I can see clearly now that the velvet is gone. I think there's a song that goes something like that. Well, maybe if a deer hunter wrote it. OK, maybe that's a bit too cheesy for an early morning, but I'm going to use that to begin illustrating my point in this post. We are seated in early September and it seems as if half of the bucks across the whitetail's range are still holding strong to the velvet on their antlers. That will change by the day as bucks begin to shed velvet

Summer trail camera pictures featuring monster whitetail bucks have been populating every corner of social media for a few months now. It seems like everyone who owns a trail camera has an interesting picture or two. Providing endless amounts of hope for the season to come. I'm not the guy who enjoys raining on anyone's parade, but let's have a quick conversation about the reality of summer trail camera pictures. This is a conversation that we need to have. Whether it's from

Another member of the extended family here at MPTV just dropped by The Affiliated Outdoors Podcast! Chad Farace of Apple Cracker Deer Feed was the special guest for episode #38 of the AO Podcast. Chad swings through to give us the background story on Apple Cracker, discuss the importance of supplemental feeding, and educate us on whitetail nutrition overall. You can go ahead and listen to the full show by engaging the embedded media player below or click HERE to watch the vid

The summer months are the perfect time to get back on the trail camera train as our collective minds turn to summer scouting. We always stress the importance of the summer when it comes to setting the stage for success in the fall, and there is good reason. It's just plain difficult to put an arrow or a bullet in a mature whitetail buck without some kind of scouting intel in your back pocket. Trail cameras are obviously all of the rage when it comes to scouting in 2019, and t

The month is June and times are pretty slow for those of us who love to hunt. Fishing season and other summertime activities definitely have their places in our hearts, but the early summer does not do much to satisfy that inner hunter. Especially if you're a bowhunting nut who is just counting down the days until archery season. Now, if you are a true bowhunting nut then you know how important this phase of the year really is. A time that is neglected by many but eventually

Photo by Realtree/Realtree.com Spring rains are driving across the country, and that trend should continue through the next several months. Everyone knows that as temperatures rise and humidity levels peak, storms pop up. Whether you love a good thunderstorm or despise them, we're here to tell you why you should welcome abundant rainfall. While I am no biologist, scientist, or anything special, I like to live in the real world of truth, logic, and common sense. Even I can dra

Photo by DrNordbergOnDeerHunting.com Don't look now, but we're looking at the last week and some change of August 2018. For many hunters across America, that means hunting season is very near. Some of the earliest seasons are already open, while others are looking at a September 1 kickoff. The rest of us are in the dreaded pre-season waiting period for those late-September or early-October openers. Thus, it's important to realize right off of the bat that what I will say in t

The mid-August sun and warm temperatures may have you feeling a bit more summer than fall, but deer season is not that far away. Archery season openers will be kicking off hot and heavy before we know it. That drives a lot of bowhunters to the archery range on these warm summer evenings. We have all heard the age-old saying that practice makes perfect. Indeed it does, but not all practice is created equal. You have probably heard the saying about perfect practice making perfe

In the words of the great baseball legend Yogi Berra, it's getting late early. We're only in the month of August, but that also means we are several weeks to a month away from many deer seasons opening up. Some of you folks in places like South Carolina or Tennessee are looking at a matter of days before you can hit the deer woods. If you have yet to make preparations in anticipation of the upcoming deer season, now may be the time to get rolling. There is a laundry list of t

Whitetail deer hunters across the United States are pulling SD cards from their trail cameras. Many of those hunters anticipate checking their SD cards and scrolling through trail camera pictures like a kid on Christmas morning. Coming across a big velvet buck in the summer is a joyous occasion. It's what fuels a lot of trail cam fanatics. Unfortunately for many hunters out there, anticipation quickly fades into disgust as they fail to photograph a single "shooter" buck. Mayb

It is officially the final day of July 2018. That may be hard to believe, but here we are. Literally just weeks away from many whitetail deer hunting seasons. Meaning that we are entering the final stretch of what I call "prep-season". The time to get your hunting spot primed and ready for the fall. Looking at the summer season on a calendar can be daunting. The off-season feels like an eternity. An eternity in which you have all the time in the world to get your pre-season t

It finally struck me that we are mired in the absolute dog days of summer. It may be more comforting to look at your calendar knowing that September is not that far away, but that archery season opener for my home state of Ohio sure looks incredibly distant. Yes, some of you guys are lucky enough to start hunting again in August. Still, the fall hunting season looks distant. Meaning that it can be easy to get bored at this time of year. We're currently staring at a forecast l

Photo by NPR The spring food plot that you envisioned being a deer magnet in the upcoming fall season is slowly but surely turning into a barren wasteland of weeds and grasses. Now what? Well, the first thing you can do is welcome yourself to the club. Anyone who has ever planted a food plot for hunting purposes has experienced miserable failure. It's just par for the course. There are so many reasons why food plots struggle and ultimately fail. The second thing that you need

Photo by Bone Collector/BoneCollector.com As the summer burns on, whitetail deer hunters cannot help but to get a little bit anxious. Trail camera photos begin to roll in with velvet bucks posing in the night, fall food plots begin to hit the ground, and treestands and blinds inevitably take their places. The likelihood of finding a consensus agreement on when is the best time to officially hang your treestands and place your blinds is about as likely as finding consensus in

Photo by Whitetail Properties on YouTube As we stated at the beginning of the summer season, summertime is trail camera time. For the diehard whitetail hunter, there's nothing like putting your fleet of cameras back out in the woods to see what is stirring. Getting pictures of big velvet bucks is like opening that present you were hoping for on Christmas morning. Unfortunately, the Christmas morning feeling can end up doing more harm than good for you if you're not careful. T

Photo by North American Whitetail Breaking news: You can make improvements to your hunting property while on a budget! Yes, you read that correctly. Summer deer and land management projects are not reserved for the wealthy hunting professionals alone. Those of us who wear blue jeans and blue collars can still engage in management practices, and we can do it without massive amounts of money being spent on heavy equipment and products. Believe it or not, we can also achieve sim

If you live anywhere within the massive range of the whitetail deer, there's a great chance that you may lay eyes on a fawn (baby deer) or two during the summer months. May, June, and July represent fawn season when it comes to whitetails. Does have started giving birth to the small, spotted fawns all across the country. There's a great chance that you have already scrolled across a picture or two on social media. The subsequent comment sections were probably loaded with folk

Photo by Wide Open Spaces The month of June could be viewed as a dull one for passionate deer and turkey hunters across America. If you enjoy cool, crisp fall treestand sits or a spring breeze with a shotgun on your knee, you probably don't love June. That is fine, but we need to recognize the importance of this month and our role as stewards of the land during it. It can be easy to get short-sighted if you hunt for a hobby to kill some time here and there. It's definitely se

Photo by Jason Mrachina Spring and summer rains are driving across the country, and that trend should continue (hopefully) through the next several months. Everyone knows that as temperatures rise and humidity levels peak, storms pop up. Whether you love a good thunderstorm or despise them, we're here to tell you why you should welcome abundant rainfall. While I am no biologist, scientist, or anything special, I like to live in the real world of truth, logic, and common sense

Photo by Gameandfishmag.com As part of our ongoing spring and summer food plotting series, we figured that covering some basic mistakes made in food plotting would be a good idea. Lord knows that myself and most other food plotters have made the same mistakes, and sometimes more than once. It is far easier to make those mistakes that lead to failure than to stumble upon success in food plotting. You can surely get lucky by tossing seeds out there and having the right combinat