Outdoor Logic with BioLogic: Early Season Whitetail Strategies

BY TODD AMENRUD

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 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 and fawn decoys” to attract does or fawns.

Mature bucks will begin to mark territory earlier than young bucks. This is why mock scrapes can work well as early as September. (Photo Credit: Dennis W. Donohue)

Some hunters feel that they shouldn’t use calls, scent, or certain other tactics until just before the rut. In reality, early season can be the easiest time to draw a response to each. You just need to know which smells, sounds or decoy postures they favor during that time and how to set them up, so they draw a response and the encounter ends in your favor.

Calling whitetails can sometimes be easy during early season. Whitetails are social animals, and the bucks want to mingle with other bucks to see where they will eventually end up in the breeding hierarchy, and doe/fawn family groups want to get to know the other doe/fawn family groups after the solitude they experienced during birthing and the fawns’ first few weeks. Soft, social calls typically will work best during early season. During this time, it is better to use buck vocalizations to draw in bucks and doe or fawn communications to draw a response from them.

It’s still a secret to some, but rattling will work during early season. It’s not like rattling during the third week of October - you should imitate “two brothers in a friendly arm-wrestling match,” not in a “knock-down, drag-out fight.” Just “tickle” your antlers together. As soon as bucks lose their velvet, they start sparring with one another, but during this time of year, they’re responding to be social, not aggressive – they’re sparring, not fighting. To help sell the ruse, rather than hard-hitting vocalizations, use soft, social buck calls.

For scent utilization, this obviously is applicable only to “deer smells” (scents that actually come from deer, like urine, glandular lures or musk type smells); this is not the case for curiosity smells or food lures.

When it comes to mature bucks, they may or may not be social with other bucks. Sometimes older bucks can be very isolated animals. They really don’t need this communal contact like younger bucks most often do.

During September, dramatically increased amounts of testosterone start flowing through a buck’s body. Contrary to what some believe, from this point on, a buck is ready to breed. The further south you travel the later this happens and it will be spread out over a longer period. In the south, there is a bit more of a margin for error. Differing with what some may say, it’s the does that actually dictate when breeding will take place and bucks will often remain social with the other bucks until the does exhibit the first signs of coming into estrus.

Although I’ve had a positive reaction to breeding tactics during early season (and even before the season when testing), it’s probably not a good idea to go out opening day and “smack them in the nose” with breeding or competition scenarios.

Typically, when it comes to “deer smells” you want to use the smells/scents when they would naturally occur in the wild. As I said, I’ve had estrus lures work well on mature bucks early in the season. And, if you are specifically after a mature buck, it may be a tactic you wish to try, but for most early season instances you are probably better off with plain urine or a curiosity scent like Trail’s End #307.

There are many ways that you can dispense scent during this period, but two of my favorite tools are a Pro-Drag and Magnum Scrape Dripper. The Pro-Drag is the best tool that I have found with which to create a scent trail because it holds a lot of scent and it’s easy to control. You can use any type of liquid scent when making a trail; it doesn’t have to be a “deer smell,” food lures or curiosity scents work, too.

Magnum Scrape Drippers are heat activated and will drip only during daytime hours, conditioning deer to showing up during legal hunting hours…when you will also be there.

When testosterone enters the picture, mock scrapes can be a very effective tactic, even as early as the last part of September. Where sometimes using mock scrapes too early in the year can be intimidating to young bucks, it may be “just the ticket” for those “breeding class” bucks. Mature bucks will feel the urge to begin depositing messages at these signposts earlier in the season than the younger bucks.

The Magnum Scrape Drippers that are associated with making mock scrapes are great tools for dispensing any type of liquid scent, not just those associated with mock scrapes. This device is heat-activated and will drip only during daytime hours, conditioning deer to showing up during legal hunting hours (when you will also be there). It doesn’t have to be used just at mock scrapes; it works great at dispensing all kinds of scent like food lures or curiosity scent, too.

You can operate for two to three weeks on one fill-up with the Magnum Scrape Dripper.On the other hand, the Super Charged Scrape-Dripper will go through that same amount of scent in about 7 to 10 days.

Actually, you don’t want to fill either unit full. It works because of the air pocket that you leave inside, but you can use a full 4 ounces of scent. These units freshen your scent setup during legal shooting hours, so you don’t have to. This way when you’re ready to hunt, the site is pristine and void of human scent.

Around opener, and for the following couple of weeks, a scent trail of Trail’s End #307 can be “killer.” One reason why this lure is so effective is because it appeals not only to a whitetail’s curiosity but also to their sense of hunger and desire to repopulate - you really can’t go wrong.

With decoys, just like the other tactics, remember that during early season, they are primarily social within their own sex groups. You need to give the animal you’re after a reason to close the distance and interact with your setup. For any buck, a buck decoy in a submissive posture with small antlers will typically work best. For a doe, doe or fawn decoys work best. For mature bucks, oftentimes I like to present a more intimidating scenario and may use larger antlers on the decoy or pose it in a more aggressive posture. Movement (from the decoy) and decoy posture are two very important details. Many decoys now come with parts that will move or pivot in a breeze. A small amount of scent that backs up the scenario you’re trying to convey may also help if the buck swings downwind to scent-check your setup.

If you do catch them in their dependable summer patterns, move fast! With testosterone entering the picture and the does soon to show signs of coming into estrus, things will change very quickly.

No matter which hunting tactic you choose to use, knowing the social structure of the herd during the time you intend to hunt is a key to getting it to work for you. Here, the author poses with a respectable opening day buck. (Photo Credit: Todd Amenrud)