About this time every year, we start seeing more and more hunters shooting their archery equipment. Early practice helps with many things come Oct. 1, but most importantly it keeps your confidence up and in check.

Thousands of bucks each season fall during the first few days of archery season to hunters every year. Why is this?

Whether you connect or not each season can be determined by the lower odds of luck or the higher odds of a strategically defined plan of attack. Over the next two weeks, we are going to look over a handful of techniques, tips and sometimes tricks for archers that can be used during the first part of the bow season.

Although there is a way to effectively hunt a bow season during any time of the year, earlier is typically better to a point. When I can actually prioritize the time, I like to set my stands so that the signs of clear shooting lanes are brown, crisp and dead by the time I hunt. That typically means an Aug. 1 cut-off for hunters in our part of whitetail country. By the time a mature buck moves into his preferred fall habitat closer to Oct. 1, he shouldn’t be able to tell if the changes to the area were completed during late winter, or mid-summer. As long as the cut limbs and brush have completely died, it will all look the same to a mature fall giant.

You will hear me say this many times: practice is more important than any time one can spend planting plots, installing tree stands, setting game cameras or cutting habitat improvements. My shooting time never took a back seat. It’s a slow progression, but eventually your shooting skills will begin to suffer. Shooting early and often will not only make sure your muscles are in shape, but it will give you time to work on any inconsistencies in shooting form or symptoms of target panic.

In order to consistently connect on a mature buck during the early season you have to know exactly where he beds during the day, feeds at night, and how he gets there and back. Recognizing the natural lay of the land and both quality feeding and bedding areas is the first step, but there are also ways to increase your odds. Know where and when they move and why they move at a given time. Use of these patterns for the buck or bucks you are hunting have been established early on. Use them often and consistently throughout the entire hunting season. If the local deer herd can smell you, hear you or see you while you access your early bow season stands, then it will be nearly impossible to run into a mature buck. Improving the habitat in areas that you do not expect to access during hunting season is an important practice, but so is making sure that your access trails are clutter free and quiet. Your goal should be to get in and out of your hunting stands while leaving as little hunting pressure behind as possible.

If it creaks, tings, pops or squeaks I suggest you fix it or get rid of it. Your stand location should be the closest you get to spooking any deer. When you make a successful stalk to your stand, the last thing you want to do is announce to the woods that you have arrived. Is a climber appropriate for these conditions? I think so, as long as the access is quiet, limbs are pre-cut and your climb is dead quiet.

When you get the entire movement figured out, you have enhanced the movement and entered your stand with the prowess of an elusive wild turkey. Know and understand where your scent is blowing. Scent control starts with your stand location. During an early bow season hunt you often have to allow many deer to pass before a buck travels by, so it is vital that you can blow your scent into a non-deer area. Some favorite areas are steep terrain features, waterways, roads, open fields and mature, open forests for monster early season bucks.

If you are like most of us, killing a monster buck is a lifelong dream and for many a multi-season quest. This quest comes with many more downs than it does comes with ups. There are dozens of pieces to the puzzle for tagging a mature whitetail.

Next week we will go over ideas for trail camera use, tree stands, food sources and much more.