Like clockwork, at 8:00 a.m. on the opening day of firearms season, I received a text from my father, saying that he was climbing down from his stand and was going on a walk; this had become his yearly routine. For several years, I disagreed with my father's decision to take off walking instead of staying in his stand. Though it was not my hunting style, it worked for him on many occasions. After my father's text, it wasn’t long before I heard the blast from a distant gunshot.
Many hunters approach late-season hunting as an opportunity at one last shot to harvest a mature buck. Although the late season is a great time to harvest them, I prefer to enter the latter portion with a different outlook.
As I filmed the buck slowly cruising through the timber, we kept ourselves concealed within the green foliage. The deer eased into archery range, my friend turned to me, and I gave the okay to take the shot
The summer is a great time to improve hunting areas. By working several months before the hunting season, deer have time to adjust to and take advantage of the changes that have been made. You can make improvements that result in more predictable deer travel on your own hunting property. Put in a bit of work now and start looking forward to the rewards to be realized once the season begins.
The proof that scents and lures work to bring in mature bucks has always been debated among believers and non-believers. Using scents and lures to attract deer and using a scent elimination system to destroy odors can be confusing and, if not done correctly, can seem as if they are pointless. However, if one provides the scent that deer want to smell and destroys the odors that can spook them, they will see that both do, in fact, work.
