With just a little more than a month to go before the season concludes, we are beginning to wrap up and winterize the bunkhouses. This has to have been the toughest season we have ever experienced, with so many crops still standing in the fields. And, I would like to extend a hardy congratulations to all who took a trophy buck under these conditions!
It was a season filled with highs and lows, as the weather seemed to be a constant factor, effecting the hunting in ways we could not predict. Opening week started off much cooler than normal, and we were out the door with terrific bowhunting for antlerless deer. Then, we hit the October lull, and things slowed down drastically. The warmer weather returned, but the rut was approaching and the first buck taken was a real slammer!
The first week of November brought the South winds, and more warm weather, as local farmers struggled to get the crops out before the almost daily rains. The bigger bucks were slow to show, and it looked like we would miss the best hunting, although the woods were torn up from all of the night-time movement.
Finally, during the second week everything broke loose, and we started seeing mature deer out in the open during daylight hours. This was the break we needed, and the skinning shed got busy. Several bowhunters connected with the largest bucks of their hunting careers, and we also took a lot of antlerless deer to help with our management plan.
The highlight of the week was the call to come get a massive buck out of the woods, which turned out to be the legendary “Shredder”, a buck which many of our hunters had dreamed about, and the topic of many conversations at the supper table over the years. At 178 inches, with great mass, he was the true monarch of the river bottom, and had only been seen a few times before. We had videoed him briefly two years previous, when he was even larger. But, he was the ghost of the forest, and every step was taken cafefully and cautiously! Only the rut had caused him to shed his secretive ways, and expose himself to a waiting hunter. Although we were happy for the client who took him, the thought that he was no longer out there hung over the camp for the remainder of the rut.
The week before the gun season opened was filled with excitement, as we saw even more daylight activity. More great bucks were taken, but we also had a plague of the misses! For some reason, the sight of big antlers seems to make arrows fly wide of the mark, and creates a lot of stories instead of tagged animals!
Opening day of gun season was busy! We seemed to get a call every hour that someone had shot, and we worked until late that evening taking trophy photos and caping out bucks. We went eight for eleven on opportunities that weekend, and there were many smiles in camp! That, however, was also the beginning of a very slow post-rut period, with most of the herd sitting tight in thickets, in order to recover from rutting activity. Deer sightings fell off for more than a week.
A few days before the second gun season, we saw a short flurry when a few younger does came into season, but that seemed to end quickly. We killed two more nice bucks, one which was shot earlier by a bow hunter, and another one which we had photographed two weeks before as he was tending a doe. I will be posting some of those pictures here just as soon as I figure exactly how to do that.
The one thing that was readily apparent throughout the season is that our management plan, which includes a very aggressive antlerless take is working, and working well! There were many reports of hunters seeing only bucks, or very few does, as the bucks crisscrossed the fields searching for a female friend. The average size of our bucks, with less competition for food from the does, seems to have stabilized now, with excellent body weights for the various age groups.
We were underbooked this season, a sign of the poor economy, which ultimely led to a reduced kill. That only means that we have carried over more bucks to the next season, unless we have a very harsh winter! And, better hunting for next year’s clients.
My personal opinion is that deer hunting at The Quail Shed will continue to improve for the hunter who wants to hunt mature bucks, and who understands what that means, and the commitment it takes! Thanks again to all who hunted with us, and please tell everyone about your experience here.
Happy hunting,
Clifford