Late Season Hunting Success

There is something special when you find success in the woods, especially if it happens during the late season. There is a whole different challenge to hunting whitetails when the temperatures drop and a blanket of snow covers the forest floor.

The first week of December is muzzleloader season here in Wisconsin. With season underway the day after gun season closes, the deer on edge and very nocturnal on my property. One thing is for certain though, if you have food and a cold front hits, you better be sitting on a food source. We got exactly that during our muzzleloader season. However, I also was reminded that you can't kill a buck when you leave your muzzleloader in the blind when you are not hunting.

Our muzzleloader season opened on the 1st of December with above average temps. This made the deer movement non-existent, or so I thought. On Wednesday, the 4th of December, I left work early planning to hunt. With the temperature around 40 degrees and a cold front arriving later in the week, I decided to cut wood instead. As it was getting closer to primetime, I went to the house, grabbed my spotting scope and went upstairs to glass the food plot to see what came out in the daylight. That’s when I was surprised at what happened next. The largest buck I had on camera after gun season stepped out of the woods and started browsing on the beans and brassicas. He was about 175 yards out and I was without my muzzleloader that was sitting in my deer blind. At first I was really kicking myself, but I knew the best days of our muzzleloader season were yet to come with multiple cold fronts arriving before the end of season. While I was watching the buck browsing away in the food plot I called my wife, Kayla to let her know that I was watching a good buck from the house. I then asked her if she could possibly leave work early on Friday with the cold front arriving. I was so confident that Friday was the day that I told her that she couldn’t play hookie, that she needed to tell the truth because we were going to be celebrating that Friday night.

Fast forward to Friday afternoon. We positioned ourselves in the deer blind by 3pm with high anticipation of deer movement and temperature being approximately 25 degrees. The pressure was climbing with a southwest wind. The conditions were much cooler than the previous day’s temperature that brought great deer movement. Including the largest buck we had on camera that I had to watch from the house. The conditions were right and we were ready, but the deer were not. With about 15 minutes left of shooting light, we were staring at an empty field with no deer to be seen. It doesn’t happen often, but it makes you wonder if you might have bumped the deer entering, predators, or possibly the deer being on your neighbor’s food source for the absence of deer during a cold front. At this point I was feeling pretty discouraged. Soon after, I scanned the draw coming out of the valley and noticed a buck that had just entered the food plot. At a quick glance, I immediately saw a buck with a good frame that I thought for sure was the buck we were after that I saw a couple days prior. The buck was locked onto our location a little over 100 yards out. I started whispering quite rapidly, “BUCK, BUCK, BUCK!” At that point I took my eyes off the buck and started to help position Kayla for the shot. Kayla had to take her muzzleloader of the chair pod and free hand the shot out of a different window. I took one more look at the buck, which was closing the distance to 75 yards and presenting Kayla with a broadside shot and just like that Kayla had got the shot off. As soon as she shot, I immediately got on the buck with my binos to see it sprinting away from us. t I honestly thought she had missed it, but when the buck started veering to the the left, I could see that it was going to go down! After a short celebration in the deer blind, we quickly got out of the blind and I started sprinting to the spot of impact, while Kayla called her father to let him know that she had just shot a buck. It didn't take long to find the blood  and I started to follow the blood trail. After following the trail, I saw that the buck had passed one of my trail cams that was set to shoot 30 second video clips. As I continued, it was a short distance later and I made it to the buck that just barely cleared the food plot just inside the woods. As soon as I saw him, I was surprised to see that it was not the buck we had first thought she shot, but a different buck that we also had pictures of. He is a unique looking 3X4 with awesome character! We also had some history with this deer the year before through trail cam pics. 

This was also Kayla’s largest buck to date and her very first with a muzzleloader. This also happened to be her first buck shot off of our property! It was time to celebrate!

This hunt here is proof that if you have frigid temps and a quality food source, your odds of being successful are incredibly high. There is no better time to kill a particular buck in my opinion.

If you are looking to turn your property into a late season hot spot, look no further than Elk Mound Seed, home of MonsterBuck Wildlife 

Products where you will find every seed you need to produce quality forage on your property, at an affordable price. What makes MonsterBuck Wildlife Products seed unique is that we are like no other food plot seed company out there. MonsterBuck Wildlife Products has three agronomists on staff who will help you with any questions you may have regarding seed and soil. Our seed is ordered directly from the grower and brought to our warehouse, where our crew bags the seed in smaller quantities and blends our own proven mixes. You are able to purchase more than just your typical food plot mix, but a wide variety of individual seeds by the pound that you prefer to be planted on your property.