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When Opportunity Knocks

When Opportunity Knocks

By P.J. Reilly

Sometime in late September or early October, the three lonely persimmon trees on the east side of the Maryland property I hunt are going to start dropping fruit. When they do, I will be in the stand I hung 10 yards away.

They seem to come from miles to scoop up those juicy persimmons. They’re like kids devouring Halloween candy because they know it won’t last long.

I’ve only tagged two decent bucks from that spot over the years, but I always see a ton of deer. The persimmon drop is a tiny window of golden opportunity during the early part of the season that I never miss.

There are unique windows of opportunity during the early part of deer season all across North America. Every place has its own circumstances and conditions that bring deer out of their hiding places. You know what they say about opportunity. When it knocks, you’d better answer.

Weather

There is no greater opportunity provider during the early season than weather, and every location has unique twists that cause deer movement.

Take the South, for instance. I’ve hunted in the Low Country of South Carolina in September and October, and there’s one weather-created opportunity that’s a can’t-miss. In years when it’s hot and humid (which is most years) there are brief late-afternoon thunderstorms.

You want to be in a stand on a field edge as soon as the rain stops when deer pour out of the woods into the open to feed. I’ve sat in such places for several dry evenings in a row and seen nothing. Then, when a thunderstorm finally rolls through, deer are everywhere. If you’ve done your homework, cameras and scouting have revealed which field a particular buck is frequenting. That could be the best shot you’ll get at tagging him.

Where I live and hunt in southeast Pennsylvania, early October days can be in the mid-80s or in the mid-40s. Either is just as likely as the other. The windows I look for follow several days when the temperature holds steady in the 60s, 70s or low 80s. I watch the forecast for a sharp overnight temperature drop and will be in my stand the next morning.

From my experience, the bigger drops produce the most activity. A dip from 85 degrees to 75 degrees isn’t nearly as appealing as a dip from 85 to 65. But a drop from 60 degrees to 50 degrees is worth a trip to the woods.

Wherever you hunt, you’ve got your own weather occurrences that are accompanied by increased deer activity. It’s up to you to figure out what they are and then be ready to take advantage.

Food Changes

If you had to eat chicken and rice every day for a month, wouldn’t you jump at the chance to scarf up steak and potatoes? Deer are no different. And late September and early October is when their food opportunities change all over North America.

In soybean country, the plants turn from green to yellow to brown. When the change starts from green to yellow, good luck finding deer going to beans. But they still have to eat every day, so what are they eating?

The three persimmon trees on the farm I hunt represent an isolated opportunity. An appealing and much more common event is the white oak acorn drop. It occurs around this time of year, and deer abandon just about all other food sources when white oaks start shedding acorns.

One year in early October, I was sitting in a stand I had hung in the bottom of a ravine, bordered on each side by slopes covered mostly by white oaks. On this particular day, the oaks were dropping acorns like mad. A never-ending barrage of nuts cascading down through the branches filled my ears all evening.

Just before dark, deer started filing in to the ravine like cows headed for milking. Multiple bucks came by, and I sent an arrow through a decent 8-pointer. That buck bolted away and crashed, causing the other deer in the area to stand at full alert. Within seconds, they went back to scarfing up acorns.

I lowered my bow to the ground and got down. When my feet hit the dirt, I looked up and saw a giant 10-pointer staring at me, chewing a mouthful of acorns. The shot would have been easy, but my tag was already spoken for.

Apples, pears, red oak acorns — there are many unique food opportunities presented during the early days of deer season. Find out what those opportunities are where you hunt.

One of the most obvious food changes is when farmers start harvesting crops, especially corn and milo. Because they use crops for both food and cover, deer become displaced when the combines start mowing down the fields.

Few things about deer hunting come with guarantees, but deer are guaranteed to move when a combine is bearing down on them. If you have a stand along favored escape routes, harvest time provides opportunities that few other events can match.

A Little Push

The drive is a proven method for putting deer on the ground. Unplanned human intrusion into the whitetail’s world can work just as well.

One of my favorite hunts about occurred on the opening day of rabbit season. I was bowhunting a tiny woodlot in farm country on that same day. The deer activity was pretty weak in the morning, and I was ready to get out of my stand around 10 a.m. Then I heard a baying beagle.

Ooh, this could be good, I thought, and so I stayed put.

A hunter was working an old, overgrown fencerow across the road from where I was hunting. I was standing on my platform, looking in that direction, when a buck came sneaking into my woodlot.

I quickly clipped my release to the bowstring and shuffled my feet into a shooting position. The buck closed the distance to 15 yards, and I sent an arrow right through his boiler room.

Keep your eyes peeled for windows of opportunity created by people. Hunting seasons for game other than deer, group hikes, timber cutting — the possibilities are endless.

Also look for reverse opportunities. Maybe there’s a place you hunt that has lots of human activity during certain periods, and you find that deer activity increases sharply when the people leave. Human activity doesn’t push deer away from an area. It just causes them to be active where and when people aren’t around so much.

A 2014 Penn State University study found increased human activity in the woods didn’t make deer leave the county or become extremely nocturnal. They just went to nearby places people didn’t go. If you can find such locations where you hunt, then you know where deer are likely to be when people traffic increases.

Stay Flexible

The key to success in early deer season is remaining flexible. You have to be ready to hunt where and when windows of opportunity occur. If you hunt every Monday, Wednesday and Saturday from one of the two stands you hung in summer, you’re going to miss a lot of opportunities.

Be ready to hunt days when the weather looks perfect. Be ready to move from your favorite stand to the one in the white oak grove as soon as the acorns start dropping. Be ready to hunt an escape trail on opening day of small game season.

Exploiting windows of opportunity might not fit your hunting routine, it’s much more likely to put you close to more deer. Many hunters loathe the early part of deer season because they believe it’s not as productive as the rut. Trust me, it can be even more productive if you know when and where to go when opportunity knocks.

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