Southeast WI

The rut has come and gone and the rifle season is over. Most people are packing their hunting equipment away for another year because the best time of year is over. But is it? Hunting late season is one of my favorite times of year if the conditions are right. The perfect conditions are freezing temperatures and enough snow cover to force deer on standing corn and bean fields.  I have about 4-5 acres of standing corn and beans and I am really excited to start hunting these spots because they have been untouched all year by the deer. The next two weeks I will be preparing these spots for the last two weeks of December and the first week of January. I need to move some tree stands to these locations, install some binds, and create shooting lanes in the cornfields for my blinds. Trail camera monitoring is very important this time of year so I will start locating my cameras over these areas to see what bucks made it through the rifle season and what time of day they are hitting the plots. Once the conditions start getting colder and if/when we get some snow the deer will start moving into these spots in daylight hours. The next couple weekends will be busy but I also hope to get out a couple more times with the muzzleloader. Hope everyone had a successful rifle season. Now is the time to start preparing for one of the best times of year to kill your biggest buck on your property.  

-Paul Molitor & Nick Niemann

Northwest WI

Well, this season has been a challenging one. Our Ohio trip was a blast however we never ended up bringing home a buck. Jon put an arrow in a great looking 8 pt at 7 yds as he postured in the light rain for the decoy. Stellar video. After 3 days of searching for the deer that we just knew would be lying dead just over the next hill, we never recovered him. Depressing. We took out a couple of does and encountered more great bucks the remainder of the hunt but just could never seal the deal on them. Slow-vember seemed to drag on with only small pockets of short lived action for the majority of the month for Jon and I. Thankfully, December has arrived and we still have a month or so left of season to turn things around. The late season can be very good and Jon and I are optimistic. This week we'll be focusing on doing some quick scouting to see where the hot food sources are by tracks in the snow and then setting up trail cams to get an inventory of the bucks who survived the gun seasons. We also just got word from our friend in Ohio that one of the great 10 pts that we encountered while hunting the last evening of our hunt on Ohio is still alive and active during the daylight hours. A January return trip is in the making! But for now we'll be focusing on taking care of business on our home turf. Best of luck this coming week. Pray for snow and cold!

To seemingly rub salt in our wounds, on Nov. 30th, Jon was headed to work and around 6:20 A.M. collided with a huge buck with his vehicle. The buck appeared to be following the trail of a hot doe that must have crossed the road ahead the buck. He was on a mission and never broke stride until he was hit. The deer was killed instantly and ended up gross scoring 175 1/8. It's a shame that a deer of this magnitude was killed in this manner. It was surely a buck a few hunters were dreaming of.

-Jon Ecklor & Sean Graese

The early archery and gun season are over with the muzzleloader season still having a few days left around here. Rut activity is all but finished and mostly hunting for food sources is the method for the rest of the late archery season. I do not believe in what they call second rut around here since most if not all the does are either bred or shot by this time of year. Still, the bucks are capable and will pester does if the chance presents itself. That is why I hunt food sources in December. Maybe doe calling can bring in those bucks so carry calls along when hunting. Since my buck tag is filled I will do that just to get some video of bucks.
 
The tally for the gun season came out and while most of the state was on the increase around here the buck kill was down 20-30% and doe kill varied from plus to minus over previous year. The outlook does not look good for recovery anytime soon either. I do have a lot of bucks on cameras as I scout for survivors this time of year. At least one 5x5 that I was hunting is still around.
 
I plan on hunting with muzzleloader the next few days and then try to take a doe near home with the bow in December.
 
-Paul Ostrum

Southwest WI

The rut has come to an end and now it is time to move into the late season.  Overall it was another slow rut for me in both Wisconsin and Iowa.  Over the past three seasons we have had slow ruts with very little daylight activity and few bucks cruising.  My last sighting of a good buck was in Iowa on November 23rd.  That day a three year old followed a doe past my morning stand at 15 yards.  I elected not to shoot as my goal is to take bucks 4 ½ and older if possible, but my experiences teach me that might not be a realistic goal in the small farm areas that I hunt.  However, I will say that it seems others had a good year especially if they had a hot doe nearby, then it seemed the activity was good.  This week I have been moving my cameras around onto the standing crops in hopes of finding a buck or two that have survived the gun season.  My number one hit list buck, 65, was killed on a neighboring farm during firearms season.  It was disappointing news, but that is the way it goes in deer hunting.  I will hunt the last 3-4 days of muzzleloader season, but that can be a tough sell on the heels of gun season.  If that doesn’t pay off I still have bow tags and standing food on all my farms in both states so there is still time left.  Good luck to all as we hunt the colder days ahead and congratulations to everyone who has had a successful season so far.

-Rick Sime