It looks like the clover is coming up good, right? Well, I was very confident that we could kill a mature buck on this field so I elected to let my Dad hunt and I filmed him. This was the first time we had hunted in the tree together. I was pumped. We had a NW wind at approximately 5 mph. The evening was supposed to drop down into the 5o's. The night was setting up to be perfect for good deer movement. We pushed a small buck, doe and fawn off the food plot as we approached the stand sight (they didn't know what we were and did not spook). However, we did not see a single deer the rest of the night. Here is why- they ate all of our clover in 5 days! It looked like we were hunting over a plowed field. Disappointing.
Day #2- On September 25th Dad and I decided to split up to cover more ground on the second evening. He went to a clover food plot and I hunted a winter wheat food plot. I had a couple recent trail camera pictures of a buck in the area. 
Once I arrived, I found that 3/4 of the winter wheat had also been eaten in this food plot. I couldn't figure out why the deer were devouring our fall food sources. We had Whitetail Institutes Pure Attraction also planted on the other side of the food plot (it was still standing), so I elected to hunt the field anyways. We had a light rain come in around 4:30 but it did not last more than 45 minutes. I was expecting some good deer movement right after the rain cleared out but we did not see much. Dad saw a few does, some small bucks and a 125" 8 point 2 1/2 year old. I saw a doe, 2 fawns, and two small bucks. One of the small bucks kept following the doe around. She kept chasing him off trying to hit him with her front hoofs. I think she must have been his mother who was chasing her 1 1/2 year old buck away for good (to eliminate cross breeding in the coming months). It was sad to watch. I also saw approximately 15 turkeys who managed to pick me out in the tree at 60 yards. Why is it that turkeys can spot you a mile away in a tree but they can't make you out 10 feet in front of them on the ground? Crazy.Day #3- Semptember 26th found us 3 days after the full moon, temperatures were in the mid 60's, it was a cloudy day with a mild NE wind. Dad went home so I elected to hunt between a corn field and a known bedding area. I didn't see a thing so at dark I walked out to the south fence line to see if I could spot deer heading out to the corn field with the horizon behind them. I was in for two surprises. First of all, the farmer to the south had harvested the corn within the last couple of days. The corn field was gone. This was one of the reasons the deer were hitting our food plots so hard. The farmer pulled the corn off early in the area and the deer weren't hitting the soybeans for some reason. Secondly, I found a hunter hunting near our fence line out in the cut corn field (the neighbors has no woods, so he was sitting in the field waiting for our deer to step on his side of the fence). I politely confronted him since he was wearing no orange (during muzzle loader season) and reminded him to stay on his side of the fence. I doubt he will be back to hunt that area.
My cousin Steve and our buddy (Monty) were down from Wisconsin hunting on another farm in the area. Steve attempted to thread the needle and took a difficult shot at a 135" 8 point. He did not get the deer though (the arrow could have deflected off some brush). We searched the area for 4 hours the next morning and found no deer. The buck was lucky this time. The buck was standing in grass that was approximately 3 feet tall so finding the arrow was impossible. Steve worked hard to locate and hand that particular stand set. He really wanted to harvest that buck!
Day #4- Steve and Monty had hunted a few morning but there was zero deer movement. Usually they deer are back in their beds by day break this time of year. On September 27th Steve had to head home due to work responsibilities. So Monty and I packed up and headed North to a different farm near the Kansas River that we had not hunted yet. We hung our stands just inside the woods line, staying off a 2 1/2 acre Whitetail Institute chicory food plot that we had planted last fall. We had a SW wind at 3 mph, cloud cover, with temperatures around 63 degrees. I saw over 20 deer that night with 16 of them being bucks. Can you believe it? I did not have a shooter come within bow range. However, Monty was a couple hundred yards away from me and he had a a 145" 8 point come by at 4 yards. He elected not to shoot him because behind him was a beautiful 160" mainframe 10 that came by him at 15 yards. There was so much brush that he elected not to try and take a shot. He was afraid of wounding the monster if the shot hit brush. Monty saw 13 additional bucks that night. Most of the bucks were out in the food plot between 5 and 6:30 pm. They were sparring and rubbing trees like it was the end of October. Although we didn't kill anything that night, It was a great experience.
Day #5- On September 28th, I recruited my Dad to join Monty and I the next night for the hunt. Monty elected to return to the same stand that he hunted the night before. You can bet he trimmed out the brush that blocked his shot at the 160" buck the previous night. I offered up my stand to my Dad. Most of the deer walked within 15 yards of the tree, so I was confident that he would have some good action and a chance a killing something. I decided to get aggressive and hunted in a ground blind right next to the food plot. Our weather conditions changed a bit on us. It was hot and sunny with temperatures in the high 70's. The deer did not hit the food plot until almost dark. I saw 10 bucks and 8 does. Dad and Monty had similar results. The only big buck we saw was a 135" 9 point that had a tenth point coming off his left brow tine. I had him at 25 yards in the food plot. I passed on him though so he could grow 2 more years because he looked like a 3 1/2 year old deer. In two evenings, Monty and I had seen over 25 bucks. Although we weren't successful, it was a lot of fun.
Well, it was a great time hunting early season with my Dad, two brothers, Cousin Steve and Monty. It was definitely a different kind of hunting compared to the rut. My next goal is to shoot a couple of does in a couple of weeks out of a ground blind with my kids. I can't wait to hunt with them!
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