Catoosa-Walker-Dade ‘23-‘24

[tjgregory]

10/28: I hunted my family’s farm in Walker County for the first time this fall from legal shooting light to 10:15AM. I chose a stand favorable for a south wind that overlooks two food plots and an acorn-dropping white oak on a wood line edge. I saw nine deer in a two hour window, all feeding, and the mix included a spike, a young rack buck, and seven antlerless ranging in age from adult to fawn. I did not want to shoot a deer in warm weather unless a mature buck had stepped out, so the rifle sat untouched.

I found many scrapes and rubs during the past two or three weeks. I also have had two mature bucks on camera moving in daylight during the muzzleloader week, but last Saturday hunted like a typical early season hunt. Based on some limited history, I had hoped for some action on the day of the Hunter’s Moon and that action didn’t materialize. Maybe it was the heat wave. Maybe it was simply early season.

I am going to hunt this Thursday, Friday, and Saturday and see what happens in colder weather. I will report what I see. I am trying get the crosshairs on a certain mature buck that has lurked around the farm since 2021. I saw him twice in 2021 and passed both times because I was hunting two other larger bucks. I had him on camera in the summer and fall of ‘22, and he disappeared after mid November last year and I thought someone else had killed him. He showed up again in late September this year and is still hanging around for now. My plan is to get him early in case he plans on finding greener pastures again in mid November. He was moving in the daytime during the muzzleloader. He’s strictly in the dark before and after.

 

[tjgregory]

11/2: It was a frosty twenty two degrees when I left my truck to head to my stand this morning. I hunted a terrain feature in timber with acorns. I was in the tree from legal shooting light to 10:30. I saw an unidentifiable deer at 8:41 that had a dark coat. It was about 150 yards away through the trees and I had a hard time finding it in my binoculars. I am sure that it was a buck because it was moving like one and had the dark coloration. I was in climber on a poor-fitting tree and I climbed down at 10:30 after no longer wanting to fight my stand and that tree, and not seeing any more action to that point.

Once on the ground, I selected a better tree and prepared to move my stand. I heard deer walking in the leaves to the north of me at about 10:45 and I filled my hands with my Winchester, then sat down in the leaves where I stood. Moments later I spotted three adult does traveling along a ditch. I thought about shooting one of them because I have not killed a deer from the ground since 2004. I talked myself out of it for not wanting to remove any of the live decoys from my best buck area until after the rut.

 

[Bushhog Bob]

I hunted today too. I went to a freshly relocated ladder stand in a little hollow that has a nice rub line and some scrapes. It is something to put bare hands on frozen metal ladder rungs. My gloves have no gripper on them and bare hands give better climbing traction because they stick to frozen metal.

I hunted from 7:45 to 10:30. A deer blew at me around 8:30. I turned around and saw its rump as it ran away. About 45 minutes later, a family group of five anterless and a small forkhorn came in. One antlerless and the buck went on after smelling my trail and the other four stayed around my stand for about 15 more minutes. They were smelling and looking all around both in front of and behind my stand. They finally eased away after not locating me. These six deer were sized like pygmies and must have been of a coastal genetic. None them looked like they would have weighed 50 pounds on the hoof. I am still waiting for something better to come along.

 

[tjgregory]

11/3: Another frosty morning today as my dash display showed 26 degrees when I left for my stand in the predawn. I went back to the stand that I hunted on 10/28 with much different results. I saw just four deer and all were in a window between 9:38 and 11:05. Three were bucks. One was a 3.5 year old eight point that crossed a narrow strip of clover at a distance of two hundred yards. I saw a smaller six point and a young basket eight shortly after. These two crossed the clover within a few minutes of each other and were at a little more than one hundred yards away. The bucks were all traveling and came through between 9:38 and 10:02. I climbed down at 11:00 and saw an antlerless on the way back to my truck.

I’m going back tomorrow and I plan on letting my rifle eat. I will be looking for a mature buck, a scraggly buck, or an adult doe. Good luck to anyone who is hitting the woods tomorrow.

 

[tjgregory]

11/4: The third straight frosty morning found me in newly located Millennium ladder stand overlooking a road bed enclosed by hardwoods and pines that parallels the creek on the farm. I hunted from legal shooting light to 10:30 and saw twelve deer between 8:40 and 10:30. The deer moved from 8:40 to 9:00 and from 10:00 to 10:30. I saw three bucks, eight adult antlerless, and one fawn. The two smaller bucks were feeding on pin oak acorns and pestering a doe with her fawn in the 8:40 to 9:00 window.

At 10:00, four adult does came running down the roadbed and stopped to look behind them and when I turned to look at what they were looking at, it was then that I saw in disbelief the buck that I have been hunting this season. We had taken to calling him Mr. Brisket for the swollen brisket that he features. The does ran and buck gave chase. I put a .30 caliber bullet in him from a standing offhand position and he went down. Not three minutes later, two more adult does came through. At 10:25, I needed to remove some layers and go back to the truck for some water before going to get my buck. When I hit the ground the buck got up and ran into a field. I fired again standing and offhand through an opening only to see the buck make it into the woods on the far side. I then walked over to where I fired my first shot to look for blood and I saw an adult doe watching me. I found blood where I shot him in the woods and also from where he exited the field.

I waited an hour and started tracking the blood from the field down to the creek and found a puddle of blood on a gravel bar at the waters edge. I crossed the creek and climbed the opposite bank. I got to the top and almost stepped on the buck before he jumped up and ran away. My rifle was on my shoulder and I did not deploy it fast enough to aim and shoot. The buck ran with his tail down and crossed the creek, disappearing into the woods. The blood was faint beyond his bed and I was concerned about bumping him again and the deer possibly running off of the property. I backed off and killed some time before calling a tracking dog. I knew that he was badly hurt because he was bedding near the places where I shot and how close he allowed me to get to his hiding spot before busting down the creek. He also had his tail tucked.

Dean Barron and his dog arrived from Ringgold and he put his dog on the trail. She found my deer in about five minutes piled against a log and he was just forty yards from where I saw him disappear in the woods. Dean and his dog track in Catoosa, Walker, and Whitfield Counties. I recommend him if you need a tracker for a big buck recovery in this area.

This is the heaviest, longest bodied buck to ever run the farm and I believe that he is five and a half years old. He also had an antler gouge on top of his head that was new for this past week and I would like to see the buck that did that to him. The best hunting around here is always the last half of November and maybe his opponent will show himself by then.

 

[NGa.MtnHunter]

Nice one!! Congratulations.....

 

[Gadestroyer74]

11/4: The third straight frosty morning found me in newly located Millennium ladder stand overlooking a road bed enclosed by hardwoods and pines that parallels the creek on the farm. I hunted from legal shooting light to 10:30 and saw twelve deer between 8:40 and 10:30. The deer moved from 8:40 to 9:00 and from 10:00 to 10:30. I saw three bucks, eight adult antlerless, and one fawn. The two smaller bucks were feeding on pin oak acorns and pestering a doe with her fawn in the 8:40 to 9:00 window.

At 10:00, four adult does came running down the roadbed and stopped to look behind them and when I turned to look at what they were looking at, it was then that I saw in disbelief the buck that I have been hunting this season. We had taken to calling him Mr. Brisket for the swollen brisket that he features. The does ran and buck gave chase. I put a .30 caliber bullet in him from a standing offhand position and he went down. Not three minutes later, two more adult does came through. At 10:25, I needed to remove some layers and go back to the truck for some water before going to get my buck. When I hit the ground the buck got up and ran into a field. I fired again standing and offhand through an opening only to see the buck make it into the woods on the far side. I then walked over to where I fired my first shot to look for blood and I saw an adult doe watching me. I found blood where I shot him in the woods and also from where he exited the field.

I waited an hour and started tracking the blood from the field down to the creek and found a puddle of blood on a gravel bar at the waters edge. I crossed the creek and climbed the opposite bank. I got to the top and almost stepped on the buck before he jumped up and ran away. My rifle was on my shoulder and I did not deploy it fast enough to aim and shoot. The buck ran with his tail down and crossed the creek, disappearing into the woods. The blood was faint beyond his bed and I was concerned about bumping him again and the deer possibly running off of the property. I backed off and killed some time before calling a tracking dog. I knew that he was badly hurt because he was bedding near the places where I shot and how close he allowed me to get to his hiding spot before busting down the creek. He also had his tail tucked.

Dean Barron and his dog arrived from Ringgold and he put his dog on the trail. She found my deer in about five minutes piled against a log and he was just forty yards from where I saw him disappear in the woods. Dean and his dog track in Catoosa, Walker, and Whitfield Counties. I recommend him if you need a tracker for a big buck recovery in this area.

This is the heaviest, longest bodied buck to ever run the farm and I believe that he is five and a half years old. He also had an antler gouge on top of his head that was new for this past week and I would like to see the buck that did that to him. The best hunting around here is always the last half of November and maybe his opponent will show himself by then.

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Nice buck @tjgregory ! Congrats

 

[tjgregory]

I appreciate the compliments, guys.

I hunted this past weekend after taking the weekend off following my kill. I hunted over high elevation acorns and saw seventeen deer in two days. They were hard after the acorns Saturday morning and I saw two bucks and ten antlerless. The bucks were chasing and the antlerless were feeding and running from the bucks. One buck was a medium sized eight pointer and he secured one of the does, and they settled down to eat acorns.

Sunday was quieter. I saw five bucks: three baskets, an eight with a broken G3, and the eight point from the day before. These bucks were all feeding on the acorns. I didn’t see any antlerless. I dosed off at one point and when I regained consciousness, there were two coyotes slipping past that I was unable to get the crosshairs on before they disappeared. I might have missed seeing a deer or two during my snooze.

I will be back in the stand beginning Wednesday afternoon and I will report what I see and shoot. I will be hunting a buck of my liking and any coyotes that I see. I am saving the does for December. Good luck to anyone that is hitting the woods this week.

 

[tjgregory]

I have hunted off and on since Wednesday afternoon and saw rutting activity Wednesday afternoon, Thursday morning, and this morning. I’ve seen bucks paired with does, chasing, and have heard grunting and snort wheezing. I briefly glimpsed a big buck running crazy at 11:34 this morning, but I couldn’t get a good look at him. He was either chasing or tracking a hot trail. I am hunting over acorns in the mornings and green food in the afternoons.

I killed this big male coyote around 9:30 on Thanksgiving morning.