Scouting Tricks

A quick primer for locating a big buck.
I read on Othmars’ site that he gets asked the question all the time. How do I scout for deer? I have done it so long that I hardly think about it anymore. Here are some basic little things to keep in mind while looking. Most people can recognize deer tracks and have a basic idea if deer are around, what we are looking for is a place to hunt in the woods where a big old buck is lurking.
1.You have to get and understand this first point
While you are out scouting, you are not looking for just deer sign, you are looking for one particular deer. The big buck for that area. This helps gets your mind working to how a big buck moves and operates in the woods. Most of the bucks for that area are going to be somewhere around him and if you find him, you have a great chance at all kinds of other big bucks.
Deer and especially bucks are drawn to and use edges. Look for well used trails and rubs on trees leading to these type areas. They love to scrape in those areas and bucks will be drawn to it. edges are from field to woods, cutover to big woods, pine timber to hardwood, thickets to woods.
The bigger the rub, the odds are that, the bigger the buck. If you find a trail with lots of rubs you may be on to something. Follow it as far as it goes. Squat down, you may see a rub at a distance to be checked out and pick up the trail again. Their head is usually about where your knee is and you might miss something by standing too high. Follow the trail to a likely opening to hunt near.
2. Just as Important
When walking through woods always look for openings in the woods. Deer are like people, they move from one opening to another through the woods, their scrapes will be in an opening also. A natural little meadow on a sunny hillside is perfect, or the back corner of an old pasture.
Sharply sloped areas can be skipped, they will not scrape there.
Find scrapes. Pawed out areas they urinate in and come back to. An area with several rubs and three or four scrapes is a hot area to be hunted. A main scrape will have a branch over it that they will wipe their face and horns on.
3. Stand location
You found a hot spot and want to get your stand put up. Try to figure a way not to cross the area you want to hunt. you do not want to disturb the main area that draws the deer.
The best place (in the south) to place your stand is on the NorthEast or East side of the area to be hunted. Predominant winds are from the SW. Winds for the N, NE, W or SE wind will not completely kill your hunt. How far should you get from that hot trail or scrape? It differs but I think 30-50 yards is fine. It’s kind of like squirrel hunting where you sneak up on a tree, except here you are hunting a trail or scrape.
4. Food Plots
When hunting food plots, all you can do is look for scrapes in these fields or large rubs around it and wait him out. This is as simple as it gets and you do not need a whole lot of clutter in your head to find where deer move. Make sure you play the wind here also. Only hunt when and where your scent does not blow into the food plot. You need to not walk across it either.
Big bucks usually don’t just amble around, they could come from any direction but think of where is the most probable place they will come from and hunt for that scenario. If he comes from another direction, you still have a good chance before he knows you are there.
I will always suggest that you make the effort to put up at least two stands to play the wind when you need to. Good Luck scouting!

Ivan and Clyde

The researchers over at the infamous Bodock Times are hot on the trail of Ivan at Crossbow Hunters of Peru. I mean, who hides in Peru?, and how many of you have seen a damn red deer come by your stand? Obviously, he is an imposter, but who is he?
The top investigator got on the case and between a half bottle of Jack Daniels and my 3rd grade Spanish, the truth started to emerge. After all, who names their crossbow Clyde? The broken story of a love triangle in the desert started to emerge from the internet. The story of two star-crossed lovers, a daring rescue, a wild escape across the burning sands and a crazy camel named Clyde.
Ivan, Fatima and Clyde are hiding in Peru now..........

The Black Abbey

The question remains if they were really religious monks. Records say that they sure did not act that way when they reached Natchez, MS that spring. Many say that they were one of the first cults to come into the country.
At that location they stayed for a few months and headed up river past Vicksburg, turned up the Yazoo river and to the town of Yazoo City as it is called today. The people of each town were frightened of these dark, hooded men that rarely spoke and always kept their hoods up. none were sad to see them go. Months went by and finally a long private boat arrived at the dock and they loaded up their meager belongings and headed north to the last of the Indian lands in the territory. They landed at Col. Parkers Landing and moved inland to the bluffs.They set up camp on the bluffs overlooking the delta swamps, just a few miles from a well known Indian village and went to work. After a couple of years they had built a small monastery in the wilderness and disdained all help or contact with mankind.
Not much is known of the monks except, according to the Indians, that the leader (Brother Leonius)seemed a forceful and somewhat cruel man. Living was hard and there were few visitors allowed, but the monastery grew as more of the strange and reclusive monks arrived to join them. There were at least 80 at the last count, before tragedy struck. The name of this mysterious order was known to be the First Order of the Black Woods, and rumors grew of strange live sacrifices involving deer and later as their self imposed exile removed them from civilization, stories of human sacrifices arose.
The riverboat captain reported smoke in his log and traveled to the Abbey with his men to investigate when no one met him to collect the supplies he had carried to the Landing. They spent the day following the rutted and winding road up the bluff and arrived at a burned and deserted ruin. Since that time it has been known as The Black Abbey.
The Abbey was complely burned to the ground. The strangest thing noticed was a huge pile of ashes in the center of what had been the courtyard. A tremendous amount of burned bones were found in this pile of ashes where a huge pyre had burned.They left quickly, afraid that the Indians had killed the monks and were watching them. Little investigation was done, the Indians relocated with the treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek and the monks were soon forgotten. Was it suicide or murder?Not one of the monks was ever seen alive again.
150 years later we have located a few crumbling pieces of the old ruin on a long flat part of the bluff within a mile of our camp house. Arriving in front, there is one lone pillar of the old gatepost. Moving forward you will come to a wide bare spot in the woods. This area is almost square and hardly any grass will grow on it. In the winter, the leaves even seem to lightly skip over this spot, leaving it bare year round. I can assure you that you do not want to be standing here after the sun goes down.
Early in the mornings, but most often, late in the evenings, many people have reported that while you are on a deer stand, you will spot one of these unfortunate ghostly souls striding through the woods in their long robes.
A glimpse of red eyes glowing in the dim light is terrifying to all who have met these silent and dark figures. We leave them and the bare spot on the bluff in peace.

Planting Completed

Saturday morning, the first thing we had to do was fix the wheel on the tractor. This ended up taking an hour, because of course, we had the wrong tools and bearings.
We got the tractor in the field about 9 AM.
We then got the grain buggy hooked to the other tractor and Dad and Paul took off to help Trent.


This left Bobby, Burney and me to start working on replacing gunrest in all the stands, recutting shooting lanes, repairing rotted stands and touching up the fields we had decided needed extra clover.



Here I am, putting clover on the little field where Burney killed a bruiser of a buck last year. Burney replaced the floor in the stand and put camo on it while I took the seeder and made sure the ground was covered in clover seed.

Not Recommended for Hunting

I have learned many things while hunting at the Christmas Place Hunting Club. One of the main things I have learned is not to let these two hunt together. I think they are both afeared of the dark. They are both a little too excitable and noises in the woods seem to get multiplied sometimes.


We always send Mark Stewart and Greg Jones to opposite ends of the property to hunt. Each time that they have hunted together, they have returned with bizarre stories of strange things they have seen or heard. The last time they saw something with two big horns and a woolly jaw.......

Secret Rites of the 10-Point Club

Illuminati, MS> The planting went fine at the famous Christmas Place last weekend, but Saturday night was the meeting of the very secret and mysterious Ten Point Club.
This exclusive gathering is for everyone that has taken at least a 10-point buck off of the famous hunting club. Indian or deer masks are required to attend. Needless to say, it is shrouded in mystery with lots of secret handshakes, wearing of antlers and insider information for all the members.

Hershel “Chief Tallahatchie” Howell opened the meeting congratulating the members on their fine hunt last year and launched into a long winded speech about ducks as we all got beer and chips. He was interrupted by Paul "Double Fine” Howell, who wanted to know why he could not be chief. This brought a roar of laughter from the audience and several empty beer cans were thrown in his direction for him to shut the hell up so we could get to the X-rated videos and other secret stuff.
The secretary Trent “Pondboy” Howell stood up and announced that a new member of the club would be initiated that night as Drew Stewart Had killed a monstrous 11-point last year and was ready to join the club. Trent did not look too happy at the moment. A hushed silence fell over the crowd and suddenly the door opened and Drews' father, Mark Stewart, burst into the room wanting to know why he could not be a member? After all, didn’t his son did kill the biggest deer last year? Drew hurriedly led the confused and tottering miscreant to the door, threw him out and slammed the door in his face. Wild cheers swept through the underground grotto, and Drew was unanimously voted into the club. The secret deer rites were performed with antlers by candlelight and finally a blood oath of death to Thunderhoof was taken.
Mark, Bobby, Michael, Spencer and Greg Jones scratched at the door the whole time but finally quit after someone pitched a couple of hotdogs out the window to them. These losers were made official camp cleaners and deer skinners for the year.

Next, Rex “River Buck” Howell stood and said something had to be done about that damn Thunderhoof. He was hooking and killing all the timber, no corn crop in 30 miles had been able to be harvested, and the damn thing was being a nuisance. In fact, it was eating up Hershels’ garden right this minute! Hershel went ballistic and put a bounty of $816.42 on his head. This was how much money was left from last years budget. The angry crowd cursed that horrible deer and pitched Camo and Trigger out the door with instructions to run the beast off and went back to their poker games.
The rest of the meeting was spent giving secret map locations to hidden trails, drinking whiskey and discussing where the real big bucks were and not the info we gave to guest like Greg “Doe Blood” Jones. All 10-point club members were put on the best stands, of course, and new plans to keep guest from killing a big buck were implemented, as usual. Special precautions were taken to insure that none of the Outdoor Hunting Bloggers killed a deer.
The meeting wrapped up when Burney “Tell Me Where to Hunt” Howell suggested (again) that it was not right to keep stealing and burning his father, Bobbys’, walking cane and that he should be let in the club as an honorary member or even a mascot.
This, of course, left the whole room rolling in laughter and the meeting was adjourned to watch secret deer videos, drink beer and whisky, talk about hot women and smoke big cigars.
Another successful meeting.

A Damn Miracle

This is Paul "Clean Hands" Howell. Yes, he is driving the tractor and cutting grass, Yes, it is hard to believe. If you had been cursed with shooting small six points for the last couple of years, you might do a little work to try to change your luck too.

Nice Matters

Hey, I told you I was a nice guy and obviously my friend Denny at Backwoods Drifter thinks so too. He has passed on the Nice Matters Award to me.
This award is the Nice Matters Award, and this award is for nice people, good blog friends and those who inspire good feelings and inspiration. Also for those who are a positive influence on our blogging world. The award should be passed on to 7 others who you feel are deserving of this award.
Marian, Kristine, and Denny have already achieved this fame and I am going to pass it on too. 7 people is a lot though, so I am going to pass it on to five very deserving people.
1. Callie, cause she really does care about other people and it reflects in her blog.
2. Andy and Julie for sharing their love of the outdoors with each other and us.
3. Terri, cause she is sweet as sugar and renewing her faith.
4. Matt, just cause he is really a nice guy
5. Bill, because of the grief I have given him about his hunting and his fun attitude about it.
These are all very nice people with excellent blogs, go read some of them!

Sunlight on Naked Ladies

for Denise who is my sunlight and my........

Saddle Up!

It's Friday and time to head south to the famous Christmas Place Hunting Club. This weekend we should finish all planting and have everything almost ready for the season. There will be some scouting after this weekend and some stand placement, but overall this should get us into deer season. Yep, it is time to mosey on down to the Ponderosa.....

Return of the Masked Armadillo

Bad Vibes, MS> Bow season starts this weekend and everyone is quietly discussing the news that the Masked Armadillo will be arriving at camp this weekend. This mystery man appears every year as deer season opens, hops out of his Green Hummer and hits the woods to hunt deer. Last year he walked through a major wood cutting detail on his way to the woods without so much as a How-de-do or Go-to-hell. This mystery man may be bringing his sidekick Moe-dillo with him this year to teach him the ropes. Most of the fields still need planting, the camp is a wreck, half the stands are rotted out but the Masked Armadillo only sees the deer woods. The camp members are quietly repeating their mantra, Must-Kill-Paul.

Interview With Thunderhoof

Each year the Bodock Times has an in-depth interview with Thunderhoof on the state of the deer herd and the efforts of the members of the famous Christmas Place Hunting Club to mount his head on the wall.
Please check out the interview from last year.
ed.- We are pleased to have Thunderhoof in the studio today to help us understand what is going on at the famous Christmas Place. So, what does the season look like this year for the hunters?
Thoof- Very good, a mild year and great spring and summer has made all the deer fat and sleek. We have gazoodles of big bucks running amok this year and they are all ready for opening day.
ed.- anything special we should look for?
Thoof- Yes, my cousin is visiting for awhile and left a shed antler that is making all the idiot hunters go ga-ga. It is 10 points on one side.
ed.- Is Trent or Paul a threat to get you this year?
Thoof- No, Trent is confused and hunting the same stand over and over. Paul is too busy shooting six-points to stay in the woods long enough to even see me.
ed.- the kids Spencer and Michael are making a game of it this year, and Drew got a nice one last year too.
Thoof- I can't smell those two little ones, but they usually make so much noise I don't need to. Drew, got a deer because now that he has it, we will never see him again. He is chasing girls. Mark is as usual no factor.
ed.- What about Rex?
Thoof- HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH, yeah right, even though I love the portrait.
ed.- Hershel is going to hunt hard this year, any thoughts?
Thoof- We have an understanding, he doesn't shoot at me anymore and I don't wake him up.
ed.- Burney?
Thoof- You must be kidding. The members will get their usual few deer, but my cousin is safe and none of the guest will get anything unless Terry Cutrare shows up. He always takes a nice deer and Jones is still pitiful, I will probably scare him again. He is pretty funny when I sneak up and snort at him.
ed.- Rex has been inviting a bunch of bloggers like Marian and Dazed to visit?
Thoof- all the bloggers are full of it, even though the women are petty hot! I read their blogs and have been to their hunting areas. Please!! None of them has any idea how to get a big deer. Matt and Othmar might accidently pop a doe but are no threat to do any real damage. I like Othmars hat though. None of the other bloggers has a chance of getting a deer. I will see them all at the Outdoor Bloggers Summit in Phoenix though.
I've got to run, Hershel is planting clover and I have to show him a few spots that I would like him to plant.
ed.- so wraps up another interview with Thunderhoof, King of the Deer.

Arky Safari?

Obviously, these guys are crazy. Ray Harmon has the beginnings of a darn good blog going. He has two other guys on the team that are posting about their hunting endeavors. RT and Beardbuster.
Best I can tell, they are way the hell up in the Ozarks chasing deer and God knows what else. They are also having a great time making fun of their hunting, each other and anyone else they can think of. You need to give them a welcome and leave a post encouraging them. The name of their blog is Arky Safari Hunting.

Finishing the Weekend

Here are a few more pics of Saturday.
Trent planting the Double WhiteOak field.







Driving the narrow roads from field to field

Sunday the tractor was broken so I took Denise, Spencer and his friend Blake to the Mountain to work on my stand. We moved a high stand in, and took a low stand out.


Here I am dismantling the low stand in the wrong location.
TIP!! Always try to put your stand near the edge of the field where you walk in. That way you do not walk across the field and leave any sign whatever. Make sure the wind is blowing from the field to your face. Shoot big buck when it steps out.



Spencer and Blake goofing off. They had a great time and even though I yelled at them, they were a lot of help. Denise was great and took these pics.






The new Mountain Stand. Shhh!!! Keep it quiet.

A Fun, Hard Weekend

Sing-Sing, MS> It was a planting weekend at the famous Christmas Place. Saturday morning at daylight, we took a hopper and planted most of the bottom land and then moved into the hills. Trent took the tractor across the Beaverdam to our fields in that area and we followed with the Gator, little tractor and Dads' truck.
Denise was great and helped plant the fields like she had done it a hundred times.
You have to plow up the fields at least twice to get them broken up correctly and once more over them lightly to get them smooth.




After that you fill the hopper on the little tractor with fertilizer, spread that, go back and add your seed and spread that.



Pretty simple.
You have to remember to be gentle with the equipment, it is all old and we do not want to tear it up, TRENT.
We finished there and headed in to get more seed, Trent headed to the Indian Mound.
I guess he did not see the wobbling tire. He could of stopped, but hell no! UP the side of the bluff he went. Halfway up the damn tire falls off and we are out of business. No fixing that on Saturday afternoon, then the rain came and kept us away till Sunday.

Key Update

We found the keys this weekend. They were in an unused top shelf cabinet that no one has opened in about 10 years. Of course, no one knows how they got there.
Unbelievable, and I know exactly how they got there. This key thing is about to get a whole lot better.

Who's Got the Keys

Alright, this is the way it happened (as best I remember). We got to the camp to cleanup on Sunday morning. My family did not get any 4-wheelers out. Paul and his crew showed up about 1 o’clock after we were all exhausted.
Paul could not find the key to his 4-wheeler and raised hell. I found it and gave it to him. He was holding up and showing all the keys around raising hell.
My crew left a little after 3 o’clock.
His family was getting ready to go for a ride when we pulled out. This is the basis of what I remember.
Last weekend we get to camp and two keys are missing. The key to my new 4-wheeler and the key to Dads’ Yamaha are missing. I called Paul.
Paul said he did not have the keys. He said his family did not touch my 4-wheeler. He said my kids must have the keys. I said my kids did not touch any 4-wheelers and his kids had the keys. We hung up. We tore the camp apart looking for keys. No luck.
Paul called, said we must of sucked them up in the vaccuum cleaner, ??? then said all he could remember was telling his daughter, Haley, to put Dads' key up. Did I look everywhere? Hell, yes! Well, he had talked to them and they did not have the keys. My kids must have them! We tore the camp apart again looking for them! We have talked several times back and forth with no luck on finding the damn keys. I am beginning to feel sorry for whoever has them because there is going to be mucho hell to pay when they appear. I am sure Pauls’ kids have them.

Callie Rawks

My good friend Callie at My Style is keeping a low profile these days. Much research and viewing of tapes at the award winning Bodock Times has learned that she was the toast and pride of Atlanta as she made her way down Peachtree St. and the center of the city. Thousands threw flowers and many songs were sung about her exploits. The most famous of these songs had a bad twist to it and she went into seclusion to avoid any more publicity. You should have seen this bare back beautiful Lady......

High Stepping

It was Michaels' birthday as we headed to the Grove to tailgate. His birthdays last a week. Paul and Wanda were hobnobbing with the zillionaires (Mark Larson and Bill Howard) and we set up with Mark at his tent. The weather was great and it was fun to be on campus again.

My niece, Victoria, showed up looking very nice and unGothish, thank God. She joined in and was a pleasure to be around, Paul gave her a Ben Franklin to spend.

An Icy Swim

This post is for Fuzzie, who thinks that I am not diverse enough and for Goon that has his duck hunting opener this weekend.

We had found a great duck hole in the backwater of Sardis Lake at an area called Buzzard Roost. We had talked it up and had invited my cousins (Bebo and Kent) and my uncle (Jim) to join my Dad, Paul and myself there for a really good duck hunt.
The morning was cold and ice covered all the branches as we walked in wearing our waders. The shallow spots along the edge of the hole had ice that we noisily stepped through. We had selected a ring of old brushtops to hide in and Paul and I hurried to get the decoys out as it broke day. We put out about 20 or 30 and started moving back to the blind when a log tripped me and I went forward into the water. The water instantly filled my waders as I struggled to get up and the shock froze me as I bobbled around. I got up finally and realized that the water had settled and I was not really that cold at all. I staggered back to the blind.
Five minutes later I was completely frozen as the ducks started to pour in. Everyone was shooting and calling except for me. I finally climbed up on the brushtop, pulled off my waders and just laid there. I was frozen, my gun was frozen and as usual there was not a lot of sympathy while the ducks were flying. After what seemed forever, my Dad decided we had better head in. I think my solid blue color may have had something to do with it. They had to help me make it across the water and guide me along the path. I never will forget that halfway back we stopped and they made me take off all my clothes and my Uncle Jim stripped down and gave me his insulated under garments. We staggered on to the truck. I learned a whole lot about walking around in water with waders that day, and that in an emergency,if the hunting is going great, I was on my own.