What makes a pattern?

[JMAR85]

If this topic has been covered and beat to death already I apologize. But I'm going to ask anyways.. How many times do you have to observe a buck doing something before you call it a pattern? If you see him leave his bedroom a certain way one evening will you feel confident enough to set up on it the following evening? What about mornings? If you get a trailcam pic of a buck heading back after sunrise two mornings is that a pattern?

[dan]

I would say just about everything a mature buck does is on a pattern. A pattern around food, or around bedding and it continually repeats itself. The thing we must do is notice and predict these patterns to kill the buck. Patterns might be one or two days, might be every day there is a west wind, might be annual, etc. Even when you hunt heavy deer sign, your hoping a deer does what it did before...

As far as feeling confident setting up on a deer the day after I seen him do something? Yep. Confident. Always confident. Don't always succeed, but always confident.

You need to take things like wind into consideration, if he beds in a spot on a south wind, it don't mean he will be trhere the next day on a north... He might or might not, but the more varibles that change, and the more time that goes by, the more your odds go down. Patterns change constantly, you need to move fast.

[JMAR85]

I would say just about everything a mature buck does is on a pattern. A pattern around food, or around bedding and it continually repeats itself. The thing we must do is notice and predict these patterns to kill the buck. Patterns might be one or two days, might be every day there is a west wind, might be annual, etc. Even when you hunt heavy deer sign, your hoping a deer does what it did before...

As far as feeling confident setting up on a deer the day after I seen him do something? Yep. Confident. Always confident. Don't always succeed, but always confident.

You need to take things like wind into consideration, if he beds in a spot on a south wind, it don't mean he will be trhere the next day on a north... He might or might not, but the more varibles that change, and the more time that goes by, the more your odds go down. Patterns change constantly, you need to move fast.

That's great input, thanks Dan! Do bucks have patterns during the rut?

[dan]

I would say just about everything a mature buck does is on a pattern. A pattern around food, or around bedding and it continually repeats itself. The thing we must do is notice and predict these patterns to kill the buck. Patterns might be one or two days, might be every day there is a west wind, might be annual, etc. Even when you hunt heavy deer sign, your hoping a deer does what it did before...

As far as feeling confident setting up on a deer the day after I seen him do something? Yep. Confident. Always confident. Don't always succeed, but always confident.

You need to take things like wind into consideration, if he beds in a spot on a south wind, it don't mean he will be trhere the next day on a north... He might or might not, but the more varibles that change, and the more time that goes by, the more your odds go down. Patterns change constantly, you need to move fast.

That's great input, thanks Dan! Do bucks have patterns during the rut?

Absolutely... And the older the buck, the more they lock into rut patterns.

[Mschmeiske]

Not to jack this thread but do deer really do the same thing on the same day as previous years? When you said annually it just got my curiosity.

[dan]

Not to jack this thread but do deer really do the same thing on the same day as previous years? When you said annually it just got my curiosity.

Yes... Patterns such as food and cover changing do so at a rapid ever changing pace and within days of the same date we have seen bucks shift the same way... I remember Andrae shooting the second biggest typical ever arrowed in Wisconsin (breaking his own record) His logs put that buck in the same bed entering the same field 2 years in a row, and year 3 he was sitting there and shot it on that date when it walked out. Thats just one example.

[mainebowhunter]

As far as patterns...I have never understood why after November 10th, motels in midwest start to empty out.

If I had one week to hunt the midwest it would not be before nov 10th I can promise you that.

[JMAR85]

As far as patterns...I have never understood why after November 10th, motels in midwest start to empty out.

If I had one week to hunt the midwest it would not be before nov 10th I can promise you that.

This is interesting. For the past two years I've taken an out of state rut hunt during the 2nd week of November. This year I've been kicking around the idea of going a little later..

[Nelson87]

Not to jack this thread but do deer really do the same thing on the same day as previous years? When you said annually it just got my curiosity.

JoeRE talks about annual patterns on his podcast with W2H. As I recall, he goes more by similar weather conditions than the exact calander day. For example, he sees or gets a picture of a buck on Nov. 5. The following year, the weather is similar- same wind ect.- on the 3rd. He's there. Or maybe the weather isn't similar until the 9th. Maybe the 5th rolls around and it's 20 degrees warmer than last year. Then he might think about hunting a nearby water source.

[dan]

As far as patterns...I have never understood why after November 10th, motels in midwest start to empty out.

If I had one week to hunt the midwest it would not be before nov 10th I can promise you that.

That... Depends on where your at in the Midwest. Some places have rut earlier than that.

[mainebowhunter]

As far as patterns...I have never understood why after November 10th, motels in midwest start to empty out.

If I had one week to hunt the midwest it would not be before nov 10th I can promise you that.

That... Depends on where your at in the Midwest. Some places have rut earlier than that.

For older bucks I always prefer to be at the tail end of the rut when majority of does have been bred. Beginning can be great as well...but it can also be very hot.

I would prefer to be there oct 28 to nov 20.

[dan]

As far as patterns...I have never understood why after November 10th, motels in midwest start to empty out.

If I had one week to hunt the midwest it would not be before nov 10th I can promise you that.

That... Depends on where your at in the Midwest. Some places have rut earlier than that.

For older bucks I always prefer to be at the tail end of the rut when majority of does have been bred. Beginning can be great as well...but it can also be very hot.

I would prefer to be there oct 28 to nov 20.

I see the same, but if the tail end of the rut is the 10th in one area, and the 25th in another... You can be sitting watching squirrels if you use that methodology everywhere you travel.

[JMAR85]

As far as patterns...I have never understood why after November 10th, motels in midwest start to empty out.

If I had one week to hunt the midwest it would not be before nov 10th I can promise you that.

That... Depends on where your at in the Midwest. Some places have rut earlier than that.

For older bucks I always prefer to be at the tail end of the rut when majority of does have been bred. Beginning can be great as well...but it can also be very hot.

I would prefer to be there oct 28 to nov 20.

I see the same, but if the tail end of the rut is the 10th in one area, and the 25th in another... You can be sitting watching squirrels if you use that methodology everywhere you travel.

I've hunted public Ohio the past couple years the 2nd week of October. I've been kicking around the idea of going the 3rd week this year. Any thoughts?

[mainebowhunter]

As far as patterns...I have never understood why after November 10th, motels in midwest start to empty out.

If I had one week to hunt the midwest it would not be before nov 10th I can promise you that.

That... Depends on where your at in the Midwest. Some places have rut earlier than that.

For older bucks I always prefer to be at the tail end of the rut when majority of does have been bred. Beginning can be great as well...but it can also be very hot.

I would prefer to be there oct 28 to nov 20.

I see the same, but if the tail end of the rut is the 10th in one area, and the 25th in another... You can be sitting watching squirrels if you use that methodology everywhere you travel.

I've hunted public Ohio the past couple years the 2nd week of October. I've been kicking around the idea of going the 3rd week this year. Any thoughts?

Depends on what your looking for. When I travel to hunt...I want to be there during the highest percentage of time for deer to be moving. I am concentrated on doe bedding during the rut.

Oct I am still conentrated on buck beds. Very end of oct can be very good when the first does start coming in for older age class deer.

[mainebowhunter]

As far as patterns...I have never understood why after November 10th, motels in midwest start to empty out.

If I had one week to hunt the midwest it would not be before nov 10th I can promise you that.

That... Depends on where your at in the Midwest. Some places have rut earlier than that.

Agreed. This year it was couple days earlier in the area we were hunting. Bigger bucks came off lockdown and started seeing them around the 11th or 12th.

One thing we have noticed is first of November can be very hot. First cold front during that time can be phenomenal.