How to Hunt the Pre-Rut

We’re rounding out October, which means most whitetail hunters have one thing on their minds: rutting bucks. Near the tail end of October and through the first two weeks of November (at least where we hunt in the Great Lakes Region), rutting activity starts to increase and bucks become all the more killable. The fun starts with the pre-rut.

What is the Pre-Rut?

The pre-rut may be the best time to shoot that buck that you’ve been catching on your trail cameras during the night. It’s when does aren’t necessarily ready to breed but bucks’ hormone levels have started to rise. During this period (usually 1 to 2 weeks), bucks begin to establish their core areas and start to scent check doe bedding areas, hoping to catch the first one that comes into estrus. Older bucks tend to lay down the most sign, claiming the largest/best core areas for themselves. Look for a huge increase in scrapes and rubs along travel routes. Once you start seeing this sign, it’s time to start implementing some more aggressive tactics.

Hunt the Sign

In the early parts of the rut, bucks spend lots of time scraping and rubbing trees, marking their core areas. Not many does will be in estrus (receptive to being bred) at this point, so bucks spend a lot of time during this period checking and freshening up rubs and scrapes. This helps them see if there are does ready to be bred or if there has been a intruder buck in their area.

Typically, during this time of the year, smaller bucks will lay down sign along doe/younger buck travel routes. If that’s what you’re after, set up over this sign and along these routes for success. If you’re after a more mature buck, you’ll need to look for less-defined trails, as they prefer to walk their own paths.

Look closely at the types of rubs you’re seeing too. Conventional wisdom says that big bucks rub on big trees. While this is sometimes true, we’ve found the height of a rub to be a much better indicator of a buck’s size. When setting up, get down wind of the sign. Bucks tend to approach their scrapes/rubs from downwind (often they’ll just cruise by down wind of it to see if a hot doe stopped by).

Hunt Does

Another solid strategy during the pre-rut is to hunt does. Bucks know that it’s a matter of days until the first doe goes into heat and they’ll be constantly checking to see if any are ready.

Find their bed and food and place yourself in between. Food sources may be trickier to find during this time but we’ve found success by setting up around mast crops (we like white oaks) or standing ag fields (typically corn - deer don’t seem to love soy beans after they’ve lost their green).

Make Some Noise

This is the time of year to break out the grunt tube or rattling antlers and try your hand at calling deer in to you. The pre-rut is when bucks seem to be most receptive to calling. There are lots of guys out there (for a long time, us included) that will say that they hunt areas that are too pressured for calling to work. Maybe this is true but, more often than not, I believe the lack of success is more due to poor calling habits.

Often hunters will grab a grunt tube or some antlers call in short sequences from a tree stand. Sometimes this may work but it doesn’t really sound like an actual deer moving through the woods. If you’ve ever heard a buck fight in the woods, you know what I’m talking about. Yes, you’ll hear antlers cracking together. But you’ll also hear a ton of ground noise - breaking sticks and leaves flying all over the place. You should do your best to mimic these sounds. Don’t just rattle antlers. Break some sticks and thrash some leaves too. In fact, I’ve found more success adding this background noise and simply using a mouth call (no grunt tube) than grunt tubes without the ground noise. If you really want to get weird, try Jared’s patented “buck run” - he details it in this podcast episode with Mark Kenyon.

Go Get Em!

The pre-rut is one of the best times to be in the woods after that old bruiser buck. This year, increase your odds by finding sign, hunting does and making a little noise. Go get em!