Early Muzzleloader Season, 2025

This is the obligatory KY ML Season post. I notice that there are several already on this date over the years. I won’t bore you with anything but the essentials. First off, per usual, no wildlife was harmed. That nearly goes without saying. I can’t tell you the exact year where we stopped taking ML season seriously. I can tell you why:

We never see any deer. Our camp sits on 200 acres of prime whitetail land, in a Zone 1 county. The Commonwealth is begging us for increased deer harvest. There are deer everywhere. Angus saw a 4-pointer Saturday AM. That was it. Our neighbors had similar results. I only heard 4 shots all through Opening Morning.
Of the few deer we see, there’s nothing worth burning a tag on. Even if a doe does manage to get in range, it’s easier to hold off a couple of weeks and take her during Rifle Season when it’s 20 degrees cooler and all the processors are open.
That last point has changed– Poe & McFadden ARE open now for all deer seasons. However, it is still fairly hot weather. It was 86F Saturday afternoon.

I could go on with the reasons. However, we’ve leaned into it. SuperCore, Moose, Angus, and I showed up. We went out. We loaded our front-stuffers. We went out to our blinds. We enjoyed the good weather and had a ball when we were back at camp. Moose brought the MooseWoman. She went out with him on the Opener and watched the squirrels with him.

We all saw turkeys. Those buggers are as thick as flies on the place. They responded well to the cicadas this spring. They also seemed to like all the disruptions– the construction, the food plots, etc. They’ve been out in the bare dirt all summer and fall digging for things.

It’s kind of like a dress rehearsal for the big show in 3 weeks. It’s all the good times at camp without the grind just as the leaves are turning. However, this year, the fun stopped early. We started taking 20 MPH winds at the cabin in the late afternoon on Saturday. It knocked the edge off the 86F heat. Overnight, the wind persisted. I went to bed and got up with the temps at 71F. However, about 0500 ET, we started getting wind-driven squalls that kept moving through until afternoon. Everyone pulled out in between one or the other breaks in the downpours.

A quick update on the food plots: The rain we got, over 1/2 inch, was a godsend. We got at least partial germination throughout. I’ll do a thorough assessment after season. However, it’s looking like the clover and the brassicas underperformed. My guess is these were the most susceptible to the drought. The cereal grains are all coming up. As long as the warm weather holds out, there should be a good buffet for the deer.

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