A few years ago, due mainly to time restraints, I decided that the best way to spend my hunting budget was to take a trip or two each year and devote 5 or 6 days to "focused" and serious hunting on properties with better than average deer herds. The one requirement was that they had to be open range fair chase hunts or I was not interested. I also have some property within 15 minutes of my house that I can hunt all season. It doesn't have a ton of deer on it, but it isn't bad for North Alabama.
This summer, I decided that I wanted to hunt somewhere that would afford me a better than average opportunity at a mature trophy buck, so I phoned R.L. Foster (tradgang handle TCO Guide) who's business for the last 15 or so years has been guiding trophy class (archery only) whitetail hunts. R.L. is also a good friend of mine, who this summer, began making the switch to traditional archery. I had decided to book one of his Pike Co, Illinois hunts for early November. He quickly informed me that he was booked in Illinois and I was too late to secure a buck tag. He went on to say that he did have some openings on his Alabama property which was well managed and had some nice bucks roaming its 3000+ acres of riverbottoms. He also had some openings in the Texas panhandle, but the dates for Texas wouldn't fit my schedule. Not exactly what I wanted to hear, but his Alabama hunt in early October would work and was less than half the price of Texas or Illinois.
So, the first week of the Alabama archery season I was on my way to the west central part of the state. I made up my mind that I would hold out for a shooter buck since I had another hunt scheduled in Alabama that I was sure would offer shot opportunities at does. Well, things don't always go as planned. The weather was not great. It was in the 60's & 70's every day and one evening was dampened by a strong thunderstorm. Despite the unusually high temps, I passed on a lot of does and saw deer 7 out of 8 times while in a stand, but only one buck and it was a young 6 pt. I was seriously doubting the 1:4 ratio the biologist claimed for the property. I did have a great time though, and it was truly a beautiful piece of property. I returned empty handed, but connected on a couple of does a few weeks later.
New Years Eve the phone rang and it was R.L. He had just returned from his last rut hunt on the Alabama property I had hunted in October. He informed me that the rut was still on, and invited me to return for a few days and hunt with him. After 12 hours of figuring a way to break the news to my wife, I was getting my gear together for another trip to the riverbottoms. We had 2 days to hunt. The first morning I hunted a stand I had hunted 3 mornings in October. I bumped a deer out before daylight and saw a big bodied deer before good shooting light, a spike, 2 does, and a possible shooter buck that I didn't get a good look at. That evening I hunted another stand and didn't see a deer. The next morning, I decided to take my climber back to where I had been the previous morning. I moved my stand location about 100 yards and set up in some hardwoods next to a pine thicket. Around 6:30 3 does eased out of the pines and were feeding towards me at about 40 yards. I stood up and positioned myself for a shot. All of the sudden I heard something tearing the woods up behind me. When I turned there were 3 bucks. All were 8pts and all were mature "shooter" bucks. Two of them were the largest I had seen in 28 yrs of hunting in Alabama. They were chasing a single doe, and I had the good fortune of watching them for several minutes (seemed like about 20). I didn't get a shot opportunity before they left along with the other 3 does and a spike that had showed up during the commotion. About 30 minutes later, I saw another buck coming my way. It was a young 8pt and less than a minute behind him were 2 more young 8pt bucks. They all disappeared into some mature pines. Things quitened down for a few minutes and I saw another buck coming from the direction the last 3 had disappeared. He looked like a 6 or 8 pt and had a noticeable limp, but also moved through without stopping. I never got a real good look at him. Around 9:00 the spike returned and a doe fed to within 40 yards. At just before 10:00 I heard R.L. coming in his buggy. He had broken the ice and connected on his first deer since switching to traditional gear this year.
Six different 8pt bucks, another buck I didn't get a good look at, a spike and several does from 1 stand in the same sitting. You folks in the midwest may have seen that type of activity before, but it just isn't the norm for Alabama. I was hesitant to share this story because it is hard for me to believe, but I couldn't resist. I've booked a hunt with R.L. for Illinois next November, but I may try and find room for another trip to the Alabama riverbottoms as well. It has been a good year. Looks like I will end up with 2 more does unless things change, but I doubt I ever forget that morning hunt and I'm looking forward to Illinois.
Topic: Alabama hunt I won't soon forget. (Read 980 times)
