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By Zach Azar

Bowhunting whitetails during the warm and buggy early days of the season is a challenge. Temperatures are usually warm enough to send beads of sweat rolling down your back and swarming, buzzing mosquitoes can make staying motionless on stand virtually impossible.

Another problem is that deer are mostly nocturnal, with their daylight movements limited to very early and very late in the day. Hunting conditions are tough, but the incentive is the chance to hunt unmolested deer moving in predictable patterns. 

Bucks will be traveling together in relative tranquility, does will be with their fawns and the search for food and water will motivate deer to move around. And because bow season is the first deer season to open, hunting pressure has been nonexistent since the previous year. Here’s a look at some tips for making the most of the early season.

Bow season comes in on Oct. 15. Part of central Alabama is in Zone A, which includes counties north of Interstate Highway 85 and north of U.S. Highway 80. Zone B is made up of counties south of these lines. Go to www.outdooralabama.com to see the exact location of these two zones. 

Knowing how to pattern early-season deer movements is the key to success. The trick is figuring out where deer are bedding during the daylight hours. If you’re hunting in a place with high ridges, a buck will likely bed on top where he can see everything coming. Anywhere else, It’s going to be in the heaviest cover around.

Once I have located the bedding areas, the next step is to locate the trails leading to the food sources. Deer will hit the first acorns that drop, but if you have persimmon trees on your property, key in on these. I have several persimmon trees located on my hunting land, and I check them for fruit with binoculars in early September. I hang several stands so that I can hunt these trees regardless of wind direction. They’re at their sweetest in late October and deer will pound them really hard because they’re not around very long. 

A deer may visit a persimmon tree two or three times a day to see if anything else has fallen off, especially on a windy day. I’ll leave my stands hanging until the last persimmon falls off. 

After I have determined the feeding areas, I try to pick out spots where I can find several trails merging together after leaving the bedding area… as long as they’re not too close to the bedding area. Also, I like to hunt trails where all the tracks are going in one direction, rather than in both directions. You can set up in a place like that and increase your odds because you know they’re coming from a certain area.

It’s no secret that the whitetail’s greatest defense mechanism is its nose. When I choose an area to hunt, I always pick multiple trees for my stands, so I can hunt effectively no matter which direction the wind is blowing. Remember, you want to always be downwind of where you expect the deer to come from. If a deer gets one whiff of you, they’re gone.

Silence is critical when bowhunting. I once heard a guy say, “Bowhunt long enough, and you’ll swear deer can hear you change your mind.” Have an arrow fall off your bow’s rest and hit the riser or shift your weight on your tree stand so that it squeaks, and you’re likely to send any nearby deer high tailing it out of the area. 

Sitting still is equally important. With mosquitoes being very active during bow season, I consider the Thermocell mosquito repellent device a vital piece of equipment for me, and I cannot imagine bowhunting without it. A Thermocell keeps the bugs away completely… so much so that you can listen more effectively for approaching game without the nagging sound of mosquitoes swarming around your head. 

Lastly, the most critical piece of equipment for bowhunters is a rangefinder. I like to use my range finder to mark objects around my stand, long before any deer show up. I’ll range trees, bushes and stumps out to 40 yards. That way, when a deer walks in front of one of my ranged objects, I’ll know exactly how far away it is.

Gun season comes in on Nov. 23. Until then, have a successful bow season and be safe in the woods. Always wear a safety harness when hunting from an elevated stand, be sure of your target at all times and if you are going to hunt alone, let someone know when to expect you back. If you get the opportunity, introduce someone to hunting this fall.

Zack Azar is a retired businessman and columnist who spent many years volunteering in a high school press box. He wrote monthly columns for the Alabama Gazette for seven years and has four grandchildren involved in sports at Lowndes Academy.