#2172298 - 11/18/10 02:54 PM
Hmmmm
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bowriter
Non-Typical
Registered: 08/31/02
Posts: 40301
Loc: Lebanon,TN USA
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Outdoors With John L. Sloan copyright j. sloan 11-2010
Nov. 17, 2010
This is shaping up to be one of the best deer seasons in several years. TWRA is to be commended for doing a fine job in management and big attaboy to hunters for being more selective in the kill and beginning to take advantage of the liberal doe opportunities. Keep it up through this rifle season and good luck.
Gun Season Opens Saturday.
I have enjoyed many opening days, archery, muzzleloader and rifle opening days. Some have faded in my memory. Nostalgia isn’t what it use to be. Some stand out clearly. This Saturday, my 51st opening day, will arrive…if I go. However, of course it will be still be opening day whether I go or not.
Oh, it won’t be an opening day like the one we had 20-25 years ago when Jackie Taylor and Curtis Dillard and I camped at Grandmother Holler. We went in the day before with two trucks full of equipment. We had a huge tent and huge dining fly, tables, chairs, cots with comfortable sleeping pads and warm sleeping bags. We had carpet on the tent floor; coolers full of food, a chain saw for firewood and of course our stands and rifles.
After getting our stands out, we were sitting around the fire snacking. I kept looking at long muscadine vine that hung down from a tree on the dry creek bank. Finally, I could stand it no longer. I cut the bottom of the vine loose, grabbed it and climbed the creek bank. In my best Tarzan imitation, I swung out over the dry creek. That is when the vine broke. I remember it well.
Later that night it got quite cold and we had a good fire burning and were just sitting around telling stories. Then a piece of creek gravel exploded in the fire and hit me right between the eyes. Being red hot, it stuck to my skin. That’s when I did a real stupid thing. I tried to plunge my head in the water bucket. It was frozen. When I came to, Jackie and Curtis were convulsed in laughter. I remember that well, too.
We did not kill a deer that year. I’m not sure if we even saw one. There were not a lot of deer back then. At that time, TWRA estimated the total deer herd at 450,000. Now they guess it is between 800,000 and 1,000,000. In the succeeding years, we killed a plenty of deer down there and seldom did we ever see another hunter on that 5,000-acre piece of hardwood timber.
The deer hunting has never been better in TN than it is today. I am talking in terms of herd health and age structure, not necessarily total numbers. There is a segment of hunters who are lobbying for a reduction in the buck limit from three per year to two or even one. They say they want antler restrictions. What they want are more bucks with bigger antlers and they think antler restrictions will provide that. They are “trophyists”. However, since such a small segment of deer, hunters kill three or even two bucks now, why penalize hunters who just want to hunt and maybe kill a deer…any deer. A reduction in the buck bag limit or the implementation of antler restrictions would have no impact and the three-buck limit has no negative impact. What it does is open opportunities for the majority of hunters.
There are plenty of deer here in Wilson County. If you don’t believe me, just look out in my yard any night or most days. That is why we are in Unit L and are allowed to kill three does a day for over 100 days and three bucks for the season.
The problem is, with muzzleloader or rifle; few hunters will shoot a doe. They prefer to wait for a buck or are afraid a buck might be trailing the doe they shoot. The truth is the best buck bait I have used is a freshly shot doe. To compound things, the weather has been horrible for hunting the last few years. In addition, a scattered outbreak of EHD cut numbers in some areas. However, some big bucks were killed last year…many big bucks.
I recall an opening day when I shot a doe I thought was traveling alone. Thirty seconds later, I shot a 9-pt sniffing her. He could care less about me. I believe it was the first year for Unit L.
I recall a day in Cheatham county, this was before we could kill does except on quota hunts and I had does running all over me. Then I saw a set of antlers on the edge of the cedars. They looked big but he was heading away from me. Using my plastic grunt call, I began to tap lightly on the metal edge of my stand. The buck immediately turned and gave me a broadside shot. I took it and he dropped. He was a nice 10-pt and my opening day was over.
Three or maybe four years ago, we had a clear, frosty opening day. I settled in my ladder stand on a small farm here in Wilson County. The sun was just topping the trees when the first deer jumped the fence-a fat doe. I let her walk to where I knew I could drive to her on the ATV and dropped her in her tracks. When I looked up, her twin was standing 20 yards away. I dropped her. Then a nice 7-pt jumped the fence and I dropped him. That year I killed 13 does and one buck off that small farm. The next year there were more deer than ever.
So this Saturday, keep this in mind. Wear your blaze orange. Be sure of your target. If you are hunting from an elevated stand, wear a fall restraint device. Be sure you have the proper license and tags and know the rules. In addition, do not be afraid to shoot a doe and just sit there.
Good luck, hunt ethically and well and be careful.
###
Cut lines:
#1- The late Mickey Pope with a Cheatham County buck killed on opening day in the late 1970’s. You did not see many like this back then.
#2-Back when the limit was 11 bucks, you often saw piles of deer like this around hunting camps. We shot anything with antlers and wondered why we had small bucks. Then TWRA reduced the buck limit and that problem was solved. Hunters, knowing they could only kill three bucks became more particular and the reduced limit solved the problem.
#3- This buck was following two does I shot. He was less than 50 yards behind them and could care less about me. This was the only buck I killed that year. I did kill quite a few does and had even more deer the next year.
#4- The steady rest on my rifle frames a young buck I shot almost under me on an opening day a few years ago. This was well after I quit trophy hunting. By then the bag limit reduction to three insured a healthy age strata.
_________________________
Constipation has ruined many a good day. Not as many as stupidity, though.
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#2172314 - 11/18/10 03:00 PM
Re: Hmmmm
[Re: bowriter]
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DOC1187
16 Point
Registered: 06/14/08
Posts: 10375
Loc: east tn
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#2172334 - 11/18/10 03:34 PM
Re: Hmmmm
[Re: DOC1187]
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Rowdy
14 Point
Registered: 12/25/07
Posts: 9377
Loc: ky lake
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Nice read bw.
_________________________
Gone fish'n....be back for deer season
EARL PITTS is my HERO!
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#2172346 - 11/18/10 03:49 PM
Re: Hmmmm
[Re: Rowdy]
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Hillbilly Hunter
Killbilly
16 Point
Registered: 07/15/05
Posts: 16982
Loc: Branchville
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Good read, as usual. Thanks for sharing.
_________________________
...they never call me by my name, just Hillbilly...
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#2172445 - 11/18/10 05:38 PM
Re: Hmmmm
[Re: Hillbilly Hunter]
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SuperX2
4 Point
Registered: 04/22/05
Posts: 412
Loc: Nashville, TN
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Great article, BW. Thanks for posting!
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#2172554 - 11/18/10 06:29 PM
Re: Hmmmm
[Re: SuperX2]
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LA man
16 Point
Registered: 05/31/03
Posts: 18553
Loc: spencer, tn/houma, la.
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good post bw, thanks
_________________________
GO LSU
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#2172643 - 11/18/10 07:07 PM
Re: Hmmmm
[Re: LA man]
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easy45
18 Point
Registered: 11/06/07
Posts: 23834
Loc: Medon
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good article
_________________________
Work to live, Live to hunt
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#2172804 - 11/18/10 08:31 PM
Re: Hmmmm
[Re: bowriter]
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stylishblueticks
6 Point
Registered: 10/14/07
Posts: 867
Loc: spencer,TN
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#2172815 - 11/18/10 08:40 PM
Re: Hmmmm
[Re: TNTomtaker01]
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encore06
14 Point
Registered: 12/08/06
Posts: 9358
Loc: Harrogate, TN
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Nice read BW! 
_________________________
God Bless, Carl
Jer 29:11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.
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