No Off Season – Determine High Pressure Areas

Some of the rut sign from last season is still visible, especially rubs. Getting out in the field and walking properties you plan to hunt will reveal rub lines and isolated rubs. Marking these on your aerial map will show you how deer move about the lands you hunt, too. Source Credit: RealTree.com By: Josh…

  I like to run trail cameras until all of the bucks have shed their antlers. This helps me monitor the herd health and also see what deer made it through the season. Sometimes I really get my hopes up because big deer show their faces during the post-season. Other times, I’m disappointed because I…

Similar to the previous slide, mapping trails, bedding areas, food sources, watering holes and other land features on aerial maps can help to paint a better picture of the land you hunt. It’ll show you how deer use a property, rather than just thinking you know. I’ve learned that from experience. Using this process has…

  Another thing that has changed the way I hunt is studying past trail camera photos. I look at the direction of travel (the deer), dates, temperatures, wind direction, barometric pressure, etc. and see how those things match up to the food sources and bedding areas around that camera location. For daylight photos, I really…

The off-season is the best time to trim shooting lanes. Right now the leaves haven’t budded out throughout most of the country. You can still sit in a stand right now and see what the shooting lanes will be like this fall when the leaves drop again. In my experience, it’s better to trim lanes…