October is still summer here. "Pre-rut" is actually "the rut". As the first few does start coming in heat, frustrated bucks are moving around a lot, looking, scraping, and chasing does that aren't ready. When the rut peaks around three weeks later, about 30% of your does will be in heat at the same time. IMHO, the bucks are harder to kill at that point, because they either have a doe on lockdown in a thicket or they're running so hard that you can't stop them.
Really mature bucks don't get stupid during the rut, but it is still the best time to get lucky, as this is when all of the activity in deer places tends to displace them.
