My buddy, Shuan Klingsmith, and I team up for a mid-October whitetail hunt in Missouri. The early rut is just kicking off and food plots pay off big with a shot at an old 10-pointer. The success of this hunt weighs on Shuan’s decisions after making a marginal hit on the big buck.
When hunting early-season food plots (clover, turnips and oats), it’s very important to hunt the wind. I sometimes will wait a week before I go to a stand due to bad wind. A big buck will only take so much human scent before he changes his patterns and times of entering the food plots. Sometimes it can be changed with just one bad wind encounter. That’s why I always check my ScentCone in the HuntStand Hunting app as I’m considering possible stands. [The 15-Yard Files]