Jon's Southern Outdoors
Deer Hunting Page

Private Area It's September 6, 2005 and I guess it's better late than never on getting this page up. Sorry about the pictures, I'll update these pictures with actual deer hunting event pictures later.

For September 4th and 5th of 2005 I actually could have provided some great pictures from the Labor Day weekend for this page. If you visited the Dove Shoot Page then you'll know on Saturday I was on a so called dove shoot, but Sunday and Monday I was at the camp in Marion County, GA working towards deer season.

Sunday I actually was cutting grass at the camp. I put a new belt on the riding lawn mower and was going to town. It was afternoon by the time I got there so I didn't have much time to do a whole lot. After a while, Will and Bill came up the hill with the Bobcat we rented for the weekend. They had already widened my food plot by pushing back an old burn pile that the bulldozer operator didn't move back in 2000 when the food plot was created. They also cleaned up my road that I normally plant and hunt and then they went back and ran the cultivator over it. After chatting with them for a while I went to town to get a bite to eat. Then when back at camp, I ate with Bill and Will and afterwords I went to bed for an early start the next morning as there was still time left on the Bobcat that we rented and we had more areas to clean up.

Topo Map of Private area

September 5, 2005 started about 6:00 AM for me as I walked over to Will's place in the pre-dawn darkness. Ascending the steps onto the porch I could smell the bacon that had been cooked. As I rapped on the door I heard "Go away" letting me know I could go on in. Will and Bill were in the kitchen eating and Will paused to turn and pick up a plate of two eggs and some bacon and toast. He handed them to me and I quickly scarfed them down. Heading outside, Will and Bill jumped in the truck and headed over to Will's new food plot, a loading deck up the hill from me that they had cleaned up with the Bobcat. I hooked up my four-wheeler trailer and headed over there to meet them. They were cleaning up a skid row that led all the way to the creek. Of course when I got there I had to put in my two cents worth on what else needed to be cleaned so Will could see a little more and further down the hill towards the creek.

After that Bill headed down the road to clean up a spot he had found. After he got back I gave him hell about scouting in Will's and my area and that he needed to keep his ass up by the runway where he likes to hunt. I was just funning with him because I nor Will can hunt everywhere at once and there are open areas all around us, but there are also open areas all over the property that people can go to.

Boomless Sprayer After Bill cleaned up his little area, we pointed him in a direction back over towards my area. He ended up taking off down the road with Will and I hollering at him to stop. We finally got him back on track and I sent him down another Skid row where he promptly hit a stump and broke the bead on one of the tires causing it to go flat. I had to drive back to camp, get a compressor and fill the tank with air, get the cooler and head back to the area. In all it took me about an hour, but that's because someone came out to talk and it delayed me a bit.


When I returned we used the four-wheeler to haul the compressor down to the Bobcat. We tried shooting air into the tire, but it didn't work. I suggested WD40 and a match, but Will wanted to use starting fluid. Same thing as they both will combust. That's what we did and we got the tire to seal. We pumped it up and Bill was off. After cleaning up a couple of shooting lanes for me they loaded the Bobcat up and headed off. I on the other hand had some lime I wanted to spread on the food plot.

I got over to my food plot and was a little discouraged to find a big pile of weeds and dirt in the road left from the cultivator. I know how hard it is to move these out of the way, but thought I'd get to it later. I moved my deer feeder and cleaned out the remaining goat feed. I then started trying to spread the palletized lime that was no longer palletized. It was like sand. I had to carry the bag around and spread it by hand. Unfortunately, I had ten bags to do like this. I became more ill by the minute. After all was said and done I was filthy, hot, and tired. I headed on back to camp.

Once back at camp I decided to finish my mowing. Will came up as I was cutting and we talked a little. I told him how my liming experience went and he asked what I thought of the food plot. I told him it was great and asked him who ran the tractor with the cultivator. He knew something was up and he said he did and asked what was wrong. I told him about the pile of weeds and dirt and that I was going to buy a pitch fork to work on next weekend. He said he'd clean it up when he brought his tractor and cultivator down. I wasn't mad or ill about the pile of weeds, I just know it needs to be moved before I can start planting and I had to move five piles like that last year. I am a fan of the disk harrow rather than the cultivator that drags all the weeds and roots to create big piles of junk.

Well, I ended out my weekend by mowing several of the campsites and the roadsides before I took a shower and headed home. I have so much to do before the 10th of September and opening day of bow season. I'll likely try and shoot dove on that Saturday morning on Blanton Creek WMA. I'll then hang a deer stand on the WMA for bow hunting and by noon head out to Marion County to try more dove or either bow hunt. I'll let you all know as soon as I can. Hopefully I'll have some pictures to upload too.

September 11, 2005 Okay, again I forgot to take pictures. I was able to go bow hunting on Muckalee up around the county runway. The field up there is planted in soybeans and I was hoping to catch some deer moving to or from the field. I saw nothing at all. I also carried 10 bags of lime, 5 bags of fertalizer and several bags of seed. I bought wheat, oats, peas, crimson clover, rape, and a couple of mixes from Pennington and BioLogic. I didn't want to plant because it has been dry for the past couple of weeks and they were not calling for any rain for the next week. I am planning on waiting until it rains befor I plant any seed. I'll try and take some pictures next weekend.

September 17, 2005 Well, I've been slack again with the pictures. I arrived after shooting a dove field in the evening and unpacked my truck ready to spend the night in my trailer at the camp. I turned on the television to watch some SEC football and ended up staying up until midnight.

Bow Season

September 18, 2005 I got up at 5:30 AM and took a hot shower and then dressed for a bow hunt next to a persimmon tree that I found fresh sign under. The humidity was high and it was muggy. By the time I unloaded my climbing stand and hiked down the road and then climbed the tree, I was sweating profusely. My classes were fogged and I am sure I was reeking of human scent.

By 8:00 and about a 100 yards east of me I heard a deer blowing and considering the wind was out of the west that morning I knew it was blowing at me. The only thing I got to see was a raccoon cruising through the woods. I climbed down at 10:30 and by the time I got back to camp my thermometer was reading 98 degrees. It was so hot it was miserable.

I ended up crashing in my recliner and sleeping in the air conditioning until about 3:00 PM. I then got up and piddle around on some projects around the trailer and then decided to head on home. It was just too darn hot to bow hunt.

September 24, 2005 I did not go hunting at all. It has been so dry and hot I didn't feel like getting out and sweating to death and being a meal for the bugs. Slack I know because you can't kill deer if you're not in the woods. I also screwed up by not watching the weather. It has not rained since Hurricane Katrina August 28-29 and has been a full four weeks of dry weather. It rained Monday September 26th all day long. I should have planted Sunday September 25th. Live and learn, but I have been slack on my deer hunting due to the heat. I hope to get into it hard and heavy soon as Gun season starts October 22nd.

October 2, 2005 Okay, okay I'm a heel for not taking pictures again. I forgot to bring my camera again. Too bad because I fired up the old 8N and hooked up the harrow on Saturday the second of October and went and plowed the food plot. It didn't need much as Will had already gone over it with the cultivator. I smoothed things over with the harrow and got ready for planting.

October 3, 2005 I got up and loaded the 100 pounds of wheat, the bushel of oats, the 60 pounds of iron and clay peas, the 10 pounds of crimson clover, 5 pounds of rape, and several bags of deer mixes like BioLogic's Green Patch Plus, a couple of Pennington mixes, and a couple of ProGraze mixes. Then I loaded 250 pounds of fertilizer and 200 pounds of lime to add to the already 700 pounds of lime that was previously spread on the plot.

I went out and hooked up the four-wheeler trailer, loaded the ATV harrow, grabbed the spreader for the four-wheeler, a shovel, the chain saw, the covers for my stands and went to work. I spread one bag of wheat first and then thought I should spread the fertilizer first so that the lime and seed spreading will help knock the fertilizer dust off the spreader. After spreading all the fertilizer and then lime, I spread the Iron and clay peas. I then moved on to the oats, which are a pain in the spreader because of their size, lightness, and the spreader does not have an agitator in it. I then inoculated the crimson clover with the bacteria culture and mixed it in with all the deer mixes I bought to give me 50 pounds of clover, wheat, rape, turnips, and other greens to plant.

This is where I realized I was screwing up. I had another 50 pound bag of wheat to throw out and I needed to cover the larger seeds with the ATV harrow. So I hooked up the ATV harrow after empting the spreader of the clover/rape mix and putting it back into a seed bag until later. I filled the spreader with the wheat and took off spreading and covering at the same time. You see, my food plot is a long logging road that separates two parcels of land. At the top of the hill you head north for about two hundred yards and then the road makes a 90 degree right hand turn and heads east for about 350 yards to the creek. Once at the creek I have a turnaround that is now about 1/2 acre in size since we used the Bobcat on it. So, with all this I had to run the four-wheeler up and down several times to get everything spread and then covered.

Well, after covering everything with the little ATV harrow I loaded up the small seed mixture of clover and rape. I spread these making two and a half trips, but I just wasn't happy leaving it on top and not with much soil contact. After trying to figure out what to do to lightly cover the seed I took out the chain saw and cut a five foot section of log to drag behind the four-wheeler. I drug and drug covering the seeds and firming up the seed bed.

After this, with the log still attached, I carried the tops for my tri-pod stands down to each stand. One is located at the 90 degree turn so I can see both ways and the other is located right in the center of the 350 yard section. Once I had those in place I pulled some film out of one of my game cameras and put new in with some fresh batteries. I went back to the truck and grabbed the chain saw because there were limbs that needed trimming and sweet gums that had to go. The sweet gum trees grow like weeds and make it hard to see so I take them out.

Okay last little bit, as I am heading out and down the 200 yard road that runs north and south I take my shovel and dig trenches across the rode every twenty yards or so to keep water from washing out the road. I've done this for six years now and it has worked. The first year I didn't do it at first and when a big ditch was forming right down the center of the road, I knew I had to do something. Now the water hits the little trenches I make and runs right off the road.

By this time I am dragging. I was dragging when I trimmed the limbs down the side of the road. When I got to the top of the hill and loaded up the four-wheeler, I could barley get the disk harrow on the trailer. I was hot, dirty, and tired. I finally made it back to camp where I unloaded all that stuff, locked up the four-wheeler, took a shower, and then headed for home. Now all I have to do is hope for rain.

It is Wednesday night and Tropical storm Tammy has hit shore at the GA/FL line and it is lightly raining. They are calling for rain all day tomorrow and I can't wait to see how the food plot is doing. I promise that I'll try and get some pictures next weekend. After all, I only have a few weeks before gun season. Oh, the game camera pictures produced a big healthy doe and several pictures of a young six point still in velvet over the month of August. Because I didn't check it during September, I didn't have any September pictures, but I should have some for October.

October 8, 2005 Well, I took some pictures. Finally, I remembered to take the camera to the woods and I actually took some pictures. The pictures that will soon grace this page range from food plot pictures (day 7 after planting) to shots from the deer stand during the last weekend of bow season. I'll have to download and format the pictures and then upload them, but I'll get them on here soon.

My hunting isn't going too well, but I have also not been too excited about it either. Saturday I didn't get to the camp until late and made it to the woods with about two hours to hunt. Guess what I did instead, I took pictures of the food plot. I did finally climb into a stand about 7:00 that evening and sat there for about 45 minutes. Of course I didn't see anything. I ended up back at camp cooking a steak and watching college football until about 10:30.

Food Plot Oct_9_2005

October 9, 2005 I was up at 6:00 AM and getting ready to go. Camp was actually quite as others there were either gone or sleeping in. I headed out and made it to the stand in the pre-dawn darkness. I was hunting on the edge of thinned pins just inside a hardwood bottom. I was on a hillside that is covered in white oak trees and I just knew I'd see something. To keep this from being too boring, at 10:30 AM I started to climb down, but actually I took the stand out of the tree. I needed to move it and taking it down didn't take but a few minutes.

After I got all the ladders sticks bound together and the stand secured, I went scouting across the creek. I knew of a spot over there that I wanted to hunt and I went on a walk about. I spent several hours over there walking around and looking. I found a lot of good sign and where I wanted to move the stand to, but getting there was going to be a chore. We have a road to the general area; it is only accessible by four-wheeler. It is a non-maintained road that has washed so bad that a truck can not pass it. You also have to cross a creek to get to it. I put a lot of bricks and rocks in the creek to build it up where you can cross it with a four-wheeler, but once across, there are several trees down that will need to be cut out of the way.

Sounds like a lot of work, but I don't think it will be. Currently I can cross the creek either walking or with a four-wheeler and moving the downed trees will not be that difficult. It is just a matter of finding the right path into the area I want to hang a stand and making sure that if I get a deer down in that area to be prepared for a long haul to get it out. Needles to say, it will have to be a big one.

After the scouting I made it back to camp. I did not put up the stand as I was just too tired and needed to eat something. I had planned on going back out later in the day to put the stand up, but it didn't happen. I ended up trying to find the pieces for my ladder sticks and then I started fooling with a tripod stand that needs to be put together. I cut the grass around several campers and then I relaxed. No stand hanging or hunting for the evening. I packed up and headed for home.

October 15, 2005 I was up at 5:00 AM and getting ready to go after going to sleep only three and one-half hours earlier. It was muzzleloader season and I was ready. Last night, when I went to retrieve the muzzleloader from the gun cabinet, I couldn't find the key. I woke the wife up who realized she had vacuumed where I kept the key. She went out to the trash and dug around to find the key. What a way to begin, but needless to say I got all my items together and was ready to go. After a morning shower, I loaded the truck and was off. It was 6:30 AM and that would put me in the camp at 7:30 AM. That's about thirty minutes too late, but not too big of a deal.

Just as I had figured I reached the camp at 7:30 AM about thirty minutes after daylight. I posted out on the map board and headed to my stand. I made it up in the stand by 8:00 AM and hunted until 10:30 AM without seeing a thing. I had been in a ladder stand in the thinned pines just north to north west of my private area stand. I couldn't wait to see my food plot. It had been two weeks since planting on October 2nd and last week I wasn't real pleased with what I saw. Last week there was little growth and no deer tracks what so ever. I was pleasantly surprised this week. The plot was full of greens. I had a good stand of wheat and oats coming up, Iron and Clay peas were everywhere, but the biggest surprise was the amount of coverage I had on the rape and other greens. This plot was covered with the emerging greens and was going to provide a lot of forage for the deer.

Food Plot Oct_16_2005

The best part about my food plot was not only the growth in a two week period, but the fact that there were deer tracks all over it. They were already feeding in it and tracks covered the plot from one end to the other. Even on the hill side of the south to north road section had tracks all over it. It really got me pumped up for maybe getting to see some deer. If I haven't mentioned it before, I have not seen any deer during any hunting thus far.

I went back to camp with the intention of getting some rest, but I never did. I had ordered two ladder stands that I unloaded and needed to put together. I also had to run to town to get a steak and potato for dinner as well as some ice. By the time I got back, I piddled around some and then headed back to the woods. I hunted the old ladder stand I have on top of the hill at the south end of the planted road. I didn't see anything other than the three rabbits right under me. My sight was limited from that stand, but I didn't want to disturb the area by tromping through my food plot all the way to my private area stand.

Back at camp I grilled my steak and nuked my potato while listening to the Auburn at Arkansas game. I actually fell asleep after eating and missed the very end of the game. The next morning October 16, 2005 I headed out at 6:45 AM with plenty of time to get into my private area stand before full light. I eased through the woods and then slipped out to my food plot just down from the stand. By the time I was settled in, it was about 7:05 AM and just getting light. The bad thing about this stand with a muzzleloader is that I can have some 200 yard shots. With a rifle it is no problem, but with the muzzleloader I like to keep my shots within the 100 yard range.

Muzzleloader season

At 9:30 AM a deer stepped out from the east end of the food plot where the turnaround area is that Will and Bill had widened with the Bobcat. I started to grab the gun, but first thought to look at the deer with my binoculars. Good thing I did because it was a nice little six point buck. I pulled out the digital camera and started taking pictures as best I could with three powered zoom. I didn't realize the digital zoom was off which could have given me up to 7.5 power. I watched this deer eat for a while in the food plot and come closer, but then he spooked and ran off. I don't know what spooked him as the wind was out of the north and I was 150 yards to the west of the deer. No matter to me, at least I finally saw something and the best thing was he was feeding in my food plot.

Deer in Food plot Oct 16 2005

On the way out I collected some crab apples and some persimmons for the seeds to see if I can grow some trees. Back at camp I ate some lunch and then went to work on the ladder stand assembly. I was able to put one of the two together. Later in the day, Will and I went over to his area with my GPS to find where he marked his private area. He couldn't find the ribbon we place up there in June. We went straight to with the GPS as I had marked it that day. The ribbon was on the ground, so will marked a tree real good with more ribbon and we checked distances on other areas where he wanted to put stands. We then unloaded my ladder stand and a lock on stand with a ladder stick and new stands I was going to put out. After this, Will and I went to my food plot so I could trim a couple of limbs and he wanted to see how the plot looked. The last thing we did was put up a "No Driving on Food Plot" sign in front of Will's food plot. It was too late to hunt so I fired off the round in my muzzleloader and we headed back to camp. Once there I showered, loaded up, and shut everything down. Not much of a muzzleloader season, but enough for me to be out of the house and away from work. Next week, well let's say I may miss opening day. I've promised to help guide some youth on a youth hunt in Harris County so I am willing to fogo my opening day, but I have scheduled two additional days off for a long weekend.

Next week October 22, 2005 Gun Season.

Well, it came and went. That's opening day I mean. You see, let me put it to you like this. I didn't go. That's right let me repeat that. I did not go on opening day. Not because I couldn't have gone, but because I chose not to.

I promised to help a friend out with a youth hunt in Harris County and I did not want to get up at five in the morning, drive 60 miles to hunt for a couple of hours and then drive another 60 to get to Harris County in time to assist with the youth hunt. I slept in instead and I loved every bit of it.

I was up by 8:00 AM and I started cleaning guns that were in need of it. The muzzle loader, the shotgun, and I like to run a few patches through the rifles prior to hunting season just to make sure they are free of any dust or oil residue from sitting up. This actually took longer than I expected and before I knew it, it was time to head over to Harris County for the MeadWesvaco youth hunt.

This event was the best opening day I could have wished for. We had five kids between 12 and 14 years of age with their fathers. One young girl had not shot a deer yet and the others had only shot one or two deer before. One of the first things we did was take them to the range to make sure they were hitting paper first at 30 yards and then out to 100 yards. It's a good thing we did too because there were a couple that it took a while to get sighted in. This took a little longer than anticipated, but while this was going on, Donnie, the host of the event, and I cooked hamburgers and hotdogs on the grill.

After everyone returned from the range, we all ate prior to going out to the stands. After eating, the game warden gave a brief talk about hunting safety. We then loaded everyone up and took them to their stands. I took the last kid and adult to their stand, which were box blinds on food plots. When I got back to the check in board, Donnie and I drove down to the gate and parked so that no one would come in while the hunt was going on. We looked at some seven year old saw tooth oaks that Donnie had planted and talked hunting in general. Before long we heard a shot. Not long after that we heard another. By the time the other two volunteers, (James and Danny) who had helped with the gun sighting as well as stand placement, returned from eating, we had heard several more shots. At 7:30 it was time to go pick up the hunters. The kid I had taken to the stand saw a deer but didn't get to shoot one. I then went to check on the young girl Ashley and her father. They were just coming out of the woods on the road that led to their blind. I asked if they had one and Ashley replied, "I sure do." Needless to say, she was very excited. We went back to the food plot and then tracked the deer some thirty yards into the woods.

It didn't take long to get the deer in the truck and then James and Danny showed up to see what she got. We went back at the check in board and then down to one of the fields to take some pictures. When I got out of the truck, all the boys were in the back of a truck with their deer as one of the fathers was bringing them in for pictures. I'll never forget this as long as I live. Picture four young boys in the back of a pickup all decked out in hunting garb and looking to me as I walked by with one shouting out the question, "How many deer did that girl shoot?" I was so tickled that I just couldn't let that go so I quickly responded with, "10 or 12, I'm not quite sure exactly." Then all the boys were saying "Naw" and "No way" and one asked, "No really, how many did she get?" Me being me, I still had to lie about it and calmly said, "five". Of course this brought a bunch of commotion too and I finally gave them the real answer of "just one". But this isn't the topper. When we were back at the check in board and cleaning station one boy asked Ashley where her deer was. Her response was, "In the back of our truck. Go get it for me." And the boy took off after that deer. I just started laughing and made the profound statement of "I heard that", to several of the guys around me. One guy there grinned and stated, "And to think, that sets the stage for the way things will be the rest of their lives." I got so tickled I just laughed and I saw Ashley look at me quizzically. I didn't bother to try and explain as I figured she would know soon enough if she even remembers the statements we made and the laughing at how the young boy jumped at her command.

Needless to say it was a great opening day for me. Of the five kids all got a deer except one, but his twin brother made up for it by shooting four. We only recovered three of those four, but we looked and looked for that fourth one without any success. I ended up hunting Sunday morning at that same place with Donnie. I sat in a ladder stand close to the rifle range where at 9:30 AM I had a young five point buck walk right under me. I tried to get a picture of it, but the batteries in the camrea were dead and I just couldn't get a picture. Donnie saw a fawn and some turkeys that morning. We decided to hunt there that evening as well and I sat on another food plot that had not been hunted. At 6:30 PM I had a three point buck and a seven point buck walk out onto the field. The wind swirled a little and the deer became skittish as they likely caught my scent. I watched them for about ten minutes befor they ran off. I also saw a covey of ten quail in the field. I got pictures of both the deer and quail since I changed the batteries.

Monday morning October 24, 2005 I got up at 5:00 AM and loaded up for Marion County, GA to head towards good old Muckalee Sportsman Association. The wind was blowing terribly bad due to hurricane Wilma cutting across Florida. It was whipping up to 30 mph gusts from the northeast that were cold. After checking in at the camp check station, I eased down the road to my private area stand where I didn't see a thing all morning. That evening though, in the same stand and at 6:30 PM I saw a fawn step out on the food plot at the east end near the creek. As I watched it another deer stepped out and then another. These were mature does with the fawn. I could have shot any one of them, but just didn't want to fool with them at that time. As I watched them through the binoculars, I think they may have winded me because they acted real skittish and kept looking my way. They never ran off, but eased into the turnaround area that makes up part of my food plot and were out of my site from the stand I was in. I also saw a bobcat after that, which was sitting right under me. The next morning found me in a ladder stand some 150 yards to the northwest of my private area stand. It sits in thinned pines and is on a cut that allows me to see about 300 yards overall. The wind was still whipping and it was cold. I think the temperature was in the forties to fifties. I don't know what the wind chill was, but I was miserable so at 10:30 I climbed down. As soon as I hit the ground and looked up the cut to the west I saw a doe cross the cut coming from Will's area and heading towards my food plot. I looked with my binoculars and saw another doe standing there just on the right side of the cut behind some trees. It too soon crossed and then another and another. By the time the fifth deer stepped out into the cut, I made the decision to shoot it. In all I think there were six deer and maybe half were fawns. The deer I shot was lying no more than twenty feet from the cut's edge and about forty yards from the logging road that separates Will's area and my area. I cleaned her up and put her in the cooler. She dressed 78 pounds and the jawbone indicates that she was two and a half years old. There was no lactation that I could find and even cut into the utter sack, but found no evidence of milk production from this past spring.

The rest of the evening I spent putting out a couple of ladder stands and trimming limbs. I found a good spot on the creek with a lot of water oak acorns on the ground and a lot of deer sign. I just hope I didn't disturb the area too much.

Well, that was my opening weekend and the first four days of Georgia's gun season. As I write this it is almost time for the second weekend.

Let's see what the second weekend of October 29, 2005 brings. Well I can tell you not that much. Where I had shot the doe last week is where I hunted Saturday morning. I watched a fawn for about an hour, but did not see any other deer. That evening I hunted in my food plot, but saw nothing at all.

October 30, 2005 left me wanting to see something as I did not see anything at all. Not a very eventful weekend.

November 5, 2005 was just as boring. No deer seen at all. Will did give me a ladder he put together to fit the top of a ladder stand that someone else gave me. So now I have another ladder stand to put out in addition to all the other stands I have currently in the woods.

right now I think I have 9 stands in and about my private area and on November 6, 2005 I put up two more not including the one Will gave me the ladder for. That was the highlight of my Sunday hunting trip was putting up two stands that afternoon because I didn't see squat that morning. It just seems too warm for the deer to move, but I think it is supposed to get cooler next week.

November 12, 2005 is the start of my vacation. I have two weeks off and plan on hunting as much as I can. On the 12th I sat in one of my new stands that is a in a hardwood draw coming off the creek I am hunting. It is surrounded by twelve foot pines on three sides so I am hoping that the deer feel comfortable coming into this acorn infested area. Sure enough, I spooked two deer when I went in at about 6:15 AM. I climbed in the stand and about thirty minutes later I heard something and looked to my right to see a deer standing about thirty yards away eating acorns. It was a button buck and he slowly worked his way to right under me. He seemed a little leery and I thought maybe he had got my scent, but after a few moments he was looking hard back the way he had come. When I looked down that way I saw a dark body moving quickly towards me through the brush. I picked up my gun and stood up getting ready. That's when I saw antlers on a dark bodied deer.

I had put out some Code Blue deer scent and the way the buck was acting he had caught a whiff of it. He stopped right under my stand and looked right up at me. He then looked over at the button buck, lowered his head and grunted, and then moved towards the button buck. I think he was trying to see if the button buck was a doe. The button buck ran off a little ways and the other buck (a six point by the way in case you were wonder why I had not shot) sniffed the ground where the little buck had been standing. The six point then wanted another check and chased the little buck again. Satisfied after this, the six point meandered on as did the button buck. In all I'd say they were around me for thirty to forty minutes. When I finally sat down, I heard a thump behind me. My ears perked up if they actually could and I listened. Thump again. I waited. Thump. It had to be a deer stomping its foot. I stood back up and looked behind me. I couldn't see anything. Thump came again and I continued to look and peer through the binoculars, but I couldn't see anything. Then a long blow from the deer sounded and it couldn't have been more than thirty yards behind me. It blew again and than again. I still couldn't see it. Finally it bounded up the small hill behind me a few steps and I grunted at it. It stood there and blew for ten minutes. It finally went into the pines blowing as it left and I sat back down. From what little I saw of it I think it was a doe, but cannot be sure. After about fifteen minutes I grunted again and the damn deer had come back and was blowing right behind me again. It did the same thing, trotting off into the pines blowing as it went. That's not the end. It came back about thirty minutes later and blew some more and then finally left as did I. I had enough.

well there is more to this days events as it was the scheduled day of our Paralyzed Veteran hunt and the day of the big cook out held every year. Our guest Vet had not got a deer in the morning, but got one that evening. We were all excited that he was able to get a deer. The cook out was great as always with more than fifty people there. It was a fun event. Kenny gave me a bottle of his award winning wine that I will gladly consume. My evening hunt produced nothing as did my November 13, 2005 Sunday morning hunt.

Monday November 14, 2005 was another uneventful hunt and temperatures were back up to where the gnats and mosquitoes were bothersome. Will and I were informed that some guys from Brown hunting club were coming through an out piece and onto our property on a four-wheeler. We think they've done it twice and have been informed that they are on our property. If I catch them I'll call the sheriff. A friend of mine leased the out property and he had problems with these people coming onto his lease. Now that he doesn't have it they are trespassing on it and on our land too. I finally crossed the creek with will to pick up a stand I had over there. It is another ladder stand that I can put out somewhere. November 15, 2005 Tuesday morning was hot and bugs were bad. Needless to say with the full moon and the heat deer movement is not that great. Oh there are guys getting does now and then and there were two really nice 140 to 150 class bucks shot. One on the 8th and the last one on the 13th, so I know the deer are starting to do their thing. It is supposed to rain Tuesday night and Wednesday morning so I am going home to wash clothes and take care of a few things like update this information. A cold front is moving in and it is supposed to be cold for the rest of the week. Hopefully I'll be able to give you all a better update upon my return.

November 15, 2005 Tuesday morning was hot and bugs were bad. Needless to say with the full moon and the heat deer movement is not that great. Oh there are guys getting does now and then and there were two really nice 140 to 150 class bucks shot. One on the 8th and the last one on the 13th, so I know the deer are starting to do their thing. It is supposed to rain Tuesday night and Wednesday morning so I am going home to wash clothes and take care of a few things like update this information. A cold front is moving in and it is supposed to be cold for the rest of the week. Hopefully I'll be able to give you all a better update upon my return.

November 16, 2005 - November 23, 2005. This will be a short entry to cover this eight day period. Why you ask? Because I just spent the last ten days hunting morning, evening, and sometimes all day and I have not seen a deer. The last deer I've seen were the ones mentioned above. I don't know what the deal is and this is quickly becoming one of my worst seasons ever. It must be because I am logging it in a journal. This Sucks with a capital "S".

Well to give you an idea of what I've done, I put up a couple more stands in an effort to try and see deer. That gives me thirteen stands to bounce between. We'll see if that helps or not.

It finally rained Sunday evening November 20th and all day Monday November 21st which really helped out the food plots that had been dry for a month now. The wind blew up to 25 mph on Tuesday the 22nd and Wednesday morning was a beautiful day, but did I see any deer? Hell no!!! I did see fresh tracks in my tracks from the evening before which tells me they are moving at night. One guy in the club shot a nice eight point Wednesday morning as it tracked a doe that had passed through his area earlier that morning. I didn't hunt Wednesday evening or Thursday Morning as I am at home writing this and likely missed the buck of a life time, but I am going back this evening to give it another shot. I am a glutton for punishment. I actually may need to go to my Stewart County property for a change of pace, but that is unlikely.

I did check out a couple of the duck ponds on Muckalee and found ducks on Pond One, but Pond Two is gone. The dam was busted and it is nothing but cattails and weeds out there. That's it for now. I'll report back in a few days.

November 24, 2005 - November 27, 2005. Well my vacation is over. You may wonder, did JB score on a buck or a deer of any kind? Heck no!! JB's season stunk. But, it was better than any day of work for sure.

On Thursday I went back to hunting and saw nothing, but on Friday the 25th after sitting up in a newly placed tree stand that looks down the food plot road from south to north where I watched a bobcat and her kitten for a while as well as hearing a deer blow either at the scent rag I had out or at the bobcats, I decided to relocate around 9:30 and moved to a stand in the hardwoods by the creek. I got set up around 10:00 and by 10:15 I had a buck walk right under me. He wasn't a shooter and he didn't like the tarsal gland I had hanging up. When he smelt it he ran off and blew.

Saturday morning I was in the same tree stand that looks south to north and it was foggy. At 8:00 I saw a deer for a few moments, but it was gone before I could get a good look at it. Then at 10:05 a buck stepped out and quickly crossed the road. I saw a tall light colored rack, but I don't believe he was a shooter. I moved a camera over the trail he used to try and get a picture of him. A couple of guys from the club scored big on some nice deer. I hope maybe I'll get lucky and see one that is a shooter.

Saturday evening I sat in my tripod that is the center point for my private area. The picture above of the deer feeding and the muzzleloader are from this point. At 5:30 I heard deer in the wood behind me running. I tried to locate them, but couldn't see anything. By the time I noticed one on the food plot it was already crossing and going out of sight. I don't know if it was a buck or a doe, but looked big compared to the fawn that later came out about fifteen minutes later. The fawn fed about where the pictured six point above is located and stayed there until I couldn't see it any more due to darkness. I got down and eased out of the area.

Sunday morning it was looking like rain so I positioned myself close to my center point private area stand as it has a roof on it. I was in the hardwoods where the buck walked under me on Friday. The same buck came back around 9:00 and walked right under me again from the creek to the east and was heading west and into the fifteen foot tall pines behind me. He stopped under me and looked right up at me, but didn't spook. He just went back to walking and headed out of sight. The rain came in about 9:30 and I headed to the tripod with the roof. I stayed there until 11:00, but didn't see anything. Once back at camp, Will and Mike helped me set up my porch on my trailer, a chore that took more time and effort than I had anticipated. Well it is up now so I am happy with that. Mike and I went to the woods around 4:00, bet we didn't see anything and I came back to load up and head out.

Deer season still lasts until mid-January so I have plenty of time, but all indications show the peek of the rut was Thanksgiving. It fell about 7 to 10 days following the full moon, which was on the 16th. I'll never schedule vacation around the full moon again. I'll continue to hunt deer for a while, but duck season opens back up December 10th and I know I'll be doing some of that. In any case, I'll still be logging my efforts here.

December 2005. This is a report of the entire month and without further delay, on to the first weekend of the month, December 3rd and 4th. Take note that I'm writing this on the 26th and going by memory. I don't remember seeing any deer. That afternoon Mike and I worked on adjusting some of the blocks under my porch and putting steps up. Mike had given me some 2 x 10 lumber to make the steps out of. I hunted that evening and don't recall seeing anything then either. On Sunday morning I took my 22 to the woods and shot squirrels. It wasn't as fun as I had hoped and needless to say I didn't expect to see any deer. That afternoon it was quite. I don't recall seeing any deer that evening either. I did put out my deer cameras in places I thought I'd get a lot of deer crossing. One I placed where I saw that tall light colored rack deer at and the other is on the corner of my food plot. The latter I put out Saturday and Sunday evening I already had eight pictures on it.

Okay, the weekend of the 10th and 11th I enjoyed my porch that Will, Mike and I put up on the front of my trailer. When I got there on Friday night there were only a few people there and it looked as if I was going to have the upper portion of the camp all to myself. After hunting Saturday morning (10th) and only seeing a little buck I came back and lounged on my new porch. Mike had come in and then several others also came in making for quite a few people. In all as I was lounging there on the porch, Mike came over, Chester came over, Will pulled in and stopped, then Bill and Bob walked down. Will broke out a five gallon bucket of pecans that we all started cracking and eating, then after a while of cracking he broke out a gallon freezer bag of shelled pecan halves and then to top that off, he brought out a fresh pecan pie he had made. I went in and brought out the plates and forks and all six of us enjoyed the heck out of that pie while telling old hunting stories and just general talking. After a while everyone went to get ready for the evening hunt. I don't recall seeing anything so likely I did not. The next morning I went down to a busted beaver pond with my shotgun and tried to shoot the only duck I saw. I missed. The ducks just were not there. I then went on to walk around and get film from my deer cameras as I carried my rifle pretending to hunt. I did find out through my deer cam pictures that the tall-racked buck I saw cross the food plot is the one leaving the big hoof prints every where. It is a nice deer, but a borderline shooter. I wouldn't take the chance on shooting him, besides he'll be a nice on next year. That afternoon, I packed up and loaded up my four-wheeler and went home early.

The next weekend of the 17th and 18th I did not go at all. It felt too good just sleeping in for once and being lazy. Besides it was a full moon and on the last full moon the hunting stunk. That is when I was on my vacation and didn't see hardly anything.

Well, I was off work Friday the 23rd so I took off to go hunting. I got there around 2:00 and worked on opening up my new fire barrel a little more. I used the skill say and a metal cutting blade. It took a while, but was worth it. In the woods that evening I saw that my food plot is being mowed by the deer. With all the deer tracks and sign I decided to hunt there in my private area tripod. I didn't see a thing and it was so quite in the woods with no one there and no shots heard in the distance. That evening I built a fire in the barrel burning my old pallet I had used for a porch the past few years. The fire was intense and I did not realize the temperature had dropped down into the low thirties. The next morning on the 24th it was cold. The temperature read at 22 degrees. I sat in the stand in a tall pine looking down the road where the buck had crossed for three and one half hours and did not see a thing that morning. This has been typical of my morning December hunts. I went over to Mike's area and logged a couple of his stands on the GPS and then went on back to camp. It was lonely there. No one there except me. I did see where Randy got a deer, a nice doe on the 14th that makes our 45th deer of the season. I packed up and headed on home to get ready for Christmas. Looks like deer season has come and gone. Well almost, I still have a couple of weekends left, but I'll likely focus on duck or even quail. Heck I may shoot crow if I get the chance.

Created: September 6, 2005
Updated: December 26, 2005