Free: Contests & Raffles.
When does the rut happen in your area? The deer around me start the rut during general firearm. And so can be hunted during the rut with a general MF tag or a multi season permit.
What do you mean you can hunt straight through the rut with the multi season tag? You understand your still restricted to the general season correct? Which means you can’t hunt the rut.
I’m a new hunter as well - 2 years of deer hunting. Last year I had bucks on camera at night. However at the end of October the rut happened. This meant that the bucks were chasing the Does around at night and so the does started to eat during the daytime as they had less time to eat at night. This in turn meant the bucks started coming out during the day. So if you have does coming in as well the same thing might happen. Second thing is depending on when he first comes to the apples you might be able to backtrack and ambush him in between his bedding area and the apples. It works even better if you know where he is bedded because then you can just hunt him in his bed. If you are set on killing this bucks keep the apples out - that is if does are also feeding from the apples. This will hopefully keep this buck in the area unless a bigger buck pushes him out. Because he will be interested in breeding the does.Again I’m new to hunting and have yet to bag a deer. However I experimented with bait piles last year. Try putting out corn, unless you have a free or cheap source of apples. Corn is generally cheaper and so can save you some money.
DilleyTech is correct. MS tag gets you archery and Muzzy seasons and the Modern Firearm season that all MF tag holders hunt (mid-oct - Haloween) plus 4 days in mid-November. Multiseason tag also allows you to hunt the late season by archery or ML depending on the unit and the dates. You must to have a "quality" hunt tag or similar to hunt the first two weeks of November. Technically, the peak of the rut is somewhere around the 10th of Nov with some variation every year. Peak of the rut though biologically means the point-in-time when the majority of the doe are receptive to and actually doing the nasty. If you read scientific papers regarding the issue, this is the time they are referring to when they state "peak of the rut". Hunter's here and everywhere from what I 've observed, consider the rut to be when the bucks are chasing the doe hardest up until the time that they are not leaving the doe they are with until they breed her. They will stand near or besider her in a stupor and follow the doe wherever she goes (most cases. Bigger cagier bucks may push them to a hidden/safe place) Bucks are very vulnerable between the time chasing starts and peak of the rut occurs. Once the peak occurs, they are not moving much at all till their current doe has been bred. Anyways, your best dates translate to the last week maybe, and last four days, for sure of October. Those are the best dates to be in the woods. The next best days are the four days in Late Buck that occurs in mid-Nov.Enough of that noise.... regarding your questions, apples are a great draw for all deer in the early season. Bucks tend to stick to their nocturnal behaviors until they start to chase and often even late - these bucks will only hit the apples at night (IMHO). You could train a deer with apples to come in during the day but without daily feedings over a long period of time, the chances that a buck older than a year or so will come into feed on apples in the middle of the day is almost nil unless they are already comfortable being around humans. Repetative baiting of doe with apples could potentially have them coming in to eat apples during daylight, and if the timing is right (late October with an interested buck on her tail), you might catch a buck following a doe in during daylight. Not a high quality bet in my mind. Years and years of game camming deer in my back yard, where I have five apple trees,I have has only captured daylight bucks between the 8th and 20th of November. Thousands of videos. Very few bucks - maybe five or six. Again, in my mind, this is a low percentage hunt.So the question is, considering you have access to a spot,, how do you hunt it. Deer are creatures that live on edges. If there is a brush row or significant patch of brush anywhere on the property, then expect bucks will use that to stay as hidden as possible as they travel just inside the break between brush and open space. They are like vampires. They want nothing to do with being exposed in their environment. Darkness is preferred. So anyways, if the property is all grass with some apple trees or no real hiding or travel area for deer during daylight houts, I'd hunt somewhere else. You need to hunt where the deer are, which is in the shadows. Rattling and grunting are great tactics to use in the woods, or at least along an edge where two distinctly different terrain or flora types meet - Alder/fir. forest/meadow, cliffs/lowlands. Can you use it to call a buck into a spot where he would not normally go....? Naaa, except for the rare occurance where the unexpected happens. You don't want to base you hunt plans on luck bringing bucks to you. Hope that helps. Good luck!
Doe will get up and feed somewhere around 11:00 am regardless of the season. It makes no sense to me why. It seems that should change with the timing of sunrise. Regardless, that's what I've observed over the years. They will will often move around quite a bit to feed, sometimes a hundred or more yards, kids in tow, before bedding again. Bucks on the other hand - not so much so. I believe that at this time of year, older bucks will stay bedded almost all day. They will often stand, stretch, scratch, pee, and maybe grab a bite to eat from their immediate surroundings. Then they bed again and stay there till sometime around sunset. This is a classic setup for those hunting clearcuts with a firearm. Glass all day till something moves, then shoot fast. In your spot though, I'd guess that if you're not hunting in the immediate vicinity of their beds, then you will never see them move. You never know what a small spike or forkie might do - that's a crapshoot. You might get lucky. At/near the end of Sept., the bucks may start to get the itch and move bedding areas closer to where doe frequent. There's a ton of deer on Whidbey and probably Camano as well. That increases your odds greatly. Odds are that any bucks near that property are bedding in the old growth. Doe have no/few problems spending a lot of time in Alder. It's just not dark enough to make bucks feel safe this time of year though. Darkness equals safety to them. Anyways, hunting inside the edges and steering clear of the open areas will give you your best opportunity on that property. Archery for BTs is tough. Good luck!
I would find the thickest crap close to where this buck has been pictured. And look for small clearing with a little opening in the thick that gets daylight. And glass, glass, glass. Checking out every flicker of light for an ear or a tail. It can be tedious but it also pays off. Blacktail Bucks do not travel like Mule deer do. They stay near a "Home Zone" that offers easy access to multiple feed sources. That "Home Zone" can be the most unlikely places, as long as it is thick.
