Late Summer Deer Prep

September 16th! At the time of writing this, we are only 3 weeks away from Minnesota’s Deer Archery Opener. It’s time! Finally! It’s time to make those late summer preparations, time to get your plans together, time to get everything dialed-in and ready to go. In the final month leading up to the season there is still tons of deer work that can be done. Setting out trail cameras, scouting, tuning your bow (or crossbow), tree stand/saddle work, working in the food plot and packing up all your gear.

Just like major sports leagues, preseason is key to in-season success. Preseason can pay off big time when fall comes around and you’re sitting out in the deer woods. I know I’m going into this deer season feeling much more prepared and confident than I could have ever imagined, and it’s all due to preseason work that I have been doing. I would encourage you to take some time to do these tasks yourself and evaluate the results of your hard work during your upcoming season. The timeline of these preparations may wildly vary depending on the season you hunt, and the region of the country you’re hunting.

Food Plots Work

This is a lengthy topic, and I could write a whole blog just on this preparation itself, but if you’re looking at the calendar and it’s only a month out, don’t fear, you may still have some time, but you need to start this immediately. Most food plots require that you clear-out an area, till, disc, plant, and pray for rain, but if you’re not a farmer and have never done a fully-fledged food plot, here is something that can help you out tremendously. First find a small clearing in your hunting area, take a weed whacker or lawnmower and scalp the area, rake out the clippings. Next, buy a throw-and-gro brassica-clover mix, and seed the area according to the instructions on the package. The best time to plant this is late July here in Minnesota, preferably before good rain.

Other plants that work well into the fall are plants like kale, forage rape, sugar beets, turnips, radishes, winter alfalfa, etc. Whitetails have been known to not pay too much attention to these plants while they are growing throughout the late summer, but when the thermometer starts to dip and that first frost hits, they will start to pound them. Be set up on the edge of these areas, near a game trail, and you’re much more likely to see your target deer.

Smile You’re on Trail Camera Recently there has been some controversy as to whether trail cams are contributing to poor hunting tactics. But, for me I think they are the bee’s knees, they are cool as hell and can be a useful tool when locating deer and their movement. I want to express some caution – the use of trail cams should not be relied on as the be-all end-all, and the information gathered in the summertime could not directly translate to success in the fall. Setting up your trail cams over scrapes and rubs during the summer helps you take an inventory, of sorts, for the deer in a particular area.

Some of the bucks that show up on the cameras during the summer, may not be around in the fall though, so it is important that you use these to track deer and deer movement. Also, I and many other hunters cannot stress this enough, do not check your cameras every day or once a week, unless you’re using a cell cam. These are preferable since you don’t have to muck up the area wit

h your scent to check your SD cards. Set them early in the summer, check them once every two weeks if they are SD, and move them when you stop seeing movement.

Always be Scouting Whether it’s on public land, or if you’re walking door to door asking to hunt someone’s property, later summer is a good time to look for places to hunt. Traditional scouting, and now much more E-Scouting, is the best way to see and select places of interest that you want to hunt for the upcoming year. Or possibly get on a waitlist for future seasons. I particularly have done loads of e-scouting using the OnX Hunt App. This app has been a great tool for me to consolidate the areas I want to traditionally scout by showing things like public vs private land, tree growth and transition lines, water sources, and clearings that may contain crops or food plots. I can then plan to hit a few locations in a trip and mark waypoints to specific areas where I think are potential hunting locations. Looking for bedding areas, and trails to and from food/water sources are a great way to find buck scrapes and rubs and potentially set up some great deer action.

Tree stand/Saddle Work In a perfect world, we would all have our own 100+ acres plot of land and would be able to set up our stands in the spring so we do not spook any deer; however, that’s not the case for most hunters! Specifically, I’ll be hunting on public land, so I need to make sure I know how to set up my stand before going into the deer woods, and I cannot be leaving them there for more than 14 days. I also run the risk that a stand left in the woods may be used by other hunters on public land and is a first come first serve basis of sorts. But for all of you that have permission to hunt private land or on your own land the earlier you set up your stands the better. You won’t have to worry about boogering any deer in the fall if you’re already set up in the spring or summer time. Hunting from a tree saddle is probably the most ideal. It allows you to be mobile and you can reduce your invasiveness by setting up trees that are less accessible for someone with a ladder stand, let's say. Either way you hunt, make sure that you have your trees picked out prior to and set up as early as possible.

Summer Practice This may be the most important summer preparation for you to consider, especially if you are hunting in the archery only season. Get out early to shoot and tune your bow. I have been out shooting my bow all summer as soon as I could after recovering from surgery. Since the beginning of summer, I have probably put 350+ arrows through my bow, and have let my strings settle in. After a minor tune last week, I am still making tweaks here and there to make sure that my sights are on, and that my form is correct. Also, you don’t want to wait until the week before the season starts to pull out your bow just in case you need to take it to a shop for new strings or a new set-up, be proactive and get it out early in the summer. Personally, I don’t think you can practice enough, you should be creating muscle memory. Leading up to the season, I’m currently shooting twice a week. But come about two weeks out from season, I want to make sure to shoot at least 1 arrow a day. Looking to tweak that perfect shot.

Wrap it up already! Well, the days are getting shorter, the mornings and evenings are getting cooler, and we’re almost back to deer season. There are a lot of things that you can be doing to prepare for the season, but I find that these are my top five aspects that I seem to be doing the most in this month ramping up to the season start. I hope that you can take these tips and put them into practice. And who knows, these tips may help you to put a big buck down this year!

Stay Safe & Happy Hunting!