Understanding the Summer to Fall Whitetail Shift

Written by Greg Kazmierski, Whitetail Partners

There is something undeniably captivating about spending an evening glassing summer bucks in a bean field. The sight of a mature buck, calmly feeding in the open during daylight hours builds anticipation and excitement for the upcoming hunting season. As summer presses on, spotting mature bucks in daylight becomes a common occurrence. However, as soon as the first hint of fall arrives, they seem to disappear completely, leaving many hunters puzzled trying to understand their sudden disappearance from the previously reliable food sources.

What is the Whitetail Shift?

The whitetail shift refers to the change in behavior and living areas of whitetail deer, especially mature bucks, as the seasons transition from summer to fall. This shift is influenced by several factors, including changing food sources, rising testosterone levels, and an increase in hunting pressure. These factors will determine not only when the shift may occur, but also how significant shifts can be.

For hunters, understanding the shift in your hunting area is crucial. Gaining perspective on when and where that mature buck you observed all summer is headed will allow you to make the necessary adjustments to your scouting and hunting setup to help lead to success this fall.

Where Do Deer Go in the Summer Months?

Summer patterns tend to be very consistent and are often predictable once you start paying closer attention. With the abundance of thick cover adjacent to the best food sources, core areas and home ranges tend to be relatively small when compared to the fall hunting season.

In the summer, whitetails spend a lot of time in feeding areas with green food sources such as crop fields filled with soybeans, lush summer food plots, or a fresh-cut powerline. With the main focus being placed on calorie intake, bucks tend to spend time in bachelor groups which can help them feel secure in an otherwise small and vulnerable home range.

summer buck travel

Where Do Deer Go in Hunting Season?

Early fall can be a challenging time to locate whitetail deer. Most bucks have vanished from their summer core area and are nowhere to be found. To relocate or predict where they may have gone, there are a few key points to understand.

As the previously green food source begins to dry up, it's time to shift your focus to where their new food preferences. One of my favorite food sources to target while hunting early season whitetails is acorns, particularly white oak acorns. There is a short window of time near the end of September and early October when these white oak trees produce fresh acorns, which are often a favorite for a mature buck once they leave the open fields behind.

The cool fall air will also introduce the first signs of the breeding season. The bachelor group you watched all summer will start to break up as the more dominant buck will begin to establish his presence with the local doe groups, pushing the more submissive bucks out of the area. This breakup leads to increased movement and changes in deer behavior, making them more elusive.

Hunting pressure impacting the fall shift can come in the form of high-impact scouting or time in the tree stand depending on when your hunting season opens. Hunters will often make adjustments to their trail cameras once their pictures begin to dry up. As you begin to disturb the previously unpressured food source, the deer herd will begin to make adjustments to avoid unwanted run-ins with humans.

How Far Do Mature Bucks Move from Summer to Fall?

Advancements in technology, such as GPS tracking collars, have greatly improved our understanding of mature buck movement. The distance bucks travel during the shift from summer to fall can vary widely based on several factors like the ones covered in the previous section.

Home Range vs. Core Area

Home Range: The home range of a buck is the entire area he spends any amount of time eating, sleeping, or traveling. Home ranges can vary in size from a few hundred to several thousand acres depending on things such as food availability, habitat quality, and deer density. The size and/or location of a home range can also change based on the season.
Core Area: Within its home range, a buck has a core area, which is a specific portion where it spends the majority of its time. This area is much smaller than the home range, typically ranging from 50 to 200 acres. The core area includes preferred bedding sites, feeding locations, and travel routes. Bucks are more predictable within this core area, often returning to the same spots regularly. Like the home range, the core area can also shift with the seasons. For instance, a buck might center its core area around a secluded soybean field during the summer and then move closer to a white oak tree as fall approaches and acorns become a key food source.

Understanding these concepts helps explain how and why mature bucks may move significant distances from their summer to fall ranges. By recognizing the factors that influence these movements and the patterns within a buck's home range and core area, hunters can better predict where to find bucks during the hunting season.

whitetail range

Using the Whitetail Shift to Plan Your Early Season Deer Hunting

Understanding the shift made by whitetail deer from summer to fall can help you put together a solid game plan for better deer hunting. Here are a few ways you can leverage this knowledge:

Scouting: Knowing that big bucks will begin to shift away from summer food sources, spend some time figuring out where they may be headed next. Whether you are e-scouting or plan on putting boots on the ground, try to locate where a buck may head once the change begins.

Target Key Food Sources: White oak acorns and other mast crops become highly desired food once hunting season arrives. Knowing the location of these areas and effective ways to hunt them will put you in position A.

Monitor Hunting Pressure: We wait most of the year to spend time in the tree stand and often get overly anxious about hunting are best stand location too soon. With predictable movement patterns, limiting the amount of hunting pressure in a buck's core will increase your chances of success when the perfect conditions arrive.

Be Flexible: The shift can be unpredictable, so never get set on what you think is going to happen. If your initial strategy isn't panning out, cross it off the list and move on to plans B, C, or D.