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It's Tuesday, September 6th, and archery season's already open from Kentucky to Wyoming and
several other states. It's countdown time here in Missouri because it opens September
15th. Getting those last minute chores done, ready for deer season.
GrowingDeer.tv is brought to you by Bass Pro Shops. Also by Reconyx, Trophy Rock, Gallagher,
Muddy Outdoors, Eagle Seed, Nikon, Winchester Ammunition, Redneck Hunting Blinds, Derby
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Sometimes you see those motivational signs, "Success is a journey not a destination."
That's just like a good bow season. I've been working for bow season all year long, not
just the week before season. Robin, when you get up, I want you tell me...(Fades
out) But I'm a hunter, I'm a predator, can I make
that kill shot when the opportunity exists? And for me, that means months of practicing
and being totally confident with my equipment and me, not just a week before season.
For years I hunted with a Black Widow recurve bow. Great bows but the most important thing
I learned from that experience is one time I was taking some training at Black Widow
Archery and the instructor said, "Perfect practice makes perfect." Not just shooting
a bunch of arrows, anyone can get out there and yank a bunch of arrows and build your
shoulders up. Try to be as realistic as you can. All the way to wearing gloves, wearing
a coat, knowing where you hang your rangefinder, and how you can bring it up and down quietly
and having everything just right. You know, shooting right here, a bunch of
shots of a perpendicular is one thing, but deer rarely stand perpendicular. Get in all
different positions, including elevated and think about the path of your arrow through
the kill zone. You may need to enter back here, depending on the angle. You might need
it slightly like this to take out both lungs. Don't stand in one position because deer won't
come this fall. Practicing out of a blind with the cameraman
making fun of you is good peer pressure. Boom. Dead deer. Now can I do it when the hairs
on and not the foam? We'll have to wait and see.
You know all the field work through the summer and all the practicing with my bow doesn't
matter if I can't get within killing distance of a mature white tail deer. That's my objective.
I have this little separate washing machine, I use it only for my hunting clothes. I simply
hook up a water hose out here on the front porch when none of my wife's friends are around
so they don't think we're really hillbillies. I use a really high quality hunting detergent.
I wash my clothes out here, I hang them out in the full sunshine to dry and prepare them
for hunting season. Hunting season is the one time a year my wife does not have to ask
me to do laundry. I gladly do it because it's critical to my success in a tree, starting
right here at the washing machine. I always talk about the limited resource and
with this drought, water and food are clearly the limited resource, so right now I'm really
thinking about what food resources are available and gonna be available just nine days from
now, September 15th, when hunting season opens. We've shown you this field a time or two throughout
the summer, from just germinating to a little bigger, to now these beautiful seed heads.
Look at all this food out here. I am thrilled. Milo is extremely drought hardy and that's
why we came back in this field after our corn crop had failed due to wireworm and drought,
and planted milo and it survived the drought and made a great crop. The only problem I'm
worried about is my deer have never seen milo. They don't recognize this as a food source.
Deer, just like humans, have a learning curve and oftentimes, maybe the first times you
planted turnips or brassicas, they didn't consume them too well and the next year they
ate them really good and by the third or fourth year they're starting to eat 'em as soon as
they come out of the ground. Well my deer have never seen milo. There's no milo for
counties around me. How long will it take my deer to learn this is a food source? We'll
wait and see but I bet you I'll have a Reconyx camera out here watching and I'll be hunting
this field at sometime this fall. Leaving that lush looking milo field and coming
down here lets you know that milo's really deceiving. Those roots went deep and got any
moisture up there on that ridge top and made a decent crop. We've just planted this wheat
over a week ago and you can see it's barely germinating -- there's no moisture. You've
probably heard about the drought and all the fires in Texas and Oklahoma and southern Missouri,
where I live. It's a wicked drought folks. The only thing that's allowed this wheat to
germinate is that we use a no-till drill. We don't till the soil. A no-till just cuts
a slit, puts the seed in, preserving whatever moisture's in the ground. That plus using
Antler Dirt, the organic matter in Antler Dirt, which holds four times more water than
its weight, has allowed us to save whatever dew or humidity has allowed this to germinate
but nothing more. If it doesn't rain, this fields clearly not gonna make and those milo
fields will be super hot spots. Now you know why I'm so excited that we did make the choice
to plant milo back in June. As you're preparing for deer season, wherever
you hunt this year, I hope you've had time and health to go through the steps of preparing
in the field. Preparing, practicing, doing your scouting, but really take a moment and
think about the tremendous freedom we have, that we can even do that, that we're not starving,
or so scared of some foreign power trying to kill us every day. I just really want to
take a moment and reflect on the great freedoms we have to enjoy Creation. When I'm sitting
in a treestand this year and I'm really focused on my job and harvesting a deer and providing
meat for my family and hopefully educating my fellow hunters, I want to make sure I'm
thankful for the freedoms I have to enjoy it all. Thank you for watching GrowingDeer.tv.