While I’ve been blessed to travel North America in search of big whitetails, I live and hunt mostly in Kentucky.

But, growing up, I didn’t have enough access to let properties soak until gun season. I only had one or two places to go, and I wanted to hunt. I’m more avid about bowhunting than gun hunting anyway. So, it just never made sense to not hunt at the earliest opportunity. Then, in 2015, I started leasing another property, which gave me additional access here at home. Since then, except for a few seasons, the practice has been to leave the property unhunted until rifle season in November. My anecdotal theory is that whitetails will get pressured by neighboring bowhunters, which will push deer onto the lease, ultimately “stacking” deer onto it for gun season. Furthermore, if I or another lease member happen to pressure a mature deer once gun season opens, it’s less likely to vacate the area given that the rut is already in motion. Interestingly, studies show bucks are less likely to relocate or make significant changes to their home ranges and core areas this late in the game. And it makes sense because if they uproot, they must go somewhere new, which means re-sorting the pecking order. Most bucks don’t want to do that. In fact, most studies show whitetails are quite loyal to their core areas, even if low to moderate hunting pressure is present.