Category: Other Blog Posts By Dr. Grant Woods

The late season can be one of the best times to see mature bucks during daylight! During the late season, especially if the temperatures are colder than normal, bucks will be seeking sources of quality food. Since nothing has grown during the past few months in most areas of the whitetail’s range, it’s likely there is less food available each day of the season. Read more at Winchester.com

Many adult does throughout most of the whitetail’s range have already been bred. It seems many managers tend to ignore does this time of year unless they are still trying to reach a doe harvest objective to balance the number of deer with the amount of quality food in an area. Read more at Winchester.com

Do you still have a buck tag? That’s good news as bucks are often easier to pattern during the late season. After most does have been bred, mature bucks tend to stay within their home range and even in a smaller core area. They are focused on survival and recovering from the rut. Read more at Winchester.com

Have you ever been excited to find an active scrape and plan to hunt it during the rut only to watch it fill with leaves during early November? Bucks and does tend to abandon most scrapes during the chase phase of the rut. It seems bucks don’t wish to spend energy checking and/or maintaining scrapes during the rut, when checking the wind often yields much better results of finding a receptive doe.  Read more at Winchester.com. 

Have you ever tried using a mock scrape to attract and/or position bucks for a shot? If not, I encourage you to give them a try. Based on my experience, the most important characteristic about a mock scrape is its location. Check out this video. It’s a great example…Read more at Winchester.com

Ever wonder what rattling sequence bucks are most likely to respond to? My friend, fellow hunter, and research biologist, Dr. Mick Hellickson had a great opportunity to test different types of rattling sequences and monitor the response from bucks. Mick had placed radio collars on several wild, free-ranging bucks that roamed…Read more at Winchester.com

There was a fairly good crop of white oak acorns this year throughout much of the whitetail’s range. Deer seek and eat fresh white oak acorns. They will abandon most crop fields, food plots, etc., when fresh white oak acorns are available. Folks that scouted and placed stands near…Read more at Winchester.com

Last week I shared how a ruthless gang of researchers murdered the theory that moon phases determine when deer breed. There’s no reason to schedule vacation days to hunt based on certain phases of the moon if you wish to hunt the peak of the rut. You’ll be much…Read more at Winchester.com

I get LOTS of email from folks wondering when they should schedule their vacation so they can hunt the peak of the rut. I define “the peak of the rut” as when the biggest percentage of does are being bred. Using that definition it is…Read more at Winchester.com

I really enjoy scouting for locations to put blinds or stands. I like trying to figure out the ever changing puzzle of how deer are using food, cover, and water. In addition, I’m always looking for sign that indicates the habitat quality for deer and other critters. Click HERE to read the full article at Winchester.com.