For many hunters across the whitetail’s range, the rut represents the best time to be in the deer woods and provides the best opportunity all season to fill a tag on a mature buck. Buck movement is increasing, new deer are showing up on trail-cameras, and the woods feel magical as you never know what may cruise by your stand. Despite the magical time when we’re focused on hunting the rut, small mistakes and slow sits can make it surprisingly easy to fall into a rut – pun intended – of our own.
Maybe your target buck is only showing up on your trail-camera under the cover of darkness. Maybe you’ve sat the same stand several times in a row without seeing so much as a fox squirrel. Or maybe it’s something as small but frustrating as leaving your release in the truck or forgetting to pack your Little Debbie snack cakes for that all-day hunt. Regardless of the specific reason, little mistakes or slow sits can quickly add up, and when they do, it becomes easy to fall into the age-old “deer depression” trap.
If you find yourself falling into a rut of your own when you should be enjoying a “rutcation” in the deer woods, it may be time to rethink your approach and call an audible to save your season. Here are three audibles you can call this fall to hopefully help you wrap your tag around your target buck. I even used them last season to break the ice during the 2024-25 deer season and wrap my tag around my largest archery buck to date.
Check-Check! Change Stands!
It’s easy to fall into a rut and keep hunting the same stand over and over, especially if it has produced in the past or if you have trial-camera pictures of your target buck in the area. You may think, “If I just keep sitting here, eventually he’ll show up.” But a few slow sits later and you are left feeling defeated and burnt out.
As the mystery novelist Rita Mae Brown wrote in her 1983 book Sudden Death, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” Many hunters, whether they intend to or not, are guilty of falling into this pattern of “insanity” every season. We overhunt our favorite stands while ignoring other locations that may actually offer a better opportunity for success.
If you’re not seeing deer where you think you should be, don’t jump to the conclusion that they’re not there. Deer movement is a mystery that we haven’t been able to solve. Patterns change, food sources shift as agricultural crops decline and acorns drop, the rut comes and goes, and cover changes throughout the season. Hunting pressure, from yourself or those on neighboring properties, also affects how and when deer use an area.
Calling an audible and deciding to hunt a new stand location can put you back in the game in a location where deer are actually moving today, not where they moved last year or at the beginning of the season.
Sometimes the first step toward tagging a mature buck is changing where you sit.
Re-route!
One of the most overlooked factors in deer hunting success is how you access your stand. Deer are often better at patterning our movements than we are at patterning them, and even when we try to be careful, we still leave scent, make noise, and leave evidence of our presence in the woods. Deer detect these cues long after we’re gone, and they adjust their movements to avoid where we have been.
If you’re not seeing deer where you know they should be, this may be a sign that the deer may be detecting your entry before you ever get into the stand. Maybe they’re catching your ground scent along a trail. Maybe they’re watching you cross an open field. Or maybe they’re simply hearing you crunch through oak leaves in the dark. Whatever the cause, the solution is the same: call an audible and change your access route.
Sometimes, even a small adjustment makes a big difference. Changing your access route by even a few yards to avoid walking through a wide-open field, slipping in along a creek bottom to reduce noise and scent, or entering from the downwind side of a ridge can dramatically increase your chances of success.
Sometimes the key to filling a tag this fall is not just about where you sit. It’s also how you get in and out of there.
Cross the Wind, Tag the Buck!
Deer have an amazing sense of smell. In hunting terms, that boils down to one simple rule of thumb: If a buck gets downwind of you, he will smell you. And when that happens, the hunt is almost always over. Deer have the advantage here, which is why understanding and hunting the wind is one of the most important strategies we have whenever we head into the woods.
Unfortunately, like most things in deer hunting, hunting the wind is not quite as simple as saying “I need my scent to go toward the south because I’m expecting the deer to be coming from the north.” Although that is certainly a great start, it gets a little more complicated than that, especially if you are hunting a mature buck.
Along with keeping your scent away from deer, it’s important to understand how deer themselves use the wind. Deer will often approach food sources or bedding cover with the wind in their face or quartering across their path. This allows them to smell what lies ahead. Though there are certainly exceptions to every rule, it’s a common tendency, especially among mature bucks during the rut.
So, the question becomes: if a buck wants the wind advantage, how can we keep it in our favor as well? This is where hunting a cross wind comes into play. By positioning yourself so the prevailing wind is almost in the buck’s favor, but not enough to alert him to your presence in the woods, you can give the buck the illusion of confidence in his nose while remaining undetected. In this setup, the deer feels safe, and you keep the advantage.
When the reward is a freezer full of venison and a trip to the taxidermist, taking a risk to hunt with a cross wind is often worth it. Look for those locations where you can get away with a crosswind setup and give it a shot. Sometimes the wind doesn’t need to be “perfect” to hunt a particular stand. Who knows, if you’re like me, you may find this adjustment to be just what you need to punch your tag this season.
Another Lesson Learned During this Past Season
Though the 2024-25 deer season turned out to be one of my most memorable ones in recent years in northern Missouri, it certainly didn’t start out that way. In fact, the first few weeks were a reminder that even when you think you have it all figured out, the deer woods have a funny way of humbling you.
My opening sit was hot. I sat in an enclosed blind, drenched in sweat, and never saw a single deer. From there, things didn’t get much better. My historically productive stands were not paying dividends, my target buck was consistently one step ahead of me, and deer sightings in general were few and far between. And when I finally did have a mature doe work within range, I rushed the shot and watched as my arrow sailed over her back.
My freezer remained empty, and I was quickly becoming frustrated and falling into the age-old “deer depression” trap. Fortunately for me and unfortunately for the deer, there’s one thing I have never been good at: giving up. With my favorite stands not producing, I decided to call a last-minute audible and dive into a spot I had never hunted before; a small quarter-acre brassica food plot we had carved out and planted for the first time a few short months before. Though I knew the prevailing north wind would be risky, I decided to slip into the stand anyway using an old county road that we rarely use for access to keep my ground scent and noise to a minimum.
Calling that audible on my drive to our hunting property was the turning point in my season.
That evening, I watched 15 different bucks and a dozen does and fawns filter into the food plot. For the first time that evening, I laid eyes on my target buck, but he stayed just outside of my comfortable bow range. Though I didn’t fill a tag on that sit, I had renewed hope and excitement for the season.
Finally, a week later and 39 days into the season, I eased back into the same stand under similar conditions. This time, he did not stay outside of bow range, and I was able to wrap my first tag of the 2024-25 deer season around my largest archery buck to date. Though I did not make the shot that I had hoped and practiced making, a quick recovery the following day led to celebrations, a freezer full of venison, and an expensive (but much anticipated) visit to the taxidermist.
When the Situation Changes, So Should You
Deer hunting, especially when you’re pursuing one mature buck, is one of the most difficult challenges that mother nature has to offer. Deer movement is a mystery that we can’t solve. Food sources shift. Hunting pressure changes movement. Bucks adapt constantly to survive. If we want to be successful, we as hunters must adapt right along with them.
If your hunts feel stagnant, if deer aren’t showing where they “should” be, or if you feel yourself slipping into a rut, don’t be afraid to call an audible this fall. Sometimes the best hunts happen when you are willing to make an adjustment. When it all comes together, the freezer full of venison and visit to the taxidermist is worth every frustrating sit that came before it.