Pre rut by far for me.
Rut is the worst time to hunt. You might get lucky and find the hot doe with a few bucks around her, but they are so scattered and tend to hole up.
Pre rut is when the bucks run all over the place looking, but no does ready and thats by far the best coverage of movement.
I always laugh when all of a sudden the sightings go down and some of the guys say, hmmm rut is over... yeah, not, rut is full swing right now.... when you see em again its going to be post rut movement....
RE thinking with peckers, though the MOST reliable is pre, pre rut when they are summer plan, and not even thinking of does, just doing their daily routine, about the same time/places every day....
That fails about the first week or so of bowseason here. Its when everything I've watched all summer long, who goes here, there, what times, taht was written in stone most of the summer, goes out the window. Bucks go away not to be seen sometimes ever again, and sometimes you catch a glimpse now and then. Or they finally show up 2-3 months later coming back "home"
I've had a couple of big 8 points over the years, that I would have liked to shoot, just go away less than 5 days from opener, never to be seen until after season if then....
