Why Late October is a Great Time to Tag a Buck

As a lover of horror movies and books, it’s hard not to enjoy Halloween. Streaming services begin running more of my favorite vintage movies, libraries put the classics on display, and my kids get creative with their costumes. For me, though, the best part of this spooky time of year is what happens in the deer woods. Namely, that whitetail bucks get on their feet and start looking for does. This late-October window is one of my absolute favorite times to hunt, and if it’s not yours, let me explain why it should be.

EARLY SLOWDOWN

October is a month of transition for whitetail deer, especially in areas with agriculture. Gone are the early days of autumn, when bucks could slip through dense forests and feast on crops. The leaves have dropped, most crops are gone, and activity in the countryside has increased, with hunters pursuing small game, upland birds and deer. In early October, these changes make most bucks stalk the night and maintain a low profile. While it’s a great time to fill an antlerless tag, daytime buck sightings fall off dramatically.

As the month progresses, however, increasing testosterone levels in bucks get them thinking about love, and they become more active during daylight. Where I hunt, this happens by the third week in October. This is when it pays to spend more time in the woods again.

PRE-RUT PLACES

The best spot to start looking for late-October whitetails is around funnels. Funnels can be as simple as a shelterbelt tree row or ditch, a narrowing of a riparian corridor or thick conifers or deciduous trees in an otherwise open forest. While you can find funnels with online mapping tools, getting boots on the ground is the best way to find that perfect stand tree.

Don’t forget about food either. With most crops harvested, deer usually switch food sources. Where farmers practice no-till farming, which leaves crop residue on the ground after harvest, deer still feed in fields. But when the fields are plowed back, there’s little food, and fields are abandoned. Natural foods, like acorns, sedges, forbs and grasses, become more appealing. Even if a buck is more interested in does than food, they’ll check food sources for feeding does.

However, sitting on a field edge is a great way to blow the deer out now. There just isn’t as much cover to sneak in and out, and it doesn’t take many bad encounters to ruin a location. Funnels that lead deer to and from food sources are a much better option.

During the third week of October one year, I found myself needing to make a move after deer activity had fallen off in the shelterbelts I’d been hunting once the adjacent cornfield was harvested. After walking a favorite patch of public land, I quickly identified a good stand tree in an area where I’d seen a few early scrapes and deer tracks that were concentrated in a natural funnel. A riparian corridor narrowed to less than 100 yards, and inside this, thick buckthorn trees created a funnel within a funnel. While the woods appeared to be flat on satellite imagery, a small ridge offered some topographic variation that the deer liked. (In flat areas, even a few feet of elevation change draws attention). South of this, there was a more open forest, and to the north lay a thicket of buckthorns, gooseberries, boxelder and cottonwood saplings—an ideal bedding area.

While late-October bucks are more active and looking for does, the rutting frenzy hasn’t begun yet. Rather than cruising through open country, throwing caution to the wind, bucks still stick to thick cover to make scrapes, rubs and look for does in estrous. And this was why I felt confident in my new position, tucked within the woods near thick bedding cover and along a travel corridor. I could slip in for a quick hang-and-hunt outing during the next cold front.

I burned a personal day from work the day before Halloween and scurried up the tree an hour and a half before dawn. With little cover in the now leafless tree, I placed the stand on the opposite side where I expected the deer to appear, hoping the trunk would help break up my outline. A light northwest breeze had ushered in a cold front, with the temperature dropping 15 degrees in two days. Conditions were perfect, and the resulting hunt proved that.

An hour after sunup, I saw a pair of bucks approaching from near the river, one a small six point, the other a nice nine-point buck. They browsed on sedges as they drifted closer but eventually split up, with the smaller buck drifting into low brush near the river. Hoping to draw the other buck closer, I made a few soft grunts on a grunt tube. Soft, tentative grunts work better during this period than loud, challenging ones, as you aren’t trying to intimidate a buck, just arouse his curiosity. The bigger deer obliged and gave me a 17-yard shot, and he was down on the ground soon after. As I approached him, I saw tons of scrapes and numerous rubs on the nearby trail. Local bucks were certainly ready for the rut, and the riparian funnel was where they were showing their excitement for the season.

WEATHER CUES

Some telemetry studies have shown that bucks move as much in late October with warm fronts as they do when it’s cool. That’s true, but most warm-weather movement occurs at night. While I’m not a huge trail camera guy, I deploy some each fall. Nearly without fail, activity picks up when cold fronts move through. Rain can also spur new activity, as bucks freshen scrapes that had scent washed out the previous day.

With most does a few weeks from being receptive, amorous bucks are scraping and rubbing heavily. These activities are one way deer communicate with each other, and, as a bonus, they let hunters know there are bucks in the area. A single scrape doesn’t mean much, but a series of scrapes, in a line, denote a deer’s travel movement.

Nothing gets me more excited to hit the stand than a rain event. While much scrape activity occurs at night, when rain washes the scent out of scrapes, bucks are compelled to freshen them in the morning. Many hunters add preferred commercial scents to scrapes, though human urine works just as well in my opinion. It’s also free! Regardless, I’ve had lots of success hunting near scrapes in October, the morning after a rain event.

While cool weather helps drive buck movement and rain spurs bucks to freshen scrapes, unseasonably cold weather seems to have the opposite effect. A few years back, I punched my tag in September and was on the sidelines cheering buddy Justin Fisher on. One Saturday, he planned to hunt a funnel that nearly always produced a buck encounter.

Mid-week, a freak snowstorm dropped a few inches of snow and brought on weather conditions more like January than the end of October. Justin sat for four hours as temperatures barely hit single digits. Not only did he not see a deer, but he didn’t see a single track in the fresh, white snow. Put off by the conditions, deer didn’t move again until the weather became more seasonable the next week.

Although it can be hard to do, let weather dictate when you hunt. Don’t force the issue in abnormally warm or cold conditions. Sometimes, it’s better to leave the woods alone and wait for a better opportunity.

AVOIDING OVERHUNTING

Another key aspect of hunting late-October whitetails is not overhunting stands. I leave a few stands up each year, and it’s quite convenient to slip into one for a hunt. However, returning too often is ill advised. Unlike bucks during the rut, bucks in the pre-rut period don’t tolerate many mistakes, and repeated hunts from the same tree can make the woods go stale.

Instead, somewhat contradictorily, it’s best to minimize your time sitting in productive stands. Hunt your best stand during the best conditions for that stand, and after the hunt, avoid returning for a while. Once the bucks of Halloween start moving, it’s almost always on my first sit in a stand that I get a good opportunity. By saving proven locations for prime time, each hunt feels like it’s going to be the one, and you minimize the odds of messing things up in a good area.

Have at least one good mobile stand or a saddle system so you can quickly and safely set up at a new location in minutes. This lets you hunt new spots where you’ve observed deer movement or fresh sign and rest time-tested stands between prime hunt windows.

Before it was sold, a piece of land near my home was good for encounters each October. One year, I waited until Halloween morning to make my initial sit there. The location offered a high-risk/high-reward scenario. It was a tight area, and it was likely I’d only get one hunt before the deer knew I was there. With perfect conditions, I took a chance and wound up with a nice buck.

I used to view October as a warm-up event for November’s rut. No more. Hunting all facets of the season has its own charm, and overlooking the end of October is a mistake many hunters make. This year, hit the woods and find some bucks during the waning weeks of spooky season.

PRE-RUT PICKS

• Five key pieces of gear for late-October sits.

When hunting in late October, I usually travel and hunt light. However, I always carry a few products with me.

The first is the Lone Wolf Alpha II hang-on tree stand and climbing sticks. That stand is no longer made, but the XOP ION hang-on stand ($300; xopoutdoors.com) is similar. It’s made from lightweight cast aluminum and is quiet and easy to hang on a still morning.

Grunt calls are dynamite in the right situation during the pre-rut period. So, the old classic True Talker OG Deer Call ($22; hunterspec.com) from Hunter Specialties is always in my bag. The weather cools off by the end of October, and cold feet are no fun on stand. I wear Kamik Icebreakers ($90; us.kamik.com) to both minimize ground scent and keep my feet warm.

There are plenty of great broadheads out there, but I’ve stuck with the New Archery Products (NAP) Shockwaves ($30/3-pack; newarchery.com). These simple, o-ring style mechanical broadheads are not only easy on the pocketbook but deadly in the woods. I’ve shot 10 deer and a black bear with them in the past four seasons and have had nothing but excellent results.

I don’t care for overly technical trail cameras, so I keep things simple. I’ve been using Covert Scouting Cameras for the past few years and have been impressed with their battery life, photo quality and ease of use. While my model doesn’t appear to be available anymore (MP30), they offer several great cameras, including the new Interceptor cellular trail cam ($150; feradyne.com), which captures 16 megapixel images and records 1080p video and offers real-time capabilities.

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• This article was featured in the October 2025 issue of Game & Fish magazine. Click to subscribe.

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