Bowhunting Whitetails with Bill Winke

The 2023 season was a rough one. I have to ask myself if buying this farm was a mistake. Should I have just kept the farm I had in southern Iowa? There are many factors that make a farm good or bad, or a season or bad. I dive into a few of those discussions here. kwhunting kwwhitetail

Many people asked why I was trying so hard to shoot does this past season despite the fact that I wasn't seeing very many deer. In this episode, I explain the reason and my long-term vision for this property. You may be surprised at my goals and I may not be able to achieve them, but I am going to try. This entire Dream Farm project is something of an experiment. I am going to be just as curious

As we are going around the farm cutting down some junk timber to thicken the cover, I come across a number of beds. Taking a few minutes at each bed, it is very interesting to learn what the deer see from each bed. Knowing this can help you decide how you can approach certain areas during the season and even whether you can sneak into a bedding area at midday.

Jordan and I went for a shed hunt and decided to combine our walk with some discussions about deer hunting. We got off on a few topics, but the main points were related to various kinds of deer sign and which ones were most useful when trying to pattern a specific buck. We talked about a lot of other stuff that we couldn't fit into this episode, so we will likely come up with another "Walking &

Jordan and I continue our walk around the farm during which we discuss a number of things including how deer to react to hunting pressure, the size of a deer's summer range, why we didn't hunt certain areas and my best deer hunting memory. Hopefully, there is something in this episode that interests you.

I grew up shooting ducks and pheasants with a shotgun and throwing footballs, so it was very natural for me to lead moving targets. When I started bowhunting, I naturally took walking shots without ever even questioning it. Given my highly mobile style of hunting, with small shooting lanes, it just made sense to shoot them in the holes when they walked through. But once I started producing video

It can be very tempting to say, "I am going to shoot this buck or none this season." I have said it a few times and usually regretted it. Not all bucks are killable and some relocate during the season, or just before. Others get shot by a neighbor, hit by a car, die in fights, etc. While hunting one buck is really satisfying when it works, it can sure be discouraging when it doesn't. Having o

I spent a couple hours this past weekend looking at my oak trees to see if there is an abundance of acorns like last year. I got caught flat-footed last year and was unprepared for how all those acorns affected deer movement. As a result, I had one of the slowest seasons of my life. I went days without seeing deer because I stuck to the fringes and the deer were all back in the timber eating ac

The bucks will likely be more visible in the next two weeks than they will be any other time of the year. You will see some dandies coming out in the open to feed in daylight. It is an exciting time for a whitetail bowhunter, but then we hit the season full of optimism and those bucks are gone. What happened and where did they go? The fall range shift can be frustrating, but in some cases it can

With the cooler temperatures, it felt great to get out and film a bean field this past week. I did see a nice buck, but the time in the blind gave me an excuse to talk about what I will be doing in early September. That's when I start to find out what is really on the farm. We are about a month away from the start of the serious part of the year!

As we approach the season, we expect that the Jordan Buck will be our number one target. He should still be here (I will know soon when I start running cameras), so knowing what he did in past seasons will give us a real head start on putting together a strategy for hunting him this year. Rather than me just saying how I would hunt him based on last year's behavior and patterns, I am going to le

Yesterday, Jordan and I went through last year's behavior of the buck we call The Jordan Buck. We believe he is still on the farm and what we learned about him last year will give us a great starting point for coming up with a plan to hunt him this year. Rather than me talk about what how I would hunt him, I let Jordan take a cut at it first. She discusses her thoughts and then I follow-up with

Until last year, I never took acorns seriously enough. I would always just bide my time until the deer had mopped them up and then start hunting the bucks the way I always had. Last year was an eye-opener because the deer never did mop up the acorns and they never moved in open areas on my farm. It was a tough year for someone who favors hunting the fringes. That season taught me the importance

I always wait until I think the bucks have started settling into their fall ranges before I get serious with my cameras. Well, that start for me was yesterday. I discuss where I put them and why. I will be back in four days to pull the cards and hopefully find one or both of the bucks I am looking for.

It is finally time to figure this all out before the October 1 opener. I pulled 13 cards from my cameras and had a chance to gain a first glimpse at what is on the farm this year and where it's living. I am sure the next few card pulls will reveal other bucks (different ones) as they finalize the process of settling into their fall ranges. Until then, we have lots of good solid bucks and some fa

This is a lot tougher than you might think. I have to admit that often if I don't have any history with the buck I am looking at, I just have to take a guess. In this video I offer a few visual cues you can zero in on help you at least determine whether a buck is mature. We are getting close to the time when we can put all this information to good use in the tree stand or blind. Good luck.

Larry Zach killed a giant non-typical Iowa state record buck in 2000. I had passed that same deer twice in 1999 on the same farm. I was sure the deer was only three years old that year. When Larry killed him in 2000 the buck grossed 245 inches with a seven inch tine broken off. That buck jumped 80 gross inches from 1999 to 2000 - from age 3 to age 4. No way Larry should have passed this one up g

After pulling my cards the second time I found what I believe to be two shooters. There may be more when the dust settles in a few weeks (and these two may move) but this is a starting point. I may look for bucks to hunt on other farms - depending on what happens in the next two or three weeks here. I just don't want to go into the season hunting only a buck or two and then find out that they aren

We had a great season in 2011 on the farm in southern Iowa. The two bucks I shot were both younger than I thought but I doubt I would have passed them up had I known their true age. It is interesting to see how much different some bucks are from others in regard to their antler size and body size at a young age and how much these genetically superior bucks grew during a three year stretch.

It is no surprise that every buck is different, but it may be surprise that some bucks don't grow their biggest antlers until they are very old. In this video, I offer two examples of bucks that did just that. Many viewers have also reported bucks they have known that grow their biggest antlers well past middle age - and often the year before they die! Not all bucks do this. I have a theory tha

Every season I have to ask myself whether I have enough stands up for the various winds that I expect to hunt that fall. Often, the answer is no, and I realize that there are going to be days when I will be putting up stands during the season or sitting out for lack of options. I am in the same boat again this year, especially regarding the non-prevailing wind directions. In this episode, I discu

With the passing cold front, it was the perfect way to open up the season. We went to a stand on an oak-studded ridge where I had gotten photos of two bucks that I was hoping would give Jordan a shot. We had some good action. For sure, the deer are eating acorns and sticking to the cover/timber, but that can be a risky way to hunt right now - as we learned. Good luck.

It was only the second day of the season and the weather seemed too warm for good movement, but I decided to give it a try anyway. Hey, you don't know if you don't go, right? Well, that is good advice as long as you don't ruin your hunting area in the process. The spot where I was going to hunt was a fringe that set up perfectly for the south wind. It was also the home turf for the fattest buck

This was an eye-opener. I knew the deer were picking away at the apples that are dropping now on the farm, but I had no idea they were hitting those spots during the middle of day - and that there were a lot of them doing it! Once I figure out the best way to setup on a few of these trees, I will have fast action - without having to go deep in the timber to get it. This is a new wrinkle in how I

Last year I spent the whole season waiting for a couple of mature bucks to show up that were very uncooperative. I don't want to do that again, so I am going to find a few options on other farms. I started with a cattle farm that I think will be really good during the rut. It looks a little rough right now, but I have hope! I make a quick scout of the farm and give tips on how to assess gauge th