I know that for many hunters the current days can be fairly blah. If you are not an ice-fisherman, and don't have access to good yote' hunting property, and have no time to look for sheds, what are you supposed to do? I'd like to offer up a few suggestions in today's post.
1) Learn from this past year's mistakes. So you didn't fill all your tags, why not? Hopefully you are in the habit of taking notes on every day you spend in the stand as it relates to deer movement and weather. Look back over those notes, then get on Google maps and take a look at your hunting property again. Do you need to move stand locations? Do you need to put in/move food plot locations? Do you need to hunt more during the week to avoid your neighbors? What are your trail cam pictures telling you? It might also be time to take a drive after looking at some properties on line to see if you can get permission to hunt on some additional ground. The worst they can say is no, and they might know of someone in the area who would be open to having you hunt on their property.
2) Never stop learnin' yurself more nalledge. Today's high here in south central Iowa is -9....I doubt I will be walking around the property much looking for sheds this evening. Instead, I plan on doing some extra reading. I enjoy Bill Winke's books on hunting strategies and deer behavior. You can check out his books here: http://www.midwestwhitetail.com/catalog/2/books.html. There are several other magazines, blogs, and resources available. One thing I am always looking for are better ways to control my scent. While I will be doing a complete product review here in the near future, let me let one cat out of the bag now. http://conquestscents.com/shop/evercalm/ever-calm-deer-herd-scent-stick-2-5-oz-2/ Ever-calm is the BY FAR the most reliable, effective deer scent I have ever used. It's not necessarily designed to mask your scent, as much as duplicate the calming scent of a deer heard. It's available in Elk scent as well. Do yourself a favor and buy this early, as in NOW, because you will not be able to find it once October hits. More on this later.
3) Include your family in your "off-season" preparations. As you can see, I really don't think there is an off-season, we are now all preparing to make next year's deer, elk, and turkey hunt more successful. While today I'm concentrating on whitetail hunting, the same types of principles apply to all our our outdoor pursuits. Just don't forget that being a husband/wife/mom/dad is your first priority, period. Don't make the mistake of putting your hobbies above your duties. Instead, use it as a bonding time. Take them out to look for sheds, watch videos with them, read/share old hunting stories with them. Teach them gun safety in the basement now so they are ready to go in the spring. And don't forget to keep these "lessons" short, too the point, and fun. They just aren't as passionate about it yet as you are! But God-willing, if you do it right, in 20 years they will be calling you to hunt with them and their kids for years to come!
I want to conclude with a new section that will be in every post moving forward. This is today's "Strength for the moment" and it comes from my Bible time in Psalm 34:8 "O taste and see that the Lord is good; How blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him!" Friend, I'm not sure what your going through today, but taste (experience) God's goodness though the free gift of eternal life that He offers only through His Son Jesus. And then when those difficult times come, (and they will) take refuge in Him!
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