July is officially here! This is the time of the year when most hunters are starting to gear up for season! Antlers are really taking shape. At The Proving Grounds hit list bucks are starting to show up on the trail cameras. These bucks are frequently visiting our Trophy Rock mineral stations on the edges of our soybean plots.

Since these bucks are appearing on a regular basis it’s easy to get caught up looking at antlers. Once hit listers have been clearly identified, it’s time to start planning. This is the time when it’s important to begin making connections with these hit-listers. We save and review past images and videos of hit list bucks throughout each season. When we review this information closely, general trends begin to appear in their movement. These trends may reveal preferred feeding and bedding locations throughout a season, location of most daylight activity, and most active scrape used. These preferences are often dependent on the current conditions. The trends found in the data will often suggest the best places to hunt when similar conditions occur this coming fall. Finding these patterns in a buck’s movements before season arrives gives you a huge advantage.

When the weatherman calls for a cold front or even a warming trend, you can now make solid prediction on where to hunt. This simple off season task can be the difference in tagging a mature buck every season. This is valuable information to any hunter! To help look for trends you can search your local historical weather at Weather Underground.  Take the time now to review your trail camera images and find these hidden trends.  Waiting too late can often result in missed opportunities. Be on the front end of this deer season!

GrowingDeer together,

Matt