Central WI
 
This past week Neal and I have been concentrating on alfalfa fields and acorns. No luck on either one. We have seen a few mature bucks but nothing we wanted to harvest.  With the warmer temps the deer have been moving late in the afternoon. The sightings of mature bucks have been around 6:00pm. Saturday and Sunday my son Colton and I will be hunting during the youth hunt.  We will be hunting over a soybean field that has a border of rape and turnips.

These particular food plots are very close to their bedding area. We are hunting this particular spot Sat. Thinking with the warm temps the mature bucks will be moving late and the closer we are to their beds the more likely Colton can get a shot. If no luck Saturday we will go to a different property and hunt over and alfalfa field on Sunday. The rest of the week Neal and I will be placing cameras over fresh scrape lines in order to see what has moved in.       

Good Luck and Stay Safe,  
 
-Cole Sandstrom and Neal Kroll
 
Northwest WI
 
The weather has turned unseasonably warm, too warm for day time deer movement. Also, the wind is very high late this week and into the weekend and that increases the fire danger which means I have to work. So I have time only to briefly check some cameras before running off to sit in my fire engine.
 
The October lull has set in with this type of weather too. I think the lull is caused by several things. One being with the deer layering on fat and winter coats, the warm weather makes them move at night and early mornings when more comfortable. Another contributing factor to the lull is a change in food sources. Sometimes a change in food source causes digestion problems until they adapt to that food and they move less due to this discomfort.  Increased human activity may be a factor here also. At any rate my cameras are showing mostly night activity.
 
Most of the leaves are down from the trees now so visibility has increased a lot. Areas that I hunt mostly have some type of conifer component; Balsam fir or red pine and I use those for cover to break up my silhouette in the tree stands. In more open country like oaks in add some boughs to me stands and boles of the tree for covers.
 
I hope the cool down that should be coming improves daytime activity.
 
-Paul Ostrum

South Central

Well it's been a slow week with the heat. The deer seem to be starting to move back to feeding on beans and my Big and Beasty plots. This weekend I will be helping a young man on his first deer hunt and I am looking forward to that as much as he is. The youth are the future of our sport so find a youth and pass on  the tradition. I have done a lot of work to make this hunt a success so I look forward to capturing it to share. I am hoping we both will be wearing a big silly grin by the end of the weekend. After the weekend I will be pulling the trail camera cards and formulating a plan, they are calling for more warm weather so I may decide to work on some doe management instead of educating some of my bigger bucks. Good luck and a safe hunt to everyone youth hunting this weekend, remember to keep it fun.

-John Bulgrin 

 
Southeast WI
 
It’s hard to believe we are already four weekends into the 2011 deer season and many things have changed just in the past week.  The leaves are starting to change colors and the local farmers are starting to harvest their corn and beans.  The bucks have pretty much gone completely nocturnal in the areas that we hunt and we are rarely getting daytime pictures.  For the next two weeks, Nick and I will be changing our focus and gearing up for  the end of the month. The next two weekends Nick and I will be trying to harvest some does and tweak our stand sites in preparation for late October.  We are going to take a step back and only hunt areas where there are high antlerless deer numbers.  The goal is to keep our impact as low as possible and avoid the areas that we think the big bucks are hanging out.  Our past experiences have led us to believe that it is better to stay low key for the next two weeks.   If we continue to get record high temperatures it may be best to take a few nights off and watch some baseball.  With the Brewers having success in October it is hard to find time for hunting but I’m not complaining.
 
Go Brewers!
 
-Paul Molitor & Nick Niemann

Southwest WI

We made a trip to my farm in Iowa this past weekend to hunt the opener.  We had a great time, with multiple deer sightings, a welcome change from our early season experiences in Wisconsin where I have yet to see a deer with my bow in hand.  We experienced our first taste of success with a Sunday morning doe harvest.  I only wish I could transfer my green frigid forage plots here in WI to Iowa where my fall plots have failed due to lack of rainfall.  Upon returning to Wisconsin we switched our strategy from green plots to hunting white oak ridges.  The change did not yield success as we had no deer sightings in two sits in these locations.  Our area of the state has so many acorn trees everywhere that it is difficult to concentrate the very few deer we have.  They can literally eat and bed in the same places requiring very little movement.  This weekend I plan to hunt one of my farms where I have been getting multiple doe pictures on a clover field during daylight.   I have not hunted this farm yet because it does not hold many bucks until the rut.  The plan is to harvest two does as they have been very hard on my soybean fields this summer.  Otherwise we will not hunt as much over the next couple weeks, getting chores and preparations completed before late October when things begin to heat up.  It is best to not put too much pressure on the deer at this time or to burn your-self out, because it will be full tilt before long.  I will continue to check the cameras and I fully expect to see more buck activity on scrapes as October progresses.  Good luck to everyone in their pre-rut preparations.

-Rick Sime