Chasin' Bucks at Mulberry

November 24, 2023
Mulberry Fork Wildlife Management Area
McKenzie Trail

Thanksgiving and doe days at Mulberry Fork - it doesn't get any better for a central Alabama whitetail hunter. Dad and I spent Thanksgiving afternoon talking hunt strategy - which location would be best for the wind conditions, which terrain would be best for late November and if it would be best to still hunt or attempt a spot-and-stalk. I had planned a spot-and-stalk hunt at a location on McKenzie Trail during the 2022 season and that was at the front of my mind. It's common to "spook," "bump," "jump" or "push" deer on a spot-and-stalk hunt so I saved this hunt for when I would have maximum shooting freedom at a running deer. I put on my hiking boots, silenced the 4am alarm and we set off for the McKenzie trail on Friday morning. The plan was to slowly hike until we found deer sign and then Dad was going to still hunt while I hiked further. I've only hunted a few times this year so I had no current intel on deer activity or patterns and had very low expectations for the hunt. Dad and I started hiking 20 minutes before daylight and kept checking our scope to see when we would have enough shooting light - we didn't want to get to our target areas and not have enough shooting light. We made it to the first target area by 7am and found a fresh scrape so dad set up and started still hunting. I kept hiking and jumped 2 deer bedded 40 yards from where he was sitting. I kept hiking and spooked a second set of deer which let me know that they were there with loud blowing and stomping. I finally made it to my second target area and started still hunting. I waited for 45 minutes while the woods were silent until I decided to make a move. I decided to get in the creek bottom (preferably in the creek) so that I could walk silently through the area. I would check each drainage slowly until I spotted some late morning deer movement. I found my first large rub in the 3rd drainage that I checked and spotted some movement in the 4th drainage - it was a group of doe deer moving across the creek. I crawled into a better shooting location and found a deer in the scope. Then I caught more movement out of the corner of my eye. I couldn't believe it - there was a mature buck running towards the doe group with his tail showing. I swiveled around, put the crosshairs on the buck, watched him move between shooting lanes in the timber and then pulled the trigger. The buck flinched, jumped down a 60 foot creek bank and then it was silent.

I started to track the deer and heard him scurry up a small hill. I found hair and blood at the bottom of the creek bank and thought that it was a lethal shot, but a little far back on his body. Dad and I tracked the deer for over 500 yards and bumped him out of two beds. There was no more blood so we decided to call for a tracking dog. A cardinal rule of hunting: never track a wounded deer without your rifle. You will most likely have a follow-up shot opportunity which could be a short-range or long-range shot. If you don't see the deer drop, everyone that tracks the deer should have their rifle. Big bucks are full of adrenaline once they've been wounded and can run very long distances after they've been bumped from their bed making a recovery very unlikely.

Willow, a German Shorthaired Pointer and registered tracking dog with United Blood Trackers, and her handler, Cody, met us at the management area around 9pm and we started the trailing the deer. Cody mentioned that Willow works better during the night due to limited visibility which makes her rely primarily on the scent trail. We learned a lot about tracking a wounded deer that night. Tracking dogs smell scent from the interdigital gland located between a deer's hooves - not the blood itself. This gland deposits ground scent with every step after they've been wounded. The sticky, stinky wax can stick to the bottom of a hunter's boots which can confuse the tracking dog. If you wound a deer, it's best to mark the last blood or bed and don't grid search for the animal. Also, deer will move longer distances between beds once they've been bumped. The first and second bed may be 100 yards apart while the 2nd and 3rd bed may be 500 yards apart. So, after you bump the deer from the first bed, don't go any further, mark the last blood sign, leave the area the same way that you entered and give the animal 6 hours to expire before trailing it with a tracking dog. We tracked the deer for a couple of hours until Willow found the buck in his final bed. We got the buck on the skinning rack just after midnight and back home by 2am. We spent 22 hours in the field for this deer and we felt a great sense of relief that we didn't leave a wounded animal on the property. The deer weighed 132 pounds and was one of the biggest bucks taken from the management area at that point in the season.

California Palm Springs Hike

October 23, 2022
Palm Springs, California
Palm Springs Canyon Trail

Fifteen miles long, Palm Canyon is one of the areas of great beauty in Western North America. Its indigenous flora and fauna, which the Cahuilla people so expertly used, and its abundant Washingtonia filifera (California Fan Palm) are breathtaking contrasts to the stark rocky gorges and barren desert lands beyond.

Deep Sea Bachelor Party

June 25, 2022
Orange Beach, Alabama

Zeke's Landing and Marina

Blake was getting married so the boys headed down to Orange Beach for a bachelor party and fishing trip. Our party of seven met the captain and crew at daylight, packed the boat and idled to the Perdido Pass to catch baitfish. After loading the live wells with fresh cigar minnows and mullet we started fishing for our target species, red snapper. We fished several wrecks and underwater structures. Red snapper school with other fish that are similar in size and the biggest fish are usually swimming at the top of the school. Red snapper are bottom dwellers so their eyes are on the top of their head and oriented upwards which helps them spot baitfish swimming above. It's risky for the smaller snapper to hang out above the larger fish because they can easily eaten mistaken as bait. We moved from reef to reef and structure to structure catching fish from smaller and larger groups. We ended the day with a limit of snapper that we put on the grill that afternoon.Bachelor party fishing trip

Catch and Release in the Grease

March 5, 2022
Locust Fork, Warrior River

Spring time in Alabama brings about blooming flowers, cold weather and great largemouth bass fishing. I took a quick fishing trip to one of my favorite bass spawning locations on the Warrior River and landed a nice 3lb largemouth while she was protecting her newly made bed. 

The blackened dinner entrée paired well with some fresh green beans, red potatoes and chardonnay. 

Talladega National Forest

January 22, 2022

Talladega National Forest

I had ambitious plans to scout the food plots in Talladega National Forest near mount Cheaha and then hike the mountain afterwards. I spent the afternoon checking food plots for deer sign and discovered rolling swaths of burnt timber. Large parts of the Talladega National Forest are routinely burned to promote healthy tree growth. Unfortunately, this removes most of the underbrush forcing deer to leave those parts of the property. Also, this property is one of the few public lands that permit dog hunting during deer season. The burned timber and hunting pressure from dog drives makes this challenging territory for whitetail hunters. 

3-Factor Weighted Hunt Quality Index (HQI)

Birmingham, Alabama 

The hunting community has know for centuries that deer activity is influenced by the lunar cycle, mating cycle and weather conditions. I created a model to quantify the overall hunt quality which is synonymous with day-time deer activity. The index can range from 0 to 100 where 100 would represent a "trifecta" of optimal conditions including peak rut, cold weather and a new moon.

The chart indicated that January 6th and January 8th offered the best whitetail hunting conditions during the 2020-2021 Alabama whitetail hunting season. This considering the peak rut for the Jefferson county whitetail population and climate data from Birmingham, Alabama. I've also updated the 2021-2022 model to include a precipitation correction, weather forecast input (this allows for a 14 day future prediction of the HQI) and a recommendation for a morning or afternoon hunt. Of course, us dedicated hunters will always want to hunt morning and afternoon. 

Mulberry Fork Wildlife Management Area 2021 - 2022 Season

2021 - 2022 Alabama Whitetail Deer Hunting Season

Central Alabama

Mulberry Fork Wildlife Management Area 

Finally, I'm back in Sweet Home Alabama and hunting whitetails on public land. I've moved around the southeast for work and recently found my way back to Birmingham, I lived in Florida/Lower Alabama (the LA of the South), Texas, Louisiana and Georgia before returning home which the residency verification for my resident hunting license a difficult task. I spent weeks emailing and calling Alabama's Department of Conservation and Natural Resources before eventually verifying my residency and receiving the "all-clear" just before bow season. I spent most of the 2021 - 2022 deer season at Mulberry Fork Wildlife Management Area near the Black Warrior River. The Mulberry Fork hunting lease is active for 94 years and includes 33,000 acres of prime hunting land in Tuscaloosa, Walker and Jefferson counties.  

October 30th, 2021

Big Creek Trail 

This was my first scouting trip of the season and my first time on the management area in almost 10 years. I was lost for several hours before I found some of my old hunting spots. I was scouting an old road bed near Big Creek and walked past a yearling doe that looked at me like she had never seen a human being before. Unfortunately. I didn't carry my bow with me on my first trip so she evaded the freezer that day.

October 31st, 2021

Shoal Creek Deer Trail

After spotting one deer and refamiliarizing myself with the property I set our for my second trip and I brought my bow this time. I was scouting and oak flat and walking down a deer trail as slowly and as quietly as I could. Then I heard a noise about 80 yards away and I had spooked a deer off of his bed and he was moving down the trail towards me. I froze after I saw the deer stop behind a tree and his main beams were sticking out on either side. I drew my bow because he couldn't see me and he took a few more steps down the trail and started running once he saw me at 30 yards. I had one shot but it would have been an reflex so I made the ethical decision to keep my arrow and hunt they buck another day.

November 6th, 2021

Short Creek

I tried a new area of the property this afternoon and decided the sit near a food plot because I ran out of time to scout. I positioned myself on the ground and behind a pine tree so that I could peak around the tree and have visibility of the two main deer trails going into the field. I had no expectations of seeing any deer in the food plot since the acorn harvest was so good this year but a family group stepped into the field around 4pm which included a 1.5 year old spike, 1.5 year old doe and a yearling button buck. It's always fun to hunt deer on the ground with a bow like the native Americans did it!

November 20th, 2021

One Shot Trail

Dad and I finally made it to a Mulberry gun hunt! We spent some time scouting One Shot Trail before settling into what would be an unproductive afternoon hunt. The moon was almost full so the deer activity had shifted to nocturnal movement. Dad sat in some leaf litter and got bit by a brown recluse on his back. He still had a sore several weeks later but, thankfully, no major medical complications. He's fully committed to sitting in a camp chair from now on!

December 4th-5th, 2021

Short Creek

I recently bought two game cameras to help scout Mulberry's 35,000 acres. My first location was a game trail near Shoal Creek. I had several doe moving in and out of an oak bottom feeding area near daylight and dusk. I also saw a small buck feeding in #2 food plot about 30 minutes before dark. The small spike was broadside and 20 yards and would have been a nice addition to my freezer if he was a legal deer.

December 12th, 2021

Old Taylor's Ferry Road

I found several scrapes and rubs near a food plot on Big Oaks Road and it looked like there was significant buck activity in the area. I put my game camera on a scrape near a food plot and downloaded the pictures after the morning hunt. It rained most of the day on Saturday, December 11th so we expected the deer to move on Sunday morning. The deer didn't move Sunday morning but I got a picture of a great buck. The afternoon hunt proved to be one of the best hunts of the 2021-2022 season. Most of the bucks on the property checked their scrapes at 4pm and Jonathan shot a 7 point buck near the back of shoal creek. I saw this nice 8 point come check a scrape but he never left his trail which wound through a section of thick pine.

January 3rd, 2022

Shoal Creek Deer Trail 

It's not very often that you get a chance to hunt in the snow in Alabama but today was that day. I went to one of my favorite morning locations near shoal creek. It's a deer trail that runs up a ridge where three hardwood bottoms intersect. Those hardwoods bottoms are a popular spot for overnight feeding and the deer use that deer trail to filter back to their bedding area in the morning. The temperature was 33 °F just before dawn. I was fortunate that the temperature hadn't dropped any lower because there would have been ice on the roads and bridges and I wouldn't  have been able to access the management area. I slipped on my Sitka Fanatic gear and got ready for a cold morning sit. I noticed that there were icicles frozen sideways on the tree so you could almost visualize the exact direction of the north wind. I sat for a few hours and I could feel the cold creeping up my legs and down my forearms signaling the end of my hunt. I drove around the property looking for sign of any deer activity and realized that the higher elevation rides had much more snow and ice accumulation that some of the surrounding pine thickets and hardwood bottoms. I saw a few deer that day and they were all cruising pine ridges where there was no snow accumulation. The pine ridges had the appearance of being the coziest place in the woods that day.

January 30th, 2022

Theron Wilcut Road

Mulberry Fork Management Area is primarily used to harvest timber which creates a unique habitat for whitetail deer. Most of the property is clear cut, planted pines or mature timber that's waiting to be cut. This results in thousands of acres of thick river property where the deer can hide for entire seasons without needing to move more than 50 yards between feeding areas and bedding areas. This makes late season hunting especially productive because most of the natural food sources are depleted by February and the deer have to use the food plot. This doesn't mean that they have to use them during daylight hours though. I saw five deer this afternoon moving towards a food plot at 5:20pm which was 5 minutes after sunset and 25 minutes before the end of legal hunting light.