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Pre rut for blacktails may present a little different in different geographic areas as well as the timing being different. The pre rut usually starts in my area mid October and the rut peaks early Nov. The deer I hunt are lowland deer and many live their lives in a 1-2 square mile area. What I am seeing is bucks I hardly ever see getting more active (mostly nocturnally) and pushing non receptive does around a bit. They are generally being more active with a few smaller bucks even showing in daylight hours. This to me is indicative of pre rut. I have tried rattling and grunting in the past with little or no success. I think because of the small greenbelts the deer in my area use, aggressive grunting and rattling is not an effective tool. Light rattling and grunting seems to work a bit but I am not convinced it is needed. My main technique is to find the travel paths of the does and set treestands and ground blinds accordingly. I prospect and use game cams to confirm areas are frequented by does. I then spend as many hours in the blinds/stands as possible, mostly the first couple hours in AM and last few hours in PM. I do spend longer periods at these areas if the weather is stormy. Game cams dictate which blind/stand I use on any particular day. It is a game of patience waiting for a good one to show during shooting light. I could shoot a buck most every year but mostly pass on the younger bucks waiting for a good mature buck. I seem to shoot a good blacktail buck every 2-3 years and eat my tag other years. I took me years to be able to have the proper patience reauired to consistently kill these blacktails, as I have mostly been a spot and stalk hunter in my career.
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