear the daily radio reports of a Car vs Deer accident on 63rd street in Des Moines, I like to be in the woods a lot.. Generally a good sign that a lot of bucks are on their feet moving around..

My property is really a travel cooridoor within a big chunk of timber, so I don't get to hunt a food source/bedding area travel route. My hunting hopes are pinned on deer roaming around and the rut is when I see them the most..
 
deer

Sligh1 you know me i think from around oct 25 thur nov 5 is the best time for me have killed some nice bucks during that time seem to see more young deer run does then the big boys come out to play .have killed deer on halloween the last two years. Both bucks where by thereselfs just looking does both come to the grunt call just like you had them on a string .
 
MN season

Mature buck movement in MN:

Slight chance a mature buck will show himself on the first few days of the archery season

Maybe, mid to late October you may get a crack at one if you hunt close to a bedding area.

Oct 31- Nov 6 there is a chance, and it seems the day before the gun opener is always good. Then opening morning of gun season until aroun 10:00 am then they have figured it out as the onslaught of orange and shots tips them off.

Around Thanksgiving, there seems to be a short window of opportunity and then late season if it is very cold and you have standing corn or beans.

Bottom line we do not have that many mature bucks per county, due to the structure of our gun season, so it is a challenge!!
 
I haven't gone back through and read all the posts, so someone may have already touched on this. If so, I appologize. The one thing I've noticed is mornings are usually a waste of time during the beginning part of the season. I think this time of year, mature bucks are back in their beds well before daybreak. In my opinion you have a higher chace at seening a mature buck during an evening hunt early in the season. Now, the later into the season we get, things change. During the rut, mornings rock! Mature bucks seem to be on their feet right at daybreak and continue cruising/chasing throughout the day.
 
DO NOT miss the last three days of October. Every year someone that I know, close hunting buddy or dedicated whitetail'n nut whacks a big one on the last three days... In fact, it has almost seemed like one big buck per day...

Skip, spot on! I have noticed much of the same, the first few days of Nov. don't seem to be as productive, but the following 8-10 days it will happen.... the best 3-5 days year to year might sway a few days either way, but I do everything I can to be in the stand every day from the beginning of the final week of October till blood gets spilled.....

Good Stuff!
 
Hey guys,

Great topic!! Several years ago I started keeping a hunting journal using an excel spreadsheet so that I could try to pick up on patterns and trends of the deer that we hunted on our property. It was really neat for 5 or 6 of us to have all of our sightings and observations stored in the same place so we could see the totals at the end of the season. We did this for a couple of years, but it didn't allow us to really analyze any of the observations.

So, about a year and a half ago I had a website built that was home to an online hunting journal. The idea behind the online journal was just like this thread. It is a place where hunters can have a private journal to keep track of all their observations and experinces, and at the same time be able to learn from observations entered by other hunters.

We have a database built in to the site called the North American Database. Each time a user makes a journal entry certain anonymous portions of the entry get stored in the North American Database. This allows all users to be able to study and search for patterns and trends using not only their own data, but all the data entered by other hunters. Of course if you want to just stick with your own data that is fine too.

This is a side business I started because I believe that as hunters we can not only provide great insight and information to each other, but we can learn a lot from each other as well. It is a great management tool, as well as a great place to test out theories. See how moon phases affect deer movement during other people's hunts, or research how different weather conditions affect movements. If you are planning a trip to another part of the country you can check and see if there is any data entered by hunters in that area. The searching and sorting possibilities are endless.

Like I said, it can be a great reference and a really fun, as well as rewarding way to keep track of all your hunts and trail camera observations. There are even some mapping features. Check it out and see what you think. Another great feature is the price. It will be one of the cheapest hunting "tools you will ever buy.
 
NW Saskatchewan

Early Oct............find a good food source, you'll find numerous bucks, usually multiple mature bucks on their feet in the daylight putting on the feedbag after some hard frosts.

Mid-Late Oct- Those bucks start dispursing over a wider range, you can still find them on food sources. The odd new buck shows up.

Early Nov- Not much mature buck movement

Mid Nov (10-20)- Mature bucks become scarce due to huge blocks of cover and available does.

Late Nov-early dec.- Lots of mature buck sightings as available does become less. Bucks can be found on food sources one the shoulders of the day checking doe groups.

My Nov. experience is less extensive simply due to getting out less at at that time of season.
 
All this talk about mutiple Mature bucks sounds like fairy tales on my small 40 acres. If I am lucky,,I may see a buck 3 yrs to 5 , every other year, once,,in three wks of hunting. So with my limited sightings even I agree,,around Mid Nov, 8th thru 14th,,I see the most movement. Especially if it finally gets cold. The first real chilly day last Nov, was the most active morning, think about Nov 12.
 
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