Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting I finally got to sleep in this morning.

Will at sundown last night the AL deer season ended and I finally got to sleep in this morning. This year has had its up an downs but ended well. Last year I only shot to small deer and the family ran out of venison in July. When I announced we were eating our last package of venison my wife promptly told me that I needed to shoot four deer this year, I quickly told her that if she wanted four deer she needed to let me have the time in the woods to kill for deer GUILT FREE.

My hunting lease has plenty of deer but they are very pressured and hard to hunt but the land is free for me to hunt so I just adapt and don't complain.

Archery season opened mid October and the first Friday I had off I was in the stand before light. I had company coming to the house so I said I would get out of the stand at 2:00, about 9:00 I had a doe bust me at 20 yards, then nothing till 1:55 when three doe came out. I had to get turned around and managed to put a perfect shot on one of them for my very first archery kill. Deer 1 in the freezer.



During archery season I hunted that stand several more times but never for another deer from it. I either got busted or had small bucks come out on me. I had two spikes one morning I could have shot 10 times each but made due with only spiting one of their backs as they passed directly under my stand.


Once gun season kicked in the Saturday before Thanksgiving and the four wheelers started riding through the woods I didn't see another deer this two days before Christmas. I have a secret spot hidden between two heavily hunted food plots that the deer like to hide in when they feel pressured. I save this spot till Dec. so I don't run the deer out of there before they start feeling safe there. I left work early the Monday before Christmas and climbed into this stand for the first time of the season and with in 15 minutes a doe steps out at 30 yards I quickly let the 270 do what it does best and I find her 75 yards away dead and ready for the long drag out. Deer #2 in the freezer.

A week and a half later I was back in that same stand with the wind blowing a little harder than I like but I decided to sit for a couple of hours before getting my daughter from daycare, because you can't killem form the couch. About 30 minutes before I had to leave to get my daughter three doe walk out into my lane I shot the first and biggest, give her some time then start tracking. I found her but had to leave so the daycare wouldn't have to wait on me to close. I made a couple phone calls on the way and quickly had a buddy ready to meet me at the lease with an Atv so I wouldn't have to drag her out in the dark alone. We quickly had her on the rack and to the processor. Deer #3 in the freezer.


Fast forward to the last Saturday for the AL season and I am sitting on a bucket on a road because I forgot my safety harness and couldn't use my climber at my bow stand, but I was there and I was ready to kill something. I had to leave at 8:30 though to go somewhere with my wife so it was going to be a short hunt. I sat until 8:10 and decided to walk around and check a scrap line I had been watching since our rut usually hit the end of Jan. first of Feb. The walk was uneventful so I headed back to the truck when I decided to check a stand I hadn't sat in for a few years that was on the way. I walk back down the trail to this stand and see a lot of sign. I then hear something over the ridge about 10 yards away. I was standing on the edge of where some planted pines stop and hardwoods start at the very edge of the ridge. I snuck over and peered through the brush and see a seer about 75 yards way down in this steep ridge I then see its an eight point I got on camera the week before working a scrap. He looked like a decent deer from the pic so I decided to take him.


He turned and came my way a bit when I felt the wind hit the back of my neck. I thought you have got to be kidding me the wind had been 100% perfect for this to happen all morning and now it decides to swirl, but the buck didn't spook and the wind quickly switched back. The buck was coming right at me and quickly disappeared under the ridge line, I was expecting him to pop up right in front of me at 5 yards for a second, but I could hear him start to make his way up the ridge to my right. He came back into sight just before he came over the ridge only 20 yards to my right and I was ready Ruger 270 up and put a 130 gr. TTSX in his lungs and broke his leg on the way out. He turned hard left and ran about 15 yards before crashing and falling back down the side of the ridge, getting caught half way (crap). Thank God one of the other guys on the lease came by with his four wheeler and winch to help pull him out, that hill was steeper then the pic even comes close to looking.

[img]http://i1120.photobucket.com/a...-8137-B9EE93560A30_zpstzomfgtl.jpg[/img]
When I got to him he turned out to be smaller then I had expected because I only had a good look at him from the side but I didn't care much I had snuck up on a buck for the first time and killed him at 25 yards. Deer #4 in the freezer. Mission accomplished freezer full.
[img]http://i1120.photobucket.com/a...-AC9D-34AEE6E27558_zpszz7936cb.jpg[/img]

Long read I know, Thanks.

Sounds like a great year and your wife can't complain about an empty freezer. I know what you mean about time away from the wife and kids "guilt free". Congrats.

MM

Hard to beat hunting Alabama Whitetail. They filled my freezer for many years.

Glad you could make your wife happy.
Congrats.

Good deal man - congrats! Sneakin' in on the ground with a gun is still my favorite deer tactic!

Cool beans. Thanks for sharing.

One more day of rest and you'll be wishing it wasn't over.

Congrats on a good season!
This is my 15 th deer season with no deer buck or doe on the ground.
I cannot remember the last time I have even SEEN a deer hunting?
It has been a long time now.

Congrats on a successful season! Thanks for sharing.

Nice going.

Now it's time for all the "Honey do's" she let you put off 'til later. "Later" is now

Well done! Good read along with good pics. Congrats!