NE Washington whitetail nocturnal problem

[Billy74]

Last year as I prepped for my first hunt and gathered tips a lot of people mentioned bucks will be out after dark and bed down before first light in the early rifle season.  I heard this enough to wonder if it is that tough to take a buck  in October.   I can imagine lucking upon one walking trails but wonder how hard it is to plan a good hunt for WT from folks who have luck up there in Oct.  I know tags get punched.  Just wondered if bucks being nocturnal was that big of a problem and what one does to find success.  My plan now is to just spend the summer scouting and spend as much time out there as I can.  Try to find their routs and cross my fingers. 
 


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[hunter399]

I will say that the deer in the northeast corner can tell when deer season starts, maybe more so this year with the amount of doe tags,you might see does and bucks nocturnal.Your biggest problem is other hunters not deer being nocturnal.

With all this said,scout ,hunt,have fun,but you will see the difference from summer to fall ,in the deer,any amount of people.Good luck.

[Stein]

Yeah, both deer and elk figure it out real quick, especially the ones that live more than a year or two.  Here are some factors I have found, which may or may not be true:
 
Saturday and Sunday are the worst, then it gets better every day until Friday when it jumps back up.
Opener is worst, followed by closer if it is open longer than a week.
Full moon is worse than new moon.
Warm weather is worse than cool weather and bad storms totally mix it up.

Add that all together and you get the most logical advice (for WA limited seasons anyway) - get out and hunt, be where you expect deer before dark and stay until shooting light is over.  If you are in someplace like MT with 12 week seasons and job flexibility, you can somewhat stack the deck in your favor, but even then it is just a guess as so many other factors come into play.