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Deep South early season

mschultz373

mschultz373

Well-Known Member
SH Member
Joined
May 9, 2023
Messages
409
Location
SE LA
This will be my first season bow hunting the early season in SE LA. I’m a fairly new hunter anyway, but I’m curious if any Deep South guys have tips or advice for early season broadly - things to prepare for, tactics that differ from rut and late season, preparation and weather?

One question I have specifically is if mornings or all day sits productive during early season, thru October? Any reason to try them? I thought of doing all day on opener just. E cause, but I have somewhat limited time and want to be productive.

Thanks guys and best of luck this season!
 
Early season i tend to have more sightings in the evening and revolve around food. only thing to prepare for is the heat and mosquitoes lol. I tend to save all day sits for when the rut starts kicking which is usually mid - late december. I will hunt all day in the early season but its usually a spot in the morning, get down around 11:00 and then hunt a different spot in the evening. I made an observation season before last that deer movement i was seeing in morning was usually between 7:30-10:30. Deer movement in the evening was generally 3:30-5:00...of course this was area specific and wasnt always exactly how it went
 
I'm in GA, which is different than your area, but I find evening in the early season to be much more beneficial. Scout in the morning/early afternoon and find some fresh sign to set up over for the evening.
 
It is hard to hunt early season food sources in the mornings without bumping deer at the tree. Like was mentioned the heat and skeeters are what you have to be prepared for. I have never done an all day hang in early season. Evening hunts have almost always been the primary hunts for me but I have had some great early season morning hunts when I had places I could get into cleanly.
 
Bugs,heat, sweat, abundance of browse, all will work against you.

Lack of pressure will work for you.

It’s my opinion that unless you have piles of time to hunt public or piles of money to hunt prime private, hunting early season will not give you good odds of success.

If you have either of those things, you ain’t asking questions here.

Sooooo, go catch some fish and wait for 50* days
 
mschultz373 said:
This will be my first season bow hunting the early season in SE LA. I’m a fairly new hunter anyway, but I’m curious if any Deep South guys have tips or advice for early season broadly - things to prepare for, tactics that differ from rut and late season, preparation and weather?

One question I have specifically is if mornings or all day sits productive during early season, thru October? Any reason to try them? I thought of doing all day on opener just. E cause, but I have somewhat limited time and want to be productive.

Thanks guys and best of luck this season!
Click to expand...
Lately early season the past 2 seasons at least there’s been a lot of deer taken around midday on public here. I only do and have done all day sits during the rut.
 
Here's what I do. Go out a couple of days before season and walk some creek bottoms from about 10 to 2. Look for hot feeding sign around oaks, or persimmons if you have those. You want to cover some ground but once you find what you are looking for leave. Find a few of these trees in different areas. These will be your starting point for opening day. For a morning hunt, go in very quietly about 7:30 or 8 am and set up planning to sit until at least 1 pm. I don't approach feed trees in the dark anymore. Most deer will beat you to a feed tree before daylight since they are already there. Many times, they will move off at daybreak and bed up for a while. Going in at 7:30 or 8 lets you slip in and be ready for them to return at about 10:30 to noon. If you don't kill one on the morning hunt, get down, go take a quick break, and then scout out some new areas and hot trees for future morning hunts, then be back in your morning tree by about 3:30 or 4 PM. If you don't kill one in the evening, you can move on, since you have pretty well pressured the spot, or give it another morning sit just for good measure. You can come back and hunt it again after a few days rest if you don't have a lot of good options found.

Don't hunt unproductive spots. Look for a tree that looks like someone has been running a tiller under it and look for fresh and old deer poops. When you see that, hunt it immediately. If you haven't seen that yet, keep moving.

Make sure you have a good ThermaCell and plenty of propane and repellant mats. Good luck.
 
I have been struggling to find good feed trees. I don’t know how the south looks broadly but the extreme heat and drought this summer seems to have done a number on the oaks. The upshot is that when I do find one, it will probably be ripping hot - or so I hope.

One take away I’m gathering from y’all is that early season is really about hunting hot sign more than relying on spots or set ups, which are more effective for around the rutting time?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
mschultz373 said:
I have been struggling to find good feed trees. I don’t know how the south looks broadly but the extreme heat and drought this summer seems to have done a number on the oaks. The upshot is that when I do find one, it will probably be ripping hot - or so I hope.

One take away I’m gathering from y’all is that early season is really about hunting hot sign more than relying on spots or set ups, which are more effective for around the rutting time?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

One thing to remember too is that oaks dont produce a good crop every year, its more like every 2-3 years..so if you arent seeing good drops this season in some spots, dont rule em out for next. No doubt the dry spell this year will affect crop, but i have found some oaks in my area that had acorns on the branches...
 
mschultz373 said:
I have been struggling to find good feed trees. I don’t know how the south looks broadly but the extreme heat and drought this summer seems to have done a number on the oaks. The upshot is that when I do find one, it will probably be ripping hot - or so I hope.

One take away I’m gathering from y’all is that early season is really about hunting hot sign more than relying on spots or set ups, which are more effective for around the rutting time?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Since it has been dry and hot, look for big trees, probably red oaks near creeks or other water sources where they have been getting continuous water. Big trees seem to weather drought better than small trees. For rut, find isolated spots in thick cover where several terrain types meet up, like a hardwood corner butting up to a thick cutover and a creek. Look for spots of forced travel.
 
NMSbowhunter said:
Since it has been dry and hot, look for big trees, probably red oaks near creeks or other water sources where they have been getting continuous water. Big trees seem to weather drought better than small trees. For rut, find isolated spots in thick cover where several terrain types meet up, like a hardwood corner butting up to a thick cutover and a creek. Look for spots of forced travel.
Click to expand...

gotta be some truth to this as most the bearing oaks i found were big reds...
 
These are my best tips for deep south bowhunting. To qualify, I live 50 miles north of the Gulf of Mexico and have 90k acres of WMA literally bordering my backyard. Double that acreage within an hour drive. Have hunted Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Georgia. Since I got out of college I average 5-10 deer a year on public land. I don't consider myself an expert, but I do ok and know a lot of guys who are really and truly experts.

First, piss on any weather that doesn't necessitate at least a pullover for the first couple of hours. I lost gallons of blood and sweat on 80 degree or hotter sits before I realized that I'm better off fishing. Cold fronts are the name of the game. They're more pleasant, get the deer frisky, and offer you at least a chance at keeping your funk level low.

Second, at least where I'm at, is knowing that while it may look like there's a lot of browse, most of it is woody and low value. Deer right now are about as hungry as they're gonna get. If you have a corn feeder, food plot, or a hot oak...that's where you want to be sitting. I live and die by @WHW's advice surrounding feed trees during early season, because once they start dropping they're about the only wild food source, and they're naturally preferred anyway. Deer live to eat and screw, and right now it's not screwing season. They're just going from hidey spots to acorn-snarfing spots. And usually, in my experience, the hiding spot is within 100 yards of the snarfing spot. Hang directly over the food and be as quiet as possible while doing it.

If you disregard point number one, I'd say the first and last hour are your best bets. No sense in an all day sit. On a cold day, I've had luck in the middle of the day. You stand a decent chance at catching a group of bachelors, so keep that in mind when a fork horn comes bebopping down the trail.
 
I have a big white oak near the back corner of my property and yesterday wife walked out around 3pm and there were 6 total (does and fawns) under it eating. It’s barely dropping so far but this was the first deer under it for the year (that we noticed).
 
I get so jelly of of u guys reading this kinda stuff. The way majority of our public land works is on a quota system and u hunt the dates u are told. This season I didn't draw an archery hunt at all. Luckily I am able to get 3 days and maybe a couple afternoons.....I'm going regardless of the weather. The first archery hunt in the wma is for sure your best odds of killing a nice buck around here. I usually wait till gray light at my truck and start walking and looking around at points of interest based off aerial photos based off prominent wind direction, if it's a place I've never been or not really familiar with. Sometimes u will find something to hunt that morning or u find an open bottom or terrain that allows u to slip hunt thru there or you walk majority of the day following transition lines looking for a place to set up that afternoon.....the critters are out there all day long but usually only up and moving around first and last light.......with that said, I haven't killed many deer and never killed a buck hahahahaha I keep telling myself it's because of my lack of access and not me being a horrible hunter
 
How about scent control and the heat in FL?

I have bumped deer scouting on really hot afternoons - like 95-100F… so I would have guessed hunting during those temps, while miserable, might be doable

You can always come hunt SE LA!
 
This is why I say you need piles of time to hunt public land when it’s hot and be successful.

Your odds of lucking into a deer with a bow in the southeast when it’s 90* plus outside are way lower. Why? Food is spread out and deer move around less during the day.

Unless you know what you’re doing, you need a lot of time to dial it in.

You can of course ignore these ground truths, but they’re still there.

If someone tells you they’re successful early season in south Louisiana, ask them to shadow them for the entire month of October. My guess is you’ll be taking a lot of time off work, and cashing in all your yard passes with the wife.
 
Weldabeast said:
I get so jelly of of u guys reading this kinda stuff. The way majority of our public land works is on a quota system and u hunt the dates u are told. This season I didn't draw an archery hunt at all. Luckily I am able to get 3 days and maybe a couple afternoons.....I'm going regardless of the weather. The first archery hunt in the wma is for sure your best odds of killing a nice buck around here. I usually wait till gray light at my truck and start walking and looking around at points of interest based off aerial photos based off prominent wind direction, if it's a place I've never been or not really familiar with. Sometimes u will find something to hunt that morning or u find an open bottom or terrain that allows u to slip hunt thru there or you walk majority of the day following transition lines looking for a place to set up that afternoon.....the critters are out there all day long but usually only up and moving around first and last light.......with that said, I haven't killed many deer and never killed a buck hahahahaha I keep telling myself it's because of my lack of access and not me being a horrible hunter
Click to expand...
How close to you live to Georgia? If you are reasonably close it might pay to buy an out of state license and hunt up there where I (assume?) there are fewer regs like quotas...
 
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