Don't Overlook the Whitetail Pre-Rut

I was young and dumb. I'd read too many rut articles and watched too much outdoor television. I never started my whitetail bow missions until November was read on the calendar. What a mistake!

Now, three decades into the whitetail game, if someone told me I could hunt any property (public or private) for big bucks at any time during the year, I'd choose the pre-rut every time.

My last two Centennial State bucks — a 155-inch 9-point and a 168-inch 11-point — were harvested on October 23 and 24.

What Makes The Pre-Rut Rock?

As days shorten and bucks' testosterone rises, in-the-woods magic begins. Get a little temperature dip from Mother Nature, and the front and back ends of a high-pressure system ensure bucks will spend more time on their feet.

Another reason the pre-rut is money is because the buck sign starts to ramp up. You'll walk into the woods one afternoon and see a line of trees blazed white. Scrapes, both large community scrapes and ones a buck may never visit again, start to appear. Trail camera batteries dip in percentage as they pick up more activity.

While a doe or two may cycle, chase activity is sparse, which is good. Too often over the years, I've had a target buck run a doe by my stand at warp speed, never to be seen again. The peak chase phase is too sporadic.

During the pre-rut, I can use trail cam intel to tell me where the family groups of girls are and how area bucks are navigating the landscape. Then, I know when and where to strike. Also, the pre-rut is when a new hit-list buck can appear, adding a nice bonus to your late-October plans.

A Time To Kill

Two seasons ago, my Colorado trail activity was dismal. A walk through my hunt area on October 17 revealed two scrapes and one rub. The only thing that worked in my favor was multiple does, frequenting a small pond on the south end of my property.

On October 20, the neighboring landowner put his John Deere to work, turning the 60-acre cornfield to stubble. At noon on October 21, I checked two of my three Stealth Cams. Two shooter bucks drank from my pond minutes after the western sky swallowed the sun.

Why the sudden change? A significant standing cover area with food and water was no more. Bucks had to move, and the mature bucks showed with the pond within 1/4-mile of the cornfield and plenty of doe scent in the air. When crops are harvested, deer move.

On October 22, with the wind blowing away from where I believed one or both shooters were bedded, I did another camera pull. Both bucks hit the pond again two minutes after the legal shooting light expired. I also noticed an enormous scrape and a new rub line.

On the evening of October 24, the Mercury dropped, and the barometer was above 30 inches. With 12 minutes of legal shooting light remaining, I made a perfect 18-yard shot while the buck slurped water from the pond.

Last season, a buck I had a history with named "Too Tall" spent the summer using a pond I'd dug close to a known buck bedding area. On October 10, Too Tall vanished. The good news is that multiple does and smaller bucks still hit the water daily. On October 15, Too Tall reappeared at my pond stand, and from the 15th to the 23rd, he hit the pond every day.

I knew the buck was bedding close, and his home range was shrinking. There were plenty of girls to hold his interest, and the icing on the cake was knowing he could get out of his bed, slake his thirst, and head to a nearby alfalfa field.

On the evening of October 24, with no cold front in sight, I decided to head for my ground blind. All I had working in my favor was a wind change — the first east after three days of west — and Too Tall had hit the pond the previous two evenings within 20 minutes of the last legal light.

My pre-rut goal is to use trail cam intel and new buck sign to be in an area the first time a shooter walks during daylight. You'll see why I favor the pre-rut over any other time frame when you learn to piece the puzzle together.

NOTE: Multiple deer activity forecast models told me it would be better to take the evening off. I ignore deer forecast models. How often have you trusted a weather forecast, not taken your rain gear, and gotten soaked to the bone? I'm just saying.

If you have intel telling you a particular night or morning is go-time, you must go! It was 84 degrees Fahrenheit when I settled into the Ameristep blind. The wind was almost still. As deer evenings go, it was shaping up to be bad. Then, three does and two fawns slurped water from my pond. Twenty minutes after their exit, I heard a deer stand up from its bed. Too Tall ran away from my pond two minutes later with a 1.5-inch SEVR hole in his side.

Damn, I love the pre-rut. Regardless of the weather, you're likely able to spot a tell, whether that tell be girls, food, water, territorial, etc., that will put you in the chips.

Take A Risk!

I don't hunt perfectly manicured whitetail dirt. I do my best to make my Colorado lease solid, but it doesn't have food plots, box blinds that allow me to hunt any wind, etc. And, lots of times, I hunt public ground.

When hunting pre-rut open-to-anyone dirt, I take risks. I strap a lightweight treestand and a set of climbing sticks to my pack and go walkabout.

I ignore the perimeter sign. Scrapes and rubs around ag fields and those close to accessible access areas are typically made at night. I use my HuntStand app to locate the buckiest-looking bedding off the beaten path. These areas commonly include marshes, dense plumb thickets, chest-high pockets of CRP, swamps, and the nastiest timber available near a river or creek crossing.

When I see big rubs and scrapes, I slow down and look for a tree to climb. I try to set up so the wind is just wrong enough for an approaching deer to feel like he can travel with the wind in his face but just right enough for my stink to slide past his olfactory system. For instance, if the wind is out of the southeast, I will set up where the more dominant south or east will work, barely in my favor. It's risky, but it works like a charm.

I discovered a public land spot two years ago where I felt bucks would travel on a northeast wind. One evening, the wind direction was straight east. My stand placement allowed my scent cone to slide right past an approaching buck. At any point, if the wind received a north component, the buck would have winded me. I like to push the envelope with wind direction — keep it just right for you and just wrong enough for the deer.

The pre-rut is an excellent time to hit paydirt on a shooter buck, regardless of whether you're hunting public land or private. Pay attention to what area deer are doing, and strike when the time is right.

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