The Pre-Hunt Part 2 -- Scouting My Stand

Early Friday morning (less than 24 hours from the open), my brother-in-law and I hopped on four-wheel ATVs and headed out to scout the camp and spread a little corn. My stand turned out to be about 2 miles from camp (as the ATV flies). It's a 5' x 5' box stand with a floor roughly 6' off the ground. This is lower than a typical box stand (which is good for my fat butt), but sits up on a mound so it's adequately raised for good sight lines and shooting angles. Here's a pic I took and sent to my wife, who responded that it looks like a tree fort of some kind (which admittedly, is true).

The first thing I noticed about my stand is that my shooting areas were wide open and plentiful, and overlooking a creek bed. Imagine if you are looking directly ahead, and a creek surrounds you in a semicircle. And on both sides of the semi-circle creek bed, trees are left uncut, but that all the trees beyond the creek and between you and the creek are cut. Yeah, I suppose that's pretty hard to imagine. Here's some pics to try to explain.

Here's what I see directly ahead of me while sitting in my stand.

Here's what I see when I look to my right.

And here's what I see when I look to my left. If you look closely, you'll see my automatic corn feeder just before the tree line.

Here's a view from my feeder (on my left shoulder), back to the stand. In fact, it would probably be a lot easier if I just show you a video.


After we filled the feeder with corn, we grabbed the memory card from an infared game camera attached nearby. When we finished with my area, we scattered corn near 2 of my BIL's 3 areas then headed back to camp. When we pulled up the pics from the game camera, we saw several deer, including 2 nice 8 point or better bucks. We also saw a number of turkeys and even a few dogs.

Soon thereafter, J-Dawg arrived and we took him out on the 4 wheelers and the truck to show him my BIL's stand where he would be hunting the next morning. By late Friday afternoon, the camp was bustling. Several other hunters were now on site. A number of them were sighting in rifles on the 100 yard range sitting just beside my BIL's and sister's camper, where I stayed. At some point during the afternoon, my kids, granddaughters and nephews began to arrive to visit. About an hour after dark, the fish fry commenced. A handful of camp members cooked cornbread battered catfish, hush puppies and french fries in open fryers outside the cook shack. To that we added cole slaw, several dessert choices and gallons of ice tea. It was a damn fine meal, and a good way to kick off the hunt. After visiting with my family members for quite a while, we settled in to try to sleep a few hours on the eve of the hunt. I set my alarm on my blackberry for 5 a.m. and managed to sleep a few hours, wondering what I'd see.

Up next -- day one of the hunt.

The Pre-Hunt Part 1 -- Getting There.

After a few telephone calls delayed my departure from Philadelphia until well after 10 a.m. on Wednesday morning (3 days before the open), I finally set out for Southern Arkansas. This is what my car looked like just before heading out:

After a pretty awesome 2-day drive that took me through central PA, Cumberland, Maryland, most of W. Virginia, much of Kentucky (stopping overnight in Lexington) and Tennessee, I finally crossed the Mississippi and into Arkansas about midday on Thursday.

I arrived at "deer camp" late Thursday afternoon, 2 days before the season opening. I spent 21 hours on the road to get there, daydreaming about all the big bucks I might see to pass the time. When I arrived in the remote area in Bradley County, Arkansas, my brother-in-law was there to meet me at the highway and lead me back to camp. I took the photo's below on my drive into camp to demonstrate its remote nature.

After about a mile drive through the woods, I arrived at camp. The camp consists of a large "cookshack" that contains a big cooler, sinks and cooking facilities, along with several tables and chairs to accomodate hungry hunters. It was about the size of a typical diner/family restuaraunt, with indoor seating for 50 or so, with outdoor picnic tables that would accomodate another 24+. Attached to the cookshack was a bathroom with 2 toilets and one shower.

There were a number of cabins and mobile homes that are permanently affixed to the camp (complete with electrical, sewer and water service) that belong to the various members, as well as a number of campers that are brought in only for the hunting season. Finally, the camp includes a deer cleaning area, complete with walk in freezer to store the venison until you take it to a processor. In other words, the camp has everything the hunter needs to get the job done. Here's a photo:

I later learned that there are currently 31 member units (units can be families) which can each have up to 3 hunting areas/stands per unit. These units split 5,300+ acres, with hunting areas being a minimum of 1/4 mile x 1/4 mile areas. The membership charter allows up to 37 member units maximum. I joined as an in-lieu, or probationary member. After 3 years, I can become a full member with voting rights. Each year of membership allows 1 hunting area up to a total of 3, so I arrived with a single exclusive hunting area assigned to me. If I rejoin in following years, I will have up to three exclusive hunting areas. Available hunting areas are typically "drawn for" each year, though members do tend to trade areas. Once you have an area, it's yours until you no longer are a member, offer it up for drawing (in exchange for another area you may draw) or trade it to another member.

Up next, I'll get into the pre-hunt scout and a little more about the camp itself.

Final Preparation for the Hunt

Well, if everything remains in accordance with the game plan, I'll be on the road in a week for the hunting trip to southern Arkansas. This past week, I managed to check off a few more items from the pre-hunt punch list, ordering the following from Cabela's:

A Knight & Hale grunt call:

Under Armour blaze orange vest and cap (not very attractive, but legally required):

A Streamlight Scorpion LED flashlight (for those early, pre-dawn trips to the stand):

... and finally, another box of the Winchester XP3 Extreme Elite ammo, in .270 WSM:

I also took one more trip to the rifle range, where I had to make my final ammo choice, fine tune my scope and get a little more comfortable with the rifle. After going back and forth with Federal standard big game loads and the Winchester Extreme Elite, I opted for the latter. At 100M, the Winchester rounds were a good 2.5" higher than the Federal rounds. This is not surprising, as the Winchester rounds travel significantly faster and have a much flatter trajectory. Once I convinced myself that I could accurately place the Winchester rounds in tight groups (which for whatever reason, I initially found harder to group than the Federal rounds), I made my decision and dialed in my Leupold VX-R for that ammo. My goal was to set the scope 1.1" high at 100 meters, which according to the ballistics chart provided by Winchester, would make the 130 grain load dead flat at 200 meters and down about 5.5" at 300 meters (which is the longest shot I'll potentially see for my shooting lanes). (Interesting side note: Until I purchased this rifle, I had no idea that bullets actually rise initially before beginning to drop.)

My efforts resulted in the final three round grouping below. (The numbers on the target are 1 inch increments.) The first two shots were those that are touching, just left of center. From there, I adjusted upward 4 clicks (1") and right 2 clicks (.5"), and fired the third round. I decided to stop right there. While I wasn't dead above center an inch like I planned, I've learned that when I mispull the trigger with this rifle, I tend to miss a little right. Thus, I'm ok with being a half inch left of center at 100 meters.

Finally, I charged up the Flip video camera so I can try to capture some video of the hunt. Hopefully, I won't forget to pack it next week. More importantly, I hope I don't forget my non-resident license. With that, the tools are ready. Word from SouthArk is, the deer are ready. I guess the rest is up to the shooter.