There are a few times of the year when you are expected to tag out on a big buck.

1. The Rut season.

2.Week 1 of season

There are obviously other times of the year you can harvest a mature buck but these are just the standouts which everybody talks about. The rut is given, bucks are up on their feet pursuing does, with love struck eyes and a little bit of a wild side.

Now we aren’t quite there yet, so let’s jump back to the often dreaded October lull.  First let’s settle this, there actually is no biological reason for the lull. In fact deer spend more time on their feet, check it out!

Dr. Mark Conner from Chesapeake Farms in Maryland and his graduate student James Tomberlin have collared whitetails and track them often recording GPS points upwards of 30 times a day.

Here were the results…

The deer moved 11⁄2 miles in a day during late summer, 2 miles per day by early October, and 21⁄2 by the rut. Buck movement actually  picks up during the “October lull.”

The data shows bucks don’t even go nocturnal, they simply change their travel patterns. It’s no secret deer love to be in beans when they are a lush green and yellow, they also are freaks for alfalfa! This is the time of the year where soy beans start to turn and then are harvested. Deer will switch to alternate food sources.

On the other hand if you have oak trees on your property, ding, ding, ding! You should be under a tree that’s raining down acorns. I have heard from a lot of friends with a plethora of oaks, it is a mast crop and those deer with gorge themselves on these nuts.

Are you experiencing the October lull on your land? Are you hunting field edges? This may be your problem, try backing off into the woods, finding a bedding area and try to catch the deer heading back and forth to your nut bearing trees.

This could be your ticket to harvesting a nice buck in early October!