We’ve made our way through Missouri rifle season and are closing out the month of November. We’re putting up our Winchester boxes and grabbing our Prime bows and heading back to the field in hopes of finding that hit list buck! It’s time now to draw up a game plan for the late season or “post gun season.”

Weekly readers of our blog recall Brian writing about our hunting strategies for the last few days of rifle season. During those final days of rifle season, we saw more and more does with fawns and even some large groups of does and fawns. Along with observing their movement patterns and preparing our game plan for our upcoming hunts we’ll focus on one thing, food plots. As Brian mentioned, the does and fawns will be going to the plots to feed while the bucks will be following hoping to find a hot doe. Chances are most of the does will already be bred but there is one variable that’s still in play: the “second rut.” This is the time frame when doe fawns have reached approximately 70 pounds and enter puberty making them receptive for breeding.

Determining the time frame when this occurs depends heavily on the food sources available. A doe fawn that lives in agriculture country where there are plenty of crops to eat will come into estrus sooner than would a doe fawn in heavily populated forests. In our area typically the “second rut” will occur around the middle to late December. However, based on the size of some of the fawns on The Proving Grounds this year it looks like it could be really soon!

That one reason alone is exactly why we’ll be monitoring our Reconyx cameras over the next few weeks and finding those food plots with the most activity. First we’ll look to find the does and fawns frequently visiting the food plot and then we’ll wait for a hit list buck to show his face. This is exactly what Grant and I did last December when we had our encounter with Trashman (watch episode 163 here).

After we identify the food plot does and fawns are frequently visiting we will wait for a hit list buck to show his face.

That’s our game plan! Be sure to check out upcoming episodes of GrowingDeer.tv to see if it all comes together!

Daydreaming of whitetails,

Adam