And Now, I Wait...

The more you look forward to something, inevitably it will take longer to arrive. Such is the case year after year, waiting for deer season. When I climbed down from my stand late last January, I was ready for a break. Last season pushed me to my limits physically, mentally, and emotionally. It took a few weeks for me to decompress and evaluate the many lessons I had learned. By the time April rolled around, I could not wait to get back after those white tailed devils. I usually start counting down the days around 150 days away from opening day. I start putting cameras out around day 120. Tree stands and ground blinds start going out by day 90. I make sure my bow is tuned, and shooting darts with 30 days to go. By the time the calendar changes to September, my prep is complete and I am ready to hunt.

Bushnell Trail Camera

Trail cameras have become an instrumental component in off season scouting. I will place a camera along a beaten down trail, or in front of a corn pile or mineral site. By placing cameras in May, I have a full five months of data to go off of, travel patterns, times of travel, and overall heard inventory. I know patterns of deer change with the seasons, but you can still get a good idea of how the deer on your property will behave. Any information you can gather will help your pursuit come Autumn. Another nice part about having cameras out early is you can watch your bucks grow over the summer. Nothing passes the dog days of summer like watching your hit list bucks grow inch by inch with every camera session.

Ground blind brushed
in along a field edge 

I prefer to get my tree stands and ground blinds in before the Fourth of July. That way the deer have a couple months to get used to them in their environment. I always wind up hanging a few in August, but not later than that. When I feel the need to move a stand in season, I try to wait for a rainy day if possible. It may be overkill, but I do not want to tip the deer off with unnecessary scent and human activity if avoidable. Remember, the whitetails greatest defense is its nose, the more you test it, you will loose.

Hoyt Nitrum, ready
for action!

I shoot year round, so getting my bow tuned is not terrible. I will test out all my equipment that I intend on taking into the woods. I will shoot my arrows with broadheads and nocturnal nocks to make sure my arrow flight is true and there will be no surprises when I let one fly. I will shoot wearing my hunting gloves to make sure my release feels the same in or out of the woods. Shooting sitting down, as well as from elevated platforms give me the confidence that I will be able to make any shot a deer may present me with. There are too many variables that you have no control over, being confident in your equipment is not one of them.

The off season does not have to be a never ending stretch of days if you stay involved with the sport. The most successful hunters will tell you that the more you put into the summer, the more you will get out of the fall. Scouting, shooting 3-D archery courses, and reading bow hunting magazines are ways I past the time between the last climb in January to the first climb in September. For me, the off season has finally ended. I hope I did enough over the last few months to put me in a position to harvest a mature buck. The sets are all hung, the bow is dialed in, and now, I wait...