This is the video transcript. To watch the video for this episode click here.

GRANT: It’s Tuesday, September 6th, and archery season’s already open from Kentucky to Wyoming and several other states. It’s countdown time here in Missouri because it opens September 15th. Getting those last minute chores done, ready for deer season.

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GRANT: Sometimes you see those motivational signs, “Success is a journey not a destination.” That’s just like a good bow season. I’ve been working for bow season all year long, not just the week before season.

GRANT: Robin, when you get up, I want you tell me…(Fades out)

GRANT: But I’m a hunter, I’m a predator, can I make that kill shot when the opportunity exists? And for me, that means months of practicing and being totally confident with my equipment and me, not just a week before season.

GRANT: For years I hunted with a Black Widow recurve bow. Great bows but the most important thing I learned from that experience is one time I was taking some training at Black Widow Archery and the instructor said, “Perfect practice makes perfect.” Not just shooting a bunch of arrows, anyone can get out there and yank a bunch of arrows and build your shoulders up. Try to be as realistic as you can. All the way to wearing gloves, wearing a coat, knowing where you hang your rangefinder, and how you can bring it up and down quietly and having everything just right.

GRANT: You know, shooting right here, a bunch of shots of a perpendicular is one thing, but deer rarely stand perpendicular. Get in all different positions, including elevated and think about the path of your arrow through the kill zone. You may need to enter back here, depending on the angle. You might need it slightly like this to take out both lungs. Don’t stand in one position because deer won’t come this fall.

GRANT: Practicing out of a blind with the cameraman making fun of you is good peer pressure. Boom. Dead deer. Now can I do it when the hairs on and not the foam? We’ll have to wait and see.

GRANT: You know all the field work through the summer and all the practicing with my bow doesn’t matter if I can’t get within killing distance of a mature white tail deer. That’s my objective. I have this little separate washing machine, I use it only for my hunting clothes. I simply hook up a water hose out here on the front porch when none of my wife’s friends are around so they don’t think we’re really hillbillies. I use a really high quality hunting detergent. I wash my clothes out here, I hang them out in the full sunshine to dry and prepare them for hunting season. Hunting season is the one time a year my wife does not have to ask me to do laundry. I gladly do it because it’s critical to my success in a tree, starting right here at the washing machine.

GRANT: I always talk about the limited resource and with this drought, water and food are clearly the limited resource, so right now I’m really thinking about what food resources are available and gonna be available just nine days from now, September 15th, when hunting season opens.

GRANT: We’ve shown you this field a time or two throughout the summer, from just germinating to a little bigger, to now these beautiful seed heads. Look at all this food out here. I am thrilled. Milo is extremely drought hardy and that’s why we came back in this field after our corn crop had failed due to wireworm and drought, and planted milo and it survived the drought and made a great crop. The only problem I’m worried about is my deer have never seen milo. They don’t recognize this as a food source. Deer, just like humans, have a learning curve and oftentimes, maybe the first times you planted turnips or brassicas, they didn’t consume them too well and the next year they ate them really good and by the third or fourth year they’re starting to eat ‘em as soon as they come out of the ground. Well my deer have never seen milo. There’s no milo for counties around me. How long will it take my deer to learn this is a food source? We’ll wait and see but I bet you I’ll have a Reconyx camera out here watching and I’ll be hunting this field at sometime this fall.

GRANT: Leaving that lush looking milo field and coming down here lets you know that milo’s really deceiving. Those roots went deep and got any moisture up there on that ridge top and made a decent crop. We’ve just planted this wheat over a week ago and you can see it’s barely germinating – there’s no moisture. You’ve probably heard about the drought and all the fires in Texas and Oklahoma and southern Missouri, where I live. It’s a wicked drought folks. The only thing that’s allowed this wheat to germinate is that we use a no-till drill. We don’t till the soil. A no-till just cuts a slit, puts the seed in, preserving whatever moisture’s in the ground. That plus using Antler Dirt, the organic matter in Antler Dirt, which holds four times more water than its weight, has allowed us to save whatever dew or humidity has allowed this to germinate but nothing more. If it doesn’t rain, this fields clearly not gonna make and those milo fields will be super hot spots. Now you know why I’m so excited that we did make the choice to plant milo back in June.

GRANT: As you’re preparing for deer season, wherever you hunt this year, I hope you’ve had time and health to go through the steps of preparing in the field. Preparing, practicing, doing your scouting, but really take a moment and think about the tremendous freedom we have, that we can even do that, that we’re not starving, or so scared of some foreign power trying to kill us every day. I just really want to take a moment and reflect on the great freedoms we have to enjoy Creation. When I’m sitting in a treestand this year and I’m really focused on my job and harvesting a deer and providing meat for my family and hopefully educating my fellow hunters, I want to make sure I’m thankful for the freedoms I have to enjoy it all. Thank you for watching GrowingDeer.tv.