Grabbing my bow, backpack and freelance pack I set off through the public land timber to a patch of white oaks I’d hunted the previous season. To my disappointment none of the oaks had acorns, the two scrapes from the previous season were inactive, there were no nearby rubs and the heavily used runways from the previous season were barely noticeable.
It was late October and the mature bucks were beginning to break their nocturnal habits in search of early estrus does and because of that it was the first time in my hunting career that I had to improvise and search for a location offering doe traffic and henceforth, visual buck sign.
The breeding season concept in this big woods area was simple; find a white or red oak with acorns or other preferred browse which attracts does and that female traffic would attract the males.
After about a quarter mile walk I came across a large sprawling white oak. The ground was littered with acorn hulls, deer droppings and it was bordered by a cut-over consisting of dense eight foot tall poplar saplings with fresh rubs along its edge. There were also several well-used runways that fed into the feeding location.
About 10 feet from the oaks trunk the lowest branch hung low enough for me to jump up and grab. I pulled myself up onto it
