If you are like most deer hunters you think of deer hunting as a two-season affair, hunting and getting ready to hunt. For many people the hunting season only last a couple of months. The rest of the year is spent remembering the seasons past, dreaming/ planning what you are going to do when hunting begins, reading articles on deer hunting and talking to other deer hunters. As a wildlife biologist I spend a great deal of time in the bush during the off season. This is the time while doing my job of habitat management that I find next years stand sites and photo stations. Occasionally I will come upon a deer hunter in the woods in June, July and August. The heat, deer flies and mosquito’s are bad but here they are with an aerial photo or topo map in hand more than a mile from the nearest road. At first they are disappointed in seeing what they immediately perceive as the competition in “their woods”.

When they find out you’re a biologist they spread their map on the ground and begin interrogating you for every bit of information you have on the local habitat. Frequently they know as much or more about the local habitat then you do. They already know the bucks they see in summer months may be in a different piece of habitat come fall. If you ask them what they are looking for they give you a long list including old deer trails, doe concentrations, last years rubs, etc, etc. They also spend a lot of time looking at the ground. They also frequently are carrying trail cameras and some kind of attractant like C’mere Deer or dry molasses. When you ask them how successful they were in past years you never get a direct answer.

These people are serious deer hunters. Frequently they will ask for your card and you can expect a call at least once a year. I frequently learn much of what is happening on a piece of habitat and I trust their observations. Frequently they contact me at our Bruce Point Outdoors site to ask questions. I enjoy my contact with these deer hunters because they know the relationships between wildlife and their habitats and they have a genuine love of the outdoors. Deer season never ends for these devout hunters. It just goes from scouting to harvesting. Several of these woodsmen tell me the like the scouting season as much or more than the harvest season as they have the bush all to themselves. Get out and enjoy the deer season year around.