I found out this last weekend that my brother in law ans I drew the late archery Mule deer tags in the area that we both hunted this last year. Here is our timeline and plans for this season: June - August - We're planning on shooting at least 2 or 3 times a week. This will be easier for me than it will for him because he works shift. This is mostly to make sure our form doesn't go away and to keep loose. We have a couple of ideas on where to hunt this year, so we might go out and see how we can access them, whether by truck or on foot. September - Marshall has a school to attend for the Guard at this time, so I'll keep shooting and studying the maps Late October - Early November - We'll be out in the field scouting. We're waiting until now to scout due to early archery, muzzleloader and rifle season will have happened and we can see how the hunt has moved the deer around. Hopefully, they don't get moved too far around. November 10 - 30 - These are the dates of our season. Marshall will have enough vacation and his schedule that he can have the entire hunt off. I'm not so lucky. I will only have a week off. So right now the debate is whether to take that first week off and start first thing Monday morning, or wait and take the next week off and hunt from that Thursday night through the following Sunday night and be back to work Monday and Tuesday. There's my plans for the 2014 season. What's yours? And feel free to offer any suggestions or guidance on my plans.
I purchased an extra week of vacation from work this year and I planned less 3 day weekend trips so I will have a good number of additional vacation days banked for hunting. If the due date sticks, my son will be born about a week before bow season opens here in Ohio. Besides taking off a few days butting up next to a weekend for my son's birth, I will be able to take anywhere from 5-7 days off specifically for hunting, maybe even a few more. My main goal this year is to hunt more in the afternoon. I love morning hunts and I know I have been missing out on so many opportunities of a big buck so my plan is to hunt full days more often, especially since I have a small cabin that I can nap and take a break in.
Sounds like a good plan to me!! Scout, scout scout. June - August: I am currently waiting for the farmer who leases our fields to get his crops in the ground... The anticipation is killing me (we usually have 10 acres of corn and 10 acres of beans side by side but the beans were not able to be planted last year which really messed up my plans.) Have been running cams and had a mineral site out for over a month now - Will continue to run cams all summer. I have been shooting here and there and have noticed that my bow needs to be tuned, bad. Keep shooting. I hope to get a few stands hung and also purchase a ground blind for one section of the property. Late August - September: Stay off property until opener. Opener - December: Hunt, hunt, hunt - Work on only hunting specific stands with certain winds.
Getting my butt prepared all summer. Last week of September I'll be in Colorado for my first elk hunt. Then I'll come back home just in time for Iowa's deer opener! Never been this excited for fall! Sent from my SCH-R970 using Tapatalk
Sounds great Tim!!!!!! My year's plan is as follows: Self filming all of it! I'm not hanging any stand on my property until the day i hunt to keep pressure way down, and to not set them off. I already have my tree picked out and have already practiced out of it shooting the 3d target on the bucks run....can't wait!! september 15th!!!! The bachelor boys are moving through 1/2 hour before sunset just like always! once this mission is accomplished, i will hunt over a doe run with my son so he can get his first deer. From there depending on the activity and the amount of bucks i have going through my property will determine my move. If the 4-5 mature bucks(3 1/2 year old or higher) stick around after this commotion i will pursue another! For the rut i will be in Illinois again the first week of november!! it's all about redemption! I completely overcame my fear of heights this off season and now use a LW assault and LW sticks exclusively, rather than the summit viper, which ruined my Illinois hunt last fall as there was only 1 straight tree on 400 acres.... then to end it with the late season rut, i plan on hunting my old stomping ground on public land in CT to harvest a 120" class or higher. I am going scouting for this the weekend of june 7th and 8th. It will be a 2 mile walk to get to where i want to go so i have been running and losing weight to prepare for this walk so i am not a sweaty fat pig by the time i get to my tree. this 3rd plan can change of course, if i get a buck here in RI and in Illinois, i will push the public land quest to 2015!!
