The Hunt -- Day Three: Finally, Things Start Picking Up

I wish I could tell you that I went to my stand in the morning and the wind had died down and I found myself surrounded by deer. But it simply wasn't the case. Though the wind had gotten a little better, there was still no movement in my area. In fact, the corn was literally beginning to pile up beneath the feeder. I surmised that because my stand is out in the open, where the wind is not buffered by heavy trees, it was even more affected by windy conditions than stands being hunted by others. When I came back to camp and told my B-I-L that I had seen absolutely nothing, he replied, "ok, that's enough of that. This evening, you're hunting in my stand."

My B-I-L has been a member for 3 years so he has the maximum 3 different hunting areas. He had been sitting in a stand he calls the "GP-120" (which is because it's located on 120 acres leased from Georgia Pacific) since opening day, and had seen a number of deer. The GP-120 stand has three long shooting lanes -- A 275 yard lane that is the road you drive in on, which will be on your right shoulder at the 3 O'clock (the "front" lane), a 170 yard lane directly in front of you at the 12 O'clock (the "stump" lane), and a 300 yard lane on your left shoulder at the 9 O'clock (the "back" lane).

This photo looks down the back lane on your left shoulder.

As you can see, it's in a much more heavily wooded area with tall, mature soft and hard timber.

When my B-I-L sent me out in the afternoon, he told me that at about 4:30, I was going to see a large 7-point buck on the Back shooting lane, and I was going to shoot it. He had been watching this particular deer and several others for days, but is at the point in his hunting career where he's only interested in two things -- a bigger mountable deer than he already has (most likely 12 points or better) and filling the freezer with older does. At 4:10 p.m., I received a text from my B-I-L telling me to get ready. Within 5 minutes, I saw my first deer on the Front lane (which looks a lot like the Back lane, only slightly wider and resembling more of a road). It was a little spike at about 250 yards. He gradually made his way up to a mound where we had scattered corn, about 120 yards away. He eventully stepped off the lane and headed into the woods. In about 15 minutes, he emerged directly in front of me in the Stump lane, at about 60 yards. He slowly made his way to the end of the Stump lane and disappeared. In all, he was in sight about a half hour, which was by far the longest deer encounter I had to date.

Meanwhile, before he left the Stump lane, I noticed 2 more deer on the Front lane, once again near the very end of it at about 250 yards. With the field glasses, I was able to determine that these were two young does. They took the same path that the little spike followed, and gradually worked their way toward me until they settled on the area we scattered corn. I put the scope on both of them at various times and contemplated taking the larger of the two. In a few minutes, I decided I was going to hold out for a buck -- I still had the rest of the evening and 2 more days to hunt. Still, I practiced putting my Leupold VX-R red dot reticle on the kill zone and imagined squeezing off a solid, on-target shot. I was surprised by how calm I felt as I looked down the scope at my target.

The two does stayed in the Front lane well into darkness. I waited as long as I could, hoping they would leave before I climbed down and drove back down over the same lane on which they had stood the past hour plus. Eventually, I climbed down and got into my Pathfinder, which I had parked in the woods almost directly beneath the stand.

I came back to camp reinvigorated. I had neither seen nor shot the 7-point, but watching a handful of small deer for almost 2 hours really improved my psyche. My B-I-L was disappointed I had not shot anything, but I went to bed convinced that Day 4 would be my day -- I planned to head back to GP 120 in the morning and tag one.

The Hunt -- Day 2: J-Dawg Bags a "Monster," I'm Still Hunting Hard

We woke up on Day 2 to even worse winds. It was hard not to be discouraged, but you can't control what you can't control. On the way back to our stands, J-Dawg and I discussed the fact that it was his last day to hunt, and if he saw a doe, he should drop it.

It wasn't 15 minutes after it was light enough to see that I got my first text from J-Dawg: "got a big doe. should i shoot it?" I didn't notice it when it arrived, so my reply of "yes" was a few minutes tardy, leading him to respond that I was too late. I told him on the next doe to shoot first, and text after. It was probably only a half hour later when I heard a gun shot that seemed to come from his direction. I texted my B-I-L telling him I thought I heard J-Dawg shoot, to which he responded, "yep, a doe. I'll go pick him up in a bit."

I was sitting there smiling, glad J-Dawg had shot one when I noticed a doe looking directly at me from about 40 yards away. She was standing just to the right of the roadway which is directly ahead -- the same roadway where I had seen the spike the day before, only she was between me and the woodline at about half the distance. I have no idea where she came from. I never heard her or saw any movement -- I just looked up for a minute and she had instantly appeared. She seemed to be a pretty young deer, from what I could tell. I flipped open the covers on my scope and put the cross hairs on target. She was so close, I might have been able to kill her with a sling shot. She walked across the road, making sure to stop broadside and tempt me to pull the trigger. In all, she must have stopped a half dozen times giving me clean, broad side kill shots as she sauntered counerclockwise from about my 2 o'clock position to my 7 o'clock position. I thought she was heading to my feeder (85 yards out at my 9), but she never strayed more than a 40 yard semi-circle away from before heading into the woods on my left flank.

That was really cool. I knew right away I wasn't going to shoot that doe, but it was awesome to be able to watch her through the scope, knowing I could if I wanted to.

In the meantime, I got the following text from J-Dawg: "I got down to pee. That doe I shot wasn't a doe -- it's a button buck. FML. I broke the law!" It was followed by "how the hell was I supposed to be able to tell it was a buck from 75 yards????" I told J-Dawg not to panic, that my B-I-L would know what to do. The general rule in Arkansas is that a legal buck must have 3 points on one side. In the meantime, J-Dawg had already texted his mom, who had gone online and determined that shooting a buck with horns less than 2 inches was also legal. My B-I-L subsequently confirmed. Apparently, the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission had already pondered and answered J's question -- you're NOT expected to tell that a button buck is actually a buck and not a doe. Thus, it's not illegal to shoot them thinking they are does despite the 3-point on a side general rule. The only downside? You have to use a buck tag to register what you thought was a doe, leaving you with only 1 buck tag for the remainder of the season. Oh well, much better than breaking the law.

I learned a while later that my B-I-L had picked up J-Dawg and his deer and were headed back to camp. Just before 11, when I planned to climb down and head in, I noticed a deer on the edge of a young pine thicket just behind my stand. It's hard to tell in this photo, but if you see what looks like a roadway behind the feeder on the pre-scout post, you can see the area where I saw it. I'm not sure whether it was a buck or a doe. I just saw it's back half as it stepped into the pine thicket. Once again, I thought it might be headed to the feeder. After waiting another half hour without seeing her again, I decided to hike out and go see J-Dawg's deer.

By the time I got back to camp, my B-I-L and J-Dawg had already skinned J's deer. When I saw it hanging on the rack, I knew why it hadn't taken long. The poor little thing was about the size of a healthy German Shephard (the smaller, canine version -- not a sheep babysitter from Eastern Europe). We gave J-Dawg infinite amounts of grief over that monster he downed the rest of the day. But hey, he saw one, his aim was true, and he made a legal kill. I think he and I both learned a valuable lesson that day -- if you are going to take what you think is a decent size doe, you should always be sure she's with other deer so you can make a relative size comparison. It's hard to tell a decent size doe from a medium sized dog from that distance without having another deer nearby to do a comparison. Oh well, it was a good shot and I'm sure those tenderloins turned out to be pretty tender!

On my way back out to my stand for the afternoon hunt, I decided to film the last little bit of the drive in so you get a little better sense of the territory. Here's what the drive looks liked from behind the wheel of my Pathfinder.



The wind continued throughout the afternoon and made for miserable conditions at my stand. In fact, over a 3.5 hour period, I caught a glimpse of one buck. It was being chased by 2 domestic dogs at my 3 O'clock, out about 300 yards. I could tell it was a buck, which from that distance and considering I only saw it for about three seconds, probably means it was a pretty good one. I spent the rest of my time entertaining myself by reading about the previous day's Michigan victory over Illinois on my Ipad.

.

You have to love modern technology!

When I got back to camp, I learned that I was one of three hunters who had seen the same dogs chasing my lone deer of the day. One of them (who saw it just before it passed into my area) confirmed that it was indeed a very nice buck. Unfortunately, it's a little hard to get a decent shot at a bounding whitetail at 300 yards when you have all of 3 seconds.

At this point, I was 40% finished with my 5-day hunt, and had only been in a position to shoot one small doe. I'm not going to say I was not enjoying myself, because just being out there was terrific. However, for the first time since I decided to join the camp and make this trek, I was beginning to wonder if I might go home empty handed.

When I got back to camp I heard similar stories where many hunters just weren't seeing the deer they had seen only a week earlier during the blackpowder hunt. I kept telling myself, however, that it only takes one.

The Hunt -- Day One: A Slow Start

I awoke to my alarm at promptly 5 a.m. to hear the wind howling. After wrangling J-Dawg, I filled my backpack with Vitamin Water, bottled water, jerky and nuts. I tried to give him equal rations, but he didn't have as much room -- it turns out his mom packed him several goodies of his own. Unfortunately, we realized we left his hunting clothes in his sister's car, so J-Dawg set out on opening morning wearing shorts, boots and a long sleeve shirt. I gave him a heavy fleece shirt to take to the stand with him so he wouldn't freeze, but we were both so pumped the cool, windy morning didn't seem to matter.

I put three .270 WSM cartridges in my right front pocket, made sure I had my orange hat and vest, and after messing around for a bit, left camp promptly at 5:30 a.m. under the cover of total darkness. We had planned our route the day before -- I would drive J-Dawg to his stand (a loaner from my B-I-L) then drive as close to mine as I could get before hiking in. In all, it was about 15 minutes and 5 miles. (I will embed a video in a later part of the series that will show the last mile or so of the drive, which is essentially 4x4 territory.)

After arriving at my parking area, I strapped on my pack and began hiking in on a trail suitable only for 4-wheelers and bulldozers. After what seemed like a mile (we later estimated it to be between 1/4 and 3/8 of a mile), I finally emerged near my stand. Though I was never a boy scout, I would have made one proud in packing my bag. I toted probably 10 bottles of water/vitamin water, 2 pounds of nuts and jerky, a box of ammo, field glasses, a flashlight, a deer grunt, a camo fleece pullover, a flip video camera, my blackberry and of course, that hunting essential -- my I Pad. It didn't take but 1 day's worth of hiking for me to realize that I probably didn't need to carry so much stuff.

In any event, I was in my stand a good 20 minutes before it was light enough to see. With the wind continuing to howl, I waited for the deer to arrive. And waited. And waited. At 7 a.m., my automatic deer feeder spun a half pound of corn onto the ground. Being the optimist, I figured the deer heard it go off and were probably beating a path to my stand at that very moment! But as the minutes dragged past, I neither saw nor heard anything. Of course, the wind was blowing so hard, a herd of elephants could have tromped through the brush behind me and I probably wouldn't have known it.

Finally, about 8:30, a small deer appeared on the roadway/shooting lane directly in front of me, on the left side of the head-on view photo from my pre-hunt scouting post. He was walking right toward me at about 75 yards, right in the road gap in the treeline. I could tell right away he was a little spike. He took about five steps toward me, turned to his left so he was broadside in the road, then in 2 or 3 steps walked into the cover of woods. He wasn't much of a buck, but it was great to see a deer - any deer - after sitting there for 2.5 hours with nothing happening but a handful of shots in the distance from my fellow camp members.

I hunted until 11 a.m., but saw nothing else. I wasn't too discouraged yet -- though the wind was really whipping about (no doubt causing the deer to stay put far more than usual), the pictures in my game camera told me that most of the deer near my stand/feeder came by in the evening. So I hiked back out, jumped in the truck and picked up J-Dawg on the way back to camp. He had seen a few does and a decent 8 point that he couldn't get a shot at. While I was hunting in a clearing with a woodline through it, he was deeper in the woods where it was a little quieter from a wind perspective.

We headed back to camp and ate biscuits, sausage, eggs, hash browns etc. prepared by the camp cooks, who would be preparing 2 big meals a day for the entire opening week. We learned pretty quickly, however, that most of the hunters quit between 9:30 and 10, and had eaten all the bacon and gravy! But we didn't mind -- we came to hunt, not eat. J-Dawg only had 2 days, and I only had 5. We decided we would hunt first, and eat what was left. And from that point on, we were typically the first ones out of camp, and the last ones in.

Back at camp, we learned that a half dozen or so hunters had bagged decent 8 point or better bucks. However, most were disappointed with how many deer they had seen, blaming the wind and weather. Many hunters had not seen a single deer, which was incredible to them considering most stands had been "overrun" with deer the weekend before during the blackpowder hunt. In fact, my B-I-L had shot a large doe the week before after picking her out of a crowd of NINE sitting in a single shooting lane.

We loaded up at 2 p.m. to head back to our stands. The wind remained ferocious throughout the afternoon. I stared for hours at the areas around me, waiting on the deer that had been captured on my camera only days ago to return for the corn scattered beneath the feeder. But it wasn't to be on that afternoon. I stayed until it was good and dark at 5:45 without seeing a thing. Through text messaging, I learned J-Dawg had seen nothing either, while my B-I-L continued to see a fair number of deer, including a couple of decent 7 and 8 pointers -- he was holding out for a BIG deer.

Back at camp we filled up on pork chops, pinto beans, corn bread, and all sorts of goodies. The deer might have proved disappointing on day one, but the food continued to be awesome. We had hunted hard, and were tired. We hung out with family as long as we could, then made them go home so I could shower, relax with a cocktail, then get to sleep. 5 a.m. and Day 2 would be here before you know it.

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.

Gearing up for the hunt ...

Actually, I've been gearing up for the hunt for a while, in the literal sense.

I'm sure I mentioned this before, but I acquired an annual membership in a hunting club in southern Arkansas where my sister and brother-in-law are members. After putting together the pieces of a nice shooting setup (Kimber 8400 in .270 WSM with Leupold VX-R optics), it's finally almost time to go shoot some deer.

I have decided to drive down. I want to take several firearms just to shoot around if I have the chance, and flying just didn't seem like a good option under those circumstances. Besides, it will be nice to have my truck to motor around between the camp and my stand area. Still, not looking forward to the 30 hour round trip. My kids manage each direction in a single driving session, but I plan to split it up over 2 days each way. I'm too old and cranky to be in the car for more than 8 hours in a day.

I'm planning to hunt 5 days (or, up to 5 days, since that's the duration of my non-resident license) but I suppose it's possible I could bag my limit (2 deer, under the aforementioned license) sooner. I sort of doubt that, though. Teen Jared Hicks will be joining me in the stand for opening weekend, and I'm pretty sure he'll be taking the shots those first two days while I watch and enjoy the experience of the hunt for the first time in over a decade. (For those who don't know Jared, he's my ... hmmm... not sure what you call it. He's my kids' little brother, born to their mom a number of years after we were no longer married. I just call him J-Dawg.) Last night, I booked reservations at a nearby hotel so daughter Kristen and granddaughter Bella can be nearby to visit as well (yay!).

It's been quite an experience getting ready to go. Thanks to my B-I-L Marion, though, it hasn't been difficult to do it remotely. He set me up with a stand with 4 long shooting lanes (up to 300 yards each) and a settled food plot which is seeing heavy action. He's absolutely awesome to do that for me, and he and my sister are hosting me in their on-site camper. Speaking of on-site, they are already moved into the camp and will stay there until late December. According to facebook, they've already bagged their first doe (assuming black powder) and are well on their way to refilling the freezer.

If things go according to plan, I'm going to charge up the Flip video camera and try to shoot some video to bring back. November 12th is the open, and I'll be back in Pennsylvania by the 21st before embarking on another non-gun adventure (more to come on that later) the week after, so look for any hunting videos to arrive in early December.