Deer Season is Over | Get a Buck Census

Deer Season Has Ended “Now What”!

After Mid January in most parts of the US the whitetail deer season has come to a close and slight depression sets in to even the most avid hunters. Yes the season is long enough but now it has closed for good until next fall. You might have been closing in on that big bruiser that has eluded you all season. There are several states across the southern part of the US that offer hunting till January 31.

They will Show up “If they are still alive”!

For us this time of year becomes exciting as we still run our cameras to see which bucks we still have alive and well strolling the properties we call our hunting ground. Deer we caught on trail camera during late summer and early fall when bucks were in velvet will now show their face. The natural food sources are depleted and they need nourishment more now than ever because of the cold weather. Also, you heard the neighbor shot at and “missed” on of the bucks on your hit list, did he miss, or was the animal mortally wounded?

Helping the Deer Survive the “Harsh Winter”

Feeders are brought back into action for 3 reasons. One, to get the bucks to show up at given places to get pictures and two, is to get needed food in there bellies to help them make it through the remaining harsh winter months. The last reason for the feeders is to watch when the bucks start to shed antlers. We than hit the woods searching for the prize possession, shed antlers. I have found that feeding during this time period will keep the bucks closer to the food source and shed antler hunting is made a little easier.

Camera’s Running and Getting Great Pictures

We have had our trail camera running overlooking feeders for 4 weeks and new bucks and absent bucks are showing up weekly. Some have lost their antlers but the bigger bucks are still carrying them. Waiting for the bigger bucks to loose their antlers before stomping through their areas looking for sheds!

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Bow Hunting | Opening Day Archery Hunting

Early Season Bow Hunting Strategies

Bow hunting early season can be challenging because of the heat. The warm temperatures is something bowhunters have to become used to if they don’t want to give up a good part of the early season. Early season bow hunts require some strategies we can apply to succeed when the temperatures are far better for swatting mosquitoes than hunting. Deer are somewhat predicable the first week or two of the season although the weather may alter or delay when and where deer move, it will not totally eliminate the need deer have to travel at least short distances as they head for the dinner table. So that means they are bedding close to their preffered food source.

How Heat Affects Deer Movement

Remember deer are wild animals that have to eat to survive, sooner or later every evening and morning they will have to move to find food. When whitetail deer shed their summer coats, they are physically prepared for colder weather even though the seasonal temperatures don’t cooperate for them. This is why deer movement is slim, so they tend to arrange their patterns so that they don’t have to move any more than is absolutely necessary. From past experience deer will bed very close to their food and water source is early bow season. Placing a stand between their late summer bedding area and the food of choice is the best thing you can do.

Control Your Scent

Scent control is a major problem when hunting in the heat. Make sure you keep the wind in your favor because if they smell you your early season is generally over. Keeping your clothes scent free and clean should be your top priority in early bow season for scent control. Scent free containers along with odor killing soaps, detergents and field sprays should be things every bowhunter uses to cut down and eliminate human odor. Not only do I spray down before I head to a tree stand I will spray again or use field wipes that I carry in a zip lock bag after settling in my stand.

Don’ forget practice makes perfect as far as target shooting your bow. When selecting an ambush site make sure that the deer have a secure place to bed far enough away from your stand so that they won’t see or hear you entering the area or climbing into your stand.

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Deer Hunting – Whitetail Buck Antler Growth

How do Antlers Grow?

Whitetail Deer Antler growth usually begins during the month of March or April, by August or early September, antlers are fully-grown. Antlers begin as bony growths covered with skin and hair (velvet). They grow at incredible rates, it is amazing what whitetail deer can grow during the summer months. This makes them one of the fastest growing living tissues known to man.

Antlers are very similar to bone. They are supplied with blood through blood vessels in the velvet and through the core of the antler. Antler growth is triggered by the increase in the amount of sunlight during the spring season. The necessary nutrients for antler growth may be taken from other bones in the body, thus depleting the nutrients in these bones and making them brittle.

In order to grow these huge racks, whitetail deer, elk and moose must eat around 50 kg of calcium each season. This is quite a feat when their diet is composed of plant material.

“Shedding the Velvet”

After the antlers have reached their maximum size, blood vessels at the base close down causing the skin to dry up and peel off. The owner assists this process by rubbing against trees. In many areas, you can see these rubbings as the thin bark of the aspen, pine and cedar trees is rubbed off along with the velvet. As the velvet peels away by rubbing their antlers on trees they will rub the dried blood from them as well. Once the velvet is gone, only the hard bony core remains as a formidable weapon in the annual rut.

The whitetail’s antlers grow from March until September. It is exciting to watch the antler growing season hoping to see monster bucks develop for the fall rut in your hunting area.

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