For the best chance at success this early season is to have the right gear, such as the Bowtech Carbon One X compound bow. (Photo courtesy of Bowtech Archery)
October 21, 2024
By Lynn Burkhead
From the start, I must confess that I like Halloween.
Some of that comes from the years that the lovely Mrs. Burkhead and I spent shepherding our three children—wearing costumes ranging from Cinderella to Captain America to Frankenstein—to our church fall festival, area Trunk-or-Treat candy fests or neighboring houses for an October 31 trick-or-treat session.
All of those outings resulted in filled candy bags, meaning that yours truly had to go through them as dear old Dad and make sure that everything the Burkhead kids received was, ahem, safe to eat. Somehow, the almond version of a Snickers candy bar was sampled more than once. And it’s just a happy coincidence that those are among my favorites and often found their way into my deer hunting pack.
Speaking of deer hunting, I’ve also loved Halloween because it’s really the start of serious deer hunting in my part of North Texas. Sure, there is the early archery season that starts in late September or early October depending on the calendar each year. But that’s early season when there’s no rutting activity, plenty of acorns are dropping to the ground, and deer movement is sparse, at best.
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That often means that for now, a great hunting bow like those made by Bowtech , may sit there quietly while gathering dust on an uneventful early season sit.
But as October 31 rolls around here, things are starting to change for the better as the leaves gain autumn color, the temperature drops with every north wind visitation, and the photo period does its magic and triggers a move towards the rut.
It's not necessarily the crazy days of the full-blown peak rut that I’ve come to love so much, but it’s a start toward the good stuff.
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In fact, the biggest buck on my wall, a record book-sized 10-point taken on public ground, came in early November before the peak of the rut had arrived where I was hunting. Similarly, a gnarly freak of a buck I nicknamed Morph fell to my arrow as I sat in a Pike County, Illinois, treestand before the rut had really kicked into high gear.
Photo courtesy of Bowtech Archery While I'm not the brightest bowhunter in the woods, I can find bottlenecks and funnels that pinch down deer movement from one corner of a hunting property to the next. And when you can put a stand in such a spot for the rut—either in the pre-rut or as it peaks—the result can be pure bowhunting gold.
On that Midwestern hunt noted above, I sat in a tall ladder stand placed in a bottleneck between two patches of woods and an adjoining agricultural field.
Early that morning, a doe and a young buck came through. But later in the morning, the gnarly non-typical dubbed Morph came sauntering into view, attracted by a canister of doe-in-heat urine and squeezed down by the terrain and available cover until he passed within bow shooting range of my stand.
My wife isn't too fond of the mount that hangs on the wall, but his strangely formed rack remains one of my favorite all-time deer hunting trophies. Not to mention the fact that the big, burly corn-fed Midwestern buck was so hefty that it took three men to load into my truck, a worthy effort that blessed my dinner table with prime venison for months to come.
In addition to having a top-shelf bow built by the best at your disposal—more on that in just a moment—you’ll want to have several hunting strategies in your bag of late October monster buck tricks. That will include finding the right habitat, using a grunt call properly, tickling the rattling antlers together lightly, using scents properly and hunting long hours early and late.
But perhaps the biggest need of all is having the right gear hanging in the tree, and that includes the right compound bow. And all across America’s prime whitetail country that will be featured in Game & Fish magazine's 2024 Regional Rut Update. That means that you’ll want a top-end bow like the Bowtech Carbon One X , a compound bow that will set a bowhunter up for the big buck adventure of a lifetime.
That’s a big claim, but the Carbon One X delivers thanks to its 33-inch axle-to-axle length, an adjustable draw length of 25.5 to 30.5 inches, and adjustable draw weights of 50, 60, and 70 pounds, a brace height of 6.125 inches, a weight of only 4.5 pounds and a top arrow speed of 339 fps. This results in a lightweight but powerful bow that brings home the bacon—er, venison—in terms of unrivaled stability, precise control, arrow flinging accuracy and ease of use.
All of that is made possible by the Carbon One X's DeadLock Cam System, a Bowtech system that offers the quickest and simplest way to achieve perfect arrow flight, both on the 3-D target range, in the backyard slinging arrows at a bag target, and most importantly, when a bowhunter is settling the pin on a big buck's boiler room in late October.
Should you need to make any adjustments, that's a snap thanks to the TimeLock feature on the bow, which enables quick cam position tweaks with an Allen wrench.
On the 3-D shooting line or in a stand this fall, the Carbon One X gives a silky-smooth draw cycle, vibration-free performance when the shot is released—thanks to the bow's carbon riser and Orbit Dampeners—and deadly downrange accuracy. Thanks to these Bowtech engineering innovations, almost all felt vibration is removed and the result is a shot experience that is precise and comfortable.
The bottom line here is that when you come to full draw on a big old whitetail as the rut starts to heat up, the Bowtech Carbon One X is sure to help you seal the deal with a precision-meets-perfection kind of bowshot.
One that will let a Halloween bowhunter tag a monster buck just in time for a spooky evening ride home in the back of the pickup truck, and early enough to search the candy bag for those elusive favorite candy bars.
After all, even rut-crazy bowhunters need to be able to celebrate on the night of Oct. 31, right?