Late buck whitetail tactics

[steeliedrew]

Hey all, long time no post. I've got a multi season deer tag this year and got after some Muleys this weekend but all I saw was lots of Does and even more hunters. We picked a new location that seemed hard to get into by the looks of it on google earth and onXmaps and were elated when we hit the end of the dirt road Friday night and found no camps there. Our hopes for an epic morning were cut short at first light when we hit our first glassing location and I glassed up 5 or 6 other hunters around the same basin. We later found that there was an easier way into the drainage and everyone we talked to said "dang, you guys came in from down there huh!?" Round trip for the day was 5.7 miles which is really nothing compared to what we do for elk but we did 3,400' of vertical gain in the 2.7 or so miles it took to get to where we wanted to be. Plus we had all our gear to stay up top for the night if we found water, which we didn't. It was in the bottoms...way, way down in the bottoms.

So my hat is off to you folks who hunt modern year after year. The biggest challenge with modern is getting away from people! 

So, my due to lots of time constraints I'm not able to finish out the Muley season. I "might" be able to get after some blacktail halloween weekend but other than that my last chance at killing a deer with the rifle this season will be the late whitetail season November 5-19 in GMU's 105,108,111,113,121, and 124. The only one of those units I've been into was 108 a couple sprigs ago helping out with a spring bear tag.

I have spent very, very minimal time chasing white tails, as I'm a Muley guy through and through, so I have little to no knowledge on tactics for them other than what I see on tv with guys hunting out of stands on private property.

With that said, let's here some late Whitetail tactics for a public land hunter. One question off the top of my head is, should I focus on state or timber company land that borders agricultural fields and just sit tight to see what comes up out of the bottom or should I set up and cold call, with grunt tube, or doe bleat? I have a climber stand also but with nothing scouted I'm not feeling like just climbing a random tree and hoping for the best. Haha

Thanks for any input. Hope everyone had a safe and fun opener this weekend.

Drew

[vandeman17]

My advice for late season is to find a well used trail in the timber, hang your stand and sit there all day. Nice thing about late season archery deer is it hits the rut so the bucks will be out chasing does. Though I have never done it, I hear rattling works really well too. Pm me if you want any more info or advice on places to look up in ne corner.

[steeliedrew]

I'll actually be hunting late Modern. Most likely won't have time to get out for late archery other than thanksgiving weekend for late elk. We have a second child on the way in late December so getting out much will be tough. I'd like to go sit in the stand but I have no time to scout out any trails to set up on. I might only get the weekend of the 5th to hunt Whitetail and I'll be bombing over from Seattle on Friday the 4th and racing home Sunday the 6th. No vacation time to use. Used it all for early archery elk. I'm hoping i can use google earth to lead to to a good place to just sit and glass. maybe a clearcut in lower elevatation that is close to agricultural fields?

[vandeman17]

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