![]() ![]() But sometimes they’re just off doing what bucks do when the woods are crowded with does in estrus. Many of us fear these bucks have been killed. They’re hunting for hot does in other places.” “Early in the rut period,” he says,” a lot of those bucks you were hunting in the early season, they’re gone. Patternable Deer Are Killable Deerĭan Perez, one of our founding partners and host of Whitetail Properties television airing on the Sportsman Channel, will be the first to tell you that what’s cool about the late season is that deer come home. As white-oak acorns become slim and picked over during late fall and early winter, deer will abandon those areas in favor of the red oaks on your property or hunting lease. ![]() While acorns produced by white oak trees are more palatable to deer and are targeted first by wildlife, red oak trees and their acorns provide critical nutrition for deer survival. If all things are equal, I’ll take corn any day of the week.”Īlso, don’t overlook red-oak acorns during these last few weeks of the hunting season. “In my opinion, there’s nothing that beats the two of them. “In southern Iowa and really Iowa in general, we have very good soil and we have a lot of soybean and corn,” he says. Gabe Adair, who’s a Land Specialists in Iowa, prefers hunting standing grain during late-season deer hunting. It’s then that you can count on mature bucks hitting those food sources during daylight hours. Over in Kentucky, Land Specialists Mark Williams says, “when I hunt late season, food determines where I hunt, but weather determines when I hunt.” Williams looks for a major cold front to move through and, when it does, the bucks start moving. You’re going to have all the deer in your neighborhood on your farm.” “But if you’ve got standing beans, I mean, if I had one thing to hunt over, (it’s) late season, standing beans. The key thing is to find high-protein food sources, says Pete Alfano, Whitetail Properties co-founder. Our Land Specialists offer their preferences based on their own hunting experiences and the regions where they work, live and hunt. With that said, beans and corn tend to top our lists. According to the National Deer Alliance (NDA), “a buck can easily lose 20% to 25% of its body weight during the rut.” NDA also provided photos to illustrate the point - one photo was taken in early November, while another photo of the same deer was taken on December 25 - and the weight loss is clear.Īs for types of food sources and which deer prefer most during this time of year, some of this calculation depends on what part of the country you’re hunting in. By tracking pre- and post-rut weights, studies found that bucks forgo feeding during the rut. In a recent blog post, we offer some perspective on just how physically depleted bucks are after the rut. Now, as they head into the harsh winter months, they need to replenish body weight and get healthy. They’ve been chased by hunters all fall, and they’ve been chasing does during the rut. But why and what food?įirst, the why: A reminder: deer are tired, and they’re hungry. ![]()
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