OUTDOOR LOGIC WITH BIOLOGIC
Early Season Whitetail Strategies Right Out of the Gate
Contrary to what many believe, rattling can work during early season. Bucks respond to be social, not aggressive. So don’t imitate a harsh fight like you might during late October, rather create a “light,” social scenario. (Photo Credit: Tony Campbell)
Knowledge of your quarry is a key to consistent success when hunting anything, but it’s especially so when pursuing whitetails. Knowing the societal structure of the herd during the time you intend to hunt will help you to choose which tactics will work best. Early season is all about being social with other deer in the “whitetails’ world”; however, they may not be getting together with the specific deer that you might expect. During summer and into the first few weeks of the hunting season, the bucks will likely be hanging out with other bucks in bachelor groups and the does will 30
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be bringing their fawns with them to staging and feeding areas to “introduce” them to other doe/fawn family groups. You may see them side by side at certain times, but through most of the summer and into the earliest part of the hunting season, they have separate “bedrooms” and “living rooms.” Testosterone will change things soon, but for a short while during early season, this is the case. Knowing this to be true, it makes the best sense to use “buck smells, buck sounds or buck decoys” to attract bucks and “doe smells, doe/fawn sounds or doe
