If you still have a buck tag burning holes in your pocket and the magical (and I’d say overrated) rut has passed you by, there’s still time to wrap your tag around a bruiser. In fact, I think this is one of the top 3 best times to do so (you can read about my top 3 days to kill a buck HERE). The catch is that there are three criteria that have to be met to do this, and violate any of these and you will assuredly be sucking down an unsavory bowl of tag soup. The pressure is on, it’s post-rut whitetail hunting – here’s what you need to do right now to slam a good buck.
1. Find the Preferred Whitetail Food
You have to find the hot food source to find the deer. After the rut the deer will be hitting this hard, and that’s where you want to be. Bucks have lost a lot of body mass chasing does during the rut – up to 25 or 30 percent of their weight, and they have to gain this back to survive the winter. So a good food source – or the best food source in the area is essential because these bucks will HAVE to hit it.
What’s a good food source to key in on? Some of my top ones are cut corn fields as deer crave this high-carb food, acorns that have been leftover if in a woods setting – red oaks become very viable now as the white oaks probably are gone being more palatable, beans if still standing, and late-season food plot mixes – particularly your high protein clovers and turnips if you planted them. These are some great sources to key in on. The key here is to find the best one in the area, and hopefully you have it
2. Hunt Evening Cold Fronts
On top of this, when a cold snap hits deer will be forced to hit food, and many times in daylight. They simply don’t have the fat reserves, or food in normal bedding areas to sustain them, and they will have to get up and hit food, many times during shooting hours. Look for those days where the temps dip below freezing or more, and when they drop a good 10+ degrees from previous days. Set up on the food and get ready for action good and early. Many times deer will travel long distances and relocate near a great food source, so if that’s yours, or you’ve found it, these can literally be a deer magnet drawing in deer and big bucks from outside of their normal ranges.
Hunting the evening is key here since you are hunting a destination food source. If you try to hunt this in the morning all you will do is push deer off and sabotage your chances. So, resist the urge at all costs to hunt mornings – now is the time to get very strategic and only hunt evenings and when it is frigid cold.
3. UP Your Whitetail Stealth
I cannot emphasize this enough – you have to be unseen, unsmelled, and unheard while coming and going, and leaving your hunting location. You have to know where the deer will be bedded, and plan your routes accordingly. Deer have been hunted all year, and are very educated and on edge. Any little tip off will ruin your chances, so special care is definitely needed and you should not attempt to cut corners. What is your entry exit route? Make sure you can get in silently, but also get out.
Deer will be on the food when you leave, so really think about stand or blind placement and how you will slip out and not push those deer on the food. Many times they will be bedded nearby, so any noise walking in, on stand, and with your equipment could mess up a great opportunity, so take all precautions with gear, clothing, and your approach to make it ultra-silent.
Also remember foliage is down, so keeping a visual barrier is important for that entry. When exiting, you may have to have a different path, even back through a bedding area as deer will now be at the food source. So really plan that stand location to get in and out without pushing deer – it takes being very strategic, but can be an incredible time to target a good buck and why it is one of my top 3 days to slam a bruiser!
HIGH IQ Takeaways and Challenges:
- Analyze your food sources on your properties, or potential ones on public land where you hunt, and identify the highest quality source you can find.
- Analyze your best setup over these sources, and the least intrusive way to access and leave these so you can get multiple hunts over this high-odds late season. Also, analyze your gear and make sure it is dead silent, you’re scent-free (article linked here to help), and also visually not sticking out – like skylined in a stand. Box blinds, may be your best option.
- If you really take your deer hunting seriously, Get our FREE Deer IQ journal HERE and follow along with our podcast “to be a greater deer hunter” on our podcast and on our Youtube channel in video form HERE.
