After a six-hour drive to my hunting lease in Kansas, I arrive at the farm around 11pm and quickly set up my tent in the gusting wind and darkness. I unpack my gear and settle in for a night of restless sleep as my mind races in anticipation of tomorrows hunt. Although I’m not planning on hunting in the morning, I plan to wake up at sunrise and drive the area to scout for deer movement.

My alarm goes off. I am tired from the work week and the long drive but I jump out of bed in excitement and anticipation of the morning scouting session. Its a cool 40 degrees, which is unseasonably cold for the morning low in mid-September so I am expecting decent activity. After three hours of driving, glassing and scouting from afar, tiredness sets in so I head back to camp.

It’s getting close to 10am so I decide to stop and check trail cameras in the immediate area surrounding the farm. Thinking to myself, “It might be too early in the day to check cameras and I should probably wait a couple hours” did cross my mind but the temptation was too much. After running a trail cam through the latter part of the Summer, I wasn’t getting any pictures of my target buck in this particular area of the farm so my intention was to pull this camera and move it to a different location.

As I close the distance to within 100 yards from my camera, I see a doe and fawn have picked me off. I don’t really think too much of it because there always seems to be a doe in the area no matter what time of day it is so I push on without stopping. As I get closer to the camera she starts to circle in front of me instead of running the opposite direction. At this point I stop and watch her run to another low area with thick cover, littered with willow brush and small trees. In an instant my heart sank as she alerted five does and three bucks from their beds not more than 100 yards from where I stood.

I am in utter disbelief! One of the bucks is the typical 12 point (pictured above), who is my number one target buck for the season on this particular farm and he is accompanied by the second biggest buck on the property which is a heavy 9 pointer (pictured above). None of the deer in the group spotted me or knew what was causing them to run but were alerted by the running doe that I had spooked minutes earlier. I watch them trot across the road as I shake my head and mumble a number of curse words for blowing these deer out of the immediate area.

Lessons Learned

You may remember from one of my earlier posts that I had laid out an exact strategy to hunt this deer throughout the early season. Read the full post: My Exact Strategy For Western Kansas Early Archery Season

The spot where I bumped them from was less than 400 yards from where my tree stand is located, overlooking the waterhole where I have numerous pictures of my target buck. The wind was perfect that evening for him to move during daylight but all bets were off because I had ruined the hunt before it even began. I sat the stand anyways hoping that they bedded up in the milo field to the North but all I saw were does and fawns.

Hindsight 20/20 I should have waited to check that camera until at least noon but I’m not sure if that would have made a difference. I think regardless of the time of day the same scenario would have occurred but I will never know for sure.

One of the main takeaways from this excursion was the realization that I didn’t need trail cameras anymore because they had already done their job. Because of my pre-season scouting, I knew there was a shooter in the area and I knew he was coming to the water tank on a regular basis. I positioned my tree stand accordingly so that he could not wind me on his approach, I put in the necessary work but all was lost because of my excitement and trying to nail down his exact bedding location. For what??

I follow a number of hunting shows where they are constantly running cameras to locate the exact travel pattern and bedding area of a hit list buck. Although this information is extremely benficial, it can also be high-risk, resulting in bumping deer and jeopardizing a hunting area. In this particular scenario, I was caught up in the mentality that I HAD to keep running cameras in order to kill this buck. That would be like me as a salesman getting a person to say “Yes, I’ll buy your product!” and then continue to explain features and benefits for another 10 minutes even though they have already committed to the sale. Ludicrous, right?? How much is too much? Sometimes less is more.

All things aside, it was a wonderful opening weekend and it felt great to get back into the stand with my bow in hand. As hunters, we are constantly putting together the pieces of the puzzle and trying to wrap our heads around these elusive animals in hopes of filling the freezer. After all, this is an entirely new property so I have to expect certain things like this to happen because of my lack of local knowledge. I came away with lessons learned and memories made, and in the end that’s all that really matters. I love deer hunting!

-Adam

Unfortunately I was not able to hunt on the opening day of Kansas archery season but I am able to hunt this weekend. Kansas archery season opened up on Monday, September 14th and I have been chomping at the bit to get into one of my tree stands for Saturday evening! Fortunately, I have been able to spend three weekends on the property scouting, checking trail cameras and hanging tree stands which is not an easy task when you live 5 hours away. Am I 100% prepared?? … No, but I do have a pretty good handle on the situation and have confidence that it will be an exciting season.

Strategy fo September 14 – October 15

My early season strategy while the weather is hot will be focused around water and how the deer access that water. See the below illustration for an overview map of what this scenario looks like on the piece of property I’m hunting.

My tree stands locations on the map are circled in white and are positioned approximately 50 yards from the water tank represented by a green star. One stand is located Northwest of the tank and the other being pretty much directly East and as you can see from the aerial view, these are the closest trees to the water. The red trails are what I believe to be general deer access routes to this water and the white trails are my entry / exit routes to the stands. I will sit in the NW stand for Southernly wind directions and the East stand will be used for Northernly wind directions. Another great reason why a SW is an ideal wind for me is because the farmers house is directly South so I know deer won’t be coming from directly behind me unless they are pretty close.

Looking at the weather report for Saturday, September 19th,  the wind direction is saying South East for the area I hunt, which is pretty much ideal for the NW stand. Although this is an ideal wind for not getting busted by deer, I don’t believe that this is an ideal wind for mature buck movement. The reason being is that its not an ideal wind direction for him to move and feel safe if he’s traveling from the direction I have indicated on the map above. Check out this article and video from Wired To Hunt in regards to playing the wind in your favor as well as yours. An ideal wind for both myself and the deer would be a South West wind because at that direction its in his favor as well as mine.

I haven’t been able to check my cameras in a few weeks but the last time I pulled the card on my trail camera situated over the water tank, the main frame 12 point came out during daylight with a SouthWest wind. We shall see if my theory proves true this coming weekend. Below are a few pictures of the buck I’m after. The dates on my camera are wrong; they should be 09/02/15 instead of 10/02/15. Either way, you get the point why I’m hunting this deer!

Things I’m Not Doing During Early Season

1. Wind Direction – The wind will always be my number one priority and I will not hunt these stands with the incorrect wind no matter what.
2. Morning Hunts – Morning hunts are too risky because you can’t see whats in the fields and the deer especially can see a long ways off because of the lack of cover and open ground.
3. Over Hunting Stands – This one won’t be too hard to do since I am pretty much limited to hunting weekends but I will not hunt the same locations or stands too often.
4. More Hunting, Less Scouting – During early season a lot of my focus will still be put towards glassing and scouting the 7,000 acres of land I have access to. Less sometimes means more.
5. Spot and Stalk – Unless the scenario is absolutely perfect, I will hold off on my spot and stalking until we get to the end of October. The last thing I want to do is blow deer out of the area prior to the rut. Although, I do have a decoy coming in the mail from Heads Up Decoy for spot and stalk hunting! More to come on that in a future article.

Don’t Get Too Aggressive Early On

Its a long season so I want to make sure that early season is focused around minimal pressure and hunting smart. I have a plan in place to hunt the water source while its hot with the right wind in my favor and hopefully I’ll cross paths with that 12 point over the next few weekends. If I am able to locate a different buck or a better scenario, I have my Lone Wolf tree stand and Muddy sticks if I wish to hang another stand as a quick attack. I’ll let you know how I do for my opening hunt in Kanas for the 2015 season. Stay tuned!

-Adam

My hunting partner and I stepped out of the truck for the first morning of scouting and we were about as lost as a couple of newborn puppies separated from their mother. All we could see were tall grass fields, a few scattered trees and an everlasting open prairie. After exploring the surrounding area for 20 minutes, we were convinced that deer just simply didn’t exist in this part of the state. We jumped in the truck and started heading to a different area and out of nowhere, a 160 inch buck with all sorts of trash ran across the road in front of us chasing a doe. I had never been so excited and confused at the same time. Those deer literally appeared out of thin air!

The last described scenario took place on public land. If you are hunting Eastern Kansas, then this article wont hold as much weight because the Eastern side is much like Michigan; lots of woods and crop fields with not much open ground.

This year I have the luxury of hunting some private ground on the Western side of Kanas and will be adjusting my hunting strategies accordingly. Here are four key tactics to implement while hunting during the early season on the West side of the state.

#1 – Hunt the Water Sources

Western Kansas is very dry with limited water sources so my early season strategy while the weather is hot will be focused around water. The majority of river beds on the western side are dry and standing water is scarce so if you are able to located a good water location, your plan should be focused around this.

During my last scouting endeavor I was able to locate a half-full water tank and since there are no cows in the pasture, the deer are taking advantage of this resource! My Covert Scouting Cameras had some great things to show me last weekend after the first card pull; view the pictures on my Facebook page, HERE!

#2 – Less Hunting and More Scouting

Hunting a new property is tough, especially when you don’t have any clue as to how the deer utilize the property and where the common travel routes are. Aerial and topography maps will only tell you so much before you have to put boots on the ground. I will be spending a good amount of time glassing from afar in the mornings and evenings until I have a good idea of how the deer are entering and exiting the property. When I do set out to hunt, my tree stand placements will be easily accessible with minimal risk of bumping deer.

I will also spend a good amount of time driving around the neighboring properties to get a better understanding of the surrounding area and how the property I’m hunting fits into the big picture of deer movement.

#3 – Find A Good Vantage Point

This tactic coincides with the “more scouting and less hunting” rule mentioned above but it’s definitely worth mentioning. Western Kansas tracts of land are so vast, meaning there is a lot of ground to cover. The best place to scout from is the highest vantage point or the spot where you can look over more ground. This really helped us learn the deer movements last year and played a key role for spot and stalk hunting later in the rut.

I put together a quick 2 minute highlight video of our hunting trip in Kansas last November. Click the video below and watch me put a stalk on a nice public land 8 point buck!

#4 – Wind, Entry/Exit, Food, Bedding and Travel Routes

The words mentioned above are pretty self explanatory and are applicable to any deer hunting scenario no matter where you hunt. Play the wind and plan your entry and exit routes to your stand locations so that you go undetected. Locate the food and the bedding areas and hunt the places in between. Pretty simple, right??

In my next blog post I will break down my strategy and exact game plan for hunting the biggest buck on the farm. This will highlight my tree stand placement and entry and exit routes in coordination with the right wind. Stay tuned!

-Adam