SUMMER SCOUTING - WHAT DOES IT MEAN?
July 25th, 2023
By: Brennen Nading (@nadingbr)
Hard to believe that it is late July already! That can only mean one thing, deer season will begin opening in select states in just over a month! I’m sure many of you have noticed that the bucks in your neighborhood have really begun to take shape over the last few weeks. June was the month when you could recognize the frame of a buck, but July is the month when most bucks explode and really take shape on what they are going to be this fall.
Antler growth will continue into early August, but you can bet that most bucks will be full grown by the middle of the month. Once they are full grown, the blood flow to the antlers will cease and the hardening process will begin. It is at the end of August and the first part of September when you will notice bucks beginning to peel off that velvet.
The deer herd has seen no hunting pressure for the last 6-7 months now, and they are feeling pretty safe in their daily routines. This allows for a great opportunity to lay eyes on mature deer in daylight hours. Is there a particular deer that you believe survived the hunting season last year? Now is the time to locate him, and give yourself that sense of hope that he will return to the same fall range as he did last year.
In the midwest, food sources to key in on late in the summer are soybeans, alfalfa, clover, and corn. It isn’t uncommon to see several nice bucks in a bachelor group this time of year. The deer tend to flock to a desired food source and won’t travel very far at all if there is plenty of bedding cover nearby. Amazingly, mature deer will pack on nearly 20% of their body weight in the next 4-6 weeks. They do so by hanging close to a good food source and not traveling very far to and from.
Don’t get discouraged if the bucks aren’t on your property yet. In many cases, summer bachelor groups don’t necessarily mean a whole hell of a lot when it comes to where they will end up by late September. Once the deer shed their velvet, a lot of changes will occur in a short amount of time. Bucks will disperse and return to their “home range”. Many times, deer will end up traveling 1-2 miles or further from where they spent the summer.
If the deer aren’t on your property now, what can you do to stack the odds in your favor once they return? If you’re in acorn country, put your boots on the ground and scout out those oaks to see which ones are loaded with acorns. A healthy acorn crop is sure to be a hot spot once September rolls around. Conversely, a lack of mast crop will force deer to agricultural fields such as soybeans, alfalfa, and corn.
If you don’t have ag fields on your property, maybe now is the time to implement a fall “kill plot” or two. Any clearing near a bedding area will work just fine, but pay close attention to your access before putting in all the hard work of clearing, spraying, tilling, and planting a food plot. Access is king. You have to be able to enter and exit the plot without disturbing the local herd in order to fool a mature deer.
Time is ticking now. August will come and go before we know it. Use your time wisely. If you’re hoping to harvest a particular deer this fall, I encourage you to put some hours behind the optics in the coming weeks and try to pin down his location. Doesn’t hurt to keep an eye on the bucks multiple times each week, as eventually the shift will occur and you don’t want to be left scratching your head on opening day.