Early & Gun Season

Category: seasons-timing
Topic keys: early-season, gun-season

Current guidance

As of 2025-12-21, the most recent claim on this subject.

On early and gun seasons, Don and Terry describe approaches that shift year to year. Heading into gun season in 2024, Don said he would hunt it for the first time in decades, targeting only does rather than a trophy buck, and aimed to keep his property as undisturbed as possible so pressure from other hunters would push deer onto his land; he predicted that season’s gun opener would bring rut activity to a halt, noting it fell later than normal. Don separately recalls that gun hunters have gotten their best deer movement weekend later in November. Going into gun season in fall 2025, Terry planned to hunt willing to take his target buck with a .350 Legend, then pause hunting until around January, while Don noted that fall’s rut activity started unusually early, around November 1st.

How the guidance evolved

2019-09-24 Don says he really starts paying attention to a buck once it survives gun season as a three-and-a-half-year-old, since that age class is very vulnerable. 46:07 — Episode 1 - New Show Introduction and Don’s Unique Goal For 2019
2019-10-06 Don recommends focusing on green food sources like alfalfa or green food plots until a hard frost changes deer feeding patterns. 51:31 — Episode #2 - Update on Opening Week and Targeting Don’s First Booner of 2019
2019-11-24 Don’s decades-long gun season tradition is driving properties morning and evening to gauge hunting pressure and watch for trespassers. 4:54 — Episode #8 - Lock-down is about over. Great hunting the week of Thanksgiving
2019-12-01 Don notes Illinois’s second and final gun season runs Thursday through Sunday the following weekend, except for a later muzzleloader season. 5:06 — Episode #9 - Terry shoots his second buck of the year and Don scouts for 2020 Season
2019-12-13 Don reports that two specific bucks he hoped would survive Illinois’s firearm season are both still alive after gun season ended. 7:33 — Episode #10 - December Tips - Scouting for 2020 - Big Announcement from Real World
2019-12-13 Terry harvested his first buck in September, while a second target buck on his farm survived Kentucky’s gun season. 9:10 — Episode #10 - December Tips - Scouting for 2020 - Big Announcement from Real World
2020-06-15 Don recommended asking anyone who claims to reliably kill mature bucks out of state in early season to show proof of past kills on properties new to them. 64:32 — Episode #23 - Spring Plots, Trail Cam Test, and the first adversity of the 2020 season for Terry as he suffers serious injury
2020-09-08 Don says one of the better bucks he’s watched all summer shed his velvet before the end of August, confirmed clean in a picture taken August 28. 5:33 — Episode #29 - Don previews some HIT LIST and UP-AND-COMER bucks while Terry is chasing a good buck in KY
2022-04-25 Terry plowed a food plot in an old hayfield near the urban buck’s woods to create an easy early-season hunting spot. 17:50 — Episode #114 - FOOD PLOT SEASON IS HERE!!!!!
2022-09-05 Terry reports seeing roughly 24 does and fawns plus seven bucks in one evening hunting an alfalfa field before a storm rolled in. 2:44 — Episode #133 - Special Guest Mark Luster - Buck Forecast Part 2
2023-10-08 Don plans to skip Saturday morning of opening weekend and instead hunt evenings, since he prefers evening hunts early in the season. 2:24 — Episode #190 - Prep for Youth Season - Green Light on Babe
2023-11-19 Don noted Terry traveled from Kentucky for a couple days of bow hunting before Illinois gun season opens Friday. 1:14 — Episode #196 - Lock Down Breaking Loose as Weather Changes
2023-11-19 Terry mentioned that friend Chambers was out gun hunting in Nebraska as its season opened. 5:37 — Episode #196 - Lock Down Breaking Loose as Weather Changes
2023-11-19 Terry noted Illinois gun season opens Friday this week. 5:50 — Episode #196 - Lock Down Breaking Loose as Weather Changes
2024-09-08 Don said he will hunt gun season for the first time in decades this year, targeting only does rather than a trophy buck. 24:52 — Episode 238 - 2024 Buck Forecast - MORE GIANTS SHOT THIS YEAR
2024-11-10 Don tagged his target giant buck this year on just the fourth hunt of the season, unusually early. 18:36 — Episode #247 - Lockdown, Drone’s, and Deer Pimps
2024-11-10 Don notes Illinois gun season is later than normal this year, which he hopes means the rut will be mostly wound down by the time it starts. 67:30 — Episode #247 - Lockdown, Drone’s, and Deer Pimps
2024-11-17 Don plans to put as little pressure as possible on his property during gun season and let gun pressure push deer onto his land. 12:36 — Episode #248 - Big Buck Down! Wes Delks Joins Us to Discuss UHAUL
2024-11-17 Don predicts that gun season will bring rut activity to a screeching halt in Illinois this year. 13:17 — Episode #248 - Big Buck Down! Wes Delks Joins Us to Discuss UHAUL
2025-07-27 Terry recommends mixing leftover soybeans at about 15 pounds per acre into fall blends like Deadly Dozen or Dixie Dozen for massive early-season deer attraction. 21:40 — Episode #283 “Best Corn Ever? Don & Terry Reveal 2025 Plot Results + Fall Food Plot Timing Tips”
2025-11-23 Don recalls that gun hunters historically got the best deer movement weekend every year, always later in November. 4:37 — EPISODE 300! Don Changes His Mind on the Rut + Drone Debate Heats Up!
2025-11-23 Terry plans to hunt gun season willing to take his target buck with a .350 Legend, then pause hunting until around January. 14:07 — EPISODE 300! Don Changes His Mind on the Rut + Drone Debate Heats Up!
2025-12-21 Don said this fall’s rut activity started unusually early, right around November 1st instead of the usual mid-to-late November timing. 16:46 — When Managing Deer Means Saying NO to Giants | Chasing Giants Podcast #304

Contradictions & open questions

Places where the show’s advice on this subject appears to disagree with itself, either between speakers or over time. Both claims are shown as they were said, with dates. Nothing here is resolved — which one applies is the reader’s call, and the owners’.

Guidance may have changed: Don’s gun-season approach differs: driving the property to check pressure versus minimizing his own presence to avoid pushing deer off it.
- 2019-11-24 Don’s decades-long gun season tradition is driving properties morning and evening to gauge hunting pressure and watch for trespassers. 4:54 — Episode #8 - Lock-down is about over. Great hunting the week of Thanksgiving
- 2024-11-17 Don plans to put as little pressure as possible on his property during gun season and let gun pressure push deer onto his land. 12:36 — Episode #248 - Big Buck Down! Wes Delks Joins Us to Discuss UHAUL
Guidance may have changed: Timing of peak rut/deer movement differs: gun hunters’ best weekend always later in November versus rut activity starting around November 1st this fall.
- 2025-11-23 Don recalls that gun hunters historically got the best deer movement weekend every year, always later in November. 4:37 — EPISODE 300! Don Changes His Mind on the Rut + Drone Debate Heats Up!
- 2025-12-21 Don said this fall’s rut activity started unusually early, right around November 1st instead of the usual mid-to-late November timing. 16:46 — When Managing Deer Means Saying NO to Giants | Chasing Giants Podcast #304

Questions on this topic

Terry asks whether Don’s grandson Walker has a specific buck goal for gun season or is still ready to shoot anything. 23:48 — EPISODE 300! Don Changes His Mind on the Rut + Drone Debate Heats Up!
Should he hunt more in early season instead of waiting, after a target buck got killed on a neighbor’s property? 24:17 — Episode #108 - Mind Blowing Deer Management with Dr. Bronson Strickland
Taylor from Vermont asked what tactics work for locating and targeting a mature buck out of state during early season in a short amount of time. 61:11 — Episode #23 - Spring Plots, Trail Cam Test, and the first adversity of the 2020 season for Terry as he suffers serious injury
Terry asked Don to explain what made this buck so hard to kill beyond the small size of the properties. 25:07 — Episode #39 - SPECIAL EDITION - DON SHOOTS ANOTHER GIANT! 2 Bucks = 400”+ of Antler in 2020

Unofficial fan project. AI-synthesized from public episodes; may contain errors.