Deer HAVE to eat all year round. Even during the rut, which is the prime hunting season, deer must eat. Here’s an awesome tip I’m going to share with you… There’s a rhyme and a reason to where deer eat, how much deer eat, and what deer eat based on the time of year. Use this to your advantage to bag that trophy you’ve been looking for.
Each combined hunting season has three distinct periods:
1.early season
2. The routine
3. Late season
early season
The beginning of the season is the first “holiday” period. Early season for a deer is food heaven. There is so much rich, delicious, ripe and abundant food available that you can literally gorge yourself. And guess what…they will! Deer instinctively know that they have to build up their fat stores to get them through the winter, when food sources are scarce and low temperatures require more energy to stay warm. During the early season, males do not reproduce in the brain, so their mental focus is on eating and staying hydrated.
This is where the magic of nature comes into play.
Think about what happens when you take out the watermelon for a family picnic. Seconds later, the bees start buzzing, ready to get in on the action. Drop a piece of food on the ground and the ant colony will round it up for dinner in a couple of minutes. Fill the bird feeder and the birds will swoop in for an afternoon snack.
Deer are the same way. They know when and where to find that acorn tree dripping ripe nuts everywhere, or the fruit tree ready to drop its harvest on the ground.
Remember this when that monster you’ve been looking at suddenly DISAPPEARS. Of course, you may have switched to late-night dining, but most likely you just switched food sources. Deer switch to acorns or the next ripe fruit in the blink of an eye. Bottom line… finding the food source of the day and knowing when other food sources are ripe is the key to hunting early in the season. Early hunting is always more productive if you keep an eye out for that oak tree dropping its acorns, or that apple tree with the ruby red fruit.
routine
If you’re an average hunter, you switch to hunting rubbing, scratching, or rattling lines exclusively when the grind begins. This works, but you may be missing a key fact. High stakes are looking for one thing… a doe in heat. But they still look for… RIPE FOOD. They could care less about finding a hot dollar because food sources are getting scarce. Usually a frost killed the green leaves of the forage and many of their favorite crops had already been harvested.
Bottom line… find what you are feeding on and you will find the bucks.
late season
I used to believe that the best time to hunt big bucks using feeding patterns was in the early fall. Late in the season is actually the most productive time to use eating patterns to make the really big money. This is true for two reasons. First, all the deer are in survival mode this time of year. It is very cold and they need to eat regularly to stay alive. Second, the fresh air has reduced hunting pressure. Many of your fellow hunters are sheltered and comfortable by their fire, increasing your chances of spotting the monster. Hunting late in the season creates more opportunities to hunt in prime feeding areas that are rich in protein, such as grains, corn, and soybeans. What’s even better is that your monster has to focus on food all day, so you’ll have hunting opportunities all day long.
Bottom line…find the protein-rich food sources at the end of the season and your next big buck could be ready for harvest any time of day!
Regardless of whether you prefer to hunt early in the season, rutting season, or late in the season, there is one main guideline when it comes to pocketing your next big buck…
Keep up that Deer Eat Food!
Copyright (c) 2011 Todd Jensen