| Sometime from mid September through the third week in September the Kansas Bur Oaks will drop their acorns. This signals the first of the summer to fall Kansas deer pattern change. Once the acorns start to drop and they take more than two weeks to do so, the deer will move from the soybean fields to the acorns. This brings the next deer scouting point of combining a soybean field, with brush edge, with water to that of a stand of Bur Oaks, and Kansas has plenty of Bur Oaks to be found. Aerials will then make finding the deer isolation area factor through examining neighboring farms as well as the deer hunting lease itself easy. The acorns then transcend to the early phases of the rut as by the last weekend in September it is very common to find rubs. These are true rut rubs as by early September the velvet has been rubbed off. Once the rut kicks in the bachelor deer groups break apart and the entire deer pattern changes and does so typically not later than the earliest part of October. A secondary effect of this discussion relative to Kansas' September muzzleloader deer season is that the self guided deer hunter hunts best by deer food and not deer stand. Many that travel to deer hunt execute a deer scout/hunt combination of being on a deferent deer lease each morning and afternoon of the first part of the deer hunt slow walking/deer scouting each until finding a bachelor group. Only after finding first a bachelor group of bucks and then a group that has a wall hanger does the stand and deer hunting enter the picture. Bringing out the deer stand is a means by which to gain first standoff and then shot opportunity of interdicting the bachelor group movement. That daily movement will be habitat driven by feeding, loafing and watering schedule rather than breeding driven movement as during the rut. Deer hunting experience and deer hunter discussions through years of deer seasons culminated in these types of deer hunting observations. Similar to Kansas September deer hunting is the Iowa January muzzleloader season in regards the deer stand as a secondary technique. The post rut January Iowa deer season is another example of non-breeding season deer hunting. Deer patterns return to that of survival centered on food first and cover habitat second and all the more so on the hard cold winters. The Iowa January deer hunter also does walk for his deer first seeking out isolated food and cover combinations with less concern for water and more for avoidance of human encroachment. These deer have survived the fall archery, shotgun and earlier muzzleloader season and are hunter sensitive. Just as in the big open in Kansas this late Iowa season's greatest hunter asset is patients and a slow walk with a good eye for whitetail detection through binoculars peering into deep cover. A tough hunt that many do not have patients for. It is common to hear hunter stories from this season where the hunter fatigued by a couple of early mornings and all day walks to drop his guard and recognizing so only when he sees a trophy whitetail running away.
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