Early season deer

[Standing Bear]

I just got a call last night from a friend of ours in Alberta, he wants me to join him on a early season deer hunt. He and his neighbour have two sections of land and they said they have too many does and would like to have them thinned down a bit.

My answer was yes, right away, but then I got thinking, "listen Dan, you know very very little about deer hunting". What I can say is I have two blinds that I will bring with me and we will be there in mid October.

So, what advice would you have for me to do when I get there since the rut will not have started and to be honest, I have heard and seen on TV the term Pre-rut being used but there again, I have no clue as to what I will need to do when I get there.

So with that being said, are there any places I should be looking to set up my blinds, should they be close together, as in a couple of hundred yards apart or I should seperate them completely.

I am really looking forward to this and thanking you great folks for chimming and providing me with your input, advice.

Daniel - deer hunting ROOKIE !!!!!!!

[yoda4x4]

Mid-October huh??? For me, I'd find or ask your friend what the major food sources are at that time of year. For NJ, it's acorns; preferably acorns from white oaks. Find the food and you'll usually find the does.

David

[Standing Bear]

Now, that is making this simple When I will get there, and find the food source, I walk around and try and find trails where they go in and out of these, right and set up a blind roughly 20 yards away and inside the bush a bit?

I can see now how having two blinds will make this a great experience !!!!!!!

Thanks David

[yoda4x4]

Another thing you can try, although mid-October is usually a little bit late to try this is to find a creek in the area and walk along it. Find a heavily used trail where the deer cross and then follow the trail. If you can find the food source near that, it should be a pretty good spot. I will caution you that this typically works better earlier in the season, especially when it's hot out.

Another word of caution is that does are almost harder to hunt than bucks as bucks tend to get a little dumb as the rut builds up and especially when the rut is in full swing. Old does are always on alert and are hard as heck to kill as they have the smarts and instincts of a old buck, but they don't tend to slip up at all.

Best of luck Daniel. I'm sure you'll do great.

David

[05_sprcrw]

If you are using a blind make sure to use the screen over the windows in my expirenece whitetails don't like the black hole effect. Unless you set up the blind several weeks ahead of time and let them get used to it.