September 24th
2004 Deer Season Journal

The first day of bow season is still three weeks away, but I have already started planning my start to the season and have begun to see sign in the woods that deer season is drawing closer. I noticed today how it is starting to smell like fall in the woods. To a whitetail deer hunter this is a great smell.

We found the first rubs of the season today. There were five rubs in all and they were all within about 30 yards of each other. None of them were telephone polls, but they were rubs none the less. At this early fall date any rub gets a hunters blood boiling.

I also found the first scrape of the season. It looked like maybe a half hearted attempt but it is in a place where they have scraped before. Both the scrape and the rubs, although they were in two different places, are in areas that I will be hunting.

My son talked me into putting up a treestand. We put it up in one of the trees that we cut some limbs away from earlier this summer. I have five fixed position stands and they will likely all be in a tree before the seasons are over. You know how it is, that tree over there always looks better.

I have a new digital scouting camera and had a look at my first pictures from it today. No Pope and Young bucks but a couple promising youngsters showed up.

The food plot near one of my hunting spots is doing fine and should help me see more deer this year. They have also been using the mineral lick at this location heavily as well. The clover and the mineral lick, along with the little bit of corn from the automatic deer feeder gives the deer a lot of reasons to make this area a regular spot in their daily travels.

The apple trees are still rationing out their apples. Several does and a couple young bucks visit them every evening. It is comical watching them run to the trees when they hear an apple fall. We may have to set up close to these trees in the early bow season to try to ambush a doe.

One of my hunting spots is near a food plot that I just planted with Imperial Whitetail Extreme. I used some Plotsaver around half of the plot to try and let it get a good start. I'll get to watch this plot while I hunt.

I plan on getting some more deer minerals to replenish the mineral licks. I am curious if the deer will be more attracted to them if I replenish them right before the season. I'll find out.

Right now the season has not started yet and everything looks bright. Maybe the weeks leading up to the start of the season are the best.




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