BANKS BLOG

These next couple weeks of November are peak rut season. The bucks will be going crazy, trying to breed with the does in the herd. They lose all sense of time and priorities, so they’ll be roaming around the woods at all hours of the day looking for a mate. Check out our guide, below, to learn how bucks behave during each week of the November rut season. If you can get out there in the next couple weeks, you might just be able to fire up some venison for your Thanksgiving table.

As rut season kicks into gear, the bucks and does might start to interact with your feeders and food plots differently. The influx of hormones and heightened awareness means that hunters will need to be extra vigilant to make sure that they’re tracking the deer activity appropriately. Don’t assume that the patterns you noticed over the summer will unfold the same way in the fall. Check out our tips, below, to learn how deer feeders impact movement during rut season.

As hunting season reaches its peak, it’s important to avoid overhunting an area and inflating hunting pressure. If an area becomes overrun with human scent, the deer will stop visiting the spot and avoid the area. During this crucial hunting period, make sure that you’re getting in and out of your Stump blind undetected by the deer and avoid getting busted before you’ve had a chance to make your harvest.

As the days start to shorten and people deck their houses out with Halloween lights, signaling that we’re in the thick of fall, hunters know this means that the rut season is about to begin. As the bucks get crazier and activity starts to kick up, we’ve got some strategies for how to call in those bucks using rattles and grunts, and when you shouldn’t use them at all. Check out our tips, below, for October calling strategies.

As the rut season approaches, start to adjust to the bucks’ new behavior and capitalize on all the activity the rut season stirs up. They’ll make their presence known through rubs and scrapes and start moving around more during the daylight hours. You can take advantage of all of this activity by scoping out the herd from your Stump blind. Check out our tips, below, to learn how you can use this information to fill your tags and get some venison in your freezer before the holidays.

Even though the season just opened, it’d be beneficial to your hunting strategy to start thinking about the rut season and keeping your eye on buck signs during the early phases of the rut. We’ve got some tips, below, on how to understand and interpret buck behavior during the early rut season.

September is a month of transition where the weather changes from harsh summer heat to crisp fall chill. When temperatures drop about 10 degrees or more in one day, that will trigger an increase of deer activity. When this transition happens, make sure you’re ready to capitalize on the deer movement that this cold front will bring about. Saturday is the big day here in Minnesota, so check out our tips, below, to make sure you’re ready for your early-season hunts.

Ground blinds and elevated hunting blinds have some clear advantages over tree stands when it comes to hunting deer, especially during the early season. Enclosed blinds hide your movement, contain your scent and allow you to see clearly in all levels of daylight. Check out our tips, below, for why elevated and enclosed blinds outperform tree stands during early season hunts.

During the early days of deer season, deer tend to be a little more predictable than they are during rut season. The testosterone filled rut season usually creates a flurry of activity all day long, with no real rhyme or reason to when the bucks come out, they seem to be out and about all day every day chasing the does. Alternatively, during the early season, deer will predictably seek out cool spots in the heat transition from summer to fall. They’ll stay bedding down in their comfortable cover during the hottest part of the day and come out when the weather cools off in the evening. This is generally true for all regions, so we’ll break down why the deer stay so predictable and when you can expect the pattern to shift from evenings to mornings in this week’s blog, below.

If you didn’t plant anything in the spring and are starting to panic that you don’t have a food source for deer season, don’t worry. As August comes to a close, you’ve got one more shot to plant a fall food plot to cultivate a food source that’s in bloom during the middle of deer season and rut season. Check out our tips, below, for how you can still create a thriving food plot that will bring deer to your property all hunting season.