4 Great Fall Hunts Fueled by Opportunity

Press hard enough, and I’ll admit that I’m not really an expert in any one outdoors endeavor, but a generalist who likes to dabble in a little bit of everything that the annual trek through the calendar can bring for a seasoned outdoors enthusiast. There are bobwhite quail and late-season geese to chase in January, bass and boss gobblers in the spring, bluegills and trout in the summertime, and all kinds of big game, upland birds, and waterfowl as the year starts to draw to a close.

Put simply, the arrival of fall in America means that for yours truly and millions of others, it is time to hunt. And from the warm days of September as the first leaves begin to show some autumnal color to the last gasp of the season as Christmas and New Year's arrive, there is always something to head into the woods for during the last four months of the year.

Bugling Bulls of September

There are few instances more beautiful than the month of September, the time on the annual calendar when the foothills and mountainsides in the Rocky Mountain West come alive with golden hues with the sight of quaking aspens that are well worth the admission price of a good hike.

The year’s ninth month is tailor-made for high country bowhunters, who need to be quiet in their archery season pursuits, able to slip into bow range undetected and quickly unleash an arrow that slips into a monster bull elk’s boiler room. But getting archery close is no easy proposition since the American West is big country, a vast and rugged landscape that can swallow up a few dozen cows as the herd bull pushes them across a hillside and into the dark timber.

If you want to get into a big bull’s zip code, you’ll want to make sure of several things leading up to your hunt. The first is to make sure that your bow shooting skills are up to snuff with an archer being able to pull a compound bow back to full draw, anchor solidly, and then steady the quivering bow sight long enough to trip the trigger on the release and send an arrow flying anywhere from 20 to 50 yards downrange.

Successfully doing so means that you’ll also want a sharp knife handy, one that will help notch your hunting tag and do its work to turn a big bull into a freezer full of some of the best wild meat this side of the Continental Divide.

You’ll also want to make sure that you’re prepared for the physical demands of a September elk hunt, including staying hydrated with a full Nalgene bottle and a way to purify water pulled from a mountainside stream. There will also need to be some form of sustenance to keep the internal combustion engine stoked and the legs moving forward, especially as your adrenaline redlines and a big wapiti bull screams on a distant hillside.

While many hunters opt to go the economical route with things like homemade granola, fruit leather and energy bars, and maybe a candy bar or two, you’ll want to make sure that you have your hunting pack filled with a few easy-to-carry, protein-charged items too. That’s the kind of snacks that don’t bring the sugar high and the subsequent crash that some other snacks deliver.

That’s where a bag or two of Old Trapper Beef Jerky comes in handy, a lean snack that brings a good source of protein and little in the way of heavy sugar and many grams of carbohydrates. With a couple of 10-ounce bags of Old Trapper Teriyaki Beef Jerky packed away, you're in the energy production and muscle recovery business thanks to 11 grams of protein per 1-ounce serving size, along with only 6 grams of carbs, 1 gram of fat (0 grams of saturated fat), and 6 percent of your daily iron intake. And if you desire, you can even opt for the Old Trapper Zero Sugar Beef Jerky to knock down the carbs to 2 grams and bump up the protein to 14 grams per serving.

Either way, the vital protein you’ll be getting will aid your body as it recovers from a strenuous mountain hike, while the iron that you’ll be getting will help in transporting oxygen to your various body parts as they demand more. And when you’re elk hunting, you’ll need that oxygen as you use your hunting knife as you turn a downed bull into a pile of wild meat, then lifting your heavy pack for the hike out of the high country.

Ruffed Grouse of October

If there’s a better time for an upland bird hunter than the month of October, don’t tell the late Burton Spiller that.

“It is grouse time again,” once noted Spiller, widely regarded as the poet laureate of the grouse hunting canon.

“I need no calendar to tell me that. The old drummer has found his log and the staccato beat of his wings is audible in the stillness of the October afternoon. The woodcock has begun their long migration, and the fall ducks are in. The red gods are calling and I must go.”

If you must go to the grouse woods too, you’ll want to have several things in your favor as the morning chill gives way to October’s afternoon warmth. One is to be hunting in good bird-hunting country. You’ll also want a good bird dog, something like an English setter or a German shorthaired pointer that can get a snootful of grouse scent, work the landscape until the bird is pointed, and then fetch the bird to hand when it is knocked down.

You’ll also want a good shotgun, perhaps a classic American side-by-side, such as a Fox or a Parker, one that comes in either 20-gauge or 12-gauge. I personally prefer double triggers, an improved cylinder for the first shot and a modified choke for the second shot, and an ounce of shot to send crashing downrange.

Since grouse hold tight, then flush loudly as they corkscrew through the flaming woods at speeds high enough to make a fighter pilot jealous, you’ll want a gun that is lighter than what you might carry into the duck blind this fall, a scattergun that is probably 26 or 28 inches in barrel length and checks in with a weight of less than 7 pounds. When Old Ruffed launches off his hidden limb, you’ll need to get that shotgun barrel up and moving quickly if you want to connect. 

You’ll also need a good pair of boots to put some mileage on, along with a pair of shooting glasses, some hearing protection, a GPS collar for the dog, and an upland hunting vest to put your downed birds in, along with carrying a couple of water bottles for you and the canine hunting pal, and some sort of midday snack.

While an apple pulled from a New England orchard tree is straight out of a classic grouse hunting scene, you’ll want to take a page from the elk hunting tale noted above and pack some protein laden snacks too, for similar muscle recovery, boosted energy reserves, and sustenance when your body is demanding more late in the day. For me, there’s nothing better than Old Trapper Old Fashioned Beef Jerky, a satisfying snack that brings nutrition, energy, and a smooth, rich flavor as a break is taken on an old stone wall as an October day reveals its full autumn glory. 

Rutting Bucks of November

Whitetail hunters live for November. Because that’s the sweetest time of the deer season, the one time all year when mature, bruiser-sized bucks throw caution to the wind. One minute, the woods are quiet. The next minute, chaos reigns as a doe quickly rushes by, the antlered monarch of a lifetime follows with his nose to the ground, and a hunter is struggling to settle his bow’s sight pins or his rifle’s crosshairs in the nick of time.

So powerful are these few days in the November woods that the late Ray Sasser, the dean of Texas outdoors writers and the longtime hunting and fishing voice of the Dallas Morning News prior to his death in 2018, described the rut best in a newspaper tale he penned about the great campfire stories he had heard after years of chasing November’s big buck magic.

"I once asked Murphy Ray, the taciturn co-author of the Texas bible of whitetail management, for the best time to kill a big buck. ‘I'll take the rut,’" he said. "You can have everything else.”

Earlier and later in the deer season, the best time to be in a deer stand is early and late. But not necessarily during the height of the rut, a time when the deer breeding madness promises big buck action at any time of the day and demands that a deer hunter spend as much time as possible in the woods. In fact, all day, if necessary.

When you head to the deer woods, don’t forget your grunt call or your rattling horns, since you’ll want to be able to call in Mr. Big and stop on a dime as he tries to saunter by.

And since we’re thinking positive here and planning on tagging that Muy Grande whitetail, don’t forget to pack your sharp hunting knife for the post-hunt work session!

If you want to witness November’s rutting magic in Texas, in the Midwest, or across the Deep South, you’ll also need some staying power to remain on stand from dark until dark. One thing you’ll want in your hunting pack is some food, fuel that will keep the stomach from growling too much, help you remain awake and alert, and enable you to successfully make a shot when opportunity suddenly presents itself. 

For me, one big key to patiently staying in a treestand from sunup until sundown is having the right items to chow down on, both in an attempt to stave off boredom and in an attempt to stay focused. 

To help me accomplish that task, there will be a thermos full of coffee, a turkey sandwich or two, an apple, an energy bar, and of course, a 10-ounce bag or two of Old Trapper Peppered Beef Jerky.

Icy Greenheads of December

By year’s end, the dedicated outdoors enthusiast is growing weary. After a spring of turkey hunting, a summer of fishing, and a fall of chasing the critters noted above, there’s little left in the proverbial gas tank when the alarm clock rings at O’dark thirty on a frigid December morning.

But it’s that severe chill in the air, not to mention the ice beginning to cover the water in front of the duck blind, that actually lures the waterfowler out of bed for one more round of it all. After all, the December greenheads are in the area, and a duck hunter must go because all good things come to an end, right?

When the temperature is hovering just below freezing, a stiff northerly breeze is blowing while snowflakes dart about, and the chuckling of greenheads is heard overhead, you’ll want to come to the blind properly equipped.

In addition to an extra box of non-toxic shotshell loads and your duck call lanyard tucked away into your blind bag, one item you’ll want to keep handy is a handwarmer muff, a fleece facemask, and a thermos full of hot coffee. Another thing you’ll depend on to keep warm in a late-season duck blind is a bag of Old Trapper Hot & Spicy Beef Jerky, a snack with enough of a spicy kick to keep your stomach filled and your taste buds satisfied. 

Long enough to bag that final greenhead dropping into the decoys, a bird that fills your daily bag limit. After that, all that’s left to do is to scratch the retriever on the head, gather the decoys and head for home, dream of the Dutch oven filled with bubbling chili warming the kitchen, and think back on a season of great hunting memories.

With any luck, there will be enough of those memories to get you through the off-season and keep you occupied until next fall rolls around on the calendar. We can all dream, can’t we?