August is here. The bucks are in full velvet and grouped together in their bachelor groups. Now is the time to do your long range scouting. Find a spot where you can watch a good food source. I like to watch the edges of alfalfa fields the last hour before dark. We have just put up our two man ladder stand on a fence line about 100 yards away from our food plot. The tree stand overlooks a soybean field that the deer like to feed in also. Once you start to see deer, pay close attention to where they are coming out. They might use the same trail to exit the woods every evening. Keep track of this so you know where to place you stand. I like to do this on as many wood lots that you hunt, that way if you would spook the deer and cause them to change the pattern you will still have another spot all set up to go for opening day.

August is the time to check out all you're your hunting equipment; you most likely haven't looked at it since last year. It's time to haul all your bow hunting accessories out of the basement and lay everything out and take inventory and see what you have from last season and what needs replaced. Make a list of things you need to buy and start to look for items you need that are on sale.

Most importantly, it's time to start shooting your bow. Give your bow a good once over and decide if you need to replace any thing. Now is the time to replace stuff like the bow string that was frayed last year, do it now, not the Friday before the season opener. When you have your bow all fixed up it's time to start shooting. I like to start shooting field points first; I also start shooting from 20 yards and closer. When you first start shooting, it will take your muscles some time to get used to pulling the string back again. The first few times shooting your shots will start to get wild as you tire, so keep your shooting sessions short at first then increase your shooting time as you go along.

We will be busy the whole month of August, finishing up our fall food plots. These plots are the important food plots. They are the ones that we will be hunting over. Placement of the plots and placement of the tree stands are critical to your success. Last year I had a group of 3 bucks, including a shooter that I could not get a shot at, because we made the food plot too large and the deer fed on the end of the plot opposite of our tree stand and they never came into range. This year we have cut back the food plot so that if the deer are in the food plot, they will be in shooting range. Always keep that in mind when creating your hunting plots.

August is also when we begin to hang our tree stands. We have certain trees that we hang stands in year after year. These stands are placed in funnels and over food plots and have produced shots at bucks in the past. We will get the stands in place, shooting lanes trimmed, and everything ready so when opening day comes around you can slip into the stand and catch the undisturbed bucks in their predictable summer patterns. We have had shots at many bucks during the first week of the bow season. Other then the rut, the first week of bow season is the best for shooting bucks.

Get ready, keep shooting and do your long range scouting. Enjoy the rest of the summer,

Dale