I got a call from one of the neighbors yesterday. "There is a buck laying down in your Dads old horse barn not far from the road" he said. After talking a bit I figured it was the same buck that had been hanging around that was missing his left front leg.  He must have made a mistake during the firearms season and someone took a shot at him and now was using the barn for shelter. Which was also not for for him to get to a Big N Beasty food plot I put in late summer. I have a couple of pictures of him from my Browning camera. He was 2.5 year old  8 point maybe around 100 inches. Needles to say he was in tough shape and being busy with other stuff I elected to call the game warden dispatch. A short while later the warden called me back and explained that he ended the suffering and I could cut the horns off if I wanted them. And he said the meat was probably not very salvageable. Sad to know the young bucks potential was now at the end. I cut the antlers off and laid him to rest farther in some cover and thick brush -

   By now the deer seasons are coming to an end. It can be a hard to for some die hard deer hunters. I personally don't like to call it over. In fact I'm already thinking about next year. Late season was tough to say the least with the warm weather and lack of snow cover. I put my bow away and decided to keep a good number of trail cameras out to see what bucks are still using the areas to call home. I have another buck I have never seen or had pictures of showing up on a food plot and night.  Thinking about the wounded 8's story and wondering about this new buck and his story. Like where did he come from and will he stick around. I can't help but think he has been around but I just didn't have enough cameras out or not in the right locations. Either way these big bucks are incredible animals and the things they can survive are just unbelievable.  

  These deer always have me thinking about what we can do to make out next season better. I know it's early but I have a few ideas on what to do for next year to make it more successful. The first thing I'm going to do is try and make one of my food plots bigger. This particular plot I usually plant Frigid Forage Big N Beasty. I'm going to increase it in size to about 20 percent because the deer are hitting harder every year and there simply needs to be more of it. Secondly once I get it bigger I'm going to get it all plowed up and plant the new Frigid Forage Plow Down Clover for a cover crop because there was a few weeds that came up. Nothing bad but I just really do not like weeds. Most of my other food plots are big enough or are maxed out as far the area to work with. We have one food plot of corn that I might get a little deeper into the low area and plant some Pure Trophy Clover in and around where the corn will be.We have some apple trees ordered for spring that need to get put in and I need to get out this winter and trim a few over hanging branches too. As far as the coming 2016 season I going to be testing out a couple more HCO Wireless cameras in a few spots that are close to bedding areas. I checked one of my non wireless trail cameras a little to late and when I looked and the pics I was disappointed that I missed out on some daylight monsters at the end of October. I encourage everyone to think about a few little improvements that they can do to make the property a little more deer friendly. Just a few small projects can equally a huge difference come season. Also be sure to check out the new 2016 Browning Camera lineup. We have heard HCO might have a new wireless camera for 2016 too! Thanks for reading.