Whitetails 365

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Starting in 2015, I will be writing a monthly column for Iowa Sportsman magazine titled Whitetails 365.  The column will be dedicated to the year round whitetail hunter and I will emphasize what it takes to improve your hunting grounds working all year long.  Most hunters, myself included, are weekend hunters with neither unlimited time or money.  This column will be written for hunters with a passion for habitat management on a time and money budget.  I’m looking forward to it!  Don’t look for this information in the normal blog posts.  I am creating a new page on this site called HUNT 365.  Subscribe to Iowa Sportsman or check out Hunt 365 each month right here on this site.  Each month I will have a new detailed article on what you can be doing on a weekend for that month.  I hope you will follow along.

Hunt 365 will be a working class hunter's guide to hunting whitetails year round. Gear, habitat, tactics....

Hunt 365 will be a working class hunter’s guide to hunting whitetails year round. Gear, habitat, tactics….

2014 update…

Believe it or not, the fall harvest is just getting done in southern Iowa.  The bucks have just spent the last 20 days or so in what I call “peak hunting” pounding scrapes, and making rubs throughout their ranges.

October 25th and a good buck is on his feet during daylight on one of my interior plots. That's why we plant and establish interior plots...big deer can't resist them.

October 25th and a good buck is on his feet during daylight on one of my interior plots. That’s why we plant and establish interior plots…big deer can’t resist them.

I have 5 mature bucks that I know of on the farm this year. Two hunters have been hunting since the end of October and so far have had 2 good opportunities at good deer.  If it were easy…it wouldn’t be hunting right!!!  November 10th starts what I call peak breeding and lasts until around November 20th.  This part of the rut can be very exciting or very frustrating as the does are coming into heat full swing and buck movement is suppressed because they are not longer traveling to find hot does.  Hang in there…you can still kill really good deer this time of year.

My dad, Jim Peplinski with a good buck shot October 22nd. Late October is one of the best times to hunt regardless of what "they" say. Central Wisconsin over soybeans overseeded with winter rye.

My dad, Jim Peplinski with a good buck shot October 22nd. Late October is one of the best times to hunt regardless of what “they” say. Central Wisconsin on the family farm.  Food plot was soybeans over-seeded with winter rye.

Soybeans over-seeded with winter rye is a great, if not the best food plot. When the beans are consumed what remains is a solid plot (winter rye) that will stay green all through winter and into next spring.

Soybeans over-seeded with winter rye is a great, if not the best food plot. When the beans are consumed what remains is a solid plot (winter rye) that will stay green all through winter and into next spring.  You can see the winter rye coming up in these mature beans.