Josh Sheldon

Sun Outdoor Writer

Regular season is over and we only have limited time to primitively harvest our deer. This is not the time to give up; dust that bow or smoke pole off and give it a last dich effort.

This has turned out to be one of the hottest deer seasons our state has ever had. Too bad I’m speaking of the temperature, rather than a record deer harvest. The heat has ruined nearly everyone’s season and things aren’t looking much better for the remainder. We do have one thing in our favor that could turn the tides, that is, if you are prepared for the shot.

I don’t remember the last time I was able to wear a tee-shirt in December. My father was actually bit by a mosquito on the last day of rifle season. This was quite different from last year’s snow-mageddon season closer. Conditions couldn’t be much worse this year and many hunters are suffering because of it. Most hunters I know are calling this the worst season ever and I can pretty much agree. I was able to tag out on racked bucks, but never saw the big boys appearing on my trail cameras nocturnally. They were with does a lot on camera, moving after dark and before sunrise, which leads me to believe the majority of breeding activity took place while we were all in bed. The scrapes had all dried up, but I was still seeing little activity in the bucks-chasing-doe department. Not a good sign when this is observed. It’s likely the heat was totally to blame and there’s not a whole lot you can do about it. I just keep going out and hoping something will happen, or get pushy and attempt to move deer around yourself. This is your best bet, if giving up is not an option.