Hunt 365 December-3 Steps to Late Season Success
Another year of Whitetails 365 is coming to an end along with another whitetail season! But before we throw in the towel on another season, let’s not forget that we still have over a month of solidly awesome whitetail hunting. December brings with it three gun seasons and the start of the second or late archery season. For any whitetail hunter this is almost like a dream come true…and yet for so many hunters who might have struggled so far this season, they are giving up just when in so many ways the hunting is getting really good.
So much emphasis is given to the rut that when it comes and goes all too often hunters get themselves into a toilet bowl spin of despair. Hunter fatigue starts to set in and it becomes easier and easier to justify missing a hunt or two…or skipping evening scouting sessions glassing for a good buck over remaining food sources. And when hunters do stick to hunting they start to make mistakes or take short cuts. Instead of walking the “long” way around to avoid bumping deer on an evening hunt…they get a little too close to a doe bedding area and bump a doe or two…no big deal right? It’s this sloppy let your guard down attitude that costs many hunters a chance at a late season dream hunt. If you find yourself in this self-inflicted pity party, it’s time to regroup and take stock in the fact that you still have some pretty awesome hunting left.
I’ve spent my entire hunting career evaluating what is working…and what isn’t. If I try a new method or technique, maybe a new hunting spot or two, or maybe even new hunting grounds, I always evaluate the results. I started this perpetual continuous improvement method at a very young age in my hunting and continue doing it today. I bring this up because so many hunters go from year to year and from season to season repeating what they’ve always done hoping for the day a giant bucks steps into view. If this is you, and you’ve not yet achieved your goal of a mature buck or consistently harvesting good bucks, you might want to try making some changes to your methods. Late season whitetail hunting is a great time to start over. It’s also a great time to get back to the basics of hunting and good sound hunting skills. Forget the frills and all the complicated methods of hunting and put together a solid game plan for some good, if not awesome late season whitetail hunting.
The Late Season Plan
- A solid late season whitetail hunt will start with a good food source. Everyone already knows this but so many hunters just keep hunting the same old hunting grounds regardless of whether or not a good food source is available. A solid food source would be standing soybeans or corn. I’ve seen marginal results over cut corn or soybeans but only when other standing crops are not in the area. A nice stand of brassicas might do the trick…or even a good clover plot in a year with warmer fall temperatures. When a good quality food source doesn’t exist the deer will be spread out or vacate the area all together in search of those standing crops. Here’s the problem, and why many hunters fail this first and most important step…unless there are extreme weather conditions like what you see in northern climates, deer in the lower Midwest (like Iowa) will not yard up and congregate to save energy. In almost all cases across the lower Midwest deer will simply find the best food sources in their home ranges. Unless there is a food source that is good enough to congregate deer and make them easier to hunt, they will be spread out scrounging around for their daily calories. Deer that are spread out across their home range are hard to pattern during the late season. Finding a good food source…one capable of congregating deer activity is what hunters that consistently kill big deer look for. If you don’t have a solid food source on your normal hunting grounds, expand your horizons or you will struggle in the late season.
- Low hunting pressure is always important when hunting any game animal. Whitetail deer surprisingly will take a fair amount of disturbance. Urban deer for example live right among people and businesses and in most cases thrive. But, given the choice, deer will seek out and hunker down in areas where they see the least amount of pressure in their home ranges. Pressure during the late season could be hunting, cutting fire wood, fixing fences, vehicle traffic, and any other form of pressure that can and will disturb deer. Deer to a certain extent can distinguish between hunting pressure and things like cutting fire wood…but during the late season they don’t need any excuse to avoid an area. If you’ve worked hard to accomplish step 1 (finding a solid food source), the next step is to avoid the area at most costs. This is sometimes the more emotionally difficult step because we want to get in there and scout, hang some stands, maybe run a couple cameras…but avoid any pressure that could affect the herd. If you’re going to hang a stand, go in on a windy day and make it quick and quiet. If you’re going to run a camera or two be super cautious to be scent free and only check the cameras when you can get to them without bumping deer…again a windy day works best. If you locate a good buck near your food source try to stay away from the area until you’re ready to hunt.
- My last step when hunting late season whitetails is to hunt non-invasively. If the weapon of choice is shotgun or muzzleloader, learn your longest effective range and hunt from that distance. If you’ve practiced enough and are proficient and confident out to 150 yards, set up so that your shot is around that range. Setting up right over top the action when you have a longer range weapon will ultimately put pressure on the deer as you go to and from your setup. A great food source this time of year can also attract a lot of deer…being at a distance will help keep those deer from busting you while on stand. For this reason I’ll often use a ground blind that was put in place as early as I could get it there. A fully enclosed blind will conceal you from a deer’s eyes, ears, and in some cases even their nose. If you can use a blind go for it!
All my late season muzzleloader stands are situated as far as I can comfortably get from a food source. In this case switch grass hides our entrance and exit.
Archery hunters have a big challenge here. As an archer, you obviously can’t setup at 150 yards from the action. This is where the transition area can really be a good asset for you. But, it also requires a little more scouting to more narrowly determine how your target animal is entering the food source area and what direction they feed to. If you can pinpoint a transition area that allows for an entrance and exit that doesn’t bump deer, this is one good option. Option two would be to simply set up across the food source in hopes of keeping all the deer out in front of you hoping your target animal makes his way into range. This is a classic case of cat and mouse recognizing that with each unsuccessful sit you are most likely putting more and more pressure on the deer you are hunting. Hunt only when the conditions are best for late season hunting…a breezy evening, cold weather, maybe snow on the ground. Make each sit count!
Case in Point…2016
In 2016, my son and I had high hopes and anticipation for his late muzzleloader hunt. Because of work requirements, Forest had to pick one week of solid hunting to try and harvest a mature buck. With limited choices, we zeroed in on the time frame of December 23rd to January 1st. We had already “found” our solid food source, a standing corn field and standing soybeans that we had planted back in April. We were running cameras all fall and into December and a solid 8 point 5 year old bruiser was routinely visiting those two plots…so there was no need to scout too hard and put pressure on the local deer herd. Since mid-November, nobody had been on the farm including both shotgun seasons. We had two fully enclosed blinds set up on the food plots for multiple wind directions, and both were located off the plots at Forest’s effective range. In short, we had the food, low pressure, and our hunting sets were located to provide maximum coverage while limiting pressure while hunting. The stage was set!
On the night of December 31st, getting down to our final two days of hunting, we sat our blind once again overlooking both the standing corn and soybeans. The night was cold with a steady westerly breeze. An hour before dark deer started pouring into the plots to feed undisturbed like they had been doing for the past several weeks. And then, the buck Forest had nicknamed Vendetta stepped out with another smaller buck. After some tense moments, the buck finally gave a good angle and the classic CAPOWWW of the muzzleloader broke the evening silence. Luck had played no part in another successful late season hunt. Food, the absence of pressure, and hunting in a way that didn’t disturb our local deer herd led to the successful hunt!
After hunting hard and smart for over a week, Forest was finally able to get our target buck in front of him. Maintaining low pressure, not bumping deer, and having a preferred food source closed the deal for us.
Hunt 365 in 2018
As 2017 comes to a close, I sincerely hope you’ve enjoyed another year of Hunt 365. I’ve done my best to bring the working class hunter the best most relevant information I could to help you be a more successful and satisfied hunter. In 2018, I will continue to try and bring whitetail hunters information they can use to better their habitat, tactics, and everything in between…only in 2018 the readers will be in charge of the content! If you have any questions, or content you would like covered please submit your questions directly to me at my email address provided. Please include as much information you can relevant to your questions so that I can answer them to the best of my ability. I will do my best to answer as many questions as I can in coming months in this column. Please submit all questions to tapeppy@gmail.com
Thank you to all the readers of this column; it has been a pleasure writing it for you!