2005-2006 News Archives

     With plans to attend the race at Talladega on Sunday, I awoke on Thursday morning and counted just three more opportunities to chase the gobblers. A little rain had passed through the evening before and the clouds were still overhead. We heard nothing on the roost but finally got an answer from a gobbler on the ground. We moved into position and the bird got close, maybe 75 yards, but never came within view. It was not long before he got quiet and disappeared.
      Friday morning was perfect. The day dawned cool and clear, typical of the weather we enjoyed at the end of March. We heard a turkey gobble real early, just south of our little cabin and then another deeper into the pines. We headed toward this second turkey but hearing more from the first one we eventually moved his way. We crawled into position about 75 yards from him just before I assumed would be his fly down time. I gave a few tree yelps and clucks and the bird answered. Fifteen minutes passed and we repeated the sequence. Another fifteen minutes and we again repeated the soft yelps and clucks and received the customary answer. Then I realized that this must be that &%$#& Spooky.
     He was 500 yards north of his regular roosting tree but his behavior was just that of Spooky. At 7:15 I slipped away from him, leaving my father behind. I walked away from the bird 50 yards and yelped with both mouth and friction calls. He answered it all. I moved back another 50 yards and repeated the calls and got his fired up answer again in return. I moved yet again farther away and repeated the calling and though I was almost out of range to hear him, he answered again. I left the woods. My father never heard him fly down and never heard another gobble after my last round of yelping. He eventually left as well. Spooky beat us again.
      The clouds were due to return Friday night and I felt like we missed our last best chance to take another Swamp gobbler on Friday morning, thanks to Spooky tying us up for the morning. Saturday morning indeed turned out to be a little warmer and cloudy with a forecast of 10-20 mph winds for the day. After a good early walk we heard the gobbler back in the hardwoods and moved into position.
       The first time I hunted this bird was the Saturday before the NWTF hunt. He roosted across the river and pitched back into our swamp. I had a good opportunity to kill him that morning but was holding out for the film crew. I also saw another gobbler flanking him but not gobbling. We hunted these birds the next Thursday morning, the last one of the NWTF hunts, and heard both turkeys gobble with the dominant bird handling all of the ground gobbling. My father and I hunted him again a week or so later to no avail.
      I knew where the bird liked to spend the morning, in one particular stretch of the hardwoods. On the three previous hunts, he made his way to a single location of about an acre and would not budge from it. Unfortunately, Saturday he was roosted in this spot so beating him to it was not an option. We got as close as we could anyway. He flew down, gobbled a little more and seemed to move away a little and then disappeared. For 45 minutes we heard no more from him. We made the decision to go and look for another bird that might be interested. This bird was either in his favorite location and not interested or he left the area and was out of our hearing range, now that the woods have greened up so much.
       We moved out of the hardwoods and into a stand of 15 year old pines. Moving through the pines and using them for cover, I kept floating yelps back into the hardwoods hoping we might find the bird again a distance away. And we did. He had set out walking from when we last heard him and had made his way 400 yards through the hardwoods. We set up in the pines, about 40 yards from the hardwoods and did some calling of which he enthusiastically answered but seemed to hold his ground. I eventually put up my calls, a bit disgusted with him. A few minutes later we heard a gobble in the edge of the pines in front of us.
     My father was set up to shoot in front of us and also cover our right side. My gun lay across my lap and I would cover the left side should the bird somehow get around his gun. Since Pop had not killed a turkey this season, he was the main gunner.
      Moments later I heard drumming and spotted the bird making his way around us to our left. He was in the pines and in an area that was quite thick with young sweet gum saplings. I could only get glimpses of him after slowly raising the gun to my shoulder. Soon he was around behind us. I awkwardly twisted around and kept the gun pointed in his direction as I gave the softest yelp I could with the raspy caller in my mouth. He turned, and headed back our way. The cover was rather thick between us and I was worried he was going to see us before I get a clean shot at him. Finally he passed into a brief opening about 25 yards away and I tugged on the 870's trigger and down he went.
       I walked up to the bird thinking I had killed the dominant gobbler. I soon realized I had not. This was the 2-year old that had been flanking him. He dominant bird was most likely still back there in the hardwoods standing his ground. This 2-year old did have a double beard, the first double bearded gobbler I've ever killed.
      We spent a little more time walking and yelping in hopes of finding a gobbler for my Dad. Eventually the wind picked up and the hunt was over as was the season for us.

We spent the rest of Saturday morning and the afternoon spreading 29 tons of lime on the food plots. After a soil sample done in the fall, we realized our soil was in bad need of lime. The soil sample indicated we needed 2 tons of lime per acre. With the PH so out of balance, fertilizer is almost useless. I have not done a good job in recent years of spreading a little lime each year so I had a lot of catching up to do. Putting out the lime this time of year will give it plenty of time to mix into the soil before time to plant the fall plots. I expect we will have much better results with our plots this fall. I'm interested to see how much this helps.

Here is a picture of more our Camden turkey hunters who traveled to Texas on a recent hunt (see above). As you can see it was quite productive. Bryan says there are 6 gobblers for every hen in the area they hunted. He said the birds gobbled well on the limb but not well on the ground.

Harvey Crawford of Camden had a great turkey season. His last bird had a paintbrush beard (shown below).

      I have enjoyed bringing you the action from my woods this season and special thanks to the others who have contributed as well. I do enjoy hearing from all of you. Keep the emails coming.
      We had a good season in the Horn Swamp. Our deer numbers are down but we are certainly seeing some better bucks these days. I was excited to see Will Reaves kill the best buck we've ever taken by bow in the Swamp and then in January to see Randy Chastain knock down a 135 B&C buck.
      Our turkey season was certainly less than spectacular. I had some chances to kill turkeys early in the season but I was holding back for the NWTF hunt, trying to save all I could to help our chances of a kill on film. Though our turkey numbers are way down from what we were seeing 10 years ago (due to habitat changes), we have enough gobblers we should hear at least one on every decent morning. It seemed this season that the weather had to be perfect for anything to gobbler---just "decent weather" did not cut it.
      Regardless, it was memorable. I'll have the pictures I took of the early season gobblers from now on and will relive that hunt for years to come. I was able to kill the best gobbler I've ever killed, considering the spurs, and managed to get so lucky while filming for the NWTF's TV show. Then on the final morning I would hunt I killed the only double bearded gobbler I've ever killed.
      Speaking of the NWTF hunt, I will keep a watch for the airing of the show (Turkey Country) that will feature our hunt. It will likely be this fall at the earliest and maybe even next spring before it makes it on the show. My updates will likely have returned well before then and I'll let you know when to watch at that point.
       And that does it for this season. The updates will return in mid September and get more regular as bowseason arrives. Have a safe summer. I leave you with a parting shot of my future partner in outdoor adventures, a son that already is showing a love of the outdoors..........

     Since my last report my father has heard a little gobbling in the Swamp. He heard nothing Saturday but heard a few birds on Sunday. After being out of town over the weekend I went back to the woods this morning.
      Unfortunately the warm, muggy air had returned. The day started out a very humid 68 degrees which usually is enough to stop all gobbling. It worked. We heard only a couple of distant gobbles.
      Our area missed the rain late last week and we are now over a month away from our last rainfall. The good news is that a weather system will move through tonight and tomorrow and will bring cooler temperatures by Thursday morning. The morning lows should be in the lower 50s. Turkey just love a crisp morning. I think the last four days of the season are going to be good. I'll let you know next week how we did along with a big wrap up to the season as well.
     The fat lady hasn't sung just yet, but she has begun making her way to the stage. Stay tuned.....

     Unless something changes and changes quickly, the last two weeks of the season in our woods are going to be very quiet. Our birds have clammed up. We heard only one last Saturday. We did not hunt Sunday. Either I or my father went Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday and we heard nothing. We waived the white flag on Thursday morning. My father is hunting this morning and I have not heard a report from him yet.
     We need a weather change and we need some rain. I don't know that we'll get either one before the season is over. The last rain we had was back on March 20th. The last few weeks have seen record high temps. The warm and muggy mornings experienced this week don't excite the turkeys any more than they excite me.
      If we could get a front to pass through, dropping a little rain, settling the dust, and cooling things down a bit, the birds would start back gobbling. We've got a chance of rain for the next week but no real front exists on the horizon that is going to shake things up.
      The bull knats have really gotten bad in our woods. Anytime you get out in the open they swarm you and they do bite, leaving a whelp that persists for a day or so. Insect repellent does not repel them. Several years ago when they were real back I bought a headnet that covers my head and neck and is "see though." I had to pull it out again this week and was sure glad I had it.
      Thanks to those that I have emailed or called with updates from their turkey woods. I received the following picture from Kevin Matthews of an 8-bearded gobbler believed to have been killed in Conecuh County, Alabama. We can't be certain of that, but the picture is worth sharing.

Brian Jones of Camden emailed this picture of a big gobbler he killed this season. He had a 1 5/8 spur on one leg and a 1 3/8 on the other. His beard measured 11 1/4 inches and he weighed 21.225 pounds. That is one fine bird.

Harvey Crawford of Camden has had a great season. Here's a picture of a fine gobbler he took this season.

Bubba Martens and Michael Felts left Wilcox County for a few days of Texas hunting earlier this month. Everyone that goes out there after turkeys seems to have great success. Bubba and Michael's hunt was no different. Bubba shared this picture.

     According to turkey hunting lore, when the hens start nesting the gobblers get lonely and are eager to respond to calls. Our turkeys haven't seen this memo. We have hunted one bird in particular that does not have any hens with him. He flies down all alone and from his favorite location he answers nearly every yelp but he does not give up any ground. If he would gobble on a regular basis we might be able to pattern him. At best he gobbles once every five days. If we hear him again in the same location, he might be a goner if he doesn't change his pattern.
      This spasmodic gobbling is being conducted by all the Swamp's gobblers. Even old Spooky is seldom heard from but at best once a week. Some days we hear one gobbler and some days we hear nothing. But we never hear the same bird two mornings in a row.
      The season is winding down and we've only taken one gobbler from the property. We haven't had such meager luck since the early 1990s. When our population of birds was at its peak in the mid to late 1990s we were killing 8 to 10 birds a year and leaving nearly that many gobbling at the season's end. The numbers have declined most likely due to changing habitat but we still have a good number of turkeys. They are an older bunch and certainly wiser. If something doesn't give in the next 12 days, they will be an even older bunch come next season!
      I think a weather change would help the gobbling. It has been the driest turkey season I can remember. Crazy as it would sound to non-turkey hunting folks, a little rain to clear the air and settle the dust just might jump start the gobbling. With no better than a 30% chance of rain in the next 10 days, that might be wishful thinking.
      I've gotten pictures of some hunters who have done better than us in the woods in the last few weeks. I even have a picture of an 8 bearded gobbler that we think was killed in south Alabama. I'll have those pictures with a Friday morning update (sorry I'm running late this morning and ran out of time to include them with this update).

     We're not finding any gobbler that will gobble on a regular basis at this point. They are certainly behaving in an strange manner even for turkeys. We'll hear a gobbler 50 times one morning then he won't make a sound for nearly a week. My guess is that we are dealing with lots of ornery old gobblers that do as they please and they are keeping the younger ones hushed up.
      You can't blame it on the weather. The weather has been exceptional, though the trend is toward warmer weather. It has really been pleasant in the turkey woods so far this spring. It is dry as well but that has kept the mosquitoes to a minimum.
      My big turkey has been beaten in the Turkey Contest at Season's Open Outdoor World. My bird scored 67 points but Wayne Wall, Jr. brought in one this past Saturday that scored 70 points. Wayne's bird didn't have as good of spurs but weighed 21 pounds and had an 11 inch beard.

     Tyge and Chris accompanied another of our NWTF chapter committee members, Stover Perryman, on a Wednesday morning hunt. They had a fun hunt but did not capture a kill on film. Wednesday afternoon we went back to the Horn Swamp and came up short again. Afternoon hunting in the woods is awfully tough when the birds are known to move around a lot.
      Thursday morning was the final attempt to get another kill from Wilcox County on TV. I got fired up at dawn as I heard a gobble from one of our hardwood bottoms. When first contacted about doing this hunt back in February, I envisioned hunting a bird in these big woods. We soon realized we had two gobblers roosted about 100 yards apart in the hardwoods and moved in and set up a short distance away. We offered a few tree yelps and clucks and they answered it all with enthusiasm, then proceeded to fly down on a narrow ridge between two ponds. After moving a little in the opposite direction they got quiet.
      We waited until about 8:30AM and began slipping down the ridge toward where the last gobble was heard. We walked right up on one of the birds and he saw us and pitched across the water of one of the ponds. I yelped and the other one answered about 200 yards away. We moved yet closer and set up. For the next hour and half we bantered back and forth with the gobbler and he answered everything we threw at him and must have gobbled 200 or more times.
      He was determined that we would come to him and not him to us. He would not leave the half acre he was situated on. At near 11AM our time was up and we conceded victory to the bird and we left the Swamp.

     Gobbling has been spasmodic since Thursday. We've heard some turkeys gobble well across the property line in different directions but the Swamp's birds have been very tight lipped. The weather has certainly been great so certainly it does not get the blame for the lack of gobbling.

     Dawn found us back in the Swamp on the north edge of the property trying to coax a gobble from these piney woods turkeys. Hearing nothing the first ten minutes of gobbling time we rode the electric golf cart deeper into the forest, winding down a road through a stand of 30-year old pines. At our next stop, we heard a turkey gobbling off the east about 400 yards. I guessed that bird was the infamous Spooky. Chris owled and a turkey gobbled west of our location so close that I immediately looked into the pines expecting to see the bird standing on a limb. I didn't see him thankfully. We had approached quietly and were miraculously hidden from his view as well. (Lets call him Bird #1)
      We were too close to hunt him so after getting our gear off the cart, we moved west toward the distant gobbling Spooky. A hundred yards along we heard another gobbler crank up to the southeast within a couple of hundred yards (Bird #2). So as the early morning hunt unfolded there were two gobblers roosted 250 yards away from each other along with Spooky in the near distance. We made a turn to get in between Bird #1 and #2 and suddenly a hen spooked from a tree overhead and flew south, awfully close to Bird #2. We moved forward another 25 yards and Chris owled again. Both #1 and #2 gobbled.
      I knew we needed to be in a little hardwood drain just ahead and we moved another 50 yards to its edge. I think we got too close to #2 and he clammed up. Either he saw us or the spooked hen raised his alarm.
       We set up in the hardwoods still in easy calling distance of #1. I yelped and Bird #1 answered, now from the ground. He was not more than 150 yards from us. Chris took over the calling from there as I got my gun in position. Chris offered a few yelps and the turkey gobbled again a little closer I thought. A few minutes later Chris yelped again and the bird gobbled noticeably closer and I felt certain he was coming.
       The main gravel road through this area of the property is raised about 3 feet as it crosses this bottom. The bird stepped out of the pines and onto the road and came into view for not only me but the camera as well. He gobbled and steadily came our way. At 35 yards he stopped and looked hard at our jake and hen decoy directly to our left. He gobbled, took a few more steps and stopped in clear view of me but behind a tree from Tyge's view through the camera. Seconds ticked away and Tyge whispered that his view was blocked. The bird then began walking again and Tyge had him in view. I was quite sure the gobbler was going to buzz right on by, seemingly unimpressed and maybe suspicious of the decoys.
      With Tyge's assurance that he had a good view of the gobbler, I touched the trigger on my old 870 and the 3 inch shell roared through the still morning air. The bird was down at 30 yards.
      Chris and I got up and went to check out the bird. My jaw dropped when I saw the big spurs on his legs. We did not just have a bird we had an old, long spurred gobbler.
      We spent several hours taking photographs and putting the finishing touches on the video clips that would be needed to put the show together, then headed back to town to take the bird to be measured for a big turkey contest at a local outdoor store, Season's Open Outdoor World. I had entered the contest just the day before when we were certain we were going to kill Spooky (Spooky didn't get the memo that he was scheduled to die yesterday!).
      The bird scored 67 points on the NWTF measuring scale and sported one spur that was an inch and a half and the other that was and inch and five sixteenths. He weighed 19 pounds 3 ounces and had a 10.25 inch beard. He put me in first place in the contest.
      As we don't overshoot our birds each season, we have some old turkeys in the Swamp. I took a real nice one last season but this one certainly has the longest spurs of any bird I've ever killed. It could not have happened on a better day. Though we didn't get Spooky (not yet at least) we certainly got an old cousin of his.
      Chris and Tyge are going to be in town through Thursday morning and hopefully we will get more kills on film in the next day and half. I'll be turning the shooting duties over to either Chris or our other committee members of our NWTF chapter.
      The video of this hunt will be sent to the NWTF and will be reviewed and edited by the staff there. It certainly should make a segment of the Turkey Country TV show sometime later this year. I expect it will be a segment of show that will include several other successful hunts filmed with our State Chapter President Harlan Starr last week in northeast Alabama.
      I'll have another report on Friday for you.

Not the best view of the spurs....it is late tonight.
I'll have a better photo on Friday.

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     We heard one gobble from the roost this morning, the worst morning of gobbling I've heard all season. Wouldn't you know we would be trying to film a hunt! Thankfully we did get a bird stirred up a couple of hours after dawn. He came in fast and we got in position so quickly we didn't put out our decoys. That's not a big deal to me as I don't usually use them anyway, however, it might have helped this time.
      The bird got within 40 yards of us and needed to come 10 yard closer to be in great view of the camera and offer a clean shot. A second gobbler appeared behind him and passed by him, then turned and walked back in the direction they came. He apparently didn't buy the argument that a hen existed in those piney woods where he could not see one. The gobbling and strutting bird followed him. We called a little more in hopes of turning them. The gobbling bird gobbled up a storm at our yelps but they would not turn back to us. They almost made the TV show but tonight they sleep in the Swamp.
     We returned to the Swamp a few hours before dark and got in position to kill Spooky. It was going to be easy. Knowing where he roosts and having seen him yesterday, we got in the right position for a certain kill. We discussed his history and read him his last rites. That wily son of a gun never showed up. Tonight he too sleeps in the Swamp having gotten the best of us hunters yet again.
      Tomorrow will dawn cool and clear and I think the birds are going to rattle the woods. After 6 hours of rest, we'll be on the hunt again.

     I have waited for the right opportunity to hunt Spooky in the afternoon. You have heard me tell tales of Spooky for the last three seasons. This old bird tends to hang out on the limb several hours after daybreak rattling the woods with his gobbles. He's a bird that needs to be hunted in the afternoon and I knew sooner or later the right opportunity would arrive.
     This afternoon was the right opportunity as we pursued a bird to kill on video for the NWTF's Turkey Country TV show. Regional Director Chris Adams, videographer Tyge Floyd, and I slipped into position in the piney woods and settled in about 5:30pm. We put out a jake and a hen decoy in the road and guessed which direction the turkey would approach from. Chris and I called intermittently and about 6:30 we got an answer from who I presume was Spooky. He was 100 yards away. We readied the guns and camera in his direction. A hen worked her way toward us and we eventually got a few glimpses of the gobbler. Unfortunately he never came quite close enough for a shot.
      The good news is that tomorrow afternoon we will be better positioned and I feel like we have an excellent chance to take this old gobbler. We'll go after a more cooperative morning bird at daybreak and in the afternoon we'll try Spooky again.
      I think tomorrow is going to be a great day. I'll let you know but it will be a late night report for sure.

     The weather has warmed and we've endured some very foggy mornings this week. I've managed to hunt three mornings and have battled with lots of hens for a gobbler's attention. So far they have won. Gobbling has been decent in the tree but sparingly once the toms hit the ground and are surrounded by their hens.
      Beginning Sunday afternoon our Regional Director with the NWTF, Chris Adams, along with the producer/cameraman, Tyge Floyd, from the NWTF's Turkey Country hunting show, will be in Camden to hunt with me and other committee members of our local chapter. We will hopefully capture one or more successful hunts for an upcoming segment of the show. For this reason I have been very easy going on the birds in the swamp this spring. I did not want to hurt our chances of finding an easy to call bird. The last thing I wanted to do was to kill several of the dumb birds and leave the old and wary ones. I hope my leniency is going to work.
      We will hunt Sunday afternoon through Wednesday morning. I'll be quite busy during this time but for those interested I'll post a short daily update on how we are doing in our quest to make the TV show. Most likely the update will be posted late each night.
      I have a few pictures to show you this week. Hayden Olds has sent a picture of his first gobbler from this spring, killed in south Alabama. Harvey Crawford and friend Cheyne are pictured with a bird from Coy, Alabama (Wilcox County). Harvey also sent a picture of this gobbler that his digital game camera took. I zoomed in on this bird's spurs and he has some good ones. Hopefully Harvey will catch up with this turkey very soon.

     The Wilcox Academy Benefit Turkey Hunt was a great success. Twenty four hunters killed nine gobblers and missed two more. The weather was as pleasant as it could be in my opinion. Though the mornings started out at or near freezing with a light frost, the wind held off until past mid-morning and sunny skies reigned overhead as the days warmed to the lower 60s.
      Saturday morning was a "roll call" morning in the Swamp. The air was crisp and light and the skies clear. It sounded as though every turkey that could gobble did gobble at least a little. Most of what we heard was across our property lines or across the river, but we did manage to call up two gobblers to within 23 steps.
     I was guiding Barnett Serio from Natchez, Mississippi. This would be Barnett's 16th time to attend the benefit hunt. Expert caller Don Lauderdale accompanied us. We first walked to within 150 yards of "Spooky," a turkey that I have hunted in these piney woods for the past two seasons and carries the tendency to remain in the tree gobbling several hours after dawn. We waited to make sure this was him before we gave up. He was 45 minutes late in flying down and yelping to this bird while he remains in the tree does no good. We moved on and found two other gobblers on the ground.
       After a standoff of 20 minutes they charged in, coming through a sweet gum thicket to within 23 steps. Barnett wasn't aimed their way when they began their forward charge and they go so close so fast that far too much movement was required for him to get the gun aimed at one of the birds. When that movement did happen, they started to run. Barnett shot at one of the gobblers about 35 yards away now. Most of his shot centered a sweet gum sapling 10 yards in front of the barrel. We did find some shot that hit trees down the way but the gobbler was not hurt. But the morning's hunt was over.
      Barnett and I fished a friend's pond in the afternoon, neither of us big fans of afternoon turkey hunting. Our trio returned at dawn Sunday morning to the turkey woods. We first went toward Spooky in hopes this might be the rare time he would fly down. We were a bit late and on the way found another gobbler already on the ground and on the move. We got in position and he buzzed by us at 50 yards, giving us a look but not a close shot. We had out two decoys which he had to have seen but was unimpressed with. He was headed somewhere in a hurry and kept up the pace and was soon out of hearing distance.
       After a bit of walking we located another gobbler in the piney woods and set up on him, again with two decoys in front of us. These woods were thick with pines and sweetgums and the first glimpse of the turkey would be at around 30 yards and in gun range. A quick shot would be needed to prevent him from seeing us. Sure enough after a bit of gobbling and drumming he appeared through the pines. I watched him for a minute as he stared intently our way. He either didn't like our blind or didn't like the decoys. He suddenly whirled around and I knew he was about to leave the scene. I instructed Barnett to get him quick if he could. Again, as a little movement was required to get the bead on the bird's head that was all the assurance the gobbler needed that he was right in his assumption to retreat. He picked up the pace to a run and was gone in a flash before any shot could be fired. Our hunt was over.
      A most interesting bird was killed on the hunt Sunday morning. After he was shot the hunter and guide realized the bird had a pine branch stuck in his chest. We have guessed that he flew down on this branch and stabbed it into his upper chest beside the breast bone. The hunters said the bird did make a rough sounding gobble and also drummed as he accompanied some hens in a field. When I inspected the bird I pulled a bit on the pine branch and it was indeed lodged very firmly in the bird and would not come out without a great deal of effort. How far it actually went in I do not know but we all guessed the bird would not have lived very long. The injury we believe happened within a few days.
      The season is only going to get better from here. Check back late in the week for another report. If you didn't see last Friday's report, make sure to scroll down this page. Here are a few pictures from the weekend along with the strangely injured gobbler...

     This morning was cold and the first clear day at dawn in quite a while. We had a light frost as well. I heard two different gobblers and only a few ground gobbles for them. These could have been the same ones I encountered on Thursday morning but if so they had split up.
      Wednesday and Thursday we heard very little gobbling in the Swamp. Wednesday's winds likely contributed to that day's lack of action and the clouds and early droplets of rain seemed to keep a damper on the action Thursday as well. I did luck up and run across two gobblers that finally answered after they had flown down.
      After sitting for the first 30 minutes of daylight, I had decided to take off on a walk and do a little yelping along the way when one of these birds answered. He was not more than 100 yards it sounded so I quickly took cover by a tree. The next answer was farther away and the next even farther. I scrambled ahead and set up again. One bird was handling most of the gobbling but I heard a distinct second gobble in the mix from time to time and knew at least two gobblers were there together.
      I was quickly running out of time and would need to head back to town and work shortly. The birds were a bit hung up for a hunter with a short amount of time to hunt on this particular morning. Needing to make a loop around them anyway in order to reach the truck, I decided to sit down one more time and yelp along the way. As soon as I yelped once in that third location of the standoff the vocal gobbler answered and I was confident they were moving my way quickly. I had to make a choice whether to shoot them with my gun or camera, having brought along my digital SLR camera and zoom lens.
     With the school benefit hunt two days away I decided to kill two birds with one stone. I would take pictures of these birds and save them for the weekend. I have been itching to get some good gobbler pictures with the digital camera. So the gun stayed by my side and I pulled the camera in close as it rested on the tripod.
      And here they came. I first saw the pair of gobblers through the pines about 30 yards away. They quickly closed the distance to about 15 yards and spent about 5 minutes at that close range as I photographed them. They moved from my right to left and eventually faded back into the pines. As they walked away I was confident that I had just encountered a couple of 2-year old birds. However, closer inspection of the spurs on the birds tell a different story. Though the pictures below are a bit fuzzy when zoomed in on the spurs, they certainly show a curved spur which is not found on a 2-year old.

Special thanks to all those that have emailed and/or sent photos of successful hunts. I'll share those pictures in the next update. The reports are good and bad with some hunters hearing some gobbling and others not. That string of crisp, clear and sunny mornings that are void of any gusty winds continues to elude us.
A big report will be coming Tuesday after what will hopefully be an eventual weekend in the turkey woods.

     It has been the slowest first week of turkey season for me in the last dozen or so years. Conflicts at work, at home, and with the weather have kept me from the woods all but two mornings. I'm not hearing much good news of gobbling from area hunters either. For the most part the weather seems to be keeping a lid on the action thus far into the season. That should change and change quickly as we move into the season's second week.
     Several years back the opening of turkey season was moved from the 20th of March to the 15th. The argument for the change concerned the many hunters who hunt each weekday morning before work. Once Daylight Savings Time begins the first weekend of April, a hour is cut from the morning's hunt and effectively keeps many working hunters from the woods each morning. The extra five days were meant to allow a little more time for those hunters. I have rarely seen the season open on the 20th with birds in the Swamp at a fever pitch of gobbling and certainly they are not at that point on the 15th. It seems the best action starts late in March and into April. Therefore, the slow start does not concern nor surprise me.
      Yesterday we had that typical spring severe weather move through the state and our county was under a tornado warning and then a severe thunderstorm warning. I decided this morning to stay away one more morning from the woods. The forecast looks a bit cool through the weekend but at least the sun will shine. I'm expecting the turkeys to start gobbling and responding better in the next week and I'll be resuming my morning trips to the woods on Wednesday morning.
      I'm glad to see a good forecast for the weekend for the annual Wilcox Academy Benefit Turkey Hunt. We'll have about 25 guests in town for the hunt. I'll have a full report Tuesday. Stop back by on Friday and I'll have a mid-week report from the next three mornings in my turkey woods. Hang in there....the action is about to begin!

So far we have not had any luck with the turkeys. Gobbling has been very limited and pretty much all done from the tree. The toms we have been near seem to have plenty of hens and more than a bit reluctant to come running to our calls. The season is yet young and we don't like to put much pressure on the birds at this point. If they don't want to come or don't want to gobble much, so be it. There is a lot of season left and no point in overeducating a bird this early on.

     Tomorrow is the big day, the opening day of turkey season. Our birds usually don't start gobbling real well until later in March or early April therefore I don't get too overly excited about the 15th of March. It appears we might have some great weather for opening day but the weather looks hit and miss for the next week after that. Rain and clouds and I'm sure wind mixed in as well. After all, it is March.
     Regardless, I've have an update next Tuesday and let you know how I'm faring against America's Greatest Gamebird.

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Sunday afternoon found me stirring around in the woods with the original intent upon coyote hunting. However, a south wind pretty well spoiled most of the spots I had intended to hunt. In coyote hunting it is important to have your wind blowing in a direction where the coyotes can not approach from. You need a barrier like a pond, field, or other obstruction. I was going to use the river and some of the swampy areas of the property as my barrier, however, none work well with a south wind.
So with some time to kill I slipped to the edge of a greenfield to see what might be out on this beautiful late afternoon. I was very excited to see a big tom turkey balled up in the far end of the greenfield. In a few minutes several hens joined him, along with one of the resident white hens. I took the pictures shown below. The first shows the distance they were from me, about 125 yards. Some of these are a bit blurry, the result of me zooming in with the aid of the computer once I returned home.

The season is just over a week away. The beautiful weather of the last few days and of the week to come will certainly see the gobblers become more and more vocal with each passing sunrise. I look forward to the season and to bringing you a report from my woods each week.

There is very little news to report from our woods at the present time. I've been quite busy through the two weekends since our last update, though I have not hunted a bit. I was out of town one of those weekends and the other was spent overseeing our local NWTF banquet.
We have a string of "spring like" days forecasted through the rest of this week with sunny skies and highs in the 70s each day. That will surely help to fire up the turkeys as winter begins to loosen its grip on the South. We're two weeks away from turkey season. I can't wait!

As promised here are some of the pictures and updates sent by our readers from across the area. Special thanks to all who have emailed and called. It is good to hear from those that check in each week during the season.

John Jones killed this mature buck near Jackson, AL
during the last few days of the season.

Killed near Montgomery, AL on the Davis Property

Keith Dixon says this is the best buck he saw all season and he downed him in the last 5 minutes of Jan. 31st. Keith says the bucks were running crazy on the last few days in his woods.

Frank Glass killed this buck in Baldwin County. The deer aged at 5 1/2 years and weighed 170 lbs. Franks says it was an off year for their club with the overall harvest down 40%. Frank noted in his email regarding the loss of some of their hunting lands to development---golf course and residential construction.

I'll be taking a couple of weeks off from regular updates. I've got a few busy weeks coming up. I'll be out of town a few days and then will return in time for our NWTF banquet on Feb. 18th. I'm in charge but have lots of good help from our committee members. We'll pack 325 or so into the armory in Camden for one of the best NWTF banquets in the state. It's lots of work but enjoyable as well and it all goes for a great cause. I can't say enough about what the NWTF is doing across the country to protect our hunting freedoms and for the conservation of our wildlife, not just the wild turkey. If there's a banquet in your community, I urge you to attend and get involved.

     I spent the last three hours of deer season in a tree overlooking a location where I had seen does and bucks on the last two hunts there. No such luck on this last outing of the season. I went home empty handed, but thankful of the opportunity to watch the last sunset of the season.
     Our Saturday morning rabbit hunt would have been more aptly titled, "A Walk in the Woods." We took a big walk on a windy day that saw early morning clouds give way to a clear and crisp day. We saw some deer. We saw coyote sign. We saw some fresh hog sign. What we did not see is much rabbit sign and we saw not a single bunny.
      We were accompanied by 8 shortlegged beagles, three of which left quickly on a chase of a deer we think. The remaining five did their best as did us hunters, stomping through the briar patches hoping to stir a rabbit. Our good success over the last number of years did not carry over.

       If you have many rabbits the sign is obvious. A rabbit loves to leave droppings on stumps and fallen trees and just about any good clean surface above the ground. We saw very few rabbit pills where we should have. We also noted that the briar thickets of the past that held so many rabbits have now died off, shaded out by the growing pines. Between the coyotes, bobcats, and hawks the poor old rabbit is hunted 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Without a dense thicket, his numbers will stay very low.
      I often pay special attention to the coyote droppings in the road as they are a telltale sign of what the coyote has been preying upon. I think I've mentioned before that we have been seeing hog hair in the dropping for the past few years. I surmise that the coyote is apparently catching the young as I don't think he would tangle with a grown hog.
      Saturday morning I looked down in the road to see the scattered coyote droppings in the picture below. I quickly saw the white of bone shards, which normally don't appear in the droppings. I saw hair, but could not quickly tell what animal it was from. Then I saw a tiny hoof and knew exactly what the coyote had eaten. A baby deer!

I wonder if due to the reduced numbers of rabbits and other small animals in the Swamp the coyote is turning his attention to larger prey, like hogs and deer. We certainly do not see the number of young deer like I would expect and I have no doubt the coyotes are putting a dent in the population. I look forward to doing a little coyote hunting in the near future. Hopefully I'll get in a hunt or two before turkey season. I've ordered a new "rabbit in distress" call and have been brushing up on coyote hunting techniques.
I have been sent several pictures of bucks taken by hunters in the closing days of the season. I'll do a special end of the week update with those pictures. Stop by for that on Friday. Then I'll take a couple of weeks off from regular updates, as busy weekends will keep me from the woods. The updates will return and continue through the end of April.

     Early Thursday morning found Randy Chastain from Bainbridge, GA, friend of my cousin Curtis Malone, watching over the greenfield we call the Vaughn Line Greenfield. Just after 7AM a buck entered the greenfield at a distance of 40 yards. Randy knew at first sight what to do. There was no wondering if this one was a shooter. Moments later the buck was on the ground, downed by one shot from Randy's 300 ultra mag.
     Those of us that hunt the Horn Swamp are going to be talking about the Chastain Buck for many years to come. His rack is exactly what you wish they would all be. He is what Randy had been hunting 20 years to have the chance to kill. He is what we all wish for each time we go to the deer woods.
      Randy and Curtis, along with friends Bob, Chad, Walt, and Tru hunted the Swamp from Wednesday through Saturday. They saw some nice bucks during the hunt, chasing does and tending scrapes. Certainly the mature bucks were on the move this weekend.
       They gave me a call at work Thursday morning with the news that Randy had a good one on the ground. I wouldn't know just how good until I arrived at the camp Thursday night. After snapping a few pictures, I pulled out the tape and started to take a tally of his antlers. I came up with a green score of 135 B&C gross. (In our haste we actually tallied 138 but after closer review a few days later I found 135 was the correct score.) That certainly makes him the best scoring buck we've killed in the Swamp in 20 years.
      Where the buck came from is anyone's guess. He was very wet and had apparently swam a bottom of flooded timber nearby that separates the higher ground from the lower ground of the property. He was scarred and missing patches of hair on his sides. He had certainly been involved in some fierce fights of recent days and was on the roam, either to get away from some rougher buck or to find a hot doe.

	Right	Left
Main Beam	23	21 6/8
G1 (brown tine)	4	4 4/8
G2	6	7
G3	6 2/8	7
G4	3 2/8	3
C1 (circumference)	4 4/8	4 6/8
C2	4	4
C3	4	4
C4	3 4/8	3 4/8
Totals:	58 4/8	59 4/8
Total: 58 4/8 + 59 4/8 + 17 spread = 135 gross score

     As you see, the mass was good but tine length was nothing exceptional. Had the buck's tines been longer he would have really scored high.
      Otherwise the group killed one more 7 point, three does, and a hog. They did see a few more hogs than we had seen in early hunts in the Swamp. They too are beginning to move a little more.
       I hunted down at the bow club on Thursday afternoon, all day Saturday, and Sunday afternoon. I drew back on a cull buck, a 2 year old deer with long spikes, Thursday afternoon. It was dead quiet that afternoon and I must have made some tiny bit of noise. He jumped and ran out 20 more yards and turned and looked back at me. Unfortunately he was behind enough branches I could not let loose an arrow. If not for the branches, I might have given the shot a try. He needed to be shot.

The buck worked his way from the left of the picture, around the fallen tree, and to where the crude drawing indicates. This was my best chance for a shot. I drew, and it unraveled from there.

I saw him again Saturday morning but he never came close enough for a shot. Just as I climbed down at 10:30 AM two 8 points ran a doe past me. I almost got down too early but considering neither was big or old enough to shoot, it didn't matter. I stood in my climber 4 feet off the ground and watched them run right past me with no knowledge that I was in their midst.

     Saturday was a beautiful day but it did warm up far beyond what we deer hunters like to see in the final days of January. The wind picked up for the afternoon. I saw two does but unfortunately they had no bucks trailing them.
     Here in Wilcox County we were fortunate to have the rain move through during the night Saturday and by Sunday morning the rain was gone. I slept in, played with my little boy, and then we all went to church.
      I gave them one more try Sunday afternoon, another warm one. I went back to a location on the north side of a thick area, where the south wind would aid me. I saw one yearling.
      I may get off work to go one final time Tuesday afternoon. Maybe. Maybe not. Regardless it has been a slow year for me. I've enjoyed the hours spent in the tree, but I need to do some scouting once the season is over in hopes of getting on a good buck next season. The road to a successful 06-07 season begins February 1st. There will be lots of sign in the woods then as the rut plugs along and the bucks continue to move about. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a better acorn crop as well next fall. There is nothing like a good acorn crop to get the deer out of the thicket and into an area where you can loose some arrows at them.
     So what's next? Well, for starters I've got a rabbit hunt planned for Saturday morning. I hope to track down some hogs to stalk with the stick and string before turkey season opens in mid March. I have a friend with a good squirrel dog that I hope to round up for a hunt before the end of the month. And there are all the chores that have been put on the shelf for three and a half months, around the house and in the Swamp. I'll have a complete report next Tuesday on the small game hunting we get done this coming weekend. Y'all keep the pictures coming and let me know how your season winded up.

      Special thanks to all those who have called and emailed with reports from the woods.......

Forrest Long (L) and Earle Long killed these two bucks this past weekend in west Wilcox County, not too far from the Horn Swamp. Great mass on both of those racks. Forrest says the buck on the right will score in the mid 130s.

Bryan Deloney killed this nice buck the
weekend before last near Ozark, Alabama.

Clay Smith, cousin of my cousin Josh Smith,
killed this big boy in south Georgia.
Clay hunts with Josh in the Horn Swamp each season.

One of our regular readers sent this picture from his game camera in Bibb County. Doug (I told him I would not use his last name so this deer would remain anonymous as possible!) says that the deer never comes out in the daylight but is a regular on their hunting property. My guess is that Doug is losing some sleep over this big buck. I know I would.

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     It appears the final two weekends of the season----generally the best two weekends thanks to the peak of the rut----are going to be less than spectacular this time around. One of those weekends is already in the past and it saw warm temps and rain. Accordingly, deer movement was very slow. The forecast for this weekend looks no better.
     The hunters I have spoken with that hunted during the middle of last week, when the weather was colder, saw a lot of deer movement. They also reported that that movement ceased when the weather turned warm on Friday. I suspect the same thing will happen this week. Those that are able to hunt Tuesday through Thursday are going to see and kill some nice bucks.
      Even though the rut is in full swing warm temperatures will put a damper on the hunter seeing much of the action. The does move very little in the warm weather, not needing to feed as much as in the cold. Therefore, the bucks don't have to move much to find them. The rut still occurs but it happens under a great veil of secrecy.
      With it raining early Saturday I skipped the morning hunt and got to the woods just after noon. According to the radar the rain would soon clear out and we might salvage an afternoon hunt. No sooner than I had begun my walk to my stand the rain returned. I decided to stick it out, thinking it would not last long. It did, all the way until about 5PM. Thanks goodness for waterproof clothing! But I saw no deer.
      On Sunday morning I saw two bucks, one small buck and one better one that was much too far away to shoot. Sunday afternoon, amid 75 degree weather and the occasional buzz of mosquitoes, I saw nothing.
        My cousin Curtis and his friends will be hunting the Swamp this weekend. I'll be back in the woods on Saturday and Sunday as long as the rain holds off.
        Here are a few pictures sent to me by those that have had success in recent days. Keep the pictures coming guys and let me know how the season finishes up for you.

After a very slow 2005 hunt, the W. A. Benefit Deer Hunt saw much better results this time around. For those not familiar, our school began this annual hunt about 22 years ago. Supporters of the school donate land throughout Wilcox County and even into the surrounding counties for the weekend hunt. Hunters from all over the nation come to hunt deer on these private lands not generally available to the public. Volunteers serve as guides, deer cleaners, and cooks throughout the weekend. The hunters stay in area motels and are treated to two evening meals on the hunt. Many other schools throughout Alabama, after taking notice of our success, now hold hunts of their own. I don't believe you will find one older than ours. The deer hunt spun off from the successful benefit turkey hunt that began in 1971.
This year, with a few less hunters, we doubled the lackluster harvest of 2005. Overall 68 bucks, 45 does, and 8 hogs were killed by 88 hunters. There were numerous quality bucks taken on the hunt. I got photos of a few of them. If there's one thing we don't do well is that we don't get good photos of all the quality bucks killed. Therefore, this is merely a sample of what I saw during the times I was at the skinning shed.

The hunt is held the second full weekend of January and this year it fell a little later into the month than in the past. That was good as the action can change a lot in just a few days in January. I was glad to see so much success as we experienced a full moon and high winds on Friday afternoon and Saturday. The deer didn't seem to mind.
I had 2 hunters for Friday afternoon and Saturday morning and 4 hunters for the Saturday afternoon hunt. In all they killed 4 Horn Swamp bucks and 2 does. One of the bucks was a good 5-point cull buck that needed shooting. Two bucks were young 7 points that had not yet reached their full potential. The 4th buck, killed Saturday morning crossing a field all alone, was a good mature buck. He had 5 3/4" bases but just a 14" spread. Tines were not exceptionally long but make no mistake, this was a mature buck for this property. I can get a good idea of the age of these Horn Swamp bucks just by observing the diameter of their bases. This buck won't score well, but getting the best of a mature buck (4+ years old) is an accomplishment.

Like so many of our bucks' antlers, his bases were knotty. He had several kicker points that were under 1 inch. Also his G4 on the left antler was less than one inch. On the school hunt, the hunter that kills the higher scoring buck wins a 2 day hunt for next season. The formula for determining the score of the buck is weight multiplied by points. When we got to the skinning shed and checked in the deer, the recorders asked how many points the deer had. I told them to see for themselves. They counted "anything that you can hang a ring on" and the deer tallied 14 points! Weighing just 167 pounds but having 14 points made this one unbeatable. Dane won the hunt for next year.

Dane's buck tallied 14 points thanks to
several small kickers at the base of the rack.

Coyotes beat us to one of the dead does on Saturday evening. By the time I picked up the hunters and we got back to the Jailhouse Field to pick up the doe, the coyotes had already begun to make a meal of one hindquarter.

As for myself, I hunted Friday afternoon, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. I saw deer on every hunt. I passed up a shot at a doe Sunday morning as my time was short if I was going to make church. I saw numerous scrapes and new rubs while walking to and from my stand. I nor any of the hunters saw any hogs this weekend. They seem to have an uncanny sixth sense and know when to make themselves scarce.
There are two weekends remaining. With the season coming to a close, the best days are still outstanding. Weather permitting, I'm keeping my fingers crossed for two good weekends and a bit of luck for a change. Below are a few pictures from the weekend.

A once thinned pine plantation is where I hunted Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning. The deer move through the area on a north/south pattern.

In the above mentioned pine plantation Saturday afternoon,
this young buck passed by my stand.

Monday afternoon I watched this young deer, along with a doe and yearling, feed on some sort of aquatic plant in this shallow pond.

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     I spent the entire day Saturday in the woods hunting the same acre of land. Well before day I began a half mile walk to where I had seen the nice buck the day after Christmas. The road leading to this area of the property is still littered with trees felled in the hurricanes making access to this area very slow and tedious, particularly if you want to arrive without a great deal of racket.
      A southwest wind was forecast for the day and I set up accordingly, moving my climber to a different tree than I had hunted here in the past. I was less than 50 yards from the creek and my scent would be carried across the creek in a direction I did not expect any deer to come from. During the morning I had one group of three does pass by at about 75 yards. Later, a group of five does came from the east and worked their way towards me. I felt sure I was going to get a shot at one of them. They walked a little too far to the northeast side of me and caught my scent when they were 50 yards away. They backtracked a little and made a wider circle around me which kept them from passing by my tree.
      I climbed down near lunch and ate my snack and then took a nice nap there on the ground. An hour later I awoke to the sound of whistling winds. I looked up to see a bald eagle circling just over the treetops. He continued his circling pattern, rising higher and higher in the air, and eventually took a southerly course and was gone from view.
      I am still amazed that this majestic species of bird, that was once nearly gone from the earth, now calls our county home. I always get a big charge every time I see one.
      I moved my stand another 50 yards to be better positioned for the wind and remained there until dark. Unfortunately, I saw no more deer.
      I should have hunted Sunday morning but decided to spend a little time with my wife and son. I should have planned to spend that family time on Sunday afternoon and gotten to the woods for the morning. By the time the afternoon arrived the wind had really picked up and the heat set in. I didn't see a deer on the afternoon hunt.
      The Wilcox Academy Benefit Hunt will be held this weekend. I'll have a couple of hunters to guide in the Swamp. The weather forecast looks fair though there is a full moon. At any time the bucks are going to reappear in every corner of the woods as the rut picks up. It could be this weekend or the next. It will be soon.

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     What a warm weekend it was. I am glad I did not have plans to be in the woods for the past three days. I'm sure somebody saw some deer out there. I am sure some more folks saw lots of mosquitoes and very few deer. I have talked to one duck hunter that had a close encounter with a large cottonmouth moccasin this weekend. I was out of town on Saturday and Sunday and Monday was just too warm and windy to worry about deer hunting.
      The information I found on the internet said our record high for January 2nd was 66º in 1966. We topped 80º Monday afternoon. Thankfully the coming weekend's forecast calls a return to normal for January.
       After doing very little hunting the past few weekends, I'm looking forward to getting after them pretty hard for the remainder of the season. I'll be spending some entire days in the tree as the bucks begin to roam. The season will soon be winding to a close but the best is yet to come.

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     I hope you had a safe and enjoyable Christmas weekend. Christ's birthday is always a joyous time for us Christians. And aside from the real reason for the celebrating, there is always some good food to be eaten and a little extra time to spend with family. Additionally, maybe there's even a day or so off work as well which enables us to get in the woods for a few hours.
      Last Thursday I was invited on my one and only dove hunt of the season. The day dawned a frosty 26 degrees as we marched out across the small field where we would hunt. The first forty five minutes were pretty uneventful. The next hour was action-packed. I had chosen to take my 1100 to the field and since I have not shot it much in the last year and had failed to put a fresh cleaning on the interior, it acted as stubborn as it could. I got one shot at a time but rarely did it eject the shell and properly load the next one. I could blame the cold or the gun but had I cleaned it as I should have the problem would not have occurred. Nevertheless I was happy to pick up 12 birds before I had to strike off to work. Had I not lost a few more in a nearby clearcut I would have collected the limit with ease.
      Monday was my day to deer hunt. After cloudy, rainy, and mostly poor weather on Saturday and Sunday, Monday turned out to be a gem. (I was pretty shocked to witness small hail in the storm that moved through here on Christmas eve.) I hiked a ways into the property to an area that has not been hunted this season. At quarter 'til dark that evening I finally saw a deer, a buck. My guess is he is a young buck and would score 110 to 120 at the most. He never got closer than 60 yards.
      A gobbler flew up on a limb nearby as well in the last thirty minutes of daylight. He saw me I think and a few moments later decided he might just try a different limb a little farther away.

I got a new backpack for Christmas to replace the worn and torn one that I have been toting to the woods for several years. Yes, I carry a lot of stuff up the tree with me and a backpack is the best way to keep it all organized. I can easily attach the pack to my Ol' Man treestand and then put the stand on my back when going to and from my hunting location. Once I attach the stand to a tree, I clip a 6 foot rope to the pack and tie it to the upper part of my stand. This allows me to pull the pack up as I climb but it keeps the pack out of the way of the climbing. When I get to my desired height I pull the pack up and tie it snugly to the upper section of my stand. This keeps it handy as I hunt.

     So what's in the pack? Here's a list of items usually found: flashlight, video camera, binoculars, range finder, compass, GPS, water, snack (on longer hunts), gloves, facemask, spare batteries, book (for entertainment on long and boring hunts), and a retrieval device for pulling up my bow. If you are going to spend much of the day in the tree, you might as well have all that you need!
     I'm hearing reports of lots of good deer being taken in recent weeks thanks to the cold weather. The bucks should be begin to stir about more and more as each day passes and the rut begins to heat up. If the weather stays cold through January I think the hunting is going to be really good this time around. The does move around more when its cold and therefore the bucks will move more in search of them. Let's keep our fingers crossed for cold (but not bitter cold) weather through January.
     Have a safe New Year's and I'll see you back here next week.

     Though winter is just now officially beginning, the nation has already seen its share of cold weather. The last few weeks and December as a whole have been consistently cold for us. Here in south Alabama we seem to usually be on a weekly pattern of a front that brings rain, followed by a day of wind, then a few days of cold weather that give way to a few days of warmer weather as the next front approaches. Lately it has just been cold all week long.
     I am told by several hunters that duck hunt here along the river/lake that they have seen more ducks here than they have in a good many years. Obviously the bitter cold up north has pushed some ducks this way for a change.
     I extended my "no luck" days of deer hunting through another weekend. I got after them on Saturday and did see a few does but nothing close enough to shoot. It was a cloudy and cold day with the highs reaching only in the mid 40s. Thankfully the rain stayed south of us and we only got a sprinkle Saturday night which did not interfere with any daily activities.
     The best luck I had all day occurred on the way to the hunting property Saturday morning. A young eight point with a pretty rack charged out of the pine thicket beside the highway and took a course that was certain to bring him into the right side of my truck. With nothing coming in the other lane I got over into the middle of the road and must have given him just enough room to miss me. That was about 45 minutes before daybreak and I guess he was quickly returning to his bedding area after a night of feeding.
     I'm getting reports of some nice bucks taken around the area in recent weeks though I have no pictures to show you. January is awfully close and when it arrives the buck activity is going to ramp up as the month progresses. I'm looking forward to it.
     Merry Christmas to all. See you back here next week.

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     The weather this weekend was the best it has been for a full weekend since the opener. I have heard from a number of different hunters that the deer movement really picked up this weekend.
      Unfortunately I did not witness such but apparently I was not in the right places. I started the day Saturday in our hardwoods where several weeks ago we saw some deer feeding on acorns. The area had not been hunted in three weeks so I was hopeful of seeing some undisturbed deer including the possibility of a good buck. But I saw nothing. The acorns are now gone and there is really little reason for the deer to be in those woods.
       For the afternoon I moved to an intersection of trails leading to one of our best greenfields. Again, I was skunked. Nothing came down the trails. At dark I quietly climbed down the tree and crept to the edge of the greenfield and saw a few shapes of deer feeding in the darkness. Saturday was the typical day that sends a couple dozen deer to feed in this greenfield in the afternoon. I'm not sure why they didn't show up this time.
      As I went through one of the gates leading to the Swamp Saturday afternoon, this owl flew up over the road and stopped to watch the truck. I scrambled around for my camera and took a few pictures of him before he flew away. Here's one of them.

       Sunday was another great day for hunting but I stayed close to home. My little boy is growing so fast I just have to take a day here and there and play with him.
      This week one of the Horn Swamp Online's regular readers, George Null, shares this story of a piebald deer he took a few weeks ago in Alabama.
      "We have some family property near the MS/AL line that is in a heavily hunted area. We use it primarily for a place to take kids or someone who has not hunted much. It is a relatively small track (150 acres). I have hunted out there twice this season. The 1st hunt I heard 7 high powered rifle shots on the surrounding property, but still managed to see 5 deer. On the second outing I was doing some mid morning hunting. I came across this deer as he was crossing an old duck pond. He is a piebald or partially white deer with a good set of horns.
     It is amazing that a deer that is half white with a nice rack could survive in this environment. But it does prove two things. In heavily hunted areas if you provide an area of low pressure or a sanctuary the deer will sense the light pressure and use this area. It also proves that a mature buck has got to be one of the most elusive of animals. For this deer to be half white to survive in an area of heavy hunting pressure is a miracle.
      I had seen his tracks and rubs for several seasons but had never seen him. His track was unusually large and we would find it all over the property. It was the primary reason we held out and continued to hunt here every so often. I had not seen his track all year until the morning I killed him. I followed it into a cutover, where I saw him 15 minutes later wading across a small duck pond. When he came out of the water and I saw that he was white tt threw me off. He almost disappeared back into the cutover before I regained my composure. He fell in his tracks."

Let me know what's happening in your neck of the woods. Send me an email. hornswamp@yahoo.com See you next week.

A different weekend and the same complaint from me. Why all the warm weather for the weekend? Once again those frosty mornings I watched on my way to work last week gave way to a warm weekend and I saw very little deer movement. At least Saturday morning was pleasant, starting out in the low 40s. The afternoon was in the mid 70s with a strong south wind that swayed the sweetgum tree I called home for the last 3 hours of daylight. I did not waste my time in the woods on Sunday. Sometimes it is best not to go sit and let your scent drift all around the woods when nothing is going to move anyway.

This is the tree (above picture) where I put my climber Saturday morning. These are the type of trees I always look for in the woods. The leaves will soon be gone from the limbs and it will be even harder to hide sitting in a climber on the side of a tree 20-25 feet off the ground. Trees with multiple trunks are great for breaking up one's silhouette. This red oak is one of the best I've hunted in recent memory in that respect. Hopefully I'll see some deer there on the next trip. I think the location will be a great one in January when the bucks go on the move.
Kirk Talbot killed the deer pictured below on Thanksgiving morning. His father killed the big hog. Both were killed in Wilcox County.

       This weekend's weather forecast is looking better than what we've endured the last few weekends. It is still December, though, and our deer are a bit stirred up and no doubt know that deer season is underway. But if the weather is cold they have to feed sometimes and you never know when the big one could walk right by your stand. I'm beginning to see a few scrapes in the woods, though they aren't being tended regularly it does get me thinking about the good days of hunting just around the corner when the rut kicks into full gear.
      It seems that there are more gadgets marketed to hunters than any other sport. I get catalogs daily in the mail filled with gadgets, some that appear useful and others that I am not impressed with at all. One that I would highly recommend to both gun and bowhunters is a rangefinder. You might even want to ask for one for Christmas! I was given one by my parents last year and have really enjoyed it.
      As soon as I settle into my climber and pull up my bow, the next thing I do is pull out the range finder and check the landmarks around me for yardage---trees, bushes, or limbs on the ground----anything that will mark a spot. I make sure I know my 20 yard shot and my 30 yard shot. Once a deer is in this range I will not be able to afford this much movement so it is important that I do get this sorted before. In bowhunting, you can't afford to misjudge distance as the arrow will hit high or low and the deer could be lost. As well in gun hunting, a rangefinder will help assure that your shot is on the mark and that your kill is a fast and clean one.

        I always enjoy hunting during Thanksgiving weekend. This year, I had four straight days off work giving ample time to get in the woods. I spent the better part of two and a half days in pursuit of the deer and the rest of the time was allocated to my family.
     Normally the cooler weather has settled in to south Alabama by this time of year. The acorns are dropping well and just a gentle breeze this time of year sends the leaves raining from the hardwoods. This weekend is also somewhat the last best chance to take a good buck before the slowdown of December arrives.
     Unfortunately, this time around I did not see much at all. In those two and a half days of hunting I saw only one deer---a yearling. That is pretty slow in my book. The cool weather from the prior weekend got the deer stirring then was gone by Thanksgiving Day. I hunted the morning and then spent the afternoon with my wife and son---in shorts. The rest of the weekend’s weather was pleasant but not what we needed to stir the deer. Hope you had better luck than I did.
     I’ve told you before that I’m disappointed with the acorn crop this season. When the acorns are scare, I have a hard time seeing the deer as they stick to the thicker areas where they are hard to hunt. They will eventually spend more time in the greenfields and maybe I'll have some luck then.
     And now here comes December. Don’t get me wrong, good times are had in the woods during December. But it seems those encounters with unspooked and undisturbed mature bucks really wane until the rut begins to occur in January.
     I’m also having trouble getting to the woods on the good weather days. The cold air that is in the state at mid-week will give way to warmer weather and showers by the weekend, when my time to hunt arrives. The forecast shows good hunting weather just in time for the work week next week. Maybe we’ll break that cycle soon.
      See ya next week.

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      A rain across the area last week brought between a quarter to a half inch of much needed water to the area food plots. Yesterday, a wintry, rainy day brought another real good soaking rain, lasting much of the day, that will be enough to carry the food plots through the winter. It appears we have entered a new weather pattern. Gone are the hot and dry days as we welcome cooler air and weekly fronts that will bring rain followed by more cooler air. Last week also brought the first really hard frost of the season. The grass in my yard has turned from green to brown and likewise some of the browse in the woods will have suffered the same fate.
      I spent Saturday at the football game in Auburn. I slept in on Sunday morning but got back to the woods on Sunday afternoon. I hunted an area that I have not yet hunted this season, a block of hardwoods with numerous big red oaks scattered throughout. Those red oaks have acorns though determining the best location to hunt is a bit difficult. I imagine the deer are moving through these woods in random. I saw three does and came real close to getting a shot at one. I'll be back there on Thursday morning.
       My cousin Josh and his friends hunted the Swamp, taking 6 does during the weekend.
       I always look forward to the Thanksgiving weekend. I get a little extra time to be in the woods and the hunting is usually very good at this time of the season. The deer will soon enter their "December lockdown," a vanishing act they regularly perform between the time they feel increased hunting pressure and the beginning of the rut. Thanksgiving week can sometimes be the last best time to hunt before the rut rolls around. And I always think about the ones that celebrated the first Thanksgiving. Their feast wasn't bought at the local grocery store. They grew it themselves and they killed it themselves. Being in the woods on Thanksgiving gives me a connection with the first Thanksgiving.
      I ran across the following picture elsewhere on the internet. It is a glimpse of the unfortunate toll that Hurricane Katrina took on the wildlife. This picture was taken somewhere in Mississippi. I am amazed but thankful we didn't see some of this after Hurricane Ivan came through our area.

        Special thanks to Neil Dobson and Ezell Webb for sending pictures of this next buck, a whopper killed in Bullock County on Nov. 17 by Dax Anderson. The buck was killed by bow and scores 194 B&C and has 24 inches of deductions. The rack is a mainframe 10 point and is expected to be a new state record. I do believe this is legitimate as this deer was featured by a Montgomery TV station this weekend as well. I'm sure they checked it out. (There have been so many big deer hoaxes in recent years thanks to the internet).

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      Any weekend that I spend at the little cabin in the Swamp is a good one. This was no exception. I was joined by friends, three that live down the street and I see quite often and two that live in other areas of the state. One of those friends I grew up with in Camden and the other is a friend from college. Once a year during bowseason I get this group together for a bowhunt.
       The weather was not completely a bust this time around. Saturday morning dawned in the mid to upper 30s but by the time I climbed down the tree at 11am the temperature had risen nearly 40 degrees. The Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning hunts were warm. The nearly full moon overhead surely did not help with daytime deer movement.
       More often than not somebody in the group will see a real good buck during this weekend. Two years ago Will missed a big 10 point when his arrow was deflected by a limb. The year before that Todd watched a big buck just out of range. The close calls have been numerous. The older bucks are not yet too wary to go completely nocturnal at this time of the season. It is a great time to hunt.
      This time it was different. The buck that normally slips by at 40 yards made a wrong turn. He walked by Will at 5 steps and a broadhead through the heart later the mature 8 point was on the ground. It happened Saturday afternoon about 30 yards deep in the woods from a greenfield. It was a classic tale of what to do in the art of hunting mature bucks. This buck would have never been seen from the greenfield and he had no intention of exposing himself there that afternoon. Typically this is how we have seen the mature bucks this time of year---not in the greenfield but just deep enough into the woods that he feels safe from human interception.

      We had enough hunters in the woods and spread across the Swamp to get a feel for what was happening and the answer is "not much." We have only a very few trees dropping acorns, mostly red oaks but a few water oaks as well. I hunted over some of those acorns for three hunts and saw not a single deer. We have lots of briars and other browse in the Swamp at this time and the deer seem to have plenty to eat and are not going to move much in the warmer weather. We just did not see many deer at all during the weekend hunt. The greenfields are holding their own but are beginning to yellow. They are now 5 weeks old and have received only a quarter inches of rain since being planted. Maybe some will fall this week as the front passes through. I would not bet on it.
      The coming weekend is the opening of gun season. The quietness in the woods that us bowhunters have enjoyed is about to end. The big guns will start echoing through the woods and the deer will take notice. They will adjust their habits to the appropriate season and get a little harder to see in the coming weeks. The weather looks great for the opening weekend of gun season and I expect some good deer will be taken across the state. When the weather turns cold after a long warm spell the deer always move well.
      Let me know how you do and what you see this weekend. Keep the emails coming. See you next week.

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      The past weekend did not feel like November weather should feel. I worked up quite a sweat each time I hunted just walking in and climbing up the tree with my climber. We are looking for much better weather this coming weekend and the rain chances are coming back into the forecast after a long absence. About 4 tenths of an inch of rain fell at my house in Camden last week. Our food plots are in great need of some moisture and within the next week it appears we might finally get enough to carry them into the winter.
     Saturday morning I hunted a tree that I have not hunted in the past, on the other property that I hunt in this area that is not part of the Horn Swamp. The oak I climbed was along a low ridge filled with lots of youpon and a good number of oaks. There are some scattered acorns through that area. I knew approximately where I wanted to be that morning but waited until just after daybreak before I tipped into the woods and looked for acorns and sign. I happened upon an area that had an unusual amount of deer droppings along with a scrape or two as well. I had to cut a few small trees in order to open shooting lanes as the area is somewhat thick and I'm sure I left way more scent that I needed to have. I'll go back there in the rut and hopefully have some luck on a good buck working that ridgeline. I did see a small buck, a fawn, and doe on the morning hunt.
      After some noontime chores I got back to the woods a little late but still climbed back into a tree by 3:30pm. I saw one small buck before dark.
      Sunday afternoon J. B. Travis and I hunted the Horn Swamp. J. B. hunted from a ground blind on the edge of our largest greenfield that is about 4 acres. I took advantage of the south wind and climbed a tree about 50 yards off the south side of this field. Several near Pope & Young bucks have been seen in this field this season and I had high hopes to see one that afternoon. One doe followed by a fawn walked past me but I saw nothing else. J. B. struck a big hog but we never found a drop of blood and were not able to track it for any distance.
       This weekend I'm hosting a group of friends in the Swamp for a big bowhunting weekend. A few college buddies, and few high school buddies, and a few friends that live in Camden will all gather for a weekend of catching up and deer hunting. We should have plenty of stories to tell from the deer woods when this one is over.

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      The past weekend was a rare, non-hunting weekend for me. Instead of hitting the deer woods, I accompanied my wife and 8-month old son to the beach. The weather was absolutely beautiful and we had a great time. I'll be back to deer hunting pretty hard for the next few weekends.
      I was really hoping that the rain chances for today would materialize. Our plots are up but are not going to grow any and could begin to wither if we don't get some rain. I also have some clover I would like to top sow before a good rain. I got up early this morning to check the radar and had hoped to rush off to the Swamp before work and put out the clover seed. But the radar does not look promising for much rain at all and I'll have to wait on the clover planting. The rain situation is becoming critical for area food plots. Many hunters planted in the dust and won't see any growth at all until some moisture falls. If we miss out today, the next chance is nowhere in sight. With gun season opening in less than three weekends, food plots could be scarce in the early part of gun season.
       Special thanks to all who have recently emailed regarding various topics. Bo Simpson has offered a great tip that might interest you. Bo writes, "We hunted last weekend with a thermacell in the stand. It keeps mosquitoes away and, I believe, is not an offensive odor to deer. They claim it does not spook game and I think they may be right. Actually, when you buy one, you get three chemical pads and one butane cartridge. I have found that I run through the butane much faster than the chemical pads so I had a bunch extra. So, I made a simple lantern to set on the floor of my stand. It is basically a coffee can turned over with holes punched in it and a votive candle inside (also pretty odorless) which heats up the lid of the can and that is where I cook the pad. I also use it at home in the carport when the kids and I want to be outside doing projects. It keeps those mosquitoes pretty cleared out, that is for sure. I also made a hanger to hang the thermacell device on my belt and wear it hunting (if I am not on a stand). Like yours, my place is mostly swamp and so we have a pretty healthy population of insects." He goes on to say, "A votive candle is just a little camping candle. Ladies use them in home decorating. It is a little tin cup candle. I found 50 in a bag at the hardware or dollar store for $5. They don't have any smell. Trouble with them is they are all melted when you blow it out so you have to let them sit and cool. Then you can use them again."
     If you are not using the Thermacell device on the warm and buggy days you are missing out. They work well!
     I have often thought that a great coffee table book would be one that featured special hunting camps of the South. I'm not talking about the elaborate and expensive ones but the small, cozy, out of way spots where we go to get away. Hayden Olds writes, "I think I've told you before about the elevated platform I built with some other members of our club. I finally have some pictures which I've attached. The basic structure is steel "I" beams and we've recently finished the deck and hand rails but it's a long way from finished. It's 900 square feet. I've scavenged a lot of materials for the platform from pier debris left on the beaches of Mobile Bay since Hurricane Katrina. The bench we're sitting on in the pictures washed up on my parents beach in Daphne. Eventually we will build some sort of shelter but for now we're pitching tents on it for camping and using it as a gathering place for lunch during the season, etc.
      My wife was out of town this weekend and I was keeping my 6 year old daughter, Kiser and 9 year old son, Campbell. I was unable to bow hunt but we had a lot of fun camping on the platform. We cooked out, shot the b-b gun and fished. The full moon might not have helped you guys hunting, but it added to the camping experience as did the sounds of the owls, coyotes and gar fish close by.
     The platform is in the river swamp, in the middle of the 1650 acres we lease on the Alabama River. We located it directly on a back water slough we call Sandy Ford. The original purpose for the platform was to have a place to stay in the swamp when the river is high and getting in and out is difficult. Another reason for building it was to have a true rustic "camp" to go to as an alternative to our normal camp house which sits on the other side of Turkey Creek, just outside the swamp. Although the camp house was built in the 1950's it is very comfortable, too comfortable in fact. Many weekends we spend more time cooking and watching football on satellite than we hunt. The platform is just right for getting back to the basics and gives you the "full effect" of the swamp on a cool clear fall night.

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      The second weekend of the season was pretty uneventful for me. In two days of hunting I saw only one deer and that one, a pretty nice buck, was well out of range. Hunting over acorns and plenty of deer sign I was surprised to see so little.
      The acorns are not falling yet with any regularity, though there are certainly some on the ground. We'll see them begin to rain down more rapidly as we move into cooler weather.
      Our food plots in the Swamp are looking good. Thankfully there was enough moisture in the ground when they were planted that has supported them thus far. They could use some rain though and right now there is none is sight.
      As promised I have some pictures of an interesting deer to show you. A local hunter called me several weeks ago and said, "You won't believe what is coming into one of my food plots." Several days later I too went to that food plot and saw the deer myself. This white deer, I am pretty sure, is a fallow deer. From what I understand some fallow deer are white in color. I am not sure if this is an albino or if it is a white or light version of the fallow deer.
      How this deer arrived in its location is quite a mystery. Decades ago fallow deer were turned out (or escaped) from a pen in the Miller's Ferry area of Wilcox County. They prospered under the watch of local hunters and landowners. In the 80s as land became to be leased by hunters that were not locals, the fallow deer were whittled down to a very small population on just a few tracts of land. It is rare that one is seen outside the immediate Miller's Ferry area. Where this buck is located is a good 10 miles away.
      There is a fenced tract of land between Darlington and Snow Hill, off Highway 21, that has imported animals including fallow deer. Where this buck has turned up is also a very considerable distance from there as well.
      Fallow deer (at least the ones that are transplanted as the above mentioned ones were) are not as wild and elusive as whitetails. Fallow deer are often called "dumb deer," even the mature bucks. So if you have fallow deer on your property it does not go undetected. That makes this guys appearance in a strange place so perplexing.
      To protect the buck I can't reveal his location but can only tell you I have seen him with my own eyes and he is real. Let me know what you think.

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      I got the season off to a good start Sunday morning. About 8:15AM I heard a doe snorting about 100 yards away, upwind of me. I knew she didn’t smell me and I was pretty sure nobody else was in the area so I suppose some animal, like a coyote, must have spooked her. Seconds later I see her heading my way, blowing and darting through the woods. Unfortunately for her, she was headed directly toward more danger. She stopped about 20 yards away, then began walking and passed right into my best shooting lane.
      Over the past two weeks I guess I have shot my bow a couple of hundred times. Each shot was taken with special attention to form, follow through, and shot placement. There was never any rush there in my backyard. I could always take my time and get it right.
     In the deer woods, it happens much faster. I was not too confident I was even going to get a shot at this deer and when she entered the shooting lane the thought crossed my mind to make noise to stop her. But I drew first and then she stopped just as I came to a full draw. What happened next was a blur. There was no thought process of picking out a point to aim at on the deer and squeezing the release’s trigger. Instead, as soon as the deer stopped and I saw my sight’s one pin show up right behind her shoulder, the arrow was released.
      The 100 grain Rocket Hammerhead cut its 2 inch diameter through both lungs and then stuck into the ground. The doe ran about 50 yards, stopped and looked back my way with a confused look. She stomped her front leg once and then fell over dead. There was just enough time left to get her out of the woods and cleaned and still get back to town for church. We’ll be smoking some fresh venison at the Malone household this week!
       So there you have it---a big long story of a doe kill! Just imagine if it had been a buck!
      Overall I did not see many deer this weekend. The full moon certainly had a lot to do with that I am sure. The weather was nice in the mornings and a bit warm in the afternoons. Sunday afternoon was a bit breezy as a north wind blew some cooler weather in for the night.
       My cousin Josh saw a big buck in the Swamp Sunday afternoon in area where we have seen a number of trophies in early bowseason of the recent past. We just can’t seem to get them quite close enough for a shot. The story is nearly always the same. The buck is seen skirting the greenfield , staying 50 yards or so deep in the woods.   Sometimes he has taken an alternate route into the greenfield , other than the trail the hunter is covering, but many times he simply vanishes back into the timber. Once gun season opens, a little more pressure is placed on the herd, and a few gun shots are fired, that vanishing act becomes permanent.
       Our green plots are just over a week old and are up and growing. They have ample moisture to last a while but a little shower would be nice. There’s nothing wet in the forecast for the next ten days. It does appear a dry, cool front will arrive late in the week. Hopefully it will be here by Saturday and will not get delayed.
        Sorry for the lack of pictures from the weekend. I did not take my camera to the woods. I missed out as I had a young bald eagle fly twenty feet over my head, an otter walk past my stand, and a bobtail coon stroll by as well. I’ll do better next week, plus I hope to have an albino deer picture from Wilcox County to share with you as well. You don't want to miss that. See you then.

We had a productive “Bowseason Eve” weekend in the Swamp. The cool front that blew in Friday evening certainly put a spring in our step as we worked Saturday. We planted our food plots, all 12 acres of them, including two new ones on logging ramps in the piney woods. I’m hoping those two will be productive bow stands. This year we planted wheat, oats, and rape. It is a little late to get much out of the rape but the seed is cheap and I decided to give it a try anyway.

      We had soil samples done in the late summer and found we need lots of lime----like 2 tons to acre. We’ll have a big dump load brought in during the springtime. It takes several months for the lime to breakdown in the soil so it is too late for any benefit this fall. If your PH isn’t right most of your fertilizer is wasted. For that matter, we didn’t fertilize this year. Instead we’ll come back with a little nitrate later in the fall to give a little boost. Liming of the soil is something that we have neglected in recent years but we’ll seek to change that soon.
       I also plan to sow a little white clover seed before the next rain. White clover is alleged to do well in well-drained soils like we have. Only time will tell how well it will due with the PH unbalanced.
       Some monster mosquitoes pestered us all weekend. We saw very few of the normal breed of mosquito, the small grey version. Instead the big, ferocious and aggressive version that stands about 3 times as tall as the little grey pest was very prevalent in the Swamp.
        We found some acorns on the ground as well and it was good to see that. After last season’s lack of acorns and hard luck bowhunting I’m looking for improved results this go ‘round.
         Sunday morning we happened upon a big boar feeding on acorns in the middle of the road. We only had a couple of carbine rifles that lacked the accuracy to take him at 200 yards so we tried to get closer on foot. Maybe he smelled us and maybe it was his 6th sense, but he took off before we could fire a shot.

This season I’m shooting a new Browning Illusion bow and I’ve changed sights and arrow rest as well. I have had good results using the Whisker Biscuit. This year I’ve moved to a drop away style rest, the Phantom Drop Away from PSE. This is my first experience with the drop away style rest and I can tell I’m going to like it. With absolutely nothing for the arrow or vanes to hit as the arrow is shot, the arrow would absolutely have to have better flight.

The new sight is made by PSE and it is called a "Top Gun Slider." I’ve always liked the simplicity and easy aiming afforded by one pin. But with the great accuracy of today’s bows there is no reason not to be prepared to shoot a deer at least 30 yards away. That’s hard to accomplish with one pin. This new site is quickly adjustable with the turn of a nob. You can set marks for any distance you want. The one drawback is what to do if the need arises to adjust it with a deer in close proximity. My solution is to leave it set on the close range as most shots will be 20 yards and less anyway. If I need to adjust it for a 30 or 40 yard shot I can do so. I rarely shoot a deer that far but with the accuracy I’m getting out of this set up I would not hesitate to take the shot.

It appears we are going to have a pretty typical opening weekend as far as the weather goes. The mornings will be cool and crisp and the afternoons will be a bit warm. I don’t have a honey hole to start off the season but will instead be hunting some new woods in hope of finding some deer. Next week I’ll let you know how it went.

     After hunting from an Ol’ Man climber since 1993 I was quite surprised to hear they have sold out the company and ceased production of treestands. I’ve enjoyed the comfort and ease of use afforded by the Ol’ Man. The stands have enjoyed an immense popularity among my bowhunting friends. I do not know the true story of their demise but it is rumored that they sold the patents to another company. I have seen a new stand called the “Gorilla” on the market that appears very similar to the Ol’ Man in design. For anyone who might want one more original Ol’ Man climber before they are all gone, I ran across a great deal recently from Scott’s Outdoors. They are selling the original Ol’ Man climber for $99 each plus about $10 shipping. Check them out at www.scottsoutdoors.com
     We have a big work weekend planned in the Swamp for this Saturday and Sunday. It’s time to plant the food plots and do a big cleaning on our little cabin. Plus we’ll be checking on all the stands and clearing the shooting lanes for them along with some road limbing as well. It will be a lot to do in a weekend but with bowseason opening the next weekend, the time to get work done is now as playtime is almost upon us.
     Some cooler weather is sure needed before October 15th and it appears we are about to get it. The forecast shows us dropping back to highs about 80 and lows in the 50s. That's about right for mid October. Last year we got a nice cool front the first weekend of the season that really put the deer on the move. Maybe that will happen this year as well.
      I'll have a big update next week with pictures from the weekend in the Swamp. The next week I'll hopefully have a deer story to tell you.

     About 3 inches of rain fell in the area over the weekend and that will be a great help for those that are trying to plant or have already planted their winter food plots. I'm planning to plant on October 8th, the weekend before bowseason.
     As September draws to a close I'm hoping we will begin to get some relief from the heat. I've about had my fill of hot weather for the year. It is past time for a break in the weather.
      And for all our readers and friends in the wake of the recent hurricanes, let me hear from you. Our town has so many friends from the Louisiana area that hunt here each winter, including many who attend the annual private school benefit hunt.
     I have two very busy weekends on tap in hopes of being somewhat ready for bowseason when it arrives. I'll begin to do a better job with the updates in the coming weeks as there is more to report from the woods of Wilcox County.

I've broken up our food plots, enough at least for the grass to die. We don't bushhog them first. We put the disc right on in and let it cut up the grass itself. The ground really is dry and in some places very hard as well. Some of our plots are sandier than others. The ones with more clay are hard as a brick and we'll need some rain before they get broken up very well. I have done all I can until the rain falls. I don't expect us to get anything planted before the middle of October as the dry pattern seems to have set in.
I have not scoped out the entire Swamp for acorns but a few live oaks around the cabin that are normally loaded nearly every year are mostly void of any acorns. What the rest of the Swamp holds remains to be seen.

     A stormy summertime is coming to an end here in south Alabama and hunting season has arrived. At least for the dove hunters it has. For bow hunters the magic day is just a month away and I'm sure many people, like me, are beginning to scramble to get things ready.
     Here in Wilcox County we were fortunate to dodge the wrath of the many storms that have passed over and near us this summer. Tropical Storms Arlene and Cindy managed to come right over us bringing only a little rain. Hurricane Dennis looked like quite the menace before he died down after coming ashore south of us. Though the remnants of the eye passed right over the Swamp the winds had calmed considerably and the damage was limited to a few more blown down trees in the wet areas of the Swamp. Katrina's more damaging winds were just out of the county and though we again experienced 50-60 mph winds the damage was minimal.
      Overall it has been a wet summer here. We recorded 19.5 inches of rain in July alone. August was much drier and September is shaping up rather dry as well. We will soon be needing a little rain for the yet to be planted food plots.
      A year ago this morning we were awakening to the news that Hurricane Ivan was nearly certain to blow through within the next 48 hours. It eventually would and the damage was more than anyone alive could remember from a hurricane in this area. I'm glad we're a year removed from that and pray that we can make it through the remainder of this hurricane season without another big blow.
      I've started preparation for deer hunting season and there is much to do before October 15th arrives. I'll report next week on the progress. See you then.