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At the time of this article, I'm in my office during the morning getting a little work done, but I will certainly be in a tree this afternoon. We have a cold front rolling through, and we are entering my favorite stretch of whitetail season: the last part of November. A lot of people ask me when my favorite time to hunt is. Many guys will say the last week of October or the first week of November. My favorite stretch over the years where I've had the most encounters with big bucks is the third week of November – that last little stretch around Thanksgiving, give or take a day or two on either side, but usually from the 19th through the 26th. That week has been so good for me over the years, and there are a couple of reasons for that.
First, the time frame of does going into estrous looks like a bell curve. Early estrous begins in October, with the peak of estrous around the second week of November, then dipping off from there. As the number of does in estrous dwindles, the bucks must try harder to find the last remaining does to breed. That means they will expand their territory to broaden their search.
Second, during peak estrous does are locked down with bucks or just hiding in thick cover because they don’t want to be harassed. They’re harder to find, and therefore, the bucks are not as easy to find since they don’t have to go as far to find the hot does. When they are searching, they’re typically in secluded areas of cover.
But as we reach the last stretch of November, the cooler weather starts to set in and these does go back to somewhat normal patterns, being on food sources and more open areas. This makes them easier to find, making the bucks easier to find because they’re going to be where the does are.
Those factors combined have resulted in my having encounters with a lot of new bucks this time of year. In the video above, I share a couple of hunts from way back in the archives (2013 and 2016) that are two of my favorite examples of these factors in play.
First Hunt
The first hunt was on November 19th, 2013. I’d been hunting hard for my vacation and was down to the last vacation day, so I decided to get more aggressive in my tactic. I had gone in and hung my treestand at midnight the night before. I hung it by moonlight under a clear sky, knowing a lot of deer were off to the south, feeding in ag fields and out from under thick cover. The following morning was beautiful. Calm and cold and had already been eventful well before 11 am. A big nine buck that I had become very familiar with on that particular farm had come within about 10 yards of me, but I could not get him to stop long enough for me to get my camera on him and draw the bow back for a shot. However, he went East. All the deer I’ve seen had been feeding off to the southwest. Hopefully, that meant he would be working his way back through this spot to go in that direction at some point later in the day.
Shortly after 11 am, right when I had finished narrating a quick hunt update into my camera, I could hear some branches breaking down below me. It sounded like a buck trying to bust through the thick brush. It was too thick for me to see through, but then he popped out on the path, and I could see he was a mature deer. The first thing I saw was the palmation of his antler. It looked like he had a lot of mass. With all the opportunities I’d had over the course of the past year that had been blown by my fiddling with the camera, now here was a mature buck, and I wasn’t about to let this one pass me up. On my last day of vacation, I was planning on sitting all day long if I had to, but there was a really cool, heavy old buck right after 11 am. You can probably guess how it ends, but I encourage you to watch the hunt for yourself in the video above. It’s only about 8 minutes of video, but it captures the key moments nicely. Suffice it to say, I’m sure glad I hung in there for that last vacation day.
It's a fun hunt to look back on. That deer ended up being a six-and-a-half-year-old. It turned out to be a deer that I didn't know that likely just started to expand his range during that part of November to find some of those last hot does, and I caught him cruising through that day. I've read various statistics that support the assertion these bucks will increase their range by three or four times during that last stretch of November to try to find those last few hot does. I don't have any in-depth studies handy to support that, but I can tell you my experiences certainly corroborate it.
Second Hunt
On November 21st, 2016, it had been a long grind of a month for me, hunting hard and having a lot of encounters with really good deer, but never having the right shot opportunity. On this day, I hung my treestand before daylight with just a little patch of cover. I had fully expected the wind to be swirling in my spot, but it was very calm, and the wind was forecasted to be a straight-east wind, which was not a favorable combination. My tree was situated in a low spot where several ditches came together. I had previously hunted close to this spot about 40 yards up the hill. There had been a lot of action down in this spot, but I couldn’t shoot into it from my position up on the hill. It seemed to be a good transition area. I knew there were a lot of does in this spot, so I hoped this was the place to be. It was aggressive for me to go in there, but it was November 21st – I had nothing to lose.
The sun was just coming up, and the first deer I saw was a stud of a deer. He walked right at the base of my tree and turned broadside for a perfect shot. Again, I encourage you to watch the short video clip above to relive the moment. This was another buck I hadn’t seen before. He was likely expanding his territory during the final stretch of November, as the buck in 2013 had. I had seen some good deer on the trail cams and a couple who looked a lot like this one, but this was a new buck. It was a new farm for me too. It was a fun hunt. He was the only deer I saw, and it was an awesome way to end the bow season.
Conclusion
For buck encounters, especially with new bucks, I really do think the third and fourth week of November is hard to beat. Don’t get your hopes down if you haven't had a good season up to that point. As you can see, there’s still a lot of good hunting left during this timeframe. In the mornings I like being back in the cover to catch the cruising movement of bucks searching for does. In the afternoons, I transition closer to the food sources. The does start to shift their patterns and their presence on those food sources returns to normal in the afternoon, making it a good hotspot for bucks. You’ll also start to see more focus on food from the bucks as well. To this point, they’ve been 100% focused on finding does to breed, and while that still may be their top priority, they’re also starting to feel the effects of a long, tough rut and need to replenish a little. The weather typically is more favorable during this time as well. It’s colder, forcing the deer to move and feed.
So, if you still have a tag by this time of year, and not finding mature deer, don't lose hope and give up. This is a really fun time to be in the whitetail woods, so make sure you're still spending time in the tree during the third to fourth week of November!
--Jared Mills
