In this wind-up to rut season while the weather is cooling down and the hunting season is in full swing, placing your blind in a prime location could help you capitalize on the changing weather as fall kicks into gear. Check out our tips, below, for the best blind setups for October cold fronts.
Food Driven
In this early season period, deer are very food-driven. They’ll be looking for carb and nutrient packed food to get them ready for the rut activity and the cold months ahead. Deer particularly love acorns. If you can find an area of oak trees that will produce an abundance of these nuts, make sure you position your Stump blind nearby to catch the deer herd as they graze. One of the only other things they like more than acorns is corn. As the harvest season wraps up, the freshly cut corn fields will be a prime feeding ground because the deer will have easy access to the kernels and stalks on the ground in the farming machinery’s wake.
If you don’t have any natural food plots nearby, you can always put up your own food sources with our Feedbank Feeders. We have options of feeders that are flat on the ground or mounted on a post. Whichever you choose, stock it with the prime food sources the deer naturally seek out during this time to encourage deer activity.
Mind the Trails
When the weather cools down, the deer will want to go back and forth from their food source to their bedding area as quickly as possible. So make sure your blinds are set up along corridors, pitch points or ditches. These will be the main paths deer will take to get to and from their sources. If you can find one that connects your food source to a bedding area, that’s your go-to spot.
Trail Cameras
As always, one of the best ways to track the deer herd’s activity is to observe them through trail camera footage. Set up trail cameras near your Stump blind, or any potential blind set up spots, and see what you can capture on camera. Having time-stamped pictures of the deer will tell you when they are most active and should give you a general idea of what direction they’re coming from as the camera takes pictures of them approaching the feeders. You can use this knowledge to your advantage by placing your blind along the path you saw them come from. If you find that the deer are already visiting your blind, use the time stamp to narrow down when you should be hunting from the blind.
Stay Warm
As the deer seek out their warmer bedding areas, you can stay nice and warm yourself in our Stump blinds while you wait. The windows and doors of the Stump blinds seal tightly, so you’ll stay concealed and warm even as the cold fall breeze blows around your blind. Staying inside the blind will also keep your scent contained until you’re ready to take your shot. You can leave the windows closed until the deer comes into range because the windows open silently.
As the deer seek out nutrient-rich food sources and warm bedding areas, set your blind up next to these sources to capitalize on their travel routes and harvest a buck before Thanksgiving.
Where do you set up your blinds during October cold fronts? Let us know your tactics in the comments below!





Understanding Buck Behavior During Early Rut