Fall is here and the food plots are in the ground, so except for conducting some controlled burns in the near future, the only thing left to do deer management wise is to harvest and record the deer we need (or would like) to remove. Though most deer hunters hunt whitetail by setting up over a food source, whether it be a feeder or a food plot, there are more active ways to bag a buck. There really are only two ways to go: Either you can go to the deer, or you can bring the deer to you.

Though many hunters have read about rattling bucks in, or have seen it on TV, many have yet to give this method a shot. Well, at least on a regular basis. I suspect many hunters have picked up a set of antlers and have at least attempted to rattle up a buck, but their lack of success caused them to quickly dismiss the effectiveness of antler rattling. Those antlers then went back to collecting dust at camp. So as effective as rattling can be, most of time it just will not work. But when it’s hot, it’s hot!

Rattling can work at any time during the hunting season, but it is typically most effective just prior to the rut, during the pre-rut. At this time, antler rattling can be an effective way to bring bucks right up into spitting distance. I’ve seen bucks come running out of the brush with as little as two seconds worth of antler rattling! Of course, many times I’ve rattled antlers together only to attract the attention of  area squirrels, or even worse, nothing at all. During the pre-rut, bucks are establishing dominance for breeding purposes, setting up territories, and working off an excess in testosterone. It is also during this time in which they are most vulnerable to rattling. 

When it comes to rattling, you never really know what you are going to attract. I’ve had all sorts of deer respond to rattling. I guess they all want to run over and see who is fighting—and who will win. Some buck even want to participate, some are just curious. I’ve had does, spikes, middle-age bucks, and mature bucks all come to a set of rattling antlers. All age classes of bucks will respond to rattling at the proportion in which they occur in the population.

If a good percentage of the local buck herd is made up of young bucks, then that is probably what you will bring in. If, on the other hand, there are a good number of older bucks in the area, then you have just as a good of a chance of bringing them to you as younger-aged bucks. In fact, you probably have a much better chance of bringing them to you rather than simply sitting and waiting to see them. Because that may never happen.

I had a friend of mine spot a huge whitetail buck last year on public land right as season started. The buck showed up on a couple of his game camera photos before season, but he got a glimpse of the buck the second day of archery season as the animal walked by at 200 yards. He then made it his personal mission to hunt that deer for the remainder of the season, even if it meant he ended the year with no buck at all. To make a long story short, he hunted and hunted, but one cold morning a few weeks later he rattled that deer to within 25 yards and shot it with his bow. He said after his first rattling sequence he could see the buck, which scored over 170 Boone and Crockett inches, running at him from over 400 yards! Sometimes it helps to bring them to you.

So rattling can work, but don’t expect it to work every time.

The General Deer Hunting Season has ended across much of Texas, but whitetail hunters still have an opportunity to take some deer during the Special Late General Season for spike bucks and antlerless deer. Although deer are very wary right now after a full season of being hunted, the late season gives deer managers one last chance to harvest the few remaining deer needed to achieve their deer harvest goals. Now, not all Texas counties have a Late Season in place for white-tailed deer, but most 5 deer counties do have the special season that runs from January 5-18. Make sure to review your county’s deer hunting regulations before heading out into the field.

As valuable as Texas’ Late Season may be for some hunters,  it’s not the only option for harvesting white-tailed deer outside the General Season. For deer managers looking for some additional flexibility, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department has the Managed Lands Deer Program (MLDP) that not only allows for an early start in some cases, for the early harvests of does, spikes, and other undesirable bucks, but for an extended season that runs until the end of February. I would recommend that any landowner interested in sound deer harvest and habitat management look into the specifics of the MLDP program. The winter weather is cold as I write, so deer are moving. Get out there and take advantage of Texas’ late season — and pray for rain! 

In Texas, most of the white-tailed deer are on the tail-end of the rut. There are a few areas of the state that are notable exceptions, with the south Texas rut just warming up. However, deer in most parts of the state have finished the first and most important breeding cycle. Does that were not bred during their first cycle will come back into heat 28 days later, so bucks will continue to search out these ladies. But even if the rut is almost over and only a single un-bred doe exisits in your area, there are still some tactics you can use to be successful at late season, post rut whitetail.

Once the primary rut is over, does will search out winter food sources and start to re-group. Early season hunting strategy usually calls for hunters setting up along scrapes or rub lines, but the success rate of this technique drops rapidly after the majority fo the rut as occurred. Rather than looking for buck sign, look for signs of does. Find the portion of the property where you hunt that has the highest concentration of does. Go there. This is probably not the place where your stand is located. Deer can pattern hunters just as easy, if not easier, than hunters can pattern deer. After all, the deer are out there all of the time!

If there is a single un-bred doe on your ranch, the chances of seeing that deer are better where you view the highest number of deer. This may make sense, but you would be surprised at the number of hunters that always see deer in one particular area, but continue to drive to their stand and wait it out by a food plot or feeder. Deer are wise late in the season. They are out there, but they will not readily approach your food plot or feeder because of hunting pressure. Your job is to find out where those deer can be found after the sun comes up and the sun goes down.

Remember, although you are looking for late rut does, you are really only using them to attract a lonely buck to you. Once feeding areas have been identified, it will pay to find bedding areas. The value of bedding areas has been stressed in the literature so much that we are all blue in the face, but it is very important. Let’s say you are hunting a food plot, a feeder, or an area where deer come to feed on native plants. It doesn’t matter. When deer have been hunted by you, your hunting buddies, and your neighbors, deer get smart. Searching for whitetail does can be the most difficult task, but your post rut success hinges on finding them. Any doe coming into a second or late estrus will leave her scent, but where is she?

In many parts of the country, the doe segment of a deer population has a better age structure than the buck segment. In short, this means unless you are hunting a property that has a good deer management program in place, there are more old does running around than there are old bucks. We all know how this occurs. So yes, many of the does are actually smarter than the bucks we hunt because they have been through hunting season after hunting season after hunting season. And guess what? They are still there.

So what’s next? Simply said, evening feeding patterns are easier to predict than morning feeding patterns. This is because deer know they will bed up nearby after dark, especially during the dark of the moon. A common occurence is for is for evening-feeding deer to “hang up” in nearby cover before heading out to feed just before sunset. So if you are hunting an evening food source, rest assured that deer are not far away. The trick to is to get to them before your hunting light is gone.

This is where hunting setup is important. Let’s say you have identified the highest density of deer, the food source these animals are using, and where they are bedding up after dark. Since hunting between the feeding and bedding area will not payoff on late-feeding deer at this point in the season, the trick is to hunt near the food source, but between the food source and the direction the deer are coming from. That’s right, you are going to have to get out of your tripod or box blind. Once the feeding route is known, back off the food source by about 100 to 150 yards and set up shop. Make either a small inconspicuous brush blind or use a climbing stand. Make sure you get there before the deer do, watch the wind, and keep an eye out for either a hungry buck or a buck looking for an un-bred doe!

When it comes to timing your deer hunting activity, every deer hunter knows that hunting during the rut is a great time to be in the woods. Sure, this can a great way to harvest a white-tailed buck because during the rut bucks can be downright stupid. In addition to bucks having only one thing on their mind, they may stray up to several miles from their summer range in search of does or chasing does to breed. And as exciting as this may be, there is another way to bag your buck that can take some of the guess work out of the equation.  

The secret is patterning the movement those early season bucks way before the breeding season kicks off. Early season bucks are motivated by safety and food. Bucks feel rather safe during the early fall because for 9 months no one has bothered them — no hunters in the woods, no funny scents, no 4-wheelers running around both before and after dark, and nothing strange at all. It has been quiet. 

It’s during this time of year that whitetail bucks find food sources and eat in preparation of the breeding season and winter. They may be hitting a feeder, a food plot, or an ag field, but they are all the same as far as you are concerned. If you can figure out a buck’s pre-rut pattern you drastically improve your chances of bagging that big boy. Now as I mentioned earlier the rut can cause bucks to travel long distances, so once the rut begins the buck you may have had your heart set on may no longer be in the area, so why wait? You don’t want him throwing caution to the wind somewhere else now do you?  

But as easy as it is to say get out there early, early season hunting brings its own set of challenges. In addition to facing warm, maybe even hot weather, you will be heading out into the woods battling mosquitoes, chiggers, and lots of leaves that have yet to fall. Hey, I never said it would be easy even though hunting pre-rut bucks can be highly effective. In addition to potentially tough environmental conditions, many hunters have another huge obstacle when it comes to patterning and hunting bucks early in the season. This is the fact that the rut actually occurs prior to hunting season.

This can happen in many cases. In Texas, there are many parts of the state where the general deer hunting season opens after the rut has already begun! Many hunters across the country know this fact — and in many cases it’s probably one of the important reasons they picked up a bow. In areas where the rut takes place prior to the gun (general) season, bow-hunters have the best shot at both pre-rut and early-rut bucks.

The rut kicking off prior the gun season opener is not unique to Texas so it’s important to know when the rut takes place in your area, because timing can be everything. It is very difficult to pattern a pre-rut buck when you show up a few weeks late. On the flip side, once the breeding season is complete white-tailed bucks will return to their pre-rut patterns (if they are still alive). However, increased hunter activity, hunting pressure, and colder weather may cause the buck to shift to a more nocturnal pattern.    

So, you are looking for a good white-tailed buck. Who isn’t? I’m going first assume that you have a place to hunt and know the terrain of your hunting property. If not, this is critical information you need to know, so get out there! Of course, another one of your first objectives is to determine whether or not your hunting area holds any sizable bucks. And I use the term “sizable” as defined by you. To some, sizable may go hand-in-hand with the term “mature buck” while others may put a number to it, such as 140 Boone and Crockett points.  

Big bucks are territorial. You can find these areas by looking for both scrapes and rubs, but scrapes are really what you want to be looking for and I will explain why. Other than how they are made, do you know how scrapes and rubs differ? For one, it’s seldom that one particular buck rub will be worked again later in the year. In fact, a certain tree may be rubbed in consecutive years by a particular buck, but seldom is it ever worked again during that same year. This is not the case with buck scrapes because they will often be revisited and reworked throughout the breeding season. Keep in mind that I am not saying that all whitetail scrapes will be revisited, but the odds are more in your favor than against you. 

Scrape hunting can work on all age classes of bucks, but is more effective on older, and typically larger, white-tailed deer. This is because when mature bucks create a scrape they are basically laying claim to one particular area. When a big buck works the ground he is leaving a visual sign that he considers the area to be his and his only. The buck leaves visual sign on the ground with his hooves and scent from his pre-orbital glands on a licking branch above the scrape. All this is done to ”claim” the area and let receptive does know that he is in around.

To sum up, while scouting your hunting area look for both rubs and scrapes. Rubs on large diameter trees will let you know that a big buck has been in the area, but a scrape is more likely to tell you where he will return. Once an active scrape is found, monitor the buck scrape, do a scrape switch, or set up downwind and wait him out. Hunting a scarpe probably will not work on any given day, but be patient and over time it will give you a good shot at a buck you may not have seen otherwise.