Stand Sites

During what part of October do you all hunt over scrapes and rub lines? When do you switch from hunting scrapes and rub lines and start to hunt funnels when bucks are really on the moving starting to search for that first doe in estrous?

I’ve had the best luck hunting funnels starting about Oct. 28th.

I’ll be hunting Sat. morning Oct. 25th. What type of stand location would you recommend and how long should I stay on stand?

Thanks!

Well lets start with I don’t think there is ever a bad time to hunt a funnel!

Close to the end of October is when I stop hunting scrapes. They seem that they totally could give a rats about a scrape, while they are out chasing . If you put your camera on a scrape from now until the begining week in Nov, it should give you a reference point for next year anyway. Every area is different but as a rule of thumb I switch at the end of the month.

Rublines on the other hand, I have seen used year after year during the rut. Now I’m not saying I see them rubbing, the majority of the time they just travel the rubline.

You know as well as I do, half of the rut is a crapshoot. I just try to pay attention from year to year on their tendencies. I know this year I’m more knowledgeable about my woods than I was last year.

I’ve been gathering information from my trail camera on new areas each year too. I’m starting to get some pretty consistent data to confirm what I was thinking. I’ve been noticing the past couple years that I have to wait until about the 28th of Oct. until my funnels start to heat up as they are not typical travel routes between bedding and feeding areas. In my area, it is very difficult to setup between bedding and feeding areas early in the year as the deer quite often bed right on the edge of the woods near the beans and corn. Smart move for them, bad for me…