By now, a buck's mindset has changed from looking for love to looking for food. For that reason, successful late-season deer hunters change their tactics from locating does to locating food sources and being near them at sunrise and sunset. When looking for late-season feeding areas, hunters have three options: natural browse, planted food plots, and electric or gravity feeders.

Of the three types of food available, natural browse is the hardest to locate but offers the greatest reward to hunters exerting the effort. The first step to finding natural food sources is to sacrifice a little time in your deer stand and dedicate it to mid-season scouting. Typically, hunters think of deer as creatures of habit -- which, for the most part, they are. However, as the season progresses and food sources change, deer are forced to follow their stomachs.

Set up near the feeding areas at first and last light; then, still-hunt the bedding areas at midday. Remember: The season's almost over -- this is no time to be timid.

The bucks you patterned feeding in a hay meadow or oak thicket at the end of October will have switched to another food source by December. To find these new areas, get out of your stand and follow the well-traveled deer trails you have been guarding all season long. On one end of the trail you should find a bedding area and, at the other, a feeding area. Set up near the feeding areas at first and last light; then, still-hunt the bedding areas at midday. Remember: The season's almost over -- this is no time to be timid.

"In East Texas there is often the misconception that everything that is green is deer food," commented Texas Parks and Wildlife Department biologist Stephen Lange, "but that is not the case. Deer are an edge species, and first-choice deer forage is found in secondary succession areas such as young clearcuts, burn areas, or old pastures. Early-winter forages include American beautyberry, honeysuckle, greenbrier, strawberry bush, water oak, and elm. Deer even utilize sumac, poison oak, and yaupon."

Find a patch of any of these types of plants, and you've just located the ideal place for hanging a late-season stand. If you can't locate any natural forage areas on your lease, all's not lost: It's possible to create them. "Good deer forage can be produced by mowing and disking in early-to-mid fall along pasture edges, fencelines, shooting lanes, and powerline right of ways," remarked Lange.