There’s a special time coming, a time when conditions are perfect for harvesting a giant whitetail buck and I call it “Red October”. In the past few weeks I talked about hunting the Opener and the October Lull. Both have their own unique characteristics and offer the hunter an opportunity to tag a good deer, but I believe they pale in comparison to the last 10 days of October! I have had my best luck shooting Monster Bucks during this period including three of my four 200” deer.
Like I’ve said in the past, the only certainty about chasing mature deer is “nothing is ever certain”, but late October is a solid bet in my book. Sure, you do have a small window of opportunity earlier in the month when the element of surprise is on your side and deer haven’t been hunted for 9 months. Bucks are very predictable and patternable early season. But, what you have towards the later part of the month is somewhat of a perfect storm, one that builds with intensity on a daily basis from the day a buck sheds his velvet to the day the first doe comes into heat.
Once the rut hits it's a crap shoot and it becomes a matter of hunting hard and spending as much time in a tree as possible because a dominant buck could be anywhere at any time and he’s next to impossible to pattern. During “Red October” a big buck is primed, he’s ready for action, but he’s got nowhere to go and you might even say he’s a little frustrated at this point. His testosterone has been building, his neck is swollen from rut preparation and with no does receptive yet he’s ready for a fight! The key is he’s still basically on a strict feeding pattern making him fairly predictable but he’s ready to go, kind of like a horse at the starting gate. When you combine the fact that this creature is still predictable, he’s looking for any excuse to move early, then you give him the right wind to make him comfortable to move during daylight - that’s a deadly combination!
During “Red October” the conditions are now perfect for us to make a move, but there’s one more piece to our megabuck puzzle, the moon! This year, the Red Moon hits on October 30th and runs through November 3rd. This should be the best week of the year and your best chance to catch a giant on his feet during daylight hours. If you've had your eye on him and kept from being detected, you should be able to slide into your best spot during this period and let the air out of him the first time you go in. I can’t overemphasize the importance of getting it done the first time you hunt a stand. If I look back on my biggest bow kills, all but a couple were taken the first time I hunted the stand and taken during this Red Moon period! Sometimes the toughest part of hunting mature deer is not hunting them until everything is right and conditions are optimal for him to make a mistake. That's what's coming, so make it count!
