Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Alabama Deer and Pigs at Ruzic Farms

Nice,hope the other boys got their buck....the suspense is killin me

Great post and pics...

That makes two of us.

give us a hint any more killin?

Haha! I does sound like they have had a dandy time.

Wow what a fantastic experience! Thanks for taking us along!

I must say that you're missing a treat if you let those hogs go to waste! I just had some pulled pork sandwiches from Texas-shot hogs for dinner tonight and it's DELICIOUS!

Great write-up and pictures. I could get used to hunting in T-shirt temperatures, instead of -15 deg and blowing snow!

Tuesday the 20th, last day
I am tagged out on deer so just pig hunting today. I go back to the Church Field. Bill goes to Foots Field. Rick had seen a buck the day before that had 4 points on one side and a fork on the other. Anita declared it a cull and Rick was going to shoot it today if he saw it again. Neil went to the New Field.
An hour after daylight I had a doe feeding on the North end of the field and a few minutes later 3 more came out on the South end. Watched them for 20 minutes then here came a young buck, half rack 3 point from the North. He was in rut and trotted in circles sniffing for does. Chased the one doe out, went to the North and made a big circle then came back out on the South end and chased thoses does into the woods. Fun to watch but nothing to shoot.

and... what about you buddys?

Bill had the same thing happening with a big spike chasing a doe. Rick and Neil had slow action, no bucks. it really got warm that afternoon, over 70 degrees and the evening action was slow. I did not see anything, Bill changed stands hunting thick woods and had a dozen or more deer bust out of a thicket when the wind changed on him. Rick never saw the cull buck, and Neil killed another doe. I think we just missed the rut but still had an awesome trip, 1 buck, 5 does, and 3 hogs and we hunted less than half the farm. Great accommodations, and food, and fellowship.
I want to thank Anita for being a wonderful host and being kind enough to share much of her farm and family history with me. This is a picture of the old Ruzic family store that sits below the guest house. Anita told me it had a pot belly wood stove and the hunt club would gather there in the morning before running dogs for deer. Wish I had a time machine to go back and experience one of those weekends.

Meanwhile, I'll wait till next Jan. and return for another deer and pig weekend.

Good deal thanks for sharing

Woody,
Thank you for bringing us along on your hunt.
Really enjoyed it.

Based on my experience in the area you caught the tail end of the rut. When me and some buddies hunted there scrapes started in earnest probably around Christmas and bucks running does around Jan 7/8/9 time frame. This lasted thru around Jan 20-24 or so. After that I had a hard time finding a buck at all. Now that flies in the face of all the talk you hear about the rut starting at the end of January but it's based on hunting experience in the area. Heck, south of Hwy 80 the season now runs thru Feb 15 based on conception times and you were only a few miles from there.

Still, if I were picking a week to hunt there in Sumpter County I'd probably pick Jan 10 thru 17. Hope you get to go back. Sure made me homesick.

+1!

What a lovely & fun arrangement you have there. Nothing like fine southern hospitality & hunting w/ good friends!

Thanks for the input Shootem. Glad I could jog your memories. We thought we may have been a little early for the rut as we saw the most chasing (although young bucks) on the last day. One other interesting thing we noticed, even though the 4 of us were spread out as much as a half mile apart, when we compared activity we noticed that the does would appear in different fields within a 10 to 15 minute range. Like they were all punching a work clock. If it was always 30 minutes before dark I could understand it but some days is was an hour before dark, or the same time mid morning. Activity periods were the same across the whole farm.

My brother in Covington county says the rut is on right now. I'm going up on Wed for 3 days. I hope I don't go too late.

Yeah, shootem ain't the only one that has fond memories of the area. I was born and raised in Linden, about 25 miles from Coatopa. Hunted that area often on the Reed property and with a friend from Livingston. Can't say I remember the Ruzic place, but it really sounds nice. That area is truly a whitetail paradise.

shootem, I thought you were from the Tuscaloosa area.

Raised about 40 miles north of Tuscaloosa in western Jefferson Co. Linden houses memories for me as well. Shot my first antlered buck there when I was 17 or 18 on a deer drive. An 18" wide 7pt with my Browning Sweet 16. First shot a slug and the second #1 Buck. And the Ruzics have/had bunches of land in the Sumpter Co area. The place I hunted in Whitfield was "Ruzic's Hunting Club". At the time it had around 5000 acres but moaning, complaining, and bellyaching got it dropped to about 2000 and I got out for that reason and the unwillingness to limit buck shooting. The last year I was there one guy shot 5 spikes. Not sure if it exists anymore at all. Was able to go back and hunt some the land in Dec of 2014 that Hickory Hill had picked up a while back. HH has around 8000 acres now. Still trying to get in that club but it's way tight even if you "know somebody".

We're hunting over in south Dallas Co. just barely in the south zone. The rut is wide open. I killed a good 8 pointer Thursday afternoon around 2 p.m. There were bucks chasing does across the main roads at lunch time. We killed three more 8 pointers this afternoon. It's hot, hot, hot! 10 days to go!

YOU'RE KILLIN ME!!!