I did more than my fair share of hunting this fall as you all know.  I’ll cut to the numbers.

62 total hunts

28 morning hunts
34 evening hunts

5 hunts in Mississippi
6 hunts in North Carolina
9 hunts in Kansas
5 Alabama public land hunts
18 Alabama private land hunts
19 research site hunts

Saw 29 unique bucks in Mississippi, NC, KS, and AL public and private land hunts
8 of those bucks exceeded 110″ minimum with 3 in the 120s and the big 8 pt. from KS (don’t want to think about how much he might have scored).

Harvests: 9 bowkills
1 shotgun kill
1 muzzleloader kill
1 rifle kill

And finally – a photo finish to 2009-2010 deer season.

Alabama Public Land Buck – 2nd night of archery season

End of first week of archery season – doe from Tuskegee National Forest

Last day of NC archery season – doubled up with buddy Clint

North Carolina muzzleloader season doe

December doe double at research site

Private land Alabama doe with the slug gun.

Snub faced doe from research site.

Research site doe

Private land Alabama doe. Rifle kill.

G2 buck

Big 8 point

Research site doe on last hunt of the year.

What a year.  I processed the G2 buck and my rifle doe yesterday – put up 14 quarts of canned venison yesterday in the pressure cooker and set aside a bunch of scrap meat for the grinder.  Look for a how-to post next week on doing your own canned venison.

2 more deer to process and deer season will be completely over.  High fence post next week and I’m entering buttonhead darting season to put mark known age deer at the research property.

Thanks for following along this year.  Hopefully it was at least 1% as fun reading about it as it was bringing it to you.  Trust me – 1% is still a whole lot of fun because deer hunting is truly a passionate obsession.

Dad, 2010-2011, we make more memories.  Made a couple great hunting buddies here in Alabama this year.  There’s a gimpy 8 point in Kansas that I’d love to see in early muzzleloader season.  Hopefully make a return trip to Mississippi during the rut.  Already getting antsy!

The same day that I took my last buck of the Alabama deer season, I went out again that evening with more earnest intentions of videoing some deer rather than shooting another.  But, of course, I had my bow on its hanger where it could be called upon if necessary.

It was necessary.  30 minutes before dark, 2 does fed out onto the food plot.  It didn’t take long before they were within range.  How close were they, though, I didn’t know.  The positive lead to my 9 volt battery had snapped on my rangefinder earlier in the day while ranging locations for my morning hunt.

I estimated them to be 25 yards away, so I drew my bow as one of the does got broadside.  Here’s where the story gets wierd.  As I’m settling my pin on the nearest doe, the other deer slides in behind it.  Visually, picture 2 deer that are parallel and staggered just enough that I can see almost the entire body of each.  Both broadside.

Confident of my shot, I slowly pulled my release and heard the hollow thump of my Slick Trick-tipped arrow on the deer’s vital cavity.  Exit stage left.  I follow the nearest doe as it is racing down through the open pine stand behind me waiting for it to slow and go down.  Not happening.  She is gobbling up ground like a race horse and not showing signs of stopping.

Confused, I looked around the other direction to see the doe that had been standing behind my target gobbling up ground at a rapid pace but not nearly so gracefully.  Before I knew it, she tipped over and down for the count.

At first, I thought I had simply kept my eyes on the wrong doe as they bolted from the sound of my bow going off.  Wrong.  5 minutes later, the intended “target” doe came slinking back through the pine stand and I could see I had cut her across the top of her back with my broadhead before hammering the other doe.  I was perfect left to right, but had misguessed the range causing my arrow to fly just high enough to barely slice the skin open while center punching the unintended target behind.

She was a marked doe that was tagged as 3+ year old in 2005.  That makes her at least 7 years old.  A trophy doe for sure.

What I’ve begun to refer to as “the mark of the beast.”  Characteristic “X” left by my Slick Trick broadhead.

Oh, and just a little proof of the “accident”, check out this picture captured by a game camera just a few days later.

What a season.  I’ll recap in the next several days.

With my cull buck finally down, I was left with only a couple of hunts remaining to try and get within range of a management 8 point or another big cull buck for that matter.

My next time out was Tuesday morning.  With temperatures right at the freezing mark, a heavy frost, bluebird skies, and bucks going 150 mph in search of does, I was confident that I would at least see an eligible target.

I perched myself on one of the steepest ridges on the entire property to try and prevent deer from slipping downwind of my treestand location if they responded to a rattling or grunt sequence.  Glad I did.

Not long after daylight, I had one of my collared bucks slip through towards the bedding area.  After another hour of waiting, I was worried that all the deer had gone to bed before daylight – but that was not the case.  The boys were just getting in from a long night of chasing the girls.

At 7:45 a.m., I picked up my rattling antlers for the second time that morning but got a response this time.  Within the next 5 minutes, I had 4 different bucks all gawking in my direction within 100 yards.  A yearling buck, 2 year old, 3 year old, and a 5 year old.  None legal bucks to me though.

This was the 5 year old.  He was a 9 point.

After 30 minutes went by and the woods quieted down, I clanged the antlers together again and the woods came to life again.  The same 3 year old and 5 year old came back in to investigate the second “fight” of the morning.  While they were deciding whether or not they were just going to fight each other, I could hear a couple deer walking up behind me.

They circled downwind but because of the ridge they could only go about 15 yards behind my tree – not nearly far enough out to get in my scent stream.  When I saw the first buck, I just about lost it…

…but quickly realized he wasn’t one of the over-hill 8 pointers I was looking for.  This was a 4 year old buck with tremendous width.  If he adds a bit of mass and tine length, he will be a true monster as a fully mature 5 or 6 year old.

Here’s another picture I took of the same deer.

Right on his heels was one of my hit list bucks though.

With several other bucks within 50 yards to compare to, I instantly recognized all the characteristics of an over-the-hill buck – sagging belly, monster body, neck looks as developed as his chest.  Oh yea…and 8 points which made him a management buck.

As they continued down the trail that would put them both in one of my 20 yard shooting windows, I wasn’t sure if I was going to have an opportunity to draw my bow with 4 deer standing so close (something I couldn’t have done on my previous encounter with 4 bucks that same morning…too many eyes searching for the battle).  Fortunately, one of the other bucks grunted his displeasure at the wide 8 point and my potential target.  All attention went to the deer that vocalized and that was the window I needed.

I drew my bow and waited until he cleared the last pine limb.  At 17 yards, I settled my pin and buried my arrow through the deer and into a log laying behind him.  He sprinted down the steep ridge behind my stand before slowing to a stop in the creek bottom below.  15 seconds later it was over.

He weighed over 200 pounds and I couldn’t have been more tickled with his antlers.  A classic management 8 point but a trophy buck to me.  He was at least 5 years old, but we’re leaning towards 6 or 7 years.  Better than average mass, great eyeguards, and awesome width.  Believe it or not (I had to measure 3 different times just to convince myself), he is deceptively wide at 20 3/8″ inside spread.

This picture shows off his old face and very gray coat.

His rack hadn’t changed much since last year.  The picture below is from February 2009 and even though he had lost a lot of body weight, he still holds the appearance of an older age class animal.

So, I’m tagged out for bucks.  My deer season is over.  I can hear my wife shouting “Finally!”

Or is it???  Stay tuned for an “encore” hunt that I’ll write up on Monday.

Also, my personal take on hunting inside a high fence (a first time experience for myself this year) will be going up sometime next week or shortly thereafter.  I’m sure you all will be interested to read that.

I mentioned several weeks ago that at Christmas time I got the nod from the owner of my research site to go after a mature cull buck and a management 8 point (over the hill 8 pt.).  To frame the next several posts – this is high fence hunting.  All I will say right now is that by setting very stringent harvest standards, restricting your equipment, and taking care to not get spoiled – high fence hunting can be very enjoyable…AND CHALLENGING!  (I’ll make a post in a week or two on my opinion of high fence hunting).  For now…enjoy the post!

Saturday morning was my 16th hunt chasing a big mature cull buck or a management 8 point.  I sifted through the trail camera pictures earlier this year to pick out 4 or 5 of the top eschelon bucks in each category and made them my focus.

In fact, it took me 13 hunts to even lay eyes on one of these bucks.  A buck I liked to call the G2 buck.  Here is a picture from this summer when we were monitoring deer for darting purposes to deploy our GPS radiocollars.

On that evening, he stood at a safe distance watching 2 smaller bucks posturing within my effective archery range but never got perturbed enough to come over and assert his own dominance that would have drawn him into range.

Saturday morning was a perfect morning for rutting action and the deer did not disappoint.  Another of my hit list cull bucks made an appearance but circled downwind when he came in to my rattling antlers and busted me.  Probably a 230 pound 5 pt.

I was sitting watching 2 trails – one on either side of a creek – when I heard deer walking in my direction.  I glanced through my binoculars and instantly recognized loonnngg back tines – the G2 buck!  He was covering ground quickly and by the time I grabbed my bow and stood up he was entering my lone shooting lane to that trail.

I grunted to stop him as I drew my bow,and he stopped with his head and shoulders behind a big water oak trunk.  At 34 yards, I settled my pin an inch into the tree bark and touched my release.  I can’t overemphasize that you should be intimately familiar with your shooting tendencies.  I tend to shoot 2-3″ right at second pin distances and putting the pin on the bark was enough to slip the arrow into the back of his lungs.

After a classic mule kick, he raced up the hill out of sight but I thought I could hear him crash.  It happened so quick.  Definitely no more than 30 seconds from the time I heard him walking to the time my arrow was launched.

I sat another hour in my stand and was comforted when a yearling buck came down the same trail and found my arrow for me.  He sniffed the bloody arrow for a few seconds before blood trailing the buck up the hill.  I kid you not – the deer sniffed his way directly up the hill where the G2 buck had sprinted and when he was nearly out of sight started doing a “head bob” dance -  hopefully in response to my downed buck.

My confidence is skyrocketing with my Slick Tricks.  Even on a mature buck shot high through the back of the lungs, the blood trail was more than adequate.  Right where the yearling buck was doing his double take, the G2 buck lay expired.

Here is where the story takes an interesting twist.  My buddy immediately remarked that I had shot the “midget” buck.  I didn’t know what he was talking about.  Apparently, there has been a buck for 2 or 3 years that appeared mature but was noticeably smaller than other adult bucks.  This was definitely him.

His live weight was only 143.5 pounds – a full 60-70 pounds lighter than other mature bucks harvested from the property.  From head to tail, he was over a foot shorter in length and his legs looked like 6 or 8 inches had been chopped off.

His rack did not disappoint though.  Almost 11 inch G2s.  Deceptively wide at 17 5/8″ inside spread.  21 1/2″ main beams.  Average mass.  Can’t precisely age older bucks, but the G2 buck was at least 5 years old – if not 6 or 7.

With my cull buck down, it’s time to take on a management 8 point.  Only a week to make that happen though and getting within archery range of an old warrior has been nearly impossible so far.  Thankfully, the rut is in full swing and the bucks seem to be responding to rattling on a consistent basis.

Stay tuned…

Hunted Monday morning on the university holiday and still hunted across one of my hunting properties.  Saw plenty of deer – 11 in fact – but not a single buck.  All doe-fawn groups.  That sort of blew my mind seeing as how it is supposedly the peak of the rut here in Alabama right now.

Did find some monster rubs though.  Not obliterated, but still a pretty serious signpost.

I went back in Monday evening with a mind that if given the opportunity, I would do my part in getting the sex ratio a little closer to balanced.  I sat on a green field and right as the sun was dipping below the tree line, deer started coming out.

First, a fawn emerged about 200 yards distant.  As I was waiting for a big doe to follow it out, a group of 3 fawns and a single doe walked into the opening about 125 yards away.  There was still 30 minutes of shooting light left, so I was going to wait to see if a buck would appear before shooting.

However, a minute or two later, someone let a big gun rip just a couple hundred yards away (sure sounded like it was on our property!).  That stirred the deer up enough that they intended to leave the food plot.  Just before they could leave, I centered my crosshairs on the shoulder blade of the big doe and let my own gun rip.  She dropped right where she stood and never twitched.

Got her dressed out that night and put her on the scales the next day.  83.6 pounds dressed.  That’s a big Alabama doe.

Sorry for the “redneck” pose, but I don’t commit that crime often so you’ll have to forgive me.  First deer this year with a rifle.  Going to harvest another deer hopefully this week so I have enough venison to can at least 7 quarts with the pressure cooker to round out the season.

Dad and I’s trip to Mississippi was one last gasp of relaxation before hitting the spring semester full blast.  Our friend’s property where we hunted was located in the Mississippi River bluffs near Yazoo City.  One can’t imagine how steep the hills are that close to the Mississippi River Delta, but the ravines and ridges were dramatic to say the least.

The property is intensely managed and the whitetails have to be brutes to meet harvest criteria.  140″ for 8s and 150″ for 10s.  Trophy management for sure.

My first evening was spent in this tripod called “Turkey Ridge”.

Sure enough, I heard turkeys but also had some great deer action.  30 minutes into the hunt, 3 doe fawns exploded out of the draw to my right and crossed the plot just 10 yards away.  Hot on their heels was an 8 pointer about 16-17 inches wide with great brow tines.  He was in the 120″ range at least, but still a ways from being a legal shooter.  The evening ended with a few does coming out at dusk to feed on the food plot.

The next morning I scaled this steep finger ridge down to a loc-on only 2 feet off the ground, but a loooonnngg ways from the creek bottom below.

After the sunrise had warmed things up a bit, I had a 3 year old buck come down the drainage.  I couldn’t be sure of his size before I did some bleating and he came closer to investigate.  Definitely too small and perhaps a cull buck, but I didn’t want to make a mistake.  Instead I shot him repeatedly with my camera and video camera.  For 15 minutes, he made circles below staring up to find the “doe” that was calling his name.

Can you find him?

I would never pass this buck up in Alabama, but being able to sit and watch him was an awesome experience.  Awesome body of that joker.

The next 2 evenings and 1 morning went too quickly and the bucks were harder to come by.  I saw a few yearling bucks and plenty of does, but 3-4 weeks postrut was definitely a challenge.

I was convinced there were still some monsters running around on the property though.  .30-06 clip laying beside a monster track.  Walking, no slipping.  On level ground.  PIG!!!

Definitely easy to lay off the trigger when you know some monsters are lurking around.

Dad had a great hunt as well and actually may have encountered one or two shooter bucks.  Unfortunately, they were feeding onto green fields right at last light and to be sure they were legal would have taken another 10 minutes earlier of daylight.

All told saw in the neighborhood of 60 deer and 9 bucks – 5 of which were better than 105″ and 2 of which were easily in excess of 125″ that dad saw.

What an awesome trip spending time with dad doing what we love – deer hunting!

So, 15 days later in Alabama’s hunting season.  I’ll probably get out a couple more times, but the light is at the end of tunnel.  2009-2010 is rapidly coming to a close.  What a season so far!  With a little luck (no, maybe a lot) I’ll get one of my tags on a good Alabama buck.

Deadlines.

That’s right.  The highlight of the January big game license application deadlines are all the big game species in the state of Utah and elk in Wyoming.

I’m going to be more involved this year than ever in applying for limited draw tags in the West.  It has taken me a couple years to grasp that some hunts I am interested in…it will not be until I’m in my early-mid 30s until I can even begin to hope to draw some tags.  Others may only take 3 or 4 years, but that is so much farther down the road than most people have ever planned anything.

Take a premium unit for pronghorn antelope in Wyoming.  I’m looking at being 4 or 5 hunting seasons older to draw a tag to chase 15-16″ goats.  Take the time now to plan ahead for your future hunting adventures.

I didn’t know what else to call yesterday other than a nasty, muddy, wet swamp hunt.  My neighbor, another buddy, and I headed down to central Alabama for a day of hunting deer and hogs.

I had a doe with 2 fawns come by my stand at daylight but I let them pass in hopes of spotting a buck following them.  Nothing doing.

That turned out to be the only deer I saw all day, but the not the only critters.

At 8:00 a.m., I could hear a group of pigs squealing deep in the swamp.  I was actually prepared for this style of hunting, so I bailed out of my stand and started trudging through the palmetto fronds, canebrakes, and water puddles.

I was within probably 100 yards of pigs when I ran into my first big problem.  My hip waders only keep me dry about 34″ up my body.  The creek was 38″ deep at its shallowest point.  Somehow, the pigs wandered around in circles long enough for me find a passable sandbar and I made it to the other side still dry.

My second big problem was the wind direction.  As soon as I crept up the opposite bank, I could see bits and pieces of a black hog moving through the dense undergrowth but it could smell me.  It whoofed a couple times and trotted off.

Quickly, I moved up into the area where the pig had been standing to find unbelievable sign.

Check out this wallow they made between the roots of this tree.

I sat down and waited…not long.  Before I had time to get my gear arranged, the black pig was back with a buddy or two.  It crossed my shooting hole too fast for me to get my gun up, but the second pig wasn’t so lucky.  My crosshairs were already steadied and I wallopped the next hog with my .270.

As it dropped in its tracks, I could see a few “stripers” scurrying off in the underbrush and then all was still.  Hogzilla was down.  Now, my third problem was figuring out how to extract this wild beast from the swamp it called home.

Monster sow weighing 171 dressed.  We figured she weighed easily 210-215 live.

We knew exactly how much she weighed because we made a Herculean effort to get her out of the swamp.  We floated her down the creek as far as we could before dragging her out the other side.  From there it was a matter of wiggling a 4-wheeler through the woods to where she lay to get her out to the truck.

Hunted a small field in a 3-way funnel on Monday evening out of a ground blind that I packed in on my back.

Looking up a roadbed.

And looking over my shooting sticks into the 1-acre food plot.

It was almost dark before a group of does and fawns fed through.  No antlers to be seen although my hunting buddy did see a shooter 8 pt. right as darkness fell all the way across a large cow pasture.

The next evening I sat on a different area of the property in a matrix of fencelines, small ditches, and cow pasture.  You can hunt the area from a number of different vantage points because the fields are broken up just enough that moving a couple 100 yards in the same field can open up totally different views of different nooks and crannies of the woodline.

30 minutes before dark, a buck appeared on a distant fenceline.  He was just a yearling 5 pt. but he beelined for the exact tree my climber was in and proceeded to take a few bites out of the apple core I had just tossed away.  I captured him on my video camera for a couple minutes before he left for parts unknown.  Slow evening, but good to see a buck beginning to cruise.

Sitting back in some thinned pines bordering a strip of field leading to a food plot.

Had this unbelievable trail coming out right underneath me.

At 3:15 p.m., I heard a twig snap and looked behind me to see this buck slipping through about 100 yards below me.  He worked close enough for me to snap this picture with my digital camera.

Amazing how well they blend in.

Just before 4:00, I could see several small bucks slipping in to the green field from the opposite side when I looked to see 2 fawns prancing up the trail that would lead them right under my stand.

Sure enough, a solid doe was behind them and she never wavered before walking deliberately into one of my shooting lanes on the side of the field.  Perfect 17 yard quartering away shot took her on the crease and exited her opposite armpit.

Always surprised me how far they go with no engine to run on, but the blood trail me just over 100 yards to where she was laying.  It took me quite some time to drag her back up the hill to where I could get my truck to her.  She was a stout doe well over 100 pounds on the scales.

My third high fence doe of the year.  Just trying to do my part in deer management at the property where I conduct my research and loving every minute of it.