Deer Hunting Season Begins Now

Deer Hunting Season Begins Now

The Rolling Stones may have thought that time was on their side, but those of us in the work-a-day world know better. Those “endless summers” of our youth have been displaced by mad scrambles to keep home maintenance, lawn work and countless other tasks in check before our evenings and weekends are once again consumed with the hunt for big bucks.

Let’s face it — bow season is on the near horizon and you can’t start the preparations too soon. To give you a running leap and to help you avoid the, “Uh oh, I’m not ready syndrome,” we’ve compiled a list of to-dos that you should begin right now.

Seek New Hunting Ground

Wandering into unfamiliar territory with a bow in hand can certainly put meat in the freezer, if you have refined still-hunting skills or are lucky enough to find new land that is overrun with deer. Most of us, though, never enjoy that roll of the dice. We need time to scout, figure out the lay of the land, pattern deer and, most important of all, get access to fresh hunting land.

Photo courtesy Wildlife Research Center.

The latter is the real challenge. Thirty or 40 years ago, access to huntable properties was nowhere near as difficult as it is today. Changing culture and attitudes, litigation concerns and bad experiences have spurred many property owners to simply lock up their land to hunters. That is not to say that gaining access is impossible or that you must fork over hundreds of dollars to acquire trespass rights for hunting season.

If you want to try and make inroads with a property owner, right now is the time to do it, not a couple of weeks before hunting season. And the best way to do it is to offer your services and give them a chance to get to know you. It’s easy to say no to a stranger. It’s not so easy for someone you have become familiar with or who has given you their time and labor.

Many landowners with huntable property are not farmers. They may have a chunk of property that they inherited or bought with no real plans or expectations of using it for commercial gain. At the least, that means that they have fences that probably need tending to or property lines that need cleared of weeds, briars and other undesirables. Maybe they could use some help in cleaning out an old barn or drainage ditch. The possibilities are many. The point is, many landowners are on the side of life where they don’t have the time, energy or desire to properly maintain what they have. An offer of labor in return for hunting rights is often more appealing than forking over cash. Plus, they get to know you on a personal level outside of the hunting arena.

It used to be that an offer to help bale hay in the summer was enough to get permission to hunt land in the fall. The decline of square bailing in favor of the more mechanized round bailing has practically eliminated that opportunity for many hunters seeking to trade sweat for a good treestand location. Now it’s time to think of new strategies—one of which could be varmint control. With coyote populations continuing to rise, you can offer to take out a few of the rascals, or even clear out the resident groundhogs.

New Tricks for Public Lands

We all know the drill when it comes to public land hunting: go farther and harder than the next person. It’s sound advice on the surface. The problem is, most public land hunters already know this, and many are doing it—enough so that those secret, remote corners of public land really aren’t so secret anymore.

What you need is a fresh strategy. It might take a season or two to really get it ironed out, but if public land hunting is your destiny, there’s no better time to start.

Begin with topographical maps or spend some time on Google Earth (a free download) and get a feel for the country. Note the access points, major trails and closed-off roads that hunters take to access the property. Consider the terrain as well. Where are the deep coves, the swamps, pinch points, funnels, drainages and the adjacent private property?

Once you have identified these key areas on a paper map or logged them into your Google Earth app, spend some time this summer checking out those areas if you are not already familiar with them. What you are looking for (if you don’t already know it) is evidence of how other hunters move through the area and where they likely place their stands. Knowing this tells you the areas where deer are most likely to either avoid, or to flee from when the season rolls around.

With this on-the-ground observation combined with your mapping notes, you may find the whitetail escape routes and hideouts where other hunters rarely visit or expect to find deer. Look for thickets adjacent to the hunter travel routes—places that look like good refuges for deer but that hunters probably would never think to set up shop because they are too difficult to get to, or too close to the road or parking area or whatever.

This thought process can apply throughout a public hunting area. Where the natural tendency of most hunters would be to head for the most remote area, there’s a darn good chance that a bird’s-eye view may reveal quality areas that hunters typically pass by, or wouldn’t think of trying because they are too close to or just too inconvenient to bother with. Some map work and a little on-the-scene investigating is our suggestion for this time of year.

Make a Checklist

We’re all guilty of it—putting off buying new gear or replacing worn or broken equipment until right before the season. That’s not the best practice, of course, because everyone else is in that same boat and pickings are sometimes slim.

Arrows and broadheads are the most important “get-them-early items.” With our bows set up to shoot specific projectiles, discovering at the last minute that the archery shop is out of what you need could mean buying something else and having to start the whole test-and-tune process all over again when there’s no time to waste.

Should you be planning on a new or replacement treestand, you would be well advised to buy those earlier than later, as well. That’s because it’s always a good idea to give such equipment a test run to become familiar with the stand, learn any quirks to setting it up, and to make sure that it’s going to work as expected.

Ditto for your deer scents. Many premium scents, such as Special Golden Estrus, that rely on freshness dating to ensure maximum effectiveness for each hunting season, may not be restocked by your retailer after their fall shipment is gone. Get yours early and keep it in the refrigerator until hunting season begins.

Get Out the Cameras

Scouting is an ongoing endeavor for the dedicated bowhunter. We all understand that whitetail patterns can change from week to week, even within a few days, as food sources come and go. That does not negate the need for more generalized scouting and inventorying of resident deer beginning in early summer. A great way to do this, of course, is with trail cameras.

Photo courtesy Wildlife Research Center

At this time of year, setting up your cameras around known and established travel routes and bedding areas will yield the best results. Doing so will give you the best chance of recording the maximum amount of deer that are frequenting a specific area. From this you can begin to zero in on the bucks that capture your interest. It will be awhile before their antlers are fully developed, but you’ll get a good idea of who the up-and-coming players will be in the fall and you can start to refine your search to discover their prime territory.

Stay Scent-Free

The real danger here is making sure that you don’t bump a solid buck out of his territory for good. Such preseason scouting, even when done this early, requires caution and adherence to the same basic stealth and scent-management tactics that you want to employ during hunting season.

Photo courtesy Wildlife Research Center.

Set aside clothing specifically for summer scouting and trail camera checking. These should be laundered using a total scent-free system, such as Scent Killer Gold laundry detergent and their new scent-free dryer sheets. Keep your clothes outside between use or store them in a scent-free bag.

You should also be careful that your scent-eliminating efforts are not reversed by picking up odors from your vehicle when you head out. Wildlife Research Center recently came out with a product called No-Zone Air & Space Deodorizer. This is a spray scent eliminator designed for use in enclosed spaces, like a truck or car interior. It is formulated to transform scent molecules to eliminate odors, but unlike ozone generators, it is not harmful. Also, it doesn’t leave a residue behind, so it is mess-free.

Photo courtesy Wildlife Research Center.

Finally, make sure that you don’t stink. Maintaining a regimen of washing head-to-toe in scent-elimination shampoo and soap, and using unscented deodorant before you head into the woods to scout or check your cameras, is just sound policy to help keep those bucks from getting the jitters. Wildlife Research Center also makes this especially easy with their new Scent Killer Gold Personal Care Kit. It covers everything that you need from the bathroom to the field to keep you scent-free and includes Scent Killer Gold clothing spray, field wipes, body wash and shampoo, a new hair conditioner and anti-perspirant/deodorant.

Photo courtesy Wildlife Research Center.

We know you have a lot to do when summer rolls around, but don’t let the yard work and summer fun put the upcoming hunting season on the back burner. Start now with the planning, prepping and scouting, and you can spend more time hunting effectively this fall instead of making up for lost time.

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