Bucks shift their ranges and core areas multiple times during the hunting season. If you stay on top of these changes, you can increase the chances of tagging a trophy buck. (Photo by Vic Schendel)
August 29, 2024
By Steve Sherk
One of the biggest challenges in hunting mature whitetails is knowing their seasonal shifts and changes in patterns and movements. What you find happening in the woods today could be entirely different tomorrow. Through many years of trial and error, I’ve learned it’s better to try and predict what a buck is going to do next than to go on what he did today or most recently.
EARLY FALL SHIFT I see several shifts each fall that can leave hunters dumbfounded when it comes to figuring out where a buck went and why he vanished. The early fall shift is one of the most well-known shifts you see bucks make every year. A lot of hunters are aware that it’s going to happen, yet they can never seem to prepare for it or take advantage of it. You can keep tabs on a buck the entire summer, which is the time of year when he is most predictable, then one day he will disappear or completely change his habits in the blink of an eye.
The author says that the first noticeable shift a buck will make is called the early fall shift. This generally occurs in late August or early September, and it usually coincides with bucks shedding their velvet and abandoning their bachelor groups. (Photo by Bruce MacQueen, Shutterstock) The two big keys in knowing when a buck is going to break from his summer pattern are when he sheds his velvet and when he leaves his bachelor group. This usually happens in late August or early September. The good thing is, both changes usually occur at about the same time. Rising testosterone levels will turn a buck into a completely different animal; that’s what causes him to shed his velvet and break away from his buddies. Testosterone will change the way he thinks, eats and sleeps. All early season hunters need to be aware of this and prepare for it to happen.
When a mature buck makes this shift, he tends to become way more nocturnal. He will also likely shrink his core area to a few acres of ground. His core area is always linked to his bedroom. At this time of year, bucks spend more time in their bedding areas than any other location. In my opinion, the bedding pattern is the best strategy for harvesting an early season buck after the early fall shift.
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The sooner you recognize a shift or a change in movement, the more your odds increase at capitalizing on it. Even better, if you can plan for these shifts to happen and know when they occur, you’ll kill a lot more big whitetails.
THE RUT SHIFT Many confuse the rut shift with the early fall shift. These are two completely different moves a buck will make during the fall. I see the rut shift generally taking place around mid-October.
At this time, bucks will leave their core areas and begin focusing their movements on what the does are doing within their homerange. I’ve found that most mature bucks tend to seek out the closest doe groups in relation to their core areas. So, a lot of times, this move a buck is making is not a far one. But similar to the early fall shift, a lot of his needs and priorities start to change.
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This is especially a time when breeding starts to outweigh his needs for food and cover. Even though it’s unlikely he will breed at this time, most older bucks prepare 1 to 3 weeks ahead of time for the rut. This preparation mode is when they will start rubbing and scraping around doe feeding and bedding areas. They will also shift their bedding to mainly downwind of doe bedding areas.
The author arrowed this great buck on public land during mid-October. When he noticed fresh buck sign popping up on the edge of a doe bedding area, he knew a big deer had just made his rut shift. He tagged the deer just two days after finding the sign. (Photo courtesy of Steve Sherk) The mid- to late-October period has been my best part of the season for killing mature bucks. This is one of the most overlooked times of the year. In fact, many call this the “October Lull” and refuse to hunt until closer to November. When I think back on some of the bucks I’ve taken around the rut shift, most of them were taken from finding fresh buck sign around doe feeding and bedding areas, or on scrapes that bucks were visiting to interact with does.
I took one of my better archery bucks during the middle part of October, while hunting over some hot sign that started popping up on the edge of a doe bedding area. I had no trail camera pictures of the deer, but based on the sign I was seeing, I knew a good buck was frequenting the area to check does. I found that sign on a Monday and ended up killing the buck two days later during my first sit. I knew what I needed to do based on the time of year. It wasn’t trail camera photos or a recent sighting that led me to that buck; I just understood when the rut shift would happen, and I adjusted my scouting until I found hot sign around a doe bedding area.
Knowing just as much about the does in your hunting areas as you do the bucks is extremely vital for success during the middle and end of October. Second to that, you have to be willing to put boots on the ground to find what doe groups the bucks are monitoring. If you can combine consistent doe activity with fresh buck sign, you are in the money. Not every group of does will be monitored by a good buck come mid-October. However, it is almost guaranteed there will be a large amount of buck sign in the places these bucks are checking does.
I’ve had a lot of success placing trail cameras on scrapes around doe bedding areas in advance to the rut shift. Most of these cameras I set up in the spring or summer. The majority of the pictures tend to only be of does, but a couple times later in the summer you’ll see a mature buck work one of these scrapes. That’s a clue to knowing what scrapes you should be hunting during the rut. By late October, a lot of these scrapes will be visited on a more frequent basis by bucks you saw there only once or twice during the summer. If the does stick around, you can bet on the bucks returning later in the fall.
WEATHER CHANGES Arguably the greatest factor effecting deer movement is weather. You can even make a stronger case of that being true for mature bucks. When I see weather changes in the extended forecast, I always adjust my hunting strategies according to the weather. Some weather conditions increase our odds, while others decrease our chances for success.
I love to see cold weather in combination with the rut. I don’t believe there is a better formula for success related to weather and deer movement than hunting mature bucks during the rut in cold weather. In my experience, which is close to a decade of journaling rut movement based on weather and trail cameras, I have found that the best days to hunt rutting whitetails are days when the high temperature is in the 30s, and the low temperature is 32 or less.
Aside from seasonal shifts, the author pays close attention to how weather events alter buck movements and patterns. For example, he’s noticed that a heavy rain will lock bucks down, but you will see a big increase in deer movement immediately after a heavy rain. (Photo by Tony Campbell, Shutterstock) These are what I call 30-30 days. In fact, I save some of my best rut stands for those prime days. Most of these stands are placed along travel corridors that produce year after year. These days are when mature bucks roam the greatest distances. A good travel corridor is similar to us taking the express way on a long-distance vacation. A lot of these routes only get used when a buck is covering a ton of ground. You don’t need recent intel or hot sign to kill a mature buck on a travel corridor, all you need are prime weather conditions combined with the right time of year. You can plan these hunts well in advance by watching the 10-day and two-week weather forecasts for your hunting area.
Warm weather has been my greatest enemy for hunting whitetails. It doesn’t matter the time of year, I struggle to kill mature bucks in hot weather. However, as a guide who runs close to 200 trail cameras per hunting season, my data has shown me that bucks are definitely killable during those hot days, if you know where they are bedding. The cameras also have taught me that bucks get up often throughout the day, but most of the movement occurs in or around the bedding area. Even during the rut, most of the movement is near bedding when it’s hot out. Mature bucks will rut completely different during those hot days. The movement occurs during a much smaller window most of the time, too.
I also watch in advance for rain in the forecast. Light rain will trigger movement throughout the time it is raining, but heavy rain often locks bucks down. However, right after a heavy rain you’ll almost always see a big increase in movement.
I came close on a giant buck from the ground once right after a rare, early-October thunderstorm. This was one of those more severe storms. I knew where the buck was bedding, but he would never leave his bedroom until after dusk. When the weather report had called for a severe afternoon thunderstorm, I had a good feeling that buck would get up out of bed early that evening. I remember the storm ending around 5:00 p.m., and I can recall heading into that area while dodging acorn-sized hail and 50 mph winds, hoping the storm would end once I got to the edge of the buck’s bedding area.
Indeed it did, and at about 5:30 p.m., the buck got up from his bed and walked a trail that was just 20 yards from my setup. Unfortunately, he caught me drawing my bow back just when I had an opening to shoot him. That was probably one of the few times I knew of that buck leaving his bedding area early, but I predicted his movements in advance based on the weather forecast. I still count that hunt as a success!
Almost any kind of weather change is going to alter a mature buck’s movements and patterns. Some have a positive effect, and some will be negative. Regardless, in any weather situation, a buck is still likely killable; it’s all about planning ahead and understanding how weather influences movement. The biggest thing mature buck hunters need to understand is that you have to always be one step ahead of the deer you are hunting. The key is getting to know bucks as individuals, and you also need to know how and when their environments change.
