Mid-Term Report Card
Posted By
Bill Winke
at
12/3/2008 12:00:00 AM
As I look back on the season, I have to say that I learned several things. First, I learned that the bucks you see in the summer are not necessarily going to be the same bucks you see in the fall. We kind of knew that anyway, but we really hoped that some of these whoppers we saw in the summer would show up in the fall. Most didn't.
I learned that the very best way to pattern bucks is to run trail cameras in places where you can check them easily without educating the deer. I used open areas that I could drive right up to with the vehicle or Bad Boy Buggy.
The bucks I found on the cameras in October were by and large the ones I saw during the season - mostly in those same areas.
It has been interesting to see the size of the home ranges on some of these bucks. Most were at least 1/2 mile as we picked them up on cameras (or saw them) in locations separated by at least 1/2 mile.
I'm going to set the cameras again in the next few days to take a second inventory of bucks. I want to know which ones are still living on our farm after the rut and hopefully I can pattern them on nearby food sources when the late season opens back up here shortly before Christmas. In the meantime I will be hunting with the kids durng the firearms season. They will be leveling the odds with their TC muzzleloader.
Good Luck.
