Today at noon marks the bow opener for North Dakota.    We won’t be in the stands until tomorrow, but that makes today no less exciting.   Ben Brettingen and I are heading to the North Dakota Badlands tonight to see if we can’t find a P&Y buck with a little velvet.

Our original plans had us traveling yesterday, but work comes first and Ben found himself riding the waves on Lake Michigan working with In Depth Outdoors instead.  A long trip home today before hopping in my truck for a long trip out west tonight.   That’s the way it goes.

I’m no stranger to truck time.  Neither is my lab, Mika.  She’s spent more time in the front seat (or on the roof) than she has in a kennel.   She always sleeps on long rides too.  Just like any other passenger.

Lately I’ve been spending time driving around the area that I’ll be hunting in western Minnesota, scouting for bucks.  Man, there are a lot of deer!  Mostly does and fawns, however.  I must have spent about a week and a half before I saw any bucks that were more than a fork.   Still not the bruisers that I’ve been looking for.

I did move my trail cam to a new location and finally checked it for the first time.  Anxiously, I rushed out like an 8 year old tearing down the steps on Christmas morning.   I wanted to “shake the box” and sneak a peek yesterday, but held out until today.

Hurriedly, I jammed the memory card into my laptop only to find it absent of any deer-at all.  The area held good sign, it was a natural pinch point between two food plots and no one had been in the area for a couple of months.  I’d also seen many deer within a quarter mile of it.  But that happens, I guess.  I’ll leave it out there until I get back next week and if I still don’t see deer on it, we’ll try another spot.

The best time of the year is rapidly approaching folks, dove season fires up on the first, the September goose season is about here (also 9/1) and of course the Minnesota bow opener is just over two weeks away (9/15).  I’ve got a little work to do yet as I haven’t decided where I’m going to hang my stand.  I’ll use the slow time in the Badlands to think about it and get it set up when I come back next week.   In the meantime, get ready, cuz arrow flingin’ time is almost here!