Another deer hunting season has come and gone.Sept. 4th opening day of bow season in Kentucky was where the fun began for me this year. On Sept.5th I had filled my buck tag on a soybean field in western Kentucky.What a great way to start. Alabama's bow season still a month and half away and I had already got the monkey off my back.

Oct.24th my camera man Glenn and myself were rolling into Carmi, Illinois for 5 days of competion at the Campbells Outdoor Whitetail challenge,a team event where a bow hunter and camera man team compete against other teams from all over the country. This is a great event that I would highly recommend trying if you ever get the oppurtunity.The accommodations and staff were all first class. By the end of this event I had filled my Illinois buck and doe tags and had a coyote as a bonus. We were lucky enough to get this all on video. It will be shown on the "VS" channel later this year. As soon as the air time is anounced, I will post it on my blog.

From Illinois it was back home to Alabama. The Alabama season was very tough this year. We had lots of rain which resulted in a bumper acorn crop,and plenty of other food sources that were abundant throughout the entire season. This was good for the deer but made trying to pattern food sources hit or miss at best. The abundant food sources combined with two full moons in January, and a late Alabama rut that didn't get into full swing until the 3rd week of January kept the deer in nocturnal pattern. It appears that the best hunting conditions will take place after the season is over which is often the case in Alabama

Even with the tough conditions in Alabama, the season as a whole was still a memorable one. I was able to fill my buck tags in 3 states along with a couple of does and a coyote.

Well Febuary is here so it looks like predators and pigs until March. I guess everyone knows what March brings? Gobble! Gobble!

Productive Week

Well, it's mid-January and the Alabama whitetail rut is in full swing. Now is when you need to spend every spare moment in the woods, so it made the 3 days spent at the ATA show in Columbus, Ohio seem like 3 weeks. Regardless, the ATA was a great show and gave me an opportunity to spend time with the UNJ crew and great people in the outdoor business; Chuck Adams (bow hunting legend), Tim Wells (Relentless Pursuit), Wayne Burns (Outdoor Allstars) and Hank Parker Jr. to name a few...

By lunchtime Friday, I had the wagon packed

and was headed south. Three days of snow and Ohio temps was enough for a Bama boy.

Saturday at lunch, I met up with Glenn, my camera man and set up on the north end of a standing corn field to make the evening hunt. It had rained most of the morning, so I had hopes of catching the buck re-working his scrapes that were scattered around the perimeter of the corn field. We chose to use a ground blind setup because we didn't want to take a chance of getting caught in a rain shower with video equipment. While Glenn got the camera setup ready, I put out cotton balls saturated in doe estrous and buck urine in an area about 75 yards in front of the blind. Once the setup was ready, I did a little excited buck grunting and a couple of snort wheezes. About 45 minutes later, I caught movement to my left coming through the standing corn. A 1 1/2 year old 6 point was making his way through the cornfield, nose in the air. Normally, this buck would have been safe but the only thing in my wild game freezer at the time was a bobcat that hasn't made it to the taxidermist yet. The thought of grilled backstrap got him an all expense paid trip to the processor. Well, I've got 2 buck tags left and 2 weeks to fill them. Game on!

First Hunt of the New Year

Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

I've been sick with an upper respiratory bug during the holidays and have been barking like a pack of beagles for the past week....I slept in this morning and felt a lot better when I woke up. By 7:00AM, I'd had my coffee and shower and couldn't stand it anymore and had to get outside.

Knowing that the new year brings on the Alabama whitetail rut, by 9:00AM I was picking up Morgan, the 16 year-old son of the property owner whose farm we will be hunting today. I'd had the opportunity to scout this particular property two weeks ago and found quite a bit of pre-rut sign. This farm lies in a large valley that mostly constists of large pasture land and cattle farms. Both sides of the valley are bordered by large rock bluffs and hardwood ridges. While scouting, I found that a nice buck was bedding on one of the knobs overlooking an open hardwood hollow that split the mountain ridge on the east side of the farm. The buck had given up his escape trail after I bumped him during the scouting trip. Anticipation was high that Morgan might get a shot at his first buck. By the time we arrived at the farm, the sun was breaking through the remaining clouds of the cold front that blew through the day and night before. The conditions seemed to be perfect. We got Morgan setup downwind from the buck's escape trail as I made my way up the mountain ridge. With the wind in my face, I made my way down to the knob where the buck should have been bedding down. But as it often times is with big bucks, they seem to be in the wrong place at the right time. Today he wasn't home.

Even though I was probably more disappointed that Morgan didn't get an opportunity at the buck today, I feel sure that we will get him an opportunity at a buck in the next couple weeks because January is when Alabama's deer hunting is at its best.