I am a deer hunter – and hunter is the appropriate term. I hunt for only mature deer. The bucks must be at least 6 points and the adult does cannot have fawns with them. It is now bow season in Georgia and I am at the farm for a week. Thus far I have turned down shots because I have only seen fawns or does with fawns. There are bucks out there. My trail camera showed a very nice thick 8 pointer at 3:08AM. I have always said that trail cameras tell you where to hunt at 3 in the morning. In all of my years bow hunting I have only seen two shootable bucks so if one wanders by before the rut in November I will be pleasantly surprised.
In 2018, Georgia allowed hunting for deer over bait. Tennessee still doesn’t allow it. This has been a game changer for me. Deer bed down on only one part of my farm. It is a 20 acre section of pine forest in the very back of the property where I do not tread. I want the deer to feel safe. About 40 years ago I discovered deer bedding down in a thicket within 200 yards of the house. No more. That area was timbered and the deer disappeared. Although I put in food plots without baiting I would never see a deer during bow season. They were either on the adjacent property or in their sanctuary. My food plots were a miserable failure proving that farming is not genetic. My grandfather grew beautiful crops. My mother could walk through the proverbial desert with it blooming behind her. Me? I can’t grow weeds. I tell people it’s because I have a brown thumb.
I would take deer only after the acorns started to fall on my ridgeline during gun season. Nevertheless, I would take my bow and go look for deer on the trails leading in and out of their bedding areas. Usually to no avail. My sainted mother would ridicule me mercilessly saying that I could kill the same number of deer if I stayed home. I would tell her she was right in that the probability of seeing a deer was only slightly greater in the woods than in the living room, but I loved being outside.
Being able to bait has changed all that. I now see deer on a regular basis. This year will likely determine whether I continue to bow hunt. Three years ago I had total shoulder replacement to repair a ruptured bicep tendon and a torn rotator cuff. I had to depart with my Mathews solocam switchback compound bow – my favorite weapon of all time and replace it with a crossbow. I shoot a Wicked Ridge RDX 400 which is super fast with the new reverse draw technology. Its main attraction is you use an integrated crank to cock it rather than the traditional rope. It is perfect for people like me with shoulder issues. However, as I have aged I no longer can hold still on a target. There is some movement left and right and up and down. This not critical with a gun but is with a bow forcing me to use a gun rest to minimize the movement. If I cannot hold steady, then I will not take the shot. Like most hunters I abhor wounding an animal. If it is not a kill shot I will not take it. I lost a deer during bow season last year and although I searched three hours for it, I could not find it. I followed first a blood trail which petered out and then scuffed leaves until the deer ran into the creek. I walked up and down the bank to no avail. I can’t bear to lose another.
If I get to where I am no longer comfortable hunting with a crossbow, I will still go into the woods during bow season. I will still put out bait. I will still till food plots. I will still use trail cameras. I will be scouting for gun season. Bow season gets you into the woods a month before gun season and is invaluable to learning deer movements. Every day I hope to see that barren doe or 8 pointer but I enjoy watching the deer and hoping that in a couple of years, they will be in my freezer.
During this week I have seen and passed on at least 30 deer. All were does and fawns and I let them walk. There was one very large doe but she had two fawns with her. I finally saw an adult doe by herself. I was tempted to take a shot but she went shock still and was looking at something out of my vision. Then she bolted. I never saw what she was looking at. It is over 90 degrees and I am hunting in short sleeves. I’m done and hopefully in two weeks it will be cooler. I can just hear my mother now. Yes I need to take deer. I am almost out of venison from last year’s hunts. Venison is the only red meat I eat. When I started hunting deer in 1971 I ate only fish and fowl. But I decided that if I were to hunt then I would only eat what I kill. I feed my dogs (now dog) venison with their kibble at each meal. Two years ago when I ran out prior to the season, I went and bought some very lean ground chuck for the dogs. They would not eat it and I gave 20 pounds to a neighbor who volunteers at a food bank. So no shots this time. But it is a long season and I look forward to every day hunting on my ancestors’ land. I think they would be proud of how I care for it.
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