3 Critical Summer Tasks For Deer Hunters
The drive many deer hunters feel for the fall hunting season begins in late spring and continues throughout the summer.
Even when the sun is baring down, making temperatures skyrocket into the upper nineties and even low one hundreds, a deer hunter’s mind still drifts to those cool fall days when they enjoy their time hunting. The familiar adrenaline that deer hunters keep, even through the hot summer, is a testimony to their passion for the sport and the animal they love to hunt yearly.
As spring ends and summer begins, hunters often search for ways to improve their habitat and the overall health of their deer herd, essentially resulting in the growth of bigger bucks. The number of tasks that can be done to improve a deer hunter’s chances remains endless. However, no matter if you own thousands of acres or closer to twenty acres, there are three critical tasks that every hunter should do to improve their deer herd and advance the quality of whitetail bucks. During the hot summer months, besides water, deer require three things that hunters can supplementally provide, which can work wonders on the quality of deer that live on a specific hunting property. Minerals, high protein feeds, and leafy forage plants give deer the proper nutrition to thrive yearly.
Matrix
Calcium and phosphorous are two minerals that deer need during the spring and throughout the summer. After bucks have depleted an extensive amount of body mass and energy during the rut and throughout the winter, they are in a desperate search for extra minerals to help rebuild their strength. Coincidentally, at the same time, does need a boost in minerals to help prepare their bodies for growing and raising their fawns.
A deer consumes many green grasses and plants when July and August arrive. During this time, deer readily come to minerals and salt to help absorb the excess water from the greens they regularly eat. Keeping multiple mineral licks on a property throughout the year can significantly benefit all deer.
Hunters can use products such as Evolved’s Rack Up, a super-concentrated mineral formula. Hunters can also use Deer Cane Black Magic, formulated to attract deer for an extended period and enriched with calcium and phosphorus to help improve deer health. By making several mineral sites, deer have easy access to what they need, and it also provides excellent opportunities to hang Muddy game cameras for scouting.
Supplemental Feed
As with minerals, having an extra supply of fat and protein feeds can help quickly rebuild a buck’s lagging body strength after the rut. The faster a buck’s body recovers, the less stressed and better its health will be, which results in increased antler growth the following year
Using products such as Evolved’s Dirt Bag Camo Corn, hunters can provide high-fat and protein food that bucks love and need. This is also a great product to use during the summer with a cellular game camera, such as the new Muddy Matrix.
The Dirt Bag Camo Corn uniquely resembles that of dirt, which keeps camera sites hidden from other hunters in the area. Its aroma is potent; it distributes two hundred percent more scent molecules than granular shelled corn, which helps attract deer from neighboring properties, creating a favorite feeding choice that becomes a habit, enticing more deer to come to the land more often.
Food Plots
Nothing keeps deer coming to land more than a lush green food plot in the middle of a property. By planting leafy forages such as those found in Evolved’s Mega Plot food plot blend, deer have a reliable source of food while providing excellent hunting opportunities at the same time.
The Mega Plot seed can be planted in the spring or the fall and is filled with vital proteins and minerals that deer desperately need throughout the year. The great thing about Mega Plot is its superb mixture of triticale forage grain, oats, turnips, and annual forage clovers that continue to grow year-round. With such a wide variety of forage, hunters regularly provide a food buffet for deer to visit during spring, summer, and fall.
Suppose hunters provide high-protein forage for several months before hunting season. In that case, deer become familiar with the area, making food plots excellent locations to set up a blind such as the Muddy Bull Box Blind. If the hunter can have food plots fully established in the spring and early summer and use their cellular cameras to scout throughout this time while having their Bull Box Blind setup in place, the hunting season will be much more successful by providing healthy deer and ideal hunting locations.
