Talk to many bowhunters today and October is when they'll say they most want to be in the woods. True, peak rut is a great time to be in your stand from sunrise to sunset. It's when you're likely to cross paths with the local monster. The peak of the rut makes those big bucks act goofy!

Unfortunately, peak rut is also the time when you might encounter "lock down." That's when the chase has ended and a big, mature buck has successfully won the heart of the doe-of-the-moment. The buck and his doe lock down together to breed, and neither moves around much, if at all, for a day or two. It can be a lonely time on stand for a bowhunter -- even though it's the peak of the rut.

Bowhunters would do well to expend just as much effort during the early part of the rut in mid to late October as they do during the peak rut in November. You're not necessarily going to get the king of the woods -- those guys know better than to move around during daylight at this time of year -- but you certainly have a good chance of encountering a heavy 3.5-year-old with respectable headgear.

Why's that? Well, the early rut is when there is a lot of buck activity. They're rubbing trees. They're making scrapes. They're sparring. They're wandering all over the place looking for that first hot doe. You'll know when the early rut is on because the woods suddenly will come alive with bucks moving around.

OCTOBER SCENARIO
A few years back, I was hunting a stand in a wood lot that I felt sure was a prime location because of all the trails, deer droppings and old rubs I found during my summer scouting missions. On my hunts in early October, I'd spot one or two bucks one day and none the next. It sure didn't seem like the place was on fire early on.

One day around Oct. 20, I was walking across a huge grass field to my stand in the dark when my headlight caught a patch of bare earth off the side of the trail I followed through the woods. A fresh scrape! I squeezed a little doe-in-heat scent on the dirt and then proceeded to my stand.

Shortly after sunrise, I caught some movement in the field to my right. I turned my head and watched a buck trot into the timber and right up to the scrape. He put his nose to the ground, pawed the dirt a few times, and then started to move off through the woods, away from my position. That's when I burped at him with my grunt tube.

The buck's head snapped to attention and he glared in my direction. In the slanting morning light, I saw a glob of saliva drop from his jaw. With an air of defiance, the young 8-pointer stomped through the leaves as he slowly circled downwind of my perch, about 50 yards away.