If each day was a page in a book that is laying open in the middle of a field, it seems every year that the wind picks up and the pages turn faster in June, July, and August. The summer months arrive and every deer hunter starts to get a little excited for the coming fall, and starts to make plans to prepare for the season ahead. However, just like everyone else, June and July go by and you go to the beach, to a stupid amount of weddings, to the lake, to family parties, and to the golf course, and before you know it August has arrived and you haven’t done a single thing to prepare for the upcoming season except put a few trail cameras out. Ok, that might not be all of you, but that was me this past summer.
I’m very similar to the vast majority of whitetail hunters; checking trail cameras and finding a mature buck is like opening a spectacular present on Christmas morning. I LOVE IT. In past summers, I’ve been all about trail cameras and summer scouting to know the inventory of the deer in my area, and coming up with a plan of attack to put an arrow in a big Michigan buck. Dating back to my teens and early twenties, I would put multiple trail cameras at multiple properties and check them every two weeks. I did this for years until it finally hit me that I was doing more harm than good recklessly walking around my best properties with no regard to the scent I was throwing around all summer long. The past few years I had taken a different approach of setting up my cameras in early June close to primary bedding areas, on food sources, and heavily used trails and not checking them until Labor Day weekend. Even though I didn’t necessary put more bucks on the wall using this approach, I definitely saw an increase in deer and more specifically buck movement during daytime hours once the season began. At the end of the day that’s what it’s all about right? Being out in the woods enjoying nature and seeing deer.
WRONG. Well, not entirely wrong, because I do love truly love being out in Gods creation and enjoying wildlife, but at the end of the day I also yearn for the intensity of shooting a deer and putting meat in my freezer. Last year was an eye opening year for me; in all honesty it was a tough pill to swallow. I became a published outsoor writer, and launched this Chasing Legends page. Naturally, because of the recognition I put a lot of pressure on myself to kill a big buck on film to prove to people I knew what I was doing in the deer woods. That led me to nothing except a big nasty tag sandwich and the pathetic hum of an empty freezer.
Last year I had more pictures and was more prepared than I ever have been to finally close the deal on a mature Michigan buck. The result was a big tag sandwich.
This year was different. When August arrived, I didn't feel the sense of panic I have in years past to check my trail cameras, scout my properties, and spend time at the properties preparing for the upcoming season. I put one trail camera out in June, when I checked it two months later I found out that it hadn’t taken a picture all summer because the battery drained hours after I put it out. In years past I would’ve been livid, but this year I felt a sense of relief. No pictures meant no expectations; no expectations to kill a buck that I had 40 pictures of throughout the summer months. No pictures also meant not being let down this fall when I don’t even see a buck that I have multiple pictures of throughout the property. In a way, having numerous pictures of mature bucks in the past made me lazy in my preseason prep. I would think to myself, “well with this many good bucks in the area, I don’t need to make many stand adjustments, one of them is bound to walk by me in the rut.” I know that’s a horrible way of thinking about it, but I know that thought crossed my mind on more than one occasion.
Other than two full days of making adjustments and necessary preparations at a couple properties in southwest Michigan, and one weekend at our property in northern Michigan, we pretty much kept our boots off the ground. Instead of making decisions based on summer pictures, we made adjustments according to new fall patterns we have noticed the deer were following in the past few years while hunting our properties. We moved a few stands that hadn’t been moved in 10+ years, we restored a stand that hasn’t been used in 5 years, and found new ways to approach the stands now that we have a good idea of where the primary bedding locations are located. Things we were reluctant to do in the past because we were in the know, we knew there was good bucks around, and figured if we are in the general area we would close the deal at some point during the season.
Don’t get me wrong, we’ve been tremendously successful in years past, but if you hunt an area long enough you notice that deer tendencies and patterns change as they adapt to pressure. We were noticing the changes, but just not doing anything about it to improve our chances. This isn’t an article to bash on trail cam pictures, I still love them, but it’s refreshing to not be in the know. This year we are embracing the unknown at the properties we hunt in both southern and northern Michigan, and I’m thrilled to see what kind of deer we have on the property in person instead of on a computer screen. If there’s a big buck out there, and I don’t see him, it won’t have the same negative effect it had on me in years past because there’s that old saying, “what you don’t know will never hurt you.”
I’m not alone being in the unknown this year either. Thousands of hunters around the state are clueless on what this season will bring because of the fact we can no longer bait here in Michigan. Don’t look at it as a negative though, embrace the new challenge, and embrace the unknown. With that being said, good luck to everyone this deer season, stay safe, shoot straight, and cheers to the unknown. See you in a few weeks, I’m off to the Rockies to chase elk.