Kansas Deer Hunting

Bucks filling out nicely

After running trail cameras for the past two months the bucks have really filled out their racks nicely. I typically see velvet shed the middle of August in the midwest, so I would say we have 15-20 days of growing left, plenty of time to add 5-10 more inches!

I always enjoy seeing these bucks we have come to know all summer in velvet go to hard antler, and sometimes it takes a bit to figure out who is who! Of course those “Hit List” bucks you have your eye on will show up and you’ll breathe a little easier knowing they didn’t leave the area when they rubbed the velvet off.

Now is a critical time to not “over-check” the cameras, leave a two week window between checking them, and try to minimize traffic in the areas. If you haven’t hung your stands yet, get them in the tree, trim your lanes etc now and get out of the woods!

Good Luck!

Summertime Scouting

This past weekend I spent some time in the woods putting out trail cameras and checking out some new properties. It is hard to get too excited about deer hunting when its 95 and humid but this is the time of year that you can put in a little work to get good results in the fall. I like to get my weedeater out and clear an area 15-20 yards wide so you don’t run your trail cam batteries down with 1000 photos of the wind blowing tall grass and weeds around. I use an attractant, or corn, to just get those deer passing by to stop long enough for a photo. I like Ed’s Buck Buffet, as it has high protein counts and the does seem to really like it this time of year while they are nursing fawns. While it is very hard to leave the cameras alone without checking them, I try to wait at least two weeks, so that I minimize traffic and scent this time of year. This is also a fun time for me to take my three year old twin boys out to the woods to “help daddy” but I have to be extra careful to check them for ticks, they are thick this year. Of course I have a Brute Outdoors cooler full of ice cold drinks in the back of the truck at all times as well!

Dr. Zann misses in Oklahoma

My good friend Dr. Zann McMahan took up bowhunting this year, we went to Davenport Archery in Prague, OK and got him a bow and all set up. We practiced shooting all summer and he took it up very quickly. Zann obtained permission to hunt some land in Edmond, and while he saw deer he wasn’t able to connect. We have hunted a few times together on my spots, and been skunked thus far. Zann was off this afternoon and we headed to the tree to see if we could make this happen. Early on the warm temperature had me worried the deer wouldn’t move, however one of our target bucks appeared off the clear cut headed into the food plot. I was running camera but managed to look at Zann and tell him to “Breathe”…..unfortunately, like the majority, if not all bowhunters, he missed. The high of highs and the low of lows….. I will quit typing and let the video tell the rest of the story.

Dr. Zann McMahan hunts whitetails in Oklahoma from Brad Myers on Vimeo.