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When the 2005 season
arrives, Ted and I will take to the woods of Uwharrie to relive
our old times in those hills and valleys. We'll do some
squirrel hunting, maybe a bit of target shooting, and we'll be
sure to eat some BBQ in Denton, NC.
We'll probably try for the
predators in February, mainly just to get back in the woods again.
We're hoping to get a bit of snow to help us track those wary
foxes and coyotes.
In April, as always, we'll
start pounding the woods looking for turkeys. Hopefully this
will be the year that Ted and I each get a good gobbler.
Things will quiet down in
the summer months as we do a little bit of work here and there
getting new stands up and getting our leases ready for the deer
season.
Deer season itself will
come earlier for me this year, since I'll be hunting in Kershaw
County, SC, where the opening day of the bow season is September
1. That'll give me two extra weeks of deer hunting action,
although this will possibly be at the expense of a day of dove
hunting.
I have two leases this
year; a small one in Lancaster county, SC, and a much bigger one
in Liberty Hill, SC.
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Whitetail Buck |
33 |
1 |
Whitetail Doe |
20 |
3 |
Turkey (Gobbler/Jake) |
8 |
1 |
Turkey (Hen) |
12 |
- |
Wild Boar |
0 |
0 |
Coyote |
1 |
0 |
Fox |
3 |
1 |
Bobcat |
0 |
0 |
Squirrel |
- |
0 |
Dove |
- |
0 |
Crows |
- |
0 |
Ducks / Geese |
6 |
1 |
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Notes: Clicking on any picture will show you a full size image of that picture.
Click here for a "cast of
characters" for my hunting journals |
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I'm satisfied. Only back in 1996
when I killed my first turkey, my biggest whitetail ever, and my
first mule deer did I have a better year than 2005. In 2005 I saw
more bucks than I've ever seen in a deer season in my life.
Indeed, I saw more deer than ever before. Thirty-three bucks and
twenty does. That's a pretty good record, and one that I'll
remember for a long time. This
year I had several opportunities to just sit back and watch deer
feed for what seemed like hours at a time. I felt no
pressure to shoot at every deer I saw such as I've felt in the
past when hunting on a lease where we weren't likely to ever see a
deer. I killed four deer, something I've only done in one
other season. I passed up many other shot opportunities, and
I missed a shot at the biggest buck of my life.
I hunted on more than thirty days, which
is a good of time in the woods. Heck, I even got a wood duck
one morning while duck hunting.
I think if there's anything
disappointing about this past season it was the fact that I spent
most of my time hunting alone. For various reasons, Ted
could only join me a half dozen times or so, and I really missed
our time together in the woods. Although I can't say I was
ever bored, there were a lot of times I just napped in the truck
during the lunch break when Ted and I normally would have been
goofing around.
Still, when most deer seasons end I feel
a great sense of depression. I'm usually overwhelmed with a
feeling of loss, but this year is different. This was what
hunting is supposed to be like. Almost any time I went in
the woods I could feel reasonably confident that I would see a
deer. So rather than endure my normal sadness, I can look
back on this season and honestly say that I am satisfied.
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I had not intended to hunt today, but
Micki wanted me to get out from underfoot while she was doing some
cleaning around the house, so I reluctantly agreed to go hunting
yet again. I figured that I would close out my season at the
Family Stand, but when I got there all of the corn was gone.
Again I saw nothing, and have not seen a deer since December 10.
When dusk finally fell, I left the stand empty handed but
satisfied with such a great hunting season.
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I went back to the Family Stand today
knowing that there was no corn left at the blind in the woods that
I hunted yesterday. There still was a good bit of corn at the
family stand, and with the heavy fog today I thought that I would
surely see something. Nothing showed up, however.
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Went back to the stand in the woods
today where I put out corn two days ago. Deciding that I should
concentrate some on this stand next year, I took a little bit of
time to clear out a nice parking area in the woods so that I won't
have to park my truck on the logging road next time I hunt the
stand.
After clearing the parking place, I
hiked down the road to my blind. When I got there, I was
surprised to see that all of the corn that I had put out two days
ago was gone. This place must be swamped with deer.
Well, maybe, but they must only show up at night, because I never
saw a single animal the whole time I was in the stand.
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Feeling quite tired today I decided to
get in the family stand to hunt. As I've mentioned before, the
seat in this stand is really comfortable... a good place to take a
little nap if you happen to get in the woods too early for deer to
be moving. I brought the video camera along today and filmed the
entire hunt, hoping to get a deer kill on video for
Wingshooters.net Outdoors, but I had no luck. No deer showed
up, but I did watch a half dozen squirrels raiding my corn pile
all afternoon.
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Headed down to Gerald's house to hunt
ducks this morning. Although the temperature was hovering right
at the freezing mark, I found that I was actually colder today
than I was last week when it was 16 degrees out. No ducks showed
up this morning, but I did take another shot at that pesky
beaver. I ended up chasing him all around the pond, but never got
more than one whack at him. Next time I try to get him I think I
should bring my AR-15. This will give me several quick shots with
the A2 sights rather than trying to find him in the scope of my
deer rifle. I left out from
Gerald's at around lunch time and headed down to the big deer
lease, stopping at the store for a few bags of corn on the way
down. When I got to the lease I chose two places to put out
the corn and decided to alternate my hunting between those two
stands for the next couple of days.
The first two bags went over at the
family stand where I feel sure that I can get a doe. The
other bag went deep into the woods with me to stand #31, a box
blind that I had never hunted before. The stand was
beautiful, and I will try this stand at least two or three times
before the season ends.
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I decided to get into the woods this
afternoon to try to get one last deer for the season. After
looking over our map carefully, I a spot deep in the hardwoods
that I had never been to before. For the first time this year I
used my climbing stand. After getting in place, I stayed put
until dark but saw nothing.
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This morning it was about as cold as
it gets in this part of South Carolina. The thermometer on my
truck showed 20 degrees when I pulled out of my driveway, and it
was 16 by the time I got down to the pond. It was so cold that it
took me 15 minutes to get my gear out of the truck and into the
boat. After each load, I had to stop and warm my hands up before
I could pick up the next bit of equipment. When I got the boat
loaded and the battery hooked up to the trolling motor, I turned
on the motor as I always do before launching the boat just to make
sure everything was ok. The
propeller did not turn. It looked like it didn't even try to
turn. I adjusted the wires on the battery connection and saw
sparks jump, so I knew that the battery wasn't dead. I then
realized that the propeller was probably frozen stuck, so I broke
it free with my hand and tried again. This time it spun, so
I launched the boat and headed across the lake to my blind.
With it this cold out I brought my
portable propane heater with me, which provided just enough heat
to keep me warm until legal shooting arrived. As soon as the
clock turned to shooting time, I heard something fly down onto the
pond. The squealing I heard told me it was either a wood
duck or a grebe, so I got out my wood duck call and answered.
The squealing increased, and the bird
started heading my way. It was only seconds before I saw two
male wood ducks swimming toward my blind. When they were in
shooting range, I grabbed my gun and stood. The ducks
launched off the water, and I fired a quick shot off at the
closest bird. The shot was a miss, so I swung over to the
second bird and pulled the trigger again. Nothing happened!
I had forgotten that I was shooting a pump shotgun! I
struggled to cycle the gun as quickly as possible, targeted the
second duck again and fired. This time the bird crashed to
the water in a heap.
After reloading my gun, I got in the
boat and went to retrieve my duck. He was a beautiful mature
male woody with perfect coloration. This is only the second wood
duck I've ever killed, the first being a hen back in 1999.
Thrilled with my bird, I drove the boat back up onto land, covered
it up, and got back in the blind.
Although I heard the occasional wood
duck squeal across the lake, no other ducks showed up for the rest
of the morning. At 10:00, I loaded up my gear and headed
home to change clothes and get ready for an afternoon of deer
hunting. On the way off of the lake, I spooked a flock of
five woodies, which must have been the ones that I had been
hearing all morning.
Although I have said that I
wouldn't mount another wood duck since I already have a mounted
pair, I decided that this bird was too pretty not to send to the
taxidermist, so I took him over to Randy Jordan's place to get him
mounted. Randy was able to cut out the breast meat for me,
and I decided to have the bird in a flying pose to show off the
coloration of his wings.
After taking care of the
duck, I headed over to the Liberty Hill lease. Only Jimmy
and Matt White were hunting today, pretty much giving me my choice
of where to go. I decided to head back to the salt lick
stand. The does may be coming into the wheat fields now, so
I thought this might be a place to try to get a little bit more
meat.
I saw nothing, but shortly
before sundown I heard two shots in quick succession come from two
different places on the lease. When it was full dark, I got
down from my stand and headed back to the sign in board.
Jimmy and Matt were still logged in, so being the last one there I
waited for them to come out.
When 6:30 came and they
weren't out yet, I got out my radio, turned it to the channel most
commonly used on our lease, and said "Hey Jimmy, y'all ok up
there?" I didn't actually expect a response; my call was
just a long shot, but Jimmy answered. "We've got two deer up
here and can't get one out. Can you come up and help?"
I told him I was on my way,
and after finding out where to meet them I raced up the lease
road. When I found them, father and son were both smiling
widely. Turns out that Matt had killed a nice 10 pointer,
and Jimmy had killed an absolute monster. Jimmy's deer was a
six year old 220lb 8 pointer. Only in Montana have I ever
seen such a body on a whitetail. I mean, this deer was huge.
The pictures below don't do it justice.
After congratulating them
on their deer, we loaded Matt's up on my truck and headed home.
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Ted was with me this morning as I
returned to the duck blind. The hunt this morning was pretty
similar to my hunt yesterday. The same grebe came in to the
decoys and hung around for awhile. We got a look at the beaver,
but he ducked underwater too fast for us to get a shot off at him.
We did hear one duck quacking on the far side of the pond.
Sounded like a ring neck, but we never got a good look at him.
At one point, five deer came into view across the pond, but before
Ted could get his pistol out to try for one of them a truck went
by and scared them off.
The only other action of the morning was
when I called in a couple of crows which Ted quickly dispatched
with his 12 gauge.
After lunch we had to part ways, with
Ted going home to care for a sick wife and child and me heading
down to the deer woods. No luck for me as I returned to
stand #9 and saw nothing.
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After an interesting experience with
some lost duck stamps (see
story) and a
long season in the deer woods, I was ready for the ducks this
morning. My father-in-law has a 12 acre lake on his property that
is sometimes home to a wide variety of ducks. I put my deer gear
aside, got out my decoys and waders, and headed for the lake.
A few weeks ago, Ted and I had built a nice blind on the lake, so
of course that's where I would do all of my duck hunting.
Knowing the duck population is pretty sparse in this area right
now, I only put out a handful of decoys, then settled in to wait
for sunrise.
The only waterfowl I saw all day was a
small grebe that came in response to my wood duck calls. At
one point, a large beaver passed by the blind, and I took a shot
at him but did not connect. The beavers are tearing up the
lake, and need to be killed. I'll have to come back in the
winter to try to get some of them out of here.
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Although I did plan on making it to
the woods this morning, I couldn't sleep last night. I was still
awake at 2:00am, so at that point I decided to sleep in and just
go for an afternoon hunt again. And again I chose stand #25. I
got to the lease shortly after 1:00, and with the deer not moving
until almost 5:00pm I decided to nap in the truck until about
4:00.
When I awoke, I gathered my gear and
walked down to the blind. After getting settled in, I pulled
out a book and began to read, knowing that nothing would show up
for at least another 45 minutes. The first thing that did
show up was a gray fox. Having already gotten one this year
for my trophy room I contented myself with watching him sneak
around the clearing looking for food.
As I was watching the fox, I heard the
sound of a gunshot that sounded like it was on my lease, followed
closely by another. Whap-BOOOOOM. Silence.
Whap-BOOOOOM. The "whap" sound that preceded each shot
was the sound of the bullet hitting its target, indicating that
the target was between myself and the shooter. I knew that
someone on the lease had themselves a deer.
After the fox left, things were quiet
for awhile. Occasionally I would raise my binoculars and
scan the woods around the clearing looking for deer. Once, I
saw something that looked like it could be a deer feeding, so I
glassed it only to find that it was a crooked tree trunk shaped
like the neck of a deer. As I examined it, I noticed that
there was a deer in my field of view that I had completely
missed seeing. It was a big four point, one that I've seen
several times before this year.
The young buck stayed around until after
dark, and when he finally left, so did I. I drove back to
the sign in board and found that two of the club members were
still in the woods: a father and son named Jimmy and Matt.
Since they were the last, I decided to wait around to make sure
that they got out of the woods ok. When it got to be about
6:15pm and there was no sign of them, I drove over to where they
were hunting.
Turns out that Jimmy had taken shots at
two does. He had already found the second deer, but had
found no spoor from the first one. I helped him and Matt
look around the area for awhile, but in the end we decided that
the first shot was a miss. The "whap" that I had heard must
have been the bullet striking the muddy ground.
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As the season winds down and I find
myself with four deer tags filled, I'm finding that I'm not racing
to get into the woods each morning. I stayed up late last night
and decided to skip the morning hunt today. Instead, I left home
at around 9:00 and went down to Arnold's house to help him set up
a new computer. Only after spending most of the day working on
that did I head over to the lease.
No one was tagged in when I got to the sign in board, giving me my
pick of stands. I decided again to concentrate on #25,
knowing that there still ought to be a big buck down in the swamp.
I got to my stand pretty late; around 4:00pm, and had not been in
it very long before a nice doe showed up. I almost shot her,
but decided I could still probably pick up one last doe later on
in the season and instead chose to wait for a buck.
As I watched the doe, I saw her lift her
tail and leave quickly. Almost immediately, two bucks came
into the clearing and began to feed. There was a big cow
horn spike and another smaller spike. They were both very
cautious but never sensed my presence in the blind above them.
I watched them until after dark hoping that a monster buck would
join them, but they were the only animals I saw.
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Ted and I went to Liberty Hill again
today. I went to #1 and Ted went back to #3 this morning. I was
so tired that I could barely stay awake in my stand. I nodded off
and dozed until just after sunrise. As soon as it was full light,
I saw a deer feeding out about 80 yards in front of my stand. I
checked it out in my binoculars and saw that it was a good sized
doe. I decided to take the deer, so I grabbed my rifle from it's
resting place in front of me. As I
picked it up, I banged the barrel against the metal of the stand.
I winced, expecting the deer to flee. Getting the rifle in
position, I looked through the scope and was surprised to see that
the deer was still there, although it was alerted to the fact that
something was wrong. I stared at it through my scope for
five full minutes, unable to move for fear of spooking the deer.
The crosshair was over the deer's back, but I didn't want to risk
even the small motion of bringing the rifle down to center on the
heart.
Finally, the deer looked away.
When it did, I centered the crosshairs, flipped off the safety,
and squeezed the trigger. The deer took off running, but I
could tell it was hit. I listened carefully for it to crash
to the ground, but heard nothing. Getting out my radio, I
called Ted to let him know that I had shot one, but told him to
stay in his stand for a couple of hours. No sense messing up
a hunt when the morning was just getting started.
I waited about 20 minutes, then decided
to go track my deer. I found blood pretty quickly, and was
pleased to see that it was bright red. The blood trail was
sparse but constant, and it was short work finding the deer.
When I got to it, I was in for an unpleasant surprise. My
nice sized doe was really a young peahead. I'm not sure how
I misjudged the size of the animal. I had scrutinized it
through scope and binoculars for at least five minutes, and it had
all the characteristics of a good sized deer. Upon
further examination of the animal, I saw something else that
surprised me. It's lower jaw was a full two inches too
short. Seeing that, I was glad to have taken the deer.
This deformity could have lead to a hungry life for this animal.
It didn't look like it would be able to feed as a normal deer
might.
After meeting up with Ted, he told me
that he had seen a four point, as well as my bald eagle and seven
gobblers. We got my deer loaded on to my truck and took it
to the processor, then headed back to the Riverdeck grill for a
hamburger. After that, it was back to the lease for a long
nap. Awakening at about 2:30, we decided to look around the
lease a bit and see which stands looked promising for later hunts.
We did this, then headed back into the woods to hunt.
Ted went to #2, and I decided to go back
to #25 even though two deer had been killed there in the last two
days. As darkness approached, I saw a big deer come into
view down in the hole in front of me. Turns out that it was
a six pointer, so I had to let it pass. A big spike also
came in to feed. Seeing these two deer in the same spot that
I had killed a doe two days ago, I came to the conclusion that
blood on the ground doesn't affect the deer.
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The last month of deer season started
today. We often say that it's rare to see a deer after
Thanksgiving in these parts, and with the heavy hunting pressure
our lease has had this year I'm not surprised that most folks
aren't seeing anything. I had decided to start with stand #1 in
the morning, then hit #3 for the afternoon, but a tip from Arnold
sent me to #25, where he had seen several bucks last night. He
suggested that I hunt there both in the morning and in the
afternoon, which is what I did. I
got to the sign in board a little late, and was surprised to see
that no one else was in the woods yet. I signed up for #25
and headed in. Just past the gate, I stopped at this big
trailer that we keep full of corn, grabbed three bags and left $15
to cover it, then drove on in to where I would be hunting.
Wanting to do things just right today, I parked a good bit further
away from the stand than I normally would have and walked
in. By the way, here's a picture of the sign in board.
I've mentioned it so many times that I figure you might want to
know what it looks like.
Since I was walking such a long way in,
I decided to make my load pretty light, and I thought that surely
the eagle wouldn't show up at #25, which is pretty deep in the
woods, so I again took my camera out of my backpack and left it in
the truck. Sure enough, the eagle was the only thing I saw
this morning.
At about 11:00, I decided to head over
to the Riverdeck to get a quick bit of lunch before going back to
the stand. I went and got my truck, then drove it back to
where I had been hunting and spread out the corn that I had
bought. Finishing that task quickly and quietly, I got my
lunch, then came right back to the woods, again parking a long way
from the stand.
I was back in the stand pretty early,
and having forgotten to bring along a book to read to pass the
time, I knew I was in for a long afternoon. This time of
year, it would be right before dark before anything showed up, so
I made myself as comfortable as I could and began my long wait.
About 30 minutes before dark, a big doe
showed up at the corn pile. She fed for quite some time, and
I kept thinking I'm not going to shoot this deer. I'll
wait to see if those bucks that Arnold saw show up.
After about a half hour, I saw movement in the woods behind the
doe, and my binoculars revealed a small buck. He looked like
an 8 pointer, but I never got a good enough look to be sure.
He didn't stay long. As it got darker and darker, I made out
another deer behind the big doe. This one was another,
slightly smaller doe.
I finally decided that this first doe
was really a good sized deer, and I might not get another chance,
so with only minutes left in legal shooting hours I slipped the
safety off of my rifle and centered the crosshairs on the deer's
heart. The doe was facing slightly away from me and had her
head down when I took a breath, let it halfway out and squeezed
the trigger. In the dim light I could see that I had dropped
the deer where she stood.
I racked another cartridge into the
chamber and watched the deer for several minutes to make sure she
stayed down. When I was sure that she wasn't going anywhere,
I climbed down from the stand and went to get my truck. The
deer was down in a pretty deep hole, and I tried several times to
get a good picture, but there just wasn't room to snap a good shot
off, so what I ended up with is what you see below.
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I decided to go hunting this
afternoon at the last minute. It's been almost a week since I was
in the woods, and the urge hit me to get out there in the wild. I
went to stand #3 since it's pretty easy to get to quickly. Took
my camera this time in case the eagle showed up again, but I never
saw him.
Just at dark, I saw a deer standing out
by the corn pile. I got my binoculars on it, and twice
thought I saw spikes, so I had to let this one pass. Got out
of the stand at full dark and headed home empty handed but
satisfied at just having been out here today.
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After coming off of a long pager week
at work, it was time to get back into the woods. I'd only have
one chance at it before going away for Thanksgiving, so I wanted
to make this one count. I decided to go back to stand #3 and try
to get another look at that eight pointer. If he was even
slightly legal, I had decided that he was going down.
As the sun began to rise, I saw
something moving in the logging road about 100 yards down from my
stand. I got my binoculars on the animal and could see that
it was quickly moving my way, but I couldn't decide what it was.
When it got about halfway to the stand I realized that it was a
pretty large coyote. I debated making the shot, but decided
that I really wanted a deer today, so I simply watched as he came
almost all the way to the stand before turning off into the woods.
Shortly after the coyote left, I saw a
huge bird swoop down and make a low pass over the logging trail,
heading away from me. I first thought that it might be a
buzzard, but then I saw that the tail was white. I knew what
it had to be: a bald eagle. My sighting was confirmed
a few minutes later as the bird came flying back in my direction.
I watched in awe through my binoculars as it kept coming and kept
coming. To my surprise, the eagle landed on a branch on a
pine tree not 10 yards in front of the stand. I was wishing
I had not left my digital camera back in the truck, but since I
didn't have it I simply stared at the bird, marking this picture
in my memory. He didn't stay long before flying off out of
sight.
Ten minutes later, I saw movement in the
woods right under the branch where the eagle had perched. A
small spike buck moved out in front of the blind, stopping
occasionally to stare at me to try to figure out what I was.
I remained motionless and simply watched as the deer crossed the
road and went off into the woods.
The rest of the morning was quiet, and
at around 11:15 I left the stand, walked back to my truck, then
drove to town to get lunch. Next I went over to Arnold's
house and drove my four-wheeler out on to the Briarpatch lease.
I wanted to see how the fields were doing. Turns out that
they were doing pretty poorly; there was only a little bit of
chicory coming up, and very little wheat to be seen. In
disgust, I left and went back to the big lease for the afternoon
hunt.
I went back to stand #25, hoping again
that the big buck might show up. As darkness approached, I
heard a buck moving in the woods behind me. I could hear his
antlers crashing against the trees, as well as the occasional
grunt. He never showed up, and when night finally fell I
climbed down and headed home.
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This would be my last hunt for ten
days. I've got to carry the pager at work next week, which
restricts me from hunting for that time period. Ted and I went
back to Liberty Hill, this time with me in stand #3 and Ted
hunting down in #1. It was pretty early when I heard Ted shoot,
and a radio call confirmed that he had killed a doe.
At about 8:15, I saw a doe emerge from the woods. She stood
looking at my stand for several seconds, then wandered around the
little logging road in front of me. She was skittish, and
did not stay for very long. After only a few minutes, she
lowered her head and made a dash for the woods. I'm not sure
what scared her, but I don't think it was me.
A half hour later, I saw a big buck come
out from the same place that the doe had emerged from. He
followed her exact trail, never hesitating. I got a good
look at him through my binoculars. He was a nice eight
pointer, but was not quite a shooter. It was with a great
amount of regret that I had to pass on shooting him.
That was all I saw this morning.
When I got down from my stand and went to get Ted, who was anxious
to get down to his deer. As I approached, he shook his head
and told me that he had made a mistake. His doe turned out
to be an antlerless buck. I've never seen anything like
this; he wasn't a button buck. It looked like a 2 year old
deer, and it had bases where antlers should have been, but
there was nothing there.
After taking the deer to the processor,
we went back to the lease and grilled some pork ribs, then rested
awhile before the evening hunt. Ted went to #3, and I went back
to #25 where I am sure there is a big buck lurking.
Unfortunately, neither of us saw anything at all for the rest of
the day.
This is Stand #25 |
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With a doctor's appointment early
this morning, I was restricted to an afternoon-only hunt. After
Ted told me about the eight pointer that he had seen at #3, I
wanted to go there to see if I could get a look at him. I spent
three hours in the stand, but the only thing I saw was a young
eight pointer, obviously not shootable, that popped his head out
from the woods, looked around, then turned and fled.
The deer seem to be really spooky right now. There is a lot
of hunting pressure on this lease, and with the rut moving in the
hunters are spending more time in the woods than usual. This
has the deer on edge, and we may not see as many of them for the
next few weeks.
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With my Outer Banks trip behind me, Ted
joined me for his first Thursday hunt of the year. I wanted to
try #1 again, and Ted would go back to #3. As the sun came up, I
saw that all of the corn was gone from down in the hole to my
left, but someone had put some out 75 years in front of the stand
beside the road. We stayed in our stands until mid morning, but
I saw nothing. Ted had seen two spikes and an eight pointer. The
eight might have been a shooter, but he held his fire, not wanting
to shoot a deer that was not club-legal.
After we left the woods, I wanted to go
over and pick up some more corn to put out on a few of the stands.
We bought 500 pounds from a local farmer, then went and put it at
a couple of places on the lease.
In the evening, Ted went to #1 and I
went to #25. Ted saw one spike buck in the fresh corn that
we had put out, but I again saw nothing.
Outer Banks results were pretty good.
I caught 34 bluefish, 6 sea mullet, and two gray trout. My
dad caught a good many blues as well.
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Ted and I returned to the woods today
for our first hunt together in quite awhile. Ted was hunting as
my guest at Liberty Hill. I went to stand #1 and sent him on up
the road to stand #3. Soon after first light, I saw a spike buck
down in the woods to my left. Had to pass, of course. He didn't
stay long, but shortly after he left another spike appeared off to
my right. He quickly crossed the road and was gone.
At 9:45am, I glanced down into the hole to my left and saw another
deer. This one was an 8 pointer, but his antlers were too
small for him to be legal on our lease, so again I had to pass.
When he left the area, nothing else showed up for the rest of the
morning. At 11:00, Ted and I met up to go get lunch.
Ted had seen two eight pointers and a spike. One of the
eights may have been a shooter, but he did not have time to be
sure about that and thus could not take the deer.
For the afternoon hunt, I was originally
for going to the salt lick stand, but Ted suggested that we hunt
in the same area we had been in this morning. He went back
to stand #3, and I went to #25, which is a tall ladder stand deep
in the woods looking down on a corn pile. At 4:00pm, I saw a
big deer down in the corn.
I raised my rifle and saw that it was a
really nice buck, with antlers outside the ears. I centered
the crosshairs and fired. The deer leapt straight up into
the air, turned, and ran. I was sure that I had made a good
shot. I called Ted on the radio and asked him to come help
me retrieve the deer while we had plenty of daylight.
My glee started to fade when we got down
to the corn and found no blood, scuff marks, or any other sign
that the deer had been there. A quick inspection of the area
yielded nothing, so we began a methodical search. We made
our way through the Carolina swamp, but still found no sign.
After a few passes, I decided to try to get more help. I
went back to the sign in board and left a note for the other guys
in the woods asking them to come help search when they got done
hunting. I also called Arnold at his house, and he
said he'd head over and help too (Thanks, Arnold!).
We searched until after dark, covering
every avenue of travel that we could find, but we found absolutely
no sign of the deer. It's possible that the shot was a miss.
All I know is that we gave it everything we had and came up empty.
Losing a deer can be really discouraging. Although this was
the biggest whitetail I had ever shot at, now that I'm home and am
thinking about it, I'm glad we found no blood. This leaves
the possibility open that it was a miss.
Up next is a week long break from
hunting as my dad and I take a fishing trip to North Carolina's
Outer Banks.
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Another cold morning, and I was going
somewhere new today. Stand #1 would be my destination. This is a
ladder stand on the first road on the Liberty Hill lease. Once in
the stand, to your left you are looking down a steep hill into
piney woods. The lease road runs along the right hand side of the
stand, and across this road is another set of woods. You can see
about 120 yards in front of you and 40 yards behind you from the
window in the back of the blind. I
got to the lease early again as is my habit. I like to get
my choice of stands. The stars were still bright in the sky
when I signed in, so I sat in the warmth of my truck for fifteen
minutes just relaxing and anticipating the hunt. When it was
time to go in to the woods, I drove past my stand and parked my
truck a good bit up the road, out of sight of the tree that I
would be hunting from.
As soon as it became daylight, I saw a
big doe about 100 yards out in front of me. I wanted to take
her, but she didn't linger long enough for me to confirm that she
was a doe and not a spike. As she passed from view, I looked
down into the pines to my left and saw another deer. This
one was a spike, so I had to leave him alone. I
watched him feed for awhile, hoping that something bigger would
come out, but he soon left on his own.
As things settled down, I glanced back
up the road over my shoulder and saw another buck heading my way.
This one was a big four pointer, and he was traveling the wood
line to my right. He never hesitated as he made his way
along the edge of the woods, and once I saw him leap over a
cluster of young gum trees. He was soon out of sight.
A bit later, I caught more movement in
the road at the far end of my viewing distance, and through my
binoculars confirmed that I was looking at two does. They
were partially obscured by brush, and I had no shot opportunity.
They soon disappeared, heading down the road away from my stand.
Things were quiet for the next hour or
so, and as 10:00am rolled around I was about ready to get down
from my stand. I decided to try my "The Can" call a few
times just to see what would happen. The rut should be here
soon, and this is a great call that mimics the bleat of a doe that
is ready to breed. I sounded the call four or five times,
then set it down and looked around. Almost immediately I saw
another doe way out at the far end of my view. She looked
like a decent sized one, so I raised my rifle and fired. She
fled, and as I watched through my scope I saw one, two, three more
deer follow behind her. Seconds later, I heard a crack that
I hoped was the deer that I had shot at crashing to the ground.
I couldn't tell from the doe's reaction
if I had hit her or not, but I felt good about the shot, and the
sound I had heard added to my hopes. I raised my rifle again
and looked through the scope, finding the spot where the deer had
been standing when I shot. I was looking for a landmark;
something to use to try to find the start of a blood trail.
There were no distinguishing trees or bushes in the general
vicinity of the shot, but I noticed the sunlight making a peculiar
splash across the ground right about where the deer had been
standing. I knew this would only last for a few minutes, so
I gathered my gear and lowered it to the ground, climbed down and
walked back up the road to my truck. Once there, I stripped
out of my heavy camo overalls because I knew I had a tracking job
ahead of me and didn't want to get overheated.
I parked down near the sunlit patch of
ground and began a slow walk down the road looking for blood or
fresh scuff marks in the dirt. Finding nothing, I kept
walking, glancing back occasionally until the stand was out of
sight. I turned and started back toward the truck, this time
moving a little more slowly. I offered up a quick prayer
asking for a recovery of the deer, and almost immediately saw a
thin line of blood on the ground.
Ok, here we go, I thought.
I marked the spot, then entered the woods. Once I got a
general direction of travel established, I stopped looking for
individual blood spots and instead began to look for the deer.
The crashing sound I had heard was not real deep in the woods, so
when I had made a 50 yard loop without finding anything, I went
back to the last known blood spot and inspected the ground.
The blood was bright red indicating a
good hit, and although the trail was not heavy, it was pretty
constant. Picking it up again, I found where I had made my
mistake, and soon found myself looking at my deer laying dead on
the ground in front of me.
I'll make the write-up a little shorter
for the evening hunt. I decided to try one of the ground blinds
on the backside of the lease. Choosing stand #18, I got settled
in at around 4:00pm and saw nothing all evening.
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The coldest weather we've had so far
came in over night, and I had to scramble to find my insulated
coveralls for today's hunt. I went to Liberty Hill and again was
the first one there. I chose the salt lick stand since William
had seen several deer there two days ago. I didn't get much sleep
last night, and had to struggle to stay awake in the stand. At
one point I dozed off and awakened just in time to see a deer come
into the field.
A quick glance with my binoculars
confirmed that it was a spike; yet another small buck that I
couldn't shoot. When will I see a doe, I wondered.
I watched the spike feed for awhile, hoping that something else
would come along, but he was the only deer I saw this morning.
As I arrived at the sign-in board to
remove my tag, Arnold and William pulled up. They were
hunting where we had put fresh corn out on Saturday, and both of
them had seen a few deer. No shooters though.
After an early lunch at the Riverdeck
Grill just a few miles down the road from the lease, I went back
to the sign-in board and decided to go to the family stand this
afternoon. I was real early, so I drove over to the trail
for the stand, parked, and napped in my truck for a few hours.
At 3:30 I awoke and headed for the stand.
At about 4:00, I saw my old friend the
fox come into the field. I've seen this one before, but have
not wanted to shoot and ruin my deer hunt. Now that I had a
deer in the freezer, I could satisfy my long-standing desire to
shoot a fox and get a full body mount of it. I raised my
rifle, slipped off the safety and fired. The fox dropped to
the ground, stone dead. Knowing that these animals can be
rabid, I waited several minutes to be sure it was dead before I
approached it. I wanted to get it out of the field so that
the body wouldn't scare off any deer that might come in later this
afternoon.
I retrieved the fox, took a few
pictures, then got back in my stand. Within an hour, a deer
came into the field and began to feed. It was eating from
right where the fox blood was, so this was a good lesson. I
had fired my rifle an hour earlier, killed and retrieved a fox,
and yet here was a deer standing in the same spot I had been
messing around in. If you see a fox or a bobcat or a coyote
and want to shoot it but don't want to mess up your hunt, don't
worry about it. Shoot away... it likely won't bother the
deer.
As the deer fed I confirmed that it was
buttonhead, so it was yet another no-shoot situation. The
wind swirled, and the young buck caught wind of me. He
looked my way, twitched his tail, and quickly left the area.
The wind continued to pick up as the evening approached. I
put on my Walker's Game Ear muffs to both keep my ears warm and to
try to hear any deer walking over the sound of the wind.
They worked quite well, because just as it got dark I heard a deer
coming in.
It crossed the field quickly, and I saw
that it was a large spike buck. I'm really getting tired of
seeing these small-antlered bucks, and am ready to see either a
doe or a big monster buck! But, although I complain about
how many young bucks I'm seeing, I'm really just glad to be seeing
so many deer this year.
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Ted was out of commission today for
our normal Saturday hunt for medical reasons, so I headed on down
to Liberty Hill by myself. I planned it so that I'd arrive at
5:30am, a bit early, but it would ensure that I would get to hunt
the stand of my choice. I wanted to try somewhere different
today, so I went to stand #13, which is a box blind on top of a
hill looking down a stretch of the lease road. There are
hardwoods on one side and pines on the other, so this could be a
good transition point for deer.
Shortly before daylight, Arnold's drove by as he headed in to his
stand. The woods quickly returned to normal after his
passage, and I sat patiently watching for deer. Nothing
emerged all morning. As Arnold's truck came into view at
around 10:00, I climbed out of my stand and waved him down,
wanting a ride back to my truck. He also had seen
nothing.
There had been a couple of shots that
sounded like they came from the area of the salt lick stand.
Arnold said that his game warden friend William was hunting over
there, so we rode over to see if it was him. It wasn't, so
we packed up and headed back to Arnold's house. Once there,
we changed and discussed plans for the day. Arnold and I
were going into town to buy some more deer corn, then William
would meet up with us for lunch.
We did all this, then went back over to
the lease to put out some corn. We found several good spots,
including one that could produce a monster deer in the next few
days if one finds the corn pile. We finished up the work and
headed down to the river to get a cold drink, then it was back to
the woods.
I chose a ground blind between the
family stand and the salt lick stand that looked promising.
Arnold went to my favorite stand, the ladder at #9, and William
went to a tall lock on stand called #8. William was the only
one to see anything, but nothing he saw was a shooter.
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The forecast for the afternoon was
for summer-like weather, but it was cold enough for me to put on a
warm sweatshirt when I first went into the woods this morning.
Arriving at the lease, I saw that I was the only hunter there,
giving me my pick of stands. I chose #9 again, feeling confidant
that something would show up there.
Shortly after sunrise, I saw a deer
emerge from the woods and begin feeding in the corn pile. A
thorough inspection showed him to be a cow horn spike; a deer that
would not be legal to shoot on these lands. I contented
myself with watching him feed through my binoculars. He
stayed around from 7:10 until about 7:30, then left and never
returned. I saw no other deer this morning.
I decided to drive over to the Wagon
Wheel restaurant for lunch to get some BBQ. As I was leaving
Liberty Hill, I saw a helicopter flying low over Highway 97.
Shortly after that, I came upon an ambulance creeping slowly up
the road following a group of men on four wheelers. Even
more intrigued, I continued on my way. I passed a couple
more groups of men walking up the road, and finally pulled off to
talk to them. Turns out a motorcyclist from my hometown was
missing and had last been seen at the country store just up the
road. The sheriff deputies were out searching for any sign
of him.
After lunch, I headed back to the woods
and decided to give stand #16 a try. This is a ground blind
that sits on the edge of a food plot that also has a corn pile.
This was a horrible choice. There is a small hill in the
middle of the food plot, and the blind sits slightly below it.
You're looking at this hill the whole time you hunt the stand, and
I was left with a terrible headache and a feeling of
claustrophobia from the close quarters of the stand. This
stand really needs to be elevated. I doubt I'll hunt there
again!
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An afternoon only hunt at Liberty
Hill ended up with me not seeing a thing. Although two big bucks
were killed on the club this morning, they certainly weren't
moving this afternoon. After putting out a couple of bags of corn
at various stands, I decided to hunt in the salt lick area. I may
give up on this stand for awhile, because the only thing I've ever
seen here was a little three pointer. None of the other hunters
in the woods this afternoon saw anything either.
On a side note, I have found some big deer tracks in my back yard.
I've put some corn out there for them to enjoy, so maybe I'll get
some pictures of them before long.
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There are, occasionally, perfect days
in the woods. And as you've surely heard, a bad day hunting is
better than a good day working, but quite frankly there are times
when the hunting itself can get boring. Try sitting in the woods
for 5 days in a row without seeing a deer. It can be frustrating,
which is why we need those perfect days to keep us going.
Unfortunately, perfect days can come all too rarely.
Today was one of those perfect days, and it goes to prove that
killing a deer is not the ultimate measure of the success of a
hunt. We all want to kill a deer, me no less than any other
hunter, but I when I came down from the stand this morning I was
grinning more than I would have been if I had gotten one.
I got to Liberty Hill and saw that I was
the first hunter in the woods, which gave me my choice of stands.
I decided to go back to stand #9, the ladder box on the longest
road through the lease. It overlooks a short stretch of the
lease road, as well as a small food plot to the right and a long
planted strip of wheat through the woods straight ahead.
I had about a thirty minute wait before
shooting light, so I sat quietly in the stand and listen to the
woods waking up around me. About ten minutes before legal
shooting, Arnold drove by in his truck with game warden William
Poole as his guest for today's hunt. I watched them make
their way up the rutted logging road and out of sight.
As proof that vehicles don't scare deer
that much, not five minutes later, just as it became light enough
to see, I saw two deer walking up the plowed strip of ground to a
corn pile. I glassed them and saw that they were a big
bodied six pointer and a smaller fork horn four pointer.
They fed on that corn for 45 minutes with me watching them the
whole time. Although neither were big enough to shoot, it
was a pure thrill to just be watching those bucks feed.
When they had had enough corn, they
eased through the small patch of woods to their left, crossed the
logging road, and disappeared into the thicket.
The four point deer crosses
the logging road into the woods |
Ten minutes later, the four point was
back for more. As he fed, I heard a noise to my right and
watched a small doe bound out of the thicket behind me and run off
into the woods. I knew something was chasing her, and was
not surprised to see a smallish buck following closely behind her.
I didn't get a chance to count his points; never even got a look
at his rack, but he wasn't a shootable deer. They both
crashed back into the woods and vanished.
The four point, alarmed by the racket,
had disappeared by the time I looked back his way. As the
woods settled down, I heard the unmistakable sound of a deer grunt
in the thicket behind me. Two more grunts, lower and louder,
followed. I turned to my left and watched a big doe come out
of the thicket, cross the road, and bound through the woods.
When she found the corn pile, she stopped short and started to
feed.
This doe was a shooter, but I knew from
her actions that there was probably a buck behind her.
Rather than focus on her, I kept my attention on the spot where
she had emerged from the pine thicket. Finally I saw
movement and watched as a huge five pointer came into view.
He had three points on one antler, but the other one was nothing
more than a main beam and a brow tine. His rack stretched
out beyond his ears making him a legal deer on our lease, but I
saw no reason to shoot him... he was too ugly. He did give
me a great broadside shot opportunity as he crossed the road.
He followed the doe's trail through the
woods while she fed, and when he emerged she left the scene.
The five pointer turned and sauntered away, going in the opposite
direction that the doe had gone. I guess he gave up on her.
He left with a finality that said that this morning's perfect hunt
was over. It was a strange feeling, but it really was there
- the feeling that I would see no more deer that morning.
Almost immediately, I saw Arnold's truck roll in to view as he and
William left the woods.
And so my perfect morning ended. I
was in the stand for about three hours, and during that time there
had been only 15 minutes total where I was not seeing deer.
By the time I left the stand I had seen four bucks and two does;
not bad for a morning's hunt. Oh, at one point, a hawk flew
right passed my stand clutching a fish from nearby Lake Wateree.
A beautiful sight.
Arnold and I then headed up to
Courtney's BBQ in Clover where we would meet with a couple of game
wardens and fellow users of the SC DNR's
deer hunting forums. We were there to discuss some
possible changes to the game laws in SC. The meeting went
well and we had a good time, but it was soon time to head back to
the woods.
I went to #9 again, with William hunting
in the stand before me and Arnold in the next one down the road.
Late in the day, the fork horn from this morning's hunt came back
to feed, but he was the only deer I saw. I got to see a
raccoon come to the corn, but other than that it was quite.
After the hunt, one of the guys from the club showed up with a
nice 8 pointer that he had gotten in the stand that I had
originally planned to hunt from this afternoon.
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My second afternoon-only hunt at Liberty
Hill started with a phone call from Arnold saying he had killed a
nice 8 pointer earlier in the day. I drove by his house to check
it out, and indeed it was a really nice buck. He had killed it
from stand #10, where I had seen four bucks the previous
Saturday.
I left Arnold's house and went to the
lease. I was debating about whether to hunt in the family
stand again or get back in #3, the ground blind on the road where
I killed my deer last year. Seeing that someone was already
hunting near stand #3, I went for the family stand. I got in
the stand and got settled and was surprised to see a deer enter
the field almost immediately. It was a spike buck with
a large body, but unfortunately it wasn't a shootable deer.
I watched it feed for hours. Occasionally it would leave the
field only to return 20 minutes later.
At one point it left and a beautiful
grey fox came in. I wanted to shoot the fox, wanting
desperately to get a full body fox mount, but I decided that
tonight I wanted a deer more. The fox grabbed an ear of corn
and sprinted from the field. As soon as it was gone, the
spike came back and began to feed on the wheat in the field.
To my right, I heard a tree crash to the ground and watched as the
spike fled in fear. Shortly after he left, a deer began to
blow loudly from over where the tree fell.
The woods were quiet for awhile, then
the spike came back into view 30 yards up the road out of the
field. This time, he kept looking into the woods to the
right, and I wasn't surprised to see a large doe come into the
trail. This was a shootable doe, and the spike was
obviously at least a year old and was not one of her offspring.
She was alone.
I watched for 30 minutes, waiting for a
clear shot, when finally the doe turned broadside. I heard a
shot in the distance, almost as if that was my signal to take my
own shot. I had a clear target, so I slipped the safety off
and fired. The doe dropped to the ground, kicked for a few
minutes, and was still. Deer #1 for the year is in the
cooler. I got the whole thing on film, and Micki and I
watched it during supper tonight.
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I was halfway down to the Liberty
Hill lease for my afternoon hunt when my cell phone rang. It was
Micki with car problems, so I turned around and went to help her
get situated. We got her car towed, picked up a rental car for
her, then I headed back down to the woods. I had planned to hunt
at stand #9, a ladder stand where I had hunted for the first time
this year, but it was too late to get there by the time I got to
the woods. Instead, I went back to the salt lick stand.
I had barely gotten seated and was still pulling gear out of my
backpack and organizing it on the seat beside me when I noticed
something at 250 yards that looked like a deer. I dismissed
it and went back to rummaging through my equipment. I looked
up at the "deer" again, thinking that it could be a deer
standing facing me. As I watched, it moved, so I quickly
grabbed my binoculars and confirmed that it was a deer: a three
point buck. I was so tired of seeing small bucks that I
shook my head in disgust, but kept watching the animal.
It moved out of the trail and into the
woods, vanishing forever. It was the only deer I saw that
day. Heading out of the woods, I ran into Arnold, who had
been hunting in the family stand. He had seen a doe and two
fawns, one of which had a mature six point rack even though the
deer itself couldn't have weighed more than 50 pounds. This
will be a good deer some day.
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Although it was pouring rain when I
got up at 4:15 this morning, this is my week to hit the woods hard
as often as I can, so I got up and went hunting. The rain
continued the entire way down to the Liberty Hill lease, but I
kept going. When I got to the sign in board, I saw that only one
other hunter was in the woods today, and he was nowhere near where
I wanted to hunt. Good. I chose
to start the day at the salt lick stand. I drove in the back
way through a narrow woods trail wanting to avoid the slick red
clay road as much as possible. Didn't want to take a chance
on getting stuck when I was out there alone. I drove past
the huge double "family stand", then past two ground blinds on my
way to the ladder stand that watches over the salt lick.
Having never come in this way, I was unsure quite where the
parking spot was, so I kept going until I came to a wide spot in
the trail that looked like the pull-off. I parked, gathered
my gear, and made my way to the stand. The approach to the
stand didn't look quite right, but I found it with no problem even
in the dark.
As the sun began to rise and the sky
lightened, I looked to my right and saw the nose of my truck not
30 yards away. I saw then that I had driven almost all the
way to the stand. This wasn't really a problem, because you
could safely park right under this stand if you wanted to and
still have your vehicle completely hidden from the view of
anything in the field. Still, this wasn't quite where I had
wanted to put my truck. Something just seems "wrong" about
hunting within sight of your vehicle.
I stayed in the stand until 11:00, but
nothing entered the field. With four days of hunting ahead
of me, I was only slightly disappointed when I climbed down and
headed to town for lunch.
I got back to the sign in board at
around 1:00 and saw that the other hunter had changed locations.
He was now in a tower on the very far edge of the lease. No
problem there; I wanted to hunt the "family stand", and he was a
great distance away from there. The family stand is a huge
double stand that overlooks a wheat field. For a seat, it
has the bench of a pickup truck in it which allows for great
comfort as you hunt. Here's a picture of the view from the
stand.
When I got into the stand, I immediately
saw a pile of corn at the far end of the field. No problem;
this is quite legal in Kershaw County, SC. I was also
surprised to see how quickly the wheat was growing.
Since I was quite early getting into my
stand, I got comfortable, then pulled out a book and began to read
to pass the time, pausing twice every page to look around for any
activity. I finished my book at about 5:00, put it away,
then settled in for the evening hunt. Almost immediately, I
saw a deer come into the field from the right-hand side only 40
yards out. It was a buck, and although he had a little bit
of mass to his rack, I could tell that it was too small to meet
our standards for shooting.
Looking closely at his antlers through
my binoculars, I saw that I was looking at a seven pointer that
was in really bad shape from a trophy point of view. His
G2's were gnarled and twisted on one side and stubby on the other.
He had one G3 and a short, rounded main beam. Even with the
poor antler quality, he was almost as wide as his ears. He
looked to be a 2½ year old deer, so although he had some potential
for antler growth, I was afraid that with had I was seeing he'd
never account for much in the looks area.
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He fed on the corn for 20 minutes, then
snuck off into the woods. I kept a close watch, thinking
that other deer may enter the area at any time. Twenty
minutes later I saw movement, then watched as the same seven
pointer came back for seconds. He fed for another 20 minutes
or so, then left for good. At one point, a deer behind me
began to blow. Whenever the blow sound happened, the seven
point would look around, then go back to feeding. An
important tip here: just because a deer blows at you from one
direction, this likely will not affect deer in other areas near
you. Although they react to the blow by becoming aware that
something has scared another deer, they do not typically run when
they hear another deer make this sound.
Just as it was getting too dark to come
down, I saw a deer cross the trail at the far end of my vision.
I couldn't tell what it was, so I've counted it as a doe in my
scorecard at the top of this page. Right after that,
something else entered the field. I looked at it with my
binoculars, but it was too dark to see exactly what it was.
It was either a raccoon or a fox. At any rate, my hunt was
over, so I loaded up and went home.
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Ted and I planned our final
muzzleloader hunt for today, but on Friday night the remnants of a
tropical storm moved through our area, drenching us with much
needed rain. As I was driving through town running a few errands,
Ted called to ask me what I wanted to do. I suggested that we
scrap our plans to use muzzleloaders and instead head over to the
Liberty Hill lease where rifle season is open and he could hunt as
my guest. We met at Arnold's house
at around 6:00am, then got in my truck and headed over to the
club. I was pretty disappointed when we got there and saw
that many of the good stands had already been signed up for, and
we were left picking over the scraps. I chose for us stands
#10 and #11, which are a ladder stand and a box blind each
overlooking long stretches of the same logging road. I had
seen deer a couple of times in this area last year, and was
hopeful that this would still be a good area.
The red clay road into the lease was
nothing short of a mud bog, but my Jeep Grand Cherokee handled it
beautifully. After a white-knuckled drive to the parking
area, we said our "good lucks" and each walked to our stands.
Mine was drenched, not being covered, but fortunately Ted had his
treestand umbrella with him, which I gratefully borrowed. He
was hunting in a covered blind and thus would be warm and dry.
The first part of the morning passed
uneventfully for me until suddenly I noticed a brown hump in the
grass 40 yards out from my stand. Nothing had been there
moments before, and my first thought was that I was seeing a large
rabbit. I quickly realized that it was a very young deer,
and although I knew I wouldn't shoot, I inspected it carefully
through my rifle scope. It was quite healthy, but way too
small to shoot, so I contented myself with watching it as it fed
in the grass, then leapt gracefully into the woods after a short
time.
The woods grew quiet again when off to
my right I saw a flash of white as a spike buck ran past my stand,
30 yards off. I raised my rifle and watched as another spike
went by followed quickly by an ugly six pointer. None of the
deer were big enough to shoot, so I watched in fascination as they
chased each other through the woods. I tried to call Ted to
tell him that the deer were on the move, but he wasn't responding
to my radio signals, so I gave up.
Ten minutes later something made me look
to my left, and as I did I saw a mid-sized eight point buck run
across a small strip of plowed ground, then through a tangle of
brush and out of sight. On my radio, I heard another hunter
say he was giving up and was heading out of the woods. I
tried in vain to radio back to tell him to stay put for awhile,
but he couldn't hear my calls. After his truck passed, I
climbed down and went to get Ted.
Ted had also seen two bucks: a four
pointer and a spike. So, although neither of us saw a
shootable deer, we both at least got to see some brown today.
We loaded up in my truck and headed back to Arnold's shop to make
lunch, then cut our day short to go home to meet other
obligations.
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I'm haven't been getting many morning
hunts in this year, and today was no exception. Again I would be
hunting just the afternoon down at the Liberty Hill lease. I knew
I'd have the place pretty much to myself today, so I would have my
pick of stands. I decided to go back to the salt lick stand,
which as you can see from the picture below has a great view of a
food plot.
Because of the lack of rain, nothing was
growing in the field yet, but the salt lick near the edge of the
field has been heavily visited by deer, so I hoped that I would
catch one coming to it this afternoon. As I approached the
field to get in the stand, I was startled to see that I was too
late; although it was only 3:45pm, there was already a doe pawing
at the salty ground. She saw me and bolted for the woods
before I even registered that she was there.
I hurried on to the stand, hoping that
more deer would show up later, but the field remained devoid of
cervids for the rest of the day. Several times throughout
the afternoon doves would land in the field, feed for awhile, then
suddenly all fly off at once as if startled. I've often
watched this phenomenon hoping that it meant that a deer was
entering the area, but so far the sudden scattering of doves has
never lead to a subsequent sighting of deer.
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Today would be the first hunt of the
year for Ted as we headed down to Briarpatch for the opening day
of the muzzleloader season. We had prearranged our hunting
locations and had planned to meet at Arnold's house, then
four-wheel over to the lease together. Not getting much sleep on
Friday night, I awoke with a start at 5:00 this morning: 30
minutes later than I had set the alarm clock for. I rushed to
get ready and was pulling out of my driveway at 5:26.
Fortunately, we have a garage at my house, so I can load up my
truck with all my gear and know that it's safe and ready to go.
This saves me a lot of time in the mornings, particularly on days
like this! I was about 15 minutes
late meeting up with Ted, but we still had enough time to get into
the woods before sunrise. Just as I got settled in my stand,
the sun began to peak over the horizon. I was hunting in a
box blind overlooking a salt block and an empty food plot.
Ted was hunting in his favorite stand, #3, where he once killed 4
deer in a single year. Or was it 5?
Neither of us saw anything, so at around
10:30 we met up and discussed doing a brief bit of work on some of
our stands. We had to swap out the seat in one of our ladder
stands, put a chair in one of our box blinds, and reattach another
ladder stand to the tree. We got this accomplished pretty
quickly, then headed back to Arnold's for lunch.
I've talked before about how Ted and I
used to look forward to going out to eat lunch at the various
restaurants around our hunting areas. Two years ago,
however, we decided to try something different. Instead of
going out, we'd start bringing things to cook at the camp.
We've cooked everything from chili and hamburgers to ribs or
steaks and salads. We kind of did this to try to recapture
the memories from some of our first days hunting together, back
when we'd stay at my grandfather's cabin and cook fantastic camp
meals of steak, red potatoes, and sourdough bread. Cooking
our lunches at the camp has now become one of the things that we
look forward to the most, and today we had steaks, green beans,
and salads.
I brought my laptop computer along with
me today, and after lunch we watched a couple of hunting videos,
then helped Arnold change the brake pads on his motorcycle.
Ted also switched out the hood supports on my Jeep for me, since
mine were worn out. As we were trying to decide where to
hunt for the evening, Arnold suggested that we try the woods on
his land rather than waste our time trying to hunt our leased
cutover. Gratefully, we accepted the offer.
I led the way down Arnold's roads to
show Ted how to get to a fantastic stand called "The Ledge", which
is an old wooden ladder looking down over a bottom that deer love
to feed in. It's in the middle of a hardwood forest, and is
a great place to see deer. I headed back up the road and
then down to my favorite stand on Arnold's land, "The Ridge".
This is where I shot my first deer ever, and I usually hunt here
at least once every year.
Although we were hunting some great
stands, the deer just weren't stirring tonight. I heard one
blow a couple of hundred yards away, but that was the only sign of
deer either one of us had all evening. There was one turkey
that kept doing a "kee kee run" call, This is a lost call used by
turkeys as they try to find each other after they have been
scattered.
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I woke up this morning with a lot of
sinus pain and decided to pass on the morning hunt. Getting some
more rest might better prepare me for the rest of the day. I
slept until about 9:00, then got up and got ready to go. I
decided to go to Briarpatch to check on our food plots before
heading to River Run to hunt in the late afternoon. I stopped by
Arnold's house to say hi, and found that he was about ready to go
get some lunch, so we headed in to town together and got some
Mexican food.
After getting back to his house, I
headed out to the lease to try to figure out where Ted and I
should hunt on Saturday morning. We've been having a
horrible drought, and things on the lease were as I feared.
None of our food plots have sprouted. This will make hunting
here really difficult, because without food plots we have nothing
on the lease that would attract deer. In disgust, I drove my
ATV back to Arnold's, got in my truck and headed down the road to
the River Run lease.
Last time I hunted River Run I wanted to
hunt the salt lick stand, but there had been no seat in the ladder
stand. During lunch, Arnold had checked in with the River
Run president who said that there should now be seats in all
stands, so I decided to try again on this one. Arriving at
the stand, I was relieved to find that there was indeed now a
place to sit.
The afternoon was quiet, and all I saw
were a bunch of cardinals.
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Today was my second afternoon hunt
for the 2005 deer season. I was again hunting at Liberty Hill,
but this time I was planning on getting into a ladder stand
overlooking a large, well-used salt lick. I signed in for the
stand, drove to within a quarter mile of it, then gathered my gear
and hiked down the road to the stand.
When I got to the stand, I carefully checked the underside for
wasp nests, then, seeing none began to climb the ladder.
Parting the curtains, I was disgusted to see that there was no
seat in the stand. With a 6 hour hunt in front of me, I knew
I couldn't use the stand. I climbed back down and laid my
backpack on the side of the trail, then made my way back to my
truck. There was another ladder stand about a half mile past
this one, but rather than walk it and get too hot I decided to
drive down to the next stand to make sure there was a seat in that
one. This turned out to be the right choice, because again
there was nothing to sit on.
I headed back out to the main road to go
back to the sign-in board to choose another stand. Now
drenched in sweat, I knew that the hunt was pretty much blown, so
I chose the simple ground blind overlooking a long stretch of
trail where I had killed last year's only deer. After the
first hour in the stand, I saw five big hen turkeys walking toward
me from about 200 yards away. They stayed in the area for
the rest of the afternoon, with many other turkeys joining them in
their feeding from time to time.
At one point, I heard something walking
in the woods to the left of my box blind. Looking around, I
saw four of the biggest gobblers that I have ever seen in my life.
Easily standing four feet tall each, my jaw dropped open and I
wondered if I was seeing ostriches rather than turkeys. They
were that big. They caught sight of me and turned and ran.
They were so big that their footsteps on the parched dirt road
sounded like the hooves of deer running. I doubt that
turkeys get much bigger than these four monsters.
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I was out of town this past week and
missed the opening of the deer season. I had to wait until today
to go for the first time, and even then it was an afternoon only
hunt. Since Ted was again unable to hunt with me, I decided to
go to the River Run lease in Kershaw county, where it's already
rifle season. Arriving at the
sign-in board, I was quite surprised to see that no one else was
hunting this afternoon. I had all 1,800 acres to myself,
giving me plenty of stands to choose from. I chose a ladder
stand labeled "#9", which is up on one of the logging roads and
overlooks a long narrow plowed strip of ground. I was
dripping with sweat by the time I got seated in the stand, but
knew going into it that this would be the case. The only
thing in my favor was that it's too early in the year for the deer
to be spooky yet.
At 6:15pm, I looked to my right and saw
the first deer of the year standing on the edge of the woods
looking my way. It was a two year old doe, not large enough
to shoot, so I simply watched as it leapt across the road and back
into the woods. About an hour later as dark was settling in
I saw something cross the little plowed strip of ground about 70
yards in front of me. It looked like a raccoon, but I
couldn't quite tell for sure if that's what it was. I raised
my binoculars, but it was gone. However, I was shocked to
see that I was looking right at another deer, this one a yearling
doe. As I watched, the mother materialized behind it.
I could have easily gotten a shot at the bigger doe, but since it
had a yearling with it I decided to pass.
I watched them for about 5 minutes
before they vanished from view, and nothing else appeared the rest
of the night. Still, I was quite happy with my opening day,
having already seen three deer.
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Today was a divergence from the
normal start of my hunting seasons. The opening day of dove
season started at noon, but Ted wasn't able to hunt with me today,
so I decided to go it alone. Rather than sit in the field waiting
for noon to arrive I didn't even go down to the lease until
3:00pm, just in time for the afternoon flight of doves.
Since I was on my own, I decided to just play around a bit rather
than hunt seriously, so I took my .410 shotgun to add challenge to
the already difficult task of shooting doves. Doves were
plentiful on the lease and I got plenty of shots off, but never
managed to actually hit anything.
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With the opening day of deer season
less than a month away, I decided to go down to the Briarpatch
lease today to look around. I haven't been down there since
turkey season, so I figured I'd better take a bit of time to see
what kind of work needs to be done to get ready for the season.
Briarpatch is mostly a cutover now, and
this year it's turning green again. There was new growth
everywhere. This will probably be the best year for hunting
that we'll see in quite some time. In the next few years, it
will become an impenetrable jungle until the new pine trees take
over. Our fields are full of tall weeds, and need bush
hogging and planting. Our roads continue to wash out, and
are in worse shape than ever. There's not much we can do
about that without renting a Bobcat.
Heading down the power lines, I jumped
two nice sized does. Good to see some deer out there today.
I put out half a dozen salt blocks too. All of our licks
were looking great, with deer still coming to them in droves.
I also found a great place to put a ladder stand. I'll talk
to Ted about that next week.
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Ted and I would close out the turkey
season today, starting at Liberty Hill, then heading over to
Briarpatch. That was the plan, anyway. We met at Arnold's
house, then drove together in my truck over to the big lease. The
sign-in board told us that someone was already hunting on the
first road, so we headed for the second one, an area of hardwoods
on one side and pines on the other. We parked and started walking
up the road, owl hooting every hundred yards or so.
Nothing. The turkeys were silent this morning. As we
walked, another truck of hunters drove past us, and we waved them
by. We turned down a side road, now tree calling softly, but
the turkeys remained quiet. Finding a half-hidden set of
turkey tracks in the road, I suggested that we get in the woods in
this area and just sit, only yelping occasionally.
We picked our spots and settled down
maybe 20 yards apart, looking in different directions. I
used a diaphragm call to yelp occasionally, always a short series,
as if I were a hen still on the roost. Once, I beat my hands
against my chest and cackled, simulating the sounds of a hen
leaving her tree. Not long after that, I saw movement in the
woods in front of me, headed my way. I got ready to shoot,
but it was only a hen looking for company. She got close,
spotted me, and ran the other way.
Wanting to spread farther apart, I
motioned for Ted to stay where he was, then I moved 50 or 60 yards
to the right, putting a deep gulley between the two of us. I
found a spot, sat down, and called a few more times.
Silence.
Presently, Ted took out his slate call
and began a series of yelps. On the second or third series,
the silence was shattered by a gobble that ended as soon as it
began. Ah, I thought. A jake. He
didn't mean to let out that gobble, and now he's afraid that a
boss tom will come and whip him for his impertinence. I
turned quickly and saw them: two jakes, forming the vertex
of an Isosceles triangle with Ted and I at each of the far points.
I already had my turkey for the year, so I sat still and watched
the action play out.
I couldn't see Ted from where I was, but
I quickly heard the boom of his 12 gauge, followed immediately by
the stray pellets tearing through the underbrush. In an
instant, I was up and running, heading for the turkeys. To
my left, I saw glimpses of Ted running in the same direction, each
of us skirting the edges of the gulley. I saw the turkey
flapping on the ground and got ready to shoot. I looked at
Ted to see what he was going to do, and saw the other
turkey also flapping. Two in one shot!
Ted's first turkey turned out to be a
double. His shot was long; 40 yards or so, and the pattern
had spread enough to take out both of the birds. They each
had 4" beards and weighed in at around 12 pounds apiece.
We gathered up the birds and headed into
town to check them in and pick up lunch. We bought a couple
of BBQ plates at a restaurant in Ft. Lawn, then took them back to
Arnold's shop. While we were cleaning the birds, a strong
storm moved in, and I knew then that the hunt had come to an end.
We finished up with the birds, washed up, and sat down to lunch
with the rain pounding on the tin roof above us.
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Hunting alone today, I decided to go
back to the Liberty Hill lease and give it a try. The sign-in
board showed that I was the only hunter on the property today, so
I had my choice of where to go. Arnold had mentioned that there
was a gobbler in the pines near the first gate, so that was where
I would start.
As I got out of the truck and began
walking up the logging road, I knew that this was going to be a
rough day. Pain flared in my back, a chronic problem that I
live with, and I paused to rest at one of our deer stands.
When the pain subsided I continued up the road, but in moments it
was back, and worse than before. I sat beside a pine and owl
hooted a few times, but nothing answered.
Standing, I knew that I couldn't
continue on, so I limped back to my truck, reclined the driver's
seat all the way back, and waited for the pain to pass. When
it finally did, I had no choice but call the day off and go home.
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I had several things to do this
morning which would take me into the early afternoon, so I didn't
get down to Arnold's house until a little after 4:00pm. He was
out of town, so I fed his dogs and played with them for awhile
before getting on my four wheeler and heading out onto the
Briarpatch lease. One thing on the lease was different today from
last week. There are deer tracks everywhere. Our roads were
covered with tracks, many of which looked to be from pretty good
deer. There was one set of tracks
that looked like they were from a monster deer. We've got a
good one on our property somewhere.
There is a wide power line right-of-way
that runs steeply down one side of the Briarpatch property.
We've got fields at two flat points on this line, and I decided
that that's where I'd look for the turkeys. I glassed the
first field from 400 yards away, but it was obviously empty.
Wanting to be as quiet as possible, I stopped the motor on my ATV
and coasted down the long hill into the field. I parked in a
little dip where my four wheeler would be out of sight, then
walked to the top of the rise where I could look way down into the
next field, some 500 more yards below me.
The field was empty. Since that
field is on a heavily wooded creek bottom, I decided to go down
there and try to get a gobbler going up to roost. To get
down to the field, I decided to walk the power line, which goes up
and down through a series of hills, going ever lower until you
come to the field. At the top of each hill, I would glass
the field to make sure that nothing had entered it while I was out
of view.
As I came to the last hill, I saw a hen
come in the field, then turn around and leave. I'm not sure
what scared her off; I don't think it was me, because I was still
over 150 yards away and was mostly hidden in the tall grass.
I watched the field for some time waiting for her to return, but
she never did. I finally walked the rest of the way down the
hill and hunted along the creek bottom for the rest of the
afternoon. I did this without success of any kind.
During my hunt, I kept an eye out for
shed antlers, and did find the skull of a big spike buck.
One antler was partially squirrel chewed, but the other was stuck
in the mud and was in great shape. I kept the skull, and
will spend some time on Sunday afternoon cleaning it up.
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On this, the second day of turkey
season, Ted would be joining me for his first hunt of the year.
We met at the Briarpatch lease, where I had him park his truck and
jump in mine, and together we rode over to the Liberty Hill
lease. When we arrived at the Liberty Hill sign-in board, I was
surprised to see that no one else was registered to hunt today. I
signed up for a two mile stretch of road that would take us from
one end of the property to the other.
We parked, and began to walk through the woods, giving an
occasional owl hoot to try to get a turkey to shock gobble.
With heavy winds and occasional bursts of rain, I wasn't confident
that we would hear any gobbles, and not surprisingly, we didn't.
We walked to the back gate without hearing a single turkey, so we
turned around and headed back to the truck, stopping for about an
hour with each of us sitting in a separate deer blind just hoping
to catch a stray turkey wandering in the logging road.
By 10:00, it was clear that nothing was
happening on this lease this morning, so I suggested that we go
ahead and get lunch, then head over to the Briarpatch lease and
see if anything was in the fields. We had a quick lunch of
fried chicken in nearby Heath Springs, then drove over to the
little lease. We parked high on a hill in the middle of our
cutover that overlooks one of our fields, some 500 yards away.
Almost immediately, we could see that there were turkeys in the
field.
Using his binoculars, Ted said that he
thought that they were hens. Thinking that there might be
some gobblers in the area, we quickly formulated a plan of attack.
We couldn't take the easy way and walk down the road to the field;
we'd be in view of the turkeys the whole time if we did that.
Instead, we chose to head straight down to the creek bottom,
pushing our way through the jumble of the cutover.
I put us on a path that pointed us away
from the field, trying to get some distance between us and the
turkeys for the first couple of hundred yards. Once we made
it to the 75 yard wide river bottom, we got as close as we could
to the creek itself. This would let us make our way to the
back of the field, far from where the turkeys were feeding.
We made our stalk quickly but quietly, and soon found ourselves on
the edge of the field.
Looking intently through the deadfalls,
I could see that at least one turkey, a hen, was still in the
field. Suddenly Ted hissed, "There's one right there!"
I suddenly saw a bird in plain view. "It's a jake," Ted
said. I wasn't sure; I couldn't see even a puff of beard.
When the turkey looked away, I pointed at a patch of briars and
said, "let's get behind that. It's our best bet to get right
up on them."
When we had the chance, we moved into
position, Ted on my right, me right in close to the briars.
I thought we had made our move completely undetected, then,
suddenly, I saw four heads craned high staring at us.
My shotgun was instantly in position, and I whispered to Ted to be
careful when he shot, we were standing side by side and needed to
keep this situation safe.
As the turkeys stared at us, Ted said,
"they're gonna run."
"I'm shooting," I said, and immediately
fired at the nearest male. He collapsed in a heap on the
ground. Ted took a step into the field and shot at a bird
that I couldn't see. When it was safe, I moved into the
field and saw two birds on the ground, and the rest were leaving
the area at a dead run. I kept my gun trained on my turkey,
making sure he didn't get up again. Unfortunately, Ted's
did.
"He's running," Ted yelled. I
looked up in time to see that his bird had gotten up and was
halfway across the field. Ted took a shot at him and yelled
"shoot him, shoot him" to me. I led the running bird as much
as I could and hauled down on the trigger, but the turkey never
flinched. Ted stood stock still in surprise. I could
still see his bird running for the thicket. "There he is,
chase him, chase him," I yelled. Ted took off, but the bird
was gone.
Mine was down for good, and 100 yards up
the power lines I could see the turkeys crossing. "There
they are, can you do it?" I asked Ted. We were both
exhausted from our long stalk, but Ted was game. We started
up the hill and were soon out of breath. The turkeys were
gone.
"Tell you what," I wheezed. "I'll
go down and get my bird and bring him up here. You walk the
wood line and see if you can find any sign of yours. We'll
meet back here shortly."
By the time I got back up the hill, it
was over. Ted could find no sign of his turkey, and there
was no point in looking further. From the way he was
running, he was probably halfway to North Carolina by that time.
And so, although we were both disappointed that Ted didn't get his
bird, both of our hearts were still pounding from the excitement
of the hunt. This was unquestionably the most exciting
turkey hunt I've ever been on.
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Man,
it was close. Went to my lease down by Wateree this morning. As
soon as I got out of the truck, I heard one gobbling a few hundred
yards up the road. I moved quickly in his direction and got
situated in a great spot. He responded beautifully to a single
soft yelp. He was closer now than I thought, so I shut up
immediately and let him come.
As I sat waiting, a hen came running by me, clucking and yelping.
She went straight to the gobbler; MY gobbler, and they took off
together.
Nothing else was gobbling on this lease, so I finally left and
went over to my other lease off of Walker Rd. in Lancaster County.
Heard one gobble just across Cedar Creek from where I was calling,
and soon heard the two shots that collected him.
As the rain started moving in, I decided it was time to head back
home and give it another shot tomorrow morning.
I've been hunting for a lot of years now. Rule #1. Hunt your way
back to the truck. Walk back to the truck like you could see game
at any time. You'd think I'd know that by now.
I came strolling over the hill like I was walking through the
park. I wasn't trying to be quiet; I was just ready to get to the
truck and get out of the storm. I was fully visible when I topped
the hill, and there in my food plot was a monster gobbler and four
hens.
I was in plain view, just out of range for a shot, and they had
seen me. I broke out into a dead run, but they were gone.
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With the deer season over, I always
like to try to get in the woods a few times in January and
February to ease myself out of the habit of going hunting every
weekend. I'll go squirrel hunting, predator hunting, or even,
occasionally, duck hunting. Today, I was after the coyotes.
It was hovering just above freezing when I got down to Briarpatch.
I gathered my equipment and made my way out onto the lease.
I'm using a Johnny Walker electronic caller and a Feather Flex
Rigor Rabbit motion decoy this year, but neither of them did me
any good today.
My first stand was over at Ted's box
blind near one corner of our property. Nothing. After
that, I moved a quarter mile up the road to a ladder stand, but
again had no luck. From there, I went over to the pallet
blind, but again saw no game.
I decided to head over to the Liberty
Hill lease, which is much bigger, and thus offers more hunting
locations. I made several stands on the various
roads on that lease, but still saw nothing.
There is much more to hunting coyotes
than just grabbing an electronic caller and pressing a button.
This is going to take some hard work, but I'm going to learn how
to hammer these predators.
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