Last fall, Grant was on the edge of his seat as he played cat and mouse with a big Kentucky buck!

Our friend Keith recently shared a great habitat update he’s done on his hunting property! After thinning pines several years ago, he used prescribed fire this past spring and saw a flush of native species.

This vegetation is offering great cover and palatable browse. This is a great example that opening up the canopy (in this case thinning the pines) with the use of prescribed fire can create quality habitat. What’s even more interesting is that Keith also shared a photo of thinned pines that was not burned.

This stand had many more woody species/saplings. Within a few seasons theses species will be shading the ground and browse will be out of reach of critters. If not addressed soon, this area could require a lot of work to convert it back to quality habitat.

Share your habitat improvement updates with us on social media: Facebook and Instagram!

Enjoy Creation!

Several years ago, we started using a BUCK CUFFS Deer Drag to drag deer from the woods. It quickly became one of favorite hunting tools!

It fits in a pocket or pack and makes it easy for a hunter to tote deer, hogs, and other critters out of the woods.

While we’ve been out checking cameras we’ve kept an eye out for acorn producing oaks and marking them in OnX Hunt!

We’ll be hunting in this area when this white oak starts dropping acorns! Let us know how the acorn crop looking where you hunt by joining us on social media and leaving a comment!

The GrowingDeer team has been using Winchester Deer Season XP for many years! Last fall I was able to fill my rifle tag on a great buck we called Slingshot. After the hunt we noticed the bullet was just underneath the skin on the offside shoulder. The bullet left all its energy in the deer, and Slingshot didn’t make it out of sight!

We are ready for those crisp fall mornings in the deer woods!

Clay

Native browse is extremely nutritious! We noticed an area where deer were hammering the giant ragweed. We collected a ragweed sample and had Waters Ag (same lab we use for soil samples) analyze the nutrient quality. Check out the results. This is one reason we work to improve native habitat! (page down to see the nutritional analysis)

The velvet antlers are growing nicely on some of the bucks in these ReConyx trail camera videos. The bucks get up close and personal with the cameras as they browse.

A healthy crop of fawns here at The GrowingDeer.tv Proving Grounds! Check out these vidoes of does with their fawns in May and June 2020.

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If you want to get to see more bucks that are on your property – find a fruit tree that is producing now and place a trail camera nearby! Soft mast trees like peaches will draw in all kinds of critters – deer, possums, raccoons! We had not seen any of these bucks on our other trail cameras so this was an easy way to get more in tune with the local bucks!

A short video compilation of hen turkeys with their poults from late May to mid-June 2020. Listen to the hens purr as they walk along with their little broods!

Many deer hunters hunt from an elevated blind or stand. It’s important to practice for those shot opportunities.

Standing at a higher elevation (even on top of a small hill in the yard) and shooting at a target lower in elevation can help you prepare for fall.