RE: When to you prepare for deer season?
I prepare "just before deer season." By this I mean I go out shooting two or three times before the season, during the six weeks immediately preceeding the season. Typically I fire 20 rounds on each such outing. Sometimes I'm tuning up two rifles -- my primary and my back-up -- in which case I may be firing double this number of rounds per outing. I will verify my sight-in immediately before the hunt, for example two days before opening day. I have been deer hunting for a while, so I have my kit accumulated and merely need to organize and pack it up neatly. I try to keep in good physical condition all the time, but sometimes I fall off the wagon, and in this case I will employ the two months before deer season to do some physical training.
Because I have been hunting the same spot for the last four seasons, I'm pretty familiar with the hunting ground. I think it is a fair bet I could show up opening morning with no scouting that year and still bag my deer. In fact, I have done that two of the four years I have hunted this ground. This past season I did drop by for some scouting about a month before the season, but I didn't accomplish much other than to verify that there were lots of persimmons and to put up some florescent tape to lead me to a preferred opening morning ambush spot where I placed my son (no luck on this spot).
I may read some about deer hunting during the year, but largely my thoughts are on other things until perhaps mid-September -- my job, the kids's school, family vacations, etc.
I am not a trophy hunter. My hunting ground typically does not have immense bucks on it. I am looking for a mature doe for quality venison and will shoot a buck if I see one that is bigger than the one I got the last time, unless I know someone who needs the food. For my family one deer per year is enough venison, and I prefer the doe for eating anyway. I say this because it seems to me the trophy hunter is well advised to spend a lot of time scouting earlier in the year to locate and pattern the big buck they are seeking -- and maybe on multiple distinct hunting grounds.
I may try to get out more in the future for scouting-like activities, not to enhance my hunt but because my youngest daughter is expressing interest in hunting and this may be a way to feed and nurture this interest at a time when I feel she is still a bit young and small of stature for pulling the trigger on a deer shooting a deer rifle (such as my .243 Winchester featherweight).
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