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John's Journal... Entry 116, Day 4

WHEN DEER DON'T SHOW UP AT DEER SIGN

Find the Sign Least Likely to Lie


EDITOR'S NOTE: Deer sign sometimes lies to hunters. If you could trust all deer sign, you'd bag a buck near every deer sign you find in the woods. But how do you know when deer sign lies and when it tells the truth? How can you tell if the deer has made the sign during the day or the night, today or three weeks ago? To hunt deer successfully, you must not only find deer sign -- you must interpret correctly what that sign tells you.

You'll find the most dependable, truthful deer sign in a thick-cover area, where no one else hunts. To consistently bag bucks with your bow, you must eliminate sign that anyone can locate and read. Spend most of your time looking for sign where no one else will hunt, especially on public-hunting lands. For example, Alabama has a tremendous size deerherd and more than two-dozen wildlife management areas. Almost all hunters consider the Black Warrior WMA, located in the northwest region of the state, by far one of the most difficult WMAs to hunt. Besides having had a depressed deerherd for many years, this WMA has mostly mountainous terrain and intense hunting pressure. However, Charles Stewart of Decatur, Alabama, consistently takes nice bucks from this area with both his bow and his gun each season.

"You can find plenty of 130- to 160-point Boone & Crockett bucks on the Black Warrior WMA, a part of the Bankhead National Forest," Stewart reports. "But to take these bucks, you'll have to hunt where no one else will. You must look for deer sign in the least-likely places."

Stewart's biggest buck he's ever taken from the Bankhead National Forest scored 161 3/8-B & C points. "I watched that huge buck and another buck I thought was his brother for three years," Stewart explains. "I found their trails less than 1/2-mile from the biggest campground in the national forest. Because I hunted a spot so close to the campground, other hunters never thought about hunting there. I could hear car doors slam and people talking around their camp while I was in my tree stand. Even though I was hunting in an area extremely close to a lot of people, these two bucks knew where and when they could move without being seen. Each year I would find them going along the same trails they always travelled and feeding in the same areas where they fed each season."

TOMORROW: UNDERSTAND THAT DEER SIGN IS LIKE A HISTORY BOOK

 

 

 

Check back each day this week for more about Deer Sign...

Day 1 - Read the Fine Print of Deer Sign
Day 2 - Hunt for the Invisible Buck
Day 3 - Learn Why the Sign Lies
Day 4 - Find the Sign Least Likely to Lie
Day 5 - Understand That Deer Sign is Like a History Book

John's Journal