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John's Journal... Entry 116, Day 4 WHEN DEER DON'T SHOW UP AT DEER SIGN 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. 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
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Check back each day this week for more about Deer Sign... Day 1 - Read the Fine Print
of Deer Sign |