See attachment... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />...sorry.
Forgive the photo quality, I don't even have a digital camera and this is my very first try at a post with an attachment. My neighbor got one for Christmas and insisted on taking something for me to post. I hope he's a better banker than he is a photographer!
Anyway, just returned from my "rut trip" to Alabama. I usually go down twice a year, in November and January. These were all taken this season, all with a 7mm Rem Mag with 140 gr partitions.
Interestingly enough all of these bucks were aged at 3-1/2. The smaller 8 point was taken on public land and the larger 8 and the 9 on a farm we lease. There's been an informal honor system "management program" on the farm for the last 3 years...we think it's working.
Geez Dave, my neighbor was right proud of that fence idea. He spent 20 minutes trying to come up with a way to snap a picture without showing the brain goo from the skull caps and matted blood in the hair and antlers.
fish280, the "public" buck is from the Barbour County WMA near Clayton. I don't know if you are familiar with it but they have 14,700 acres in Barbour and Bullock counties and offer several 2 or 3 day hunts throughout the season. What I like to do is show up a few days early, use their range to check my rifle, scout some stand locations then leave until the hunt days. If hunting in January I'll go hunt the farm in the interim. If earlier such as November I'll usually either shoot doves or fish Lake Eufaula. It's a good time - you ought to check the DCNR regs for next year's hunts if you want a fun week with a good chance at a "public" LA buck.
...Oh, but wait, you and James are right, there are no deer in Alabama. Combining that notion with what I've learned here in a short time at this site this whole season must have been a dream...I mean come on a 7mm Rem Mag - those things either blow up in your face or won't spit the bullet from the barrel due to wild pressure swings. And speaking of bullets, those partitions always blow up and just a little old BB sized piece of shrapnel bores on through your critter leaving hardly a mark and NO blood trail. And the rifle itself is a Sako action, well heck you can't keep a scope on those because of the tapered dovetails. And the scope itself, a Leupold! My gosh, those are USELESS - couldn't pick up a searchlight in the twilight, and the reticles flare out in the daylight. Oh, and those Shilen barrels are slooooooow, goodness! Of course the noise the McM stock makes in the brush means you won't have to risk a shot anyway since it'll scare off any critter within miles.
But again, all those rifle shortcomings don't matter since my 10x40 Zeiss ClassiCs are too dark to find one of those non-existant deer in the first place, and even if they did they're too shaky to hold steady...
All I can say is thank goodness I didn't take my Pac-Nor tubed Remington 700, who can even guess what the consequences would've been...?
yeah, i am familiar with bullock county, but not the wma there. i did kill a monster doe in nearboring macon county a few years ago on a friend's lease. scouted up a 10-point that the friend's son killed. pretty good weekend. i live in b'ham, so i hunt west jeff wma for convenience's sake. still haven't killed a buck there, but that'll come. 32,000 lightly hunted acres, but no planted plots. gotta dig 'em out the hard way. west jeff has gun hunting on mondays, wednesdays and saturdays throughout the gun season. occasionally get to hunt a good friend's small south montgomery county lease. my sons' wrestling season does not allow much hunting time. i'd rather watch' em do that than get in the woods. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />
