|
By Ray Barnard
Whitetails Plentiful
Tony Albiero is pictured with his
Illinois buck taken with archery
equipment in Illinois. |
The young buck appeared suddenly behind me. I
just happened to see the buck because I had
turned around on my ladder stand and was facing
to the rear.
This particular buck was a very young deer
sporting three small points on each side making
him a six pointer in the state of Kentucky. He
came right under the tree my ladder stand was
leaning against and at least three times looked
straight up at me. Because I was camouflaged
from head to foot, even wearing a face mask, at
no time did the buck pick me out as something to
be alarmed about and proceeded to feed in the
winter wheat food plot in front of me. I have a
certain criteria that a buck must meet before I
will even consider a shot. The antlers have to
sport eight points and extend beyond the tips of
the ears on each side. If the antlers do not
meet these guidelines, then I let the animal
walk away, preferably without spooking it. My
luck held this night; and the buck never knew I
was there, although I had my bow and arrow at
the ready and had at least a dozen opportunities
to take a shot at him.
Each year around the first of September the
archery season for whitetail deer opens in
Kentucky.
Usually it is too hot to do much serious hunting
in the first weeks of September in this state.
If an animal is harvested in summer weather,
immediate attention must be given to handling
the carcass when the animal is located. If a
meat locker is close, one should transport it to
the locker posthaste after the animal has been
field-dressed. It doesn’t take too long for the
meat to spoil if not properly cared for. If a
locker is not close, then I would suggest
stopping at any available “spit ‘n git,” as I’ve
heard small stores called, to purchase bags of
ice to stuff into the body cavity. Cooling the
meat is of utmost importance at this stage.
Removing the hide helps in this regard, too.
Just cool the meat as soon as possible to
preserve it. When the deer is properly hung in a
cooler, then one can let the meat “age” a little
bit before butchering. Also, many folks say that
butchering the animal yourself is the best way
to insure the meat doesn’t have a chance to
spoil.
If one is an archery hunter, that person must
make sure that they have the proper equipment.
There is an old adage that says: “You can take
the best bow in the world and shoot bad arrows
and not be able to hit anything. However, you
can take the worst bow in the world and use good
arrows and still be able to hit the target.” A
good bow, proper arrows for your draw weight and
with the arrows cut to the right length, plus a
razor sharp point is the way to go. Practice
with these combinations is of utmost importance.
If one has access to a 3-D range of different
animal species, practice is really enjoyable,
even if you lose a few arrows in the process.
3-D ranges are the best possible scenario one
can use to learn how to judge distance from
themselves to an animal. None of this, of
course, will help you assuage “buck fever.”
Hunters just have to learn to control their
emotions when they decide to try and harvest an
animal, whatever the species they are hunting. A
good strong heart is also recommended to help
harness the suspense involved when one decides
that “this is the animal I want!”
Each archer must by necessity experiment with a
good conscientious retailer to pick out the
equipment that is right for them. Accessories
are always a personal choice. Because there are
so many choices, it brings to mind the old
saying of “That’s the reason there is more than
one color of paint.” Everybody doesn’t
necessarily like the same thing.
Do you hunt from a tree stand? The hunting
catalogs are full of this type of accessory.
These stands range from hang-ons using a
climbing stick or steps, to ladder stands, and
not least are the self-climbers. Some of the
ladder stands can be purchased as stand-alone
units not requiring a tree to install them. Up
until the last couple of years, I used the
self-climbers. With this stand you pack it in,
and you pack it out. There is always the
possibility that someone might come by your
erected ladder stand or hang-on and decide that
they would like to own it themselves. This
scenario happened to me last deer season. When I
went back to get in my stand, it was gone, even
though I had it cable-locked to the tree. Some
enterprising thief had used bolt cutters to cut
the cable, lower my stand to the ground,
disassemble it and pack it out to parts unknown.
Since the price on this ladder stand was around
$250, I was out quite a chunk of change to
replace it.
Blinds are another way to hide you from the wary
eyes of any game animal, whether it is a deer, a
puma, a turkey, an antelope, elk or anything
else one might be waiting to harvest. These
blinds also are many in number and types. There
are large ones, small ones, medium-sized ones,
and even one that used to be sold by Arctic Cat
that would fold over your ATV whenever you
arrived at your hunting spot, hiding you and
your ATV.
Sonny Evans is
shown with a very nice 12-09nt (eastern
count) buck taken in Casey County, KY. |
Those readers in the west, southwest, Midwest,
and northwest might be surprised to learn that
in the last ten years or so Kentucky has
established quite an elk herd. Located in the
eastern part of the state, the elk range usually
is located in the reclaimed strip-mine areas of
the eastern Kentucky coal fields. The elk are
doing fine in this habitat. There have been
quite a number of good bulls harvested since the
elk reached a viable number that would allow
hunting.
The importation of new animals into Kentucky has
been stopped. Kentucky will not allow any more cervids to be brought across state lines into
Kentucky. The reason for this is to prevent an
outbreak of Chronic Wasting Disease or CWD. I
might also define cervid. A cervid is any
cloven-hoofed animal that sheds its horns or
antlers on a yearly basis. Deer and elk
obviously fall into this category.
A problem that Kentucky has had with our deer
herd is Epizootic Hemorrhagic Fever. This
particular malady is an infection that is taken
from animal to animal with, of all things, a
“midge,” or gnat. When an infected gnat bites a
healthy animal, that healthy animal will be dead
in around seventy-two hours. The local common
title for this disease is “Blue Tongue.” Animals
will seek out water and usually the expired
carcasses will be found around water. The state
agency says that this malady has only infected
at least one percent of the deer population this
year, so there will not be a curtailment of
hunting. The folks at the Kentucky Department of
Fish and Wildlife Resources say that this is a
naturally occurring phenomenon and usually runs
in cycles of every three or four years. I have
not done any research into other states as to
whether they have the same problem. I have just
concentrated on my state of Kentucky.
Hemorrhagic Fever is usually defeated with the
first hard frost of the season which kills the
gnats that carry the disease.
This year I have had the opportunity to ride my
Can-Am ATV to and from my deer stands. Because
the stands are usually located at the top of
ridges in this area, it is expedient for me to
ride the ATV to the top of the ridge and then
walk to my stand. Of course, if someone else is
hunting close to the area you want to hunt, to
be considerate you do not want to ride your ATV
through their hunting area. Just ride it as far
as you can and then park it. That way you get to
cut out most of the uphill stuff and usually can
walk to your stand on the flat ground at the top
of the hill. Because of my age, this is a real
advantage. Plus, you can carry a lot of extra
gear that you might possibly need on the ATV for
use if you need it.
My normal procedure is to put my fanny pack on
the front rack of the ATV along with my bow or
rifle, whichever weapon I intend to use, ride to
the top of the hill, take the bow or rifle and
only take what I expect to have to use on the
stand. The rest of the equipment I can leave on
the ATV, and will utilize it if I am fortunate
enough to harvest an animal. Because I have a
winch on the front of the ATV, I don’t worry too
much about getting an animal out of the woods if
it travels down the ridge. It always pays to
have an extra length of rope with you in case
the winch cable isn’t long enough to reach the
animal from the top of the ridge. That way you
can tie the rope to the outstretched cable,
rewind the cable as far as possible; tie off the
animal; bring the cable back out and tie it back
to the shortened rope length, and rewind it
again. Repeat this until the animal can be tied
directly to the winch cable. When you can do
that, your problem is solved. You then just
simply winch the animal back to the ATV, load it
onto the ATV and head back to the house.
No problem.
So, whatever your quarry, you can help yourself
with an ATV if it can be feasibly used in your
particular situation. Good Luck.
As an example of the quality of deer one might
take here in central Kentucky, I am attaching a
letter I received along with a picture of the
deer a local young lady took with a crossbow.
This is one of the most balanced racks I have
seen. The letter is as follows:
Shawnee
Higginbothams is shown with her every
nice buck taken with a crossbow in
Mercer County, KY. |
I am Shawnee Higginbotham, age 10, of
Harrodsburg, KY.
This is my
first year of deer hunting. Early summer Pa-paw
started working with me using a .17 Mach II
rifle. When the deer regulations came out, we
could see that crossbow season was much longer
than the youth gun season.
I had never
shot a crossbow before. It was so heavy that I
couldn't even hold it up! Pa-paw and dad
installed a bipod on my bow and I started
shooting off a table at 20 yards. I practiced as
often as I could.
In mid August
I saw my trophy buck in front of my house and I
took a picture of it with my cell phone. I
showed the picture to Pa-paw and told him there
is the one that I want. He said, “If you want
this deer you have a lot of work to do. First
you have to beat his eyes, nose, and ears. He
said you also have to learn to shoot straight.”
I practiced shooting out of the blind on a bench
where I was to hunt. I saw him twice. We set a
blind near an oak tree in a funnel between his
bedding and an alfalfa field. Pa-paw and I
hunted a few times and got busted by does both
times. That day it was way too hot for the bucks
to come out.
A cold front
was moving in, and the temperature dropped to
30°F.
Pa-paw said
that this would be a good night, so I took a
bath in unscented soap and got ready. We
arrived at the blind at about 5:00 p.m.
Around 7:00
p.m. he and two other bucks came down the funnel
to munch on some acorns before going to the
alfalfa field. He showed himself broadside at 12
yards. I put the red dot on his chest and
squeezed the trigger. He bolted and only ran 50
yards. What a hunt!!!
Shawnee Higginbotham
So what will
she do for an encore? Pa-paw says she will top
it in the future.
|
