WHEN I'M BOWHUNTING, NO SOUND cuts me deeper than the sound of the human voice. Like a saber to the heart, a voice can leave my hunt stone cold dead.

I took this North Dakota buck in mid-October 2003. He ignored the loud voices of passing horse riders and responded instead to my light rattling.

So you can imagine how I felt when the voices of a family on horseback began to slice through the air below my treestand in a North Dakota poplar. As I stood, waiting the last magical 30 minutes of daylight that October evening, the family enjoyed a sunset ride through the wooded hills of the National Grasslands. As they rode by, dangerously close to a whitetail bedding area, they never saw me. I thought one horse threw a glance at me from one of his huge brown eyes, but he didn't react.

As the family rode past, they discussed the young lady's first days at college that fall. All I could think about was how hard the hunting had been of late, during the so-called October Lull, when buck activity seems to wane. I considered getting down out of my tree. With all of that disturbance, no self-respecting buck would move until dark.

But then I remembered the previous fall, when I'd watched a 4x4 approach my decoy in spite of a pair of dirt bikes screaming down a nearby trail just 150 yards away. These were tolerant whitetails. I decided to stay put.

The rolling hills and swales were carpeted with scrub oak leaves, and not even a mouse could move around without sounding like a lame hog.

Still, the subtle cadence of two deer walking in the leaves surprised me. Though it was a doe and fawn, it was a good sign. Maybe I'd see action despite the talkative riders.

The sun had been out of sight for 10 minutes when I heard more leaf-rustling steps. They were agonizingly slow. This wasn't a squirrel, but it came from the other side of the ridge in front of me, and I couldn't locate the source.

Whatever it was, it was taking forever to come into view. I gambled that the unseen deer wasn't close enough to spot me using my rattling bag. Softly working the bag to sound like a couple of young bucks sparring, I followed up with a couple of grunts. Straining to see what was now slowly moving toward me, I reached for my bow -- just in case. I always prefer to see the animal before moving, but with the waning light I had to take the chance and ready myself.

A buck with wide, light-colored antlers finally stepped into view, and I hooked my release to the string loop. For the area I was hunting, this was a shooter, especially since I also had Minnesota and Iowa tags burning holes in my pockets.

The buck moved very slowly, nibbling on grass and scratching for acorns. I carefully set my feet.

When everything seemed just right, I slowly drew. But the buck was still facing me, and before turning he glanced up and saw me. At 18 yards, we had a staredown, both frozen like statues. I must have won, because the buck turned from a facing position to a quartering stance, and then put his head down. With both the legal and ethical clocks ticking, only a handful of minutes were left.

Releasing the string, I lost track of the arrow -- and the buck -- as he plunged back into a hollow, out of sight. I heard him racing through the leaves up the other side of the hollow, and then it grew quiet.

During the prerut you want to challenge the manhood of area bucks, so lay down a scent trail or make a mock scrape with a buck scent to instigate an aggressive response. Photo by Curt Wells photo

I lowered myself onto the stand seat and let my right knee go through its customary post-shot shaking routine. Sitting there, I contemplated the circumstances of that hunt and the inexplicable phenomenon known as "The October Lull."

I HAVE NO EXPLANATION for the lack of buck movement during the last few weeks before the prerut. In the Northern Plains, where I live, the lull begins in late September and runs into mid-October. Active bucks are hard to come by during this time. The lull seems to occur in other parts of the country as well, so it can't be tied to crop harvest or bird hunting pressure, because those factors don't exist in all areas.

All I know is, during those three weeks, it's typically a struggle to find bucks moving about. Yes, there are exceptions, but that's exactly what they are. Personally, I think mature whitetail bucks use a massive network of underground tunnels to conceal their movements until the rut forces them to go above ground and find does. If I could ever find the entrance to those tunnels… Because that never seems to happen, the next best solution is to locate bachelor groups of bucks in late summer before the bucks go underground. If you wait until October when the lull sets in for good, you'll swear no bucks exist in your area at all. Use optics during evening scouting trips in August and September to determine where the bucks are spending their time. They will be away from the does and fawns. Try not to intrude on their areas any more than you have to. An occasional walkabout may help you find rub lines and some of those early-season "pretender" scrapes. But generally you should just glass from a roadway or vantage point to watch bucks feeding in fields.

Even when they're in velvet, you'll see bucks posturing and positioning themselves in the hierarchy, spending the summer working out their pecking order. But as long as their antlers are in velvet and growing, the bucks will remain in bachelor groups and will feed in open fields where you can easily see them each evening. They have not gone underground yet.

However, once the testosterone starts to flow, the velvet comes off their antlers, and the gloves do too. Bucks grow less tolerant of each other's company and become more territorial. Young bucks are tolerated in the bachelor groups, but the mature bucks start picking fights and asserting rank.

You would think this increase in activity would make the bucks more visible, but, ironically, the bucks become less visible because they no longer spend long periods feeding in the open. They head to the tunnels, and that's when you begin to wonder if any bucks exist in your area at all. Trust your scouting. You saw them, and you know where they were...

That's your starting point for hunting bachelor bucks during the October lull. You hunt where they were. They're still there. You just can't see them.