Northwest:

August 17th

Last week I blogged about the hot temps and the lack of rain. This past week we finally got the cooler weather and some precipation we have all been looking for. We are now less than a month away from opening day. The cooler morning temperatures have all deer hunters looking ahead to the Sept 15th opener.  If you have been waiting for the weather to break now is the time to get your last bit of work in preparing for the season. We have nearly all our setups hung now, almost all of our plots in and we have been slinging arrow after arrow from our Hoyt bows.

I checked trail cameras this past week and noticed that just when the weather turned cooler the bigger mature bucks started showing up during daylight hours. We were fortunate to catch back up with one of our top hit list bucks that made it through the past season. Hercules is a 5.5 year old 8 point buck. Now is the time to put this deer down. He didn't gain any mass or much tine length this past year so we are just buying our time until we get a crack at this buck. We hope to be sitting behind this deer come fall to show you viewers the 3 year story of this buck.

-Andy Yost-

North Central: 

Northeast:

August 16th

Less than a month until the season opens!  Rick spent Thursday afternoon hanging stands and preparing a food plot.  No new giants on the trail cameras. I plan to start shooting the Hoyt everyday until September 15th.

~ Joe Knochel ~

August 16

Things are finally starting to look up.  After the rainy weather, getting ground leased out from under us, no food plots in due to weather and equipment problems, and no big MO bucks caught on camera, our spirits were a bit on the low side. But, things made a fast turnaround this morning when I checked the trail camera photos.  There were two solid 8 pointers, one really nice 9, and a big MO 10 and they were all caught in the morning at 7 o’clock.  Seemingly that lifted our spirits which is a great thing since we have a busy next three weeks consisting of hanging stands and shooting bows.

~Travis Trueblood~

August 17th

After a watching a brutal loss to the Cubs on Sunday, I am definitely ready to shoot something!   I checked trail cameras yesterday, and for the fourth straight week I have the same three shooters.  There is no consistency for when they are showing up, but I know they like the area.  The best part, I am not getting these pictures on a soybean field or a salt lick.  I am confident that the camera is near these bucks core bedding area and therefore expect these bucks to stay in the area. 

 As Bill Winke has addressed in previous years, bucks caught on trail cameras this time of year may only be using your area during the summer and may leave once the beans have turned, the need for minerals has decreased, and the bachelor groups break up. 

Today I set up a stand overlooking a corn field that is filled with giant tracks.  If I could hunt this week, I believe I could get a shot at one of these studs.  With season opening in less than a month, I hope these bucks continue their paterns!

~ Rick Knochel ~

Central:

August 17th

Well, the 10 degree drop in temperature could have come a little sooner (the deer really get stressed during the high heat), but at least it’s here.  I had planned to plant about 15 acres of oats, wheat and brassicas on August the 13^th to adhere to an old wives tail, but was unable to get to the farm in time to get it planted during daylight.  During the night we received a little less than an inch of rain; that sure would have been nice on our freshly planted food plots…but they weren’t planted yet.  Even after an inch of rain, the ground was still plenty dry for planting the seeds.  I planted one of our 5 acre plots into strips; one strip of Frigid Forage Oats, one strip of Big-N-Beasty Brassicas, and one strip of winter wheat.  The other 5 acre plot was planted heterogeneously, with the all the seed poured and mixed together into a 10 bushel PTO broadcast seeder.  This year’s results will determine our course of action in the future. 

This weekend’s check of the trail camera did not turn up any additional shooters; however, three additional shooter made the hit list while I was glassing a small secluded bean field.  Unfortunately, they were 400 yards away and didn’t provide me with a video opportunity.  I will be placing a ground blind to hunt these deer as soon as I’m able to make it back to the farm.  As a matter of fact, all of my ground blinds will be “popping-up” this week across of my hunting areas.  I have found that even if the blind isn’t placed in the perfect spot the first time go ahead and put it out anyway and let the deer get used to it, you can always fine tune the location later.  Get it out early, stake it down good and make sure you open up the windows where you think you will have the majority of your shots.  If your blind is in a spot where you may have shots out of all the windows, then your blind is probably not in the right spot.

This week will also find the Wolfe team shooting our Hoyt’s religiously and trimming out or hanging a couple of sets in preparation for September 15^th!

~Korey Wolfe~ 

Southern:

August 18th

Here it is 11:50 PM and I'm sitting in front of the computer instead of getting some sleep!  But with season less than a month away who can sleep....right?  My mind keeps running on early seasonstrategies and food plots!  After checking the plots last weekend for the first time this summer, I was pretty disappointed.  4 out of 6 burned out with the upper 90 and triple digit heat and very little to no rain for a month.  So it's back on the tractor I go to put out what we call "Old Faithful" when it comes to food plots.  Winter Wheat and Turnips!  Planting this time of year means they won't be worth the hunt in the early season, so it's time to find some acorn flats where the White Oak and Post Oak are producing "deer candy."  Acorns have always played a HUGE part of my hunting strategies, just due to the fact of growing up and hunting in the Mark Twain National Forest around northern Texas County.  I know if I find a low pressured area where acorns are falling, I will find a good buck eventually.  So you'll more than likely see early season footage of me buried deep in the hardwoods hunting the Oak flats near bedding areas that I find.  Those places have always been known to get a few arrows nice and bloody!  Hopefully around the middle to late October, the new food plots will be a late afternoon draw to thin out some doe, and be an even bigger draw come the Pre and Peak Rut phases to catch a big ole' Hammer Head cruising looking for a date!

~Mike Earp~