Bow Hunting Tips and Tactics

The first few weeks in the month of October are always some of the best days when it comes to bow hunting or they can be the toughest hunting experience you can have.

Whether you are out there hunting your best stands immediately or you are saving up the best so that you do not burn through them early in the year, you should really put some thought into what the perfect tactics should be to get the best out of your bow hunting experience early in the season. Hunting in October is about focusing on all the opportunities that you get and capitalizing on them whenever you can. Be very patient in your approach to bow hunting and follow these bow hunting tips and tactics for your early season hunting excursion.

Utilize Mock Scrapes

The first of the bow hunting tips and tactics is the utility of mock scrapes. They are not just limited to usage for the rut. Bucks make use of them all year round. These are the territorial signs that let other bucks in the area know that a particular area is taken and it is its home. Using mock scrapes are a good tactic in the sense that it gets the buck whose territory you’ve marked with the mock scrape agitated. They will start to patrol the area and look for the intruding buck in their neighborhood. When it comes to mock scrapes, location is the most important aspect of it. Look for edges, travel corridors. They are the ideal places to install mock scrapes.

Once you’ve found the perfect spot to install a mock scrape and your hunting set up, you should start off by becoming as scent free as possible when going in to set up the scrape. Make sure you wear rubber gloves when setting up the scrape as the deer have a particularly active sense of smell.

Use a small hand shovel to remove leaf cover, twigs, etc and form an approximately 2 feet oval underneath a tree with low hanging branches. In the clear area, add a small amount of buck urine which you can get from your hunting supply store to the exposed soil. Revisit the scrape every few days and keep it fresh. It is an effective element in the bow hunting tips and tactics because it is sure to lure the game into your domain.

Trail Cameras

These should be in place months in advance so that by the time October comes, you have an extensive collection of pictures indicating where the prime hunting grounds are. Placement of these cameras is important. As far as bow hunting tips and tactics go, this can be one of the most beneficial steps you can take in your approach to prepare for the bow hunting season. Make sure you keep your scent off the cameras when setting them up. Otherwise it would be a waste if your scent on the camera drives away a mature buck which is almost impossible to stumble upon.

Acorns

Food is one of the most important factors on which to capitalize on in your bow hunting tips and tactics. Acorns are the most special food sources because if oak trees are dropping acorns in your hunting area, deer are not too far away. Bucks are particularly looking to build up their fat content for the rut and the coming winter season so they resort to acorns for their staple diet. They offer a lot of protein and fats necessary for them heading into the winter season where there will be a scarcity of food for them. Even though does and fawns are the first deer you will see going in for the dropping acorns, just practice more patience and you will encounter the real prize – mature bucks. They are very cautious in their approach and that is why you should plan your hunting setups early on and wait for the big boys patiently in the areas where the oaks start dropping acorns.

Early Season Bow Hunting

Early season pre-rut bow hunting is the last of the bow hunting tips and tactics you will need heading into deer season. The majority of does are still weeks away from coming into heat and you can use that to your advantage. Bucks are starting to build up their testosterone and the receptive does are in a smaller number. Bucks are in severe competition to find does in heat. Pack a couple of calls with you. Start up a blind calling sequence with four doe bleats and follow them up with multiple grunts of different lengths and speeds. That will surely lure them out in droves when used in combination with deer scents and you will have all the time in the world to take your pick and hunt the prime bucks early on in the season.