Anyone else getting out there yet? Now that turkey season is over in PA and NJ I'm switching gears back to deer and getting ready for archery. Sure the summer will have some groundhog hunts and maybe a coyote hunt or two, but it's the time I start getting ready for the fall bow season.

I just hung my first trail cam over a heavily used trail that I have a mineral lick off of. They have been hammering the lick for about 2 months so I got the camera in there to see what kind of bucks are visiting. This trail is definitely primarily a doe trail, but the bucks travel on the other side of the pines about 75 yards away. There is a less defined trail and some HUGE rubs in there from last year. I put the lick further down because there are 2 treestands built in that area and I don't want to attract attention to the area I'm planning on hanging in. I don't think the other hunters venture up where I found the rubs because it is a seemingly unlikely area for deer to travel (probably why the bucks like it).

I also put some fertilizer spikes in around a couple of oak trees that I plan on hanging a stand near. I put some more out in September to try to keep the acorns plentiful and dropping longer than the other trees around. I'll also get a trail cam in over there as well to try to catch what is using the area.

I checked another spot about a month ago and it is a huge oak ridge and there were still acorns littering the ground from the fall. I saw a pile of deer while I was over there, but they were all does. There is always a number of good bucks in that area, so I'm not too worried about it.

I'll be checking in on some other spots here soon and should be knocking on doors in the next month or so to try to access some new areas.

So, what have you all been doing to get ready? It's never too early to start.