Post rut late season

[Rob loper]

Any insight on post rut and late season? Where setups should be focused on
Bedding areas
Food sources?
Cause my main morning hunting is done most bucks back in beds before first light ive been hearing
Hunt beds as close as you can?

[vtbuck]

You still get some rut activity from unbred does coming back into estrus and fawns coming into estrus. I get a fair amount of bucks dogging on camera the middle of December through the beginning of January.
As for other options, big bucks after rut and gun season are usually nocturnal for awhile so you’ve got to get close to where they are bedding or find a food source that they’re consistently hitting in daylight such as a picked corn field, standing soybeans, winter wheat, etc...
Hunting cold fronts can be huge. I personally feel the colder it is the better your odds at seeing a mature buck late season. They’re run down physically from the rut and need to feed to maintain the little body fat they have to survive winter.
Just my observations and opinions. Hope they help.

[Rob loper]

You still get some rut activity from unbred does coming back into estrus and fawns coming into estrus. I get a fair amount of bucks dogging on camera the middle of December through the beginning of January.
As for other options, big bucks after rut and gun season are usually nocturnal for awhile so you’ve got to get close to where they are bedding or find a food source that they’re consistently hitting in daylight such as a picked corn field, standing soybeans, winter wheat, etc...
Hunting cold fronts can be huge. I personally feel the colder it is the better your odds at seeing a mature buck late season. They’re run down physically from the rut and need to feed to maintain the little body fat they
have to survive winter.
Just my observations and opinions. Hope they help.

Thanks man will do

[Stanley]

Late season means; less cover, bucks aren't tied up with does, bucks are more patternable again, bucks and beds are easier to hunt again, bucks and food sources are a good bet. What's not to like?

[jpsmith270]

This is exactly the question I was getting ready to post. Thanks lopedog!

So....are the bucks basically going back to some of there early season ways (prior to the rut)? I am assuming bedding will change throughout the year due to food, rut, pressure, and now probably a different food source and cover at this time of the year.

How often are you all picking up these bucks in the same areas they were prior to the rut? I know that's probably a loaded question.

Hopefully I am asking this right.

[vtbuck]

A lot of the bucks I see or get on camera are coming from places I do not have access to, other private. Or they’re coming from a swamp that’s impenetrable. There aren’t any ag fields east of where I hunt for about 3 miles so does and bucks are traveling good distances to get to these fields. Most of the mature bucks seen or on camera are last light or well after dark. You’ve gotta get close to where they’re bedding. By me also, all the corn is off already and the fields are plowed under so that tends to eliminate that food source to a degree.
Hope this helps a little. A lot of guys in here with more late season bedding experience than me who can offer better insight into that.

[jpsmith270]

A lot of the bucks I see or get on camera are coming from places I do not have access to, other private. Or they’re coming from a swamp that’s impenetrable. There aren’t any ag fields east of where I hunt for about 3 miles so does and bucks are traveling good distances to get to these fields. Most of the mature bucks seen or on camera are last light or well after dark. You’ve gotta get close to where they’re bedding. By me also, all the corn is off already and the fields are plowed under so that tends to eliminate that food source to a degree.
Hope this helps a little. A lot of guys in here with more late season bedding experience than me who can offer better insight into that.

Another thing that I am struggling with is determining the late season food source they are using. We have a lot of honeysuckle in the areas that I hunt and I know they are hitting that and I assume any acorns that are left over as well.

[Swamp_donkey]

A lot of the bucks I see or get on camera are coming from places I do not have access to, other private. Or they’re coming from a swamp that’s impenetrable. There aren’t any ag fields east of where I hunt for about 3 miles so does and bucks are traveling good distances to get to these fields. Most of the mature bucks seen or on camera are last light or well after dark. You’ve gotta get close to where they’re bedding. By me also, all the corn is off already and the fields are plowed under so that tends to eliminate that food source to a degree.
Hope this helps a little. A lot of guys in here with more late season bedding experience than me who can offer better insight into that.

Another thing that I am struggling with is determining the late season food source they are using. We have a lot of honeysuckle in the areas that I hunt and I know they are hitting that and I assume any acorns that are left over as well.

If there is ag fields around beans, corn, pumpkin that are standing are hard to beat and they'll likely hammer that.

They'll eat all manner of stuff in the woods and I'm sure it varies based on location, from browsing on tree and shrub budding to eating dried up old leaves, grasses, mast crops. Acorns are great if theyre still around, areas like cutovers with accessible deciduous tree buds (particularly maples, sumac, basswood, elderberry and many more), cedar thickets and swamps, same with dogwood, old apple orchards with leftover fruit around. I don't have a lot of experience hunting around honeysuckle however.

I have found late season deer to graze around a lot in transition and staging areas before entering fields to really chow down on the high calorie food such as corn. Where that's not available look for areas of heavy mast drop remaining or dense browsing areas.

[vtbuck]

If you find newer clear cuts with the tops left deer will be in a there feeding. I’ve seen it where 20+ deer were in at one time feeding in the freshly cut tops. It seemed they preferred the tops over corn and soybeans.

[jpsmith270]

Everything that I am hunting is big woods with massive areas of hardwoods. Everything else is mature pines with mixed undergrowth and creek bottoms that mainly contain really thick Rivercane (like bamboo). I guess I just struggle to find concentrated feeding.

[Hatchetman]

Any insight on post rut and late season? Where setups should be focused on
Bedding areas
Food sources?
Cause my main morning hunting is done most bucks back in beds before first light ive been hearing
Hunt beds as close as you can?

I have no idea what kind of area you hunt, but in farm country where I hunt its small hills with a good mix of hardwood and swamp.
I have found that late season bowhunting in the mornings can provide good opportunties. I believe a lot of assumptions are made that it isn't because very few people do it.
Morning hunting in general, especially on public, sees less pressure in mornings vs evenings IMO.
Now take in the snow, the cold, and just the normal hunter burnout that occurs in late season and you'll have mornings pretty much to yourself.
I've found you can get set up right in thick bedding areas before light and beat deer back in.

A few things to consider however...

Deer mix it up quite a bit with bedding and weather plays a major roll now. Pick days that are overcast and windy so you can make your ambush set up in the swamp or thick low area bedding.
Clear sunny days will promote deer to bed on hardwood slopes to soak up sun. Trying to make a morning bedding set up like this in now open hardwoods is tough as the deer will be generally within 150 yds, of bedding that 1/2 hr 45 min. before shooting light. The main reason you can beat them to bedding this time of year is for some reason, they seem to be in no hurry to actually be at their bed and be laying in it at first light. They tend to really dawdle around those last 100 yds or so making it sometimes an or more after shooting light before they are actually laying down.

A general rule too is the farther the food source from the bedding the better this works along with the later in the season as deer calm down much more.

No big late season killer here, just a few observations.

[vtbuck]

The colder the better, IMO. Single digits or below in my neck of the woods can be amazing for deer going to food in the evening.