If you hunt in Kentucky, Missouri, North Carolina or any state where the archery season opens in September, click here and for tips and advice on how to punch your tag super early. I teamed with Outdoor Life digital for a 5-point plan that involves understanding late-summer buck behavior, trail-camera strategies, best tree stand spots and more. Good luck and send me pictures if you shoot a good buck this month or anytime this season!
For years there was talk of a mysterious buck with massive drop tines roaming the part of Missouri where Kevin Jaegers’ father-in-law owns a farm. When trail-cam images of the 200-class freak started popping up—finally some hard evidence–Kevin got serious. He hung a tree stand on the farm last summer and vowed to hunt the monster hard in September. This was a departure for Kevin, who normally doesn’t hunt that much in the early bow season. But he figured that if he was ever going to see Drops, the first days would be the best. After that, pressure in the area would likely turn the buck nocturnal. Opening day came, and the wind was wrong for Kevin’s stand. “I tried [...]
This post and picture from M.R. James, a legend in the archery world and founder and longtime editor of Bowhunter Magazine: DAMN EHD IS BACK! It’s been nearly 12 years since the last outbreak of Epizootic Hemorrhagic Disease turned up on our southern Indiana farm and took a heavy toll of resident deer. Today I found this young buck dead in a creek bed after a neighbor reported the same finding on his nearby farm nearly two weeks ago. I later saw a sickly buck here but didn’t find a carcass. I’m (scouting and) counting 15 to 25 whitetails daily so far this month and all appear in good health. Praying they’ll stay that way. It takes a killing frost [...]
Years ago, an Ohio bowhunter by the name of Chad Moore wrote and told me about the dream buck he had just shot. The tale of the tape was impressive: the 6½-year-old 9-pointer with the drop tine and beams like Red Bull cans at the bases scored 186 non-typical. The story of his hunt was pretty simple and straightforward. Chad didn’t use a big or flashy technique to kill the giant. He just did a lot of good things right: the scouting, the trail-cams, the tree-stand placement, the scent control… He kept at it day after day, until the monster popped up in his bow sight one afternoon. Then, heart thumping and knees shaking, he held it together and made [...]
Standing in the backyard and burning arrow after arrow into foams target is a good way to get your shooting muscles toned and your release and follow-through down. But now is the time to raise your game and shoot from an elevated platform like you’ll do when deer season rolls around in 6 weeks or so. Why You Should Practice High When you shoot on the ground, you stand fence-post straight, plant your feet in a baseball hitter’s stance, stare across at your target, draw with ease and let an arrow fly. Pretty simple. In a tree stand, you have to stand up on a small platform; turn your body; and your footing is trickier. Leaning left, right, back or [...]