Arcole 2025

 

Central Alabama Whitetail Buck Aging Guide

December 28, 2023

0.5 Years
Bucks weigh between 40 and 60 pounds. Antlers typically show as buttons or small spikes.














1.5 Years
Bucks weigh between 80 and 100 pounds. Antlers show first forks and can develop into 4-points or small 6-points. The neck is not smaller and more defined at the shoulder.

2.5 Years
Bucks weigh between 120 and 140 pounds. Antler frame will be fully developed, but with short tine length and less mass. The antler's inside spread closely matches the ears. The neck is larger and begins to lose definition at the shoulder.

3.5 Years
Bucks weigh between 160 and 180 pounds. Antler frame is usually the same as the prior year, but with longer tines and more mass. The antler's inside spread can reach outside of the ears. There is less definition between the belly and rear hams making the deer look "blocky" from the side. Most bucks begin to develop grey hair on their faces, especially around the eyes.

The photos of the 9-point are from the 2022 and 2023 seasons. This buck was always cruising through the Sylvan Springs property, but never showed his antlers during daylight hours. His tines grew in length and he gained some weight between the 2022 and 2023 seasons.

4.5 Years

Bucks weigh 200+ pounds and are considered fully mature. The antlers are fully developed and wider than the ears with long tines and more mass. Very little definition between the shoulders and neck. Very little definition between the belly and rear hams. The buck will have a noticeable sway in its back.

Central Alabama Whitetail Deer Rut Phases and Hunting Strategies

September 15th - October 15th: Pre-season Scouting

Deploy game cameras to map early season deer movement.

October15th - November 15th: (Bow Season): Late Summer Feeding

Find oak flats that are dropping acorns and expect deer to move short distances between bedding and feeding areas.

November 15th - December 1st: (Gun Season): Pre-rut

Rubs and scrapes appear in late November. Deer movement will increase during this time and is highly dependent on weather conditions. Colder weather will generate more day-time movement.

 

December 1st - 15th: Chasing

Bucks are actively checking scrapes and chasing doe. Find an active scrape and still hunt. Just be in the woods between Thanksgiving and Christmas! 

December 15th - January 1st: Peak Rut

Mature bucks are holding with mature doe. Daytime activity slows as deer breed overnight and mid-day activity is more common.

January 1st - January 15th: Lock-down

Bucks are locked down with doe and there will be very limited day-time activity. This is one of the slowest parts of the rut cycle.

January 15th - February 10th: Post-rut 

Deer are recovering and using food plots. Check food plot for heavy scat indicating the food plot is being actively used.

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.

Niagara Falls

November 17, 2021

Buffalo, New York

Niagara Falls State Park

176 feet tall and 681,750 gallons per second - enough water to fill and Olympic swimming pool every second! Niagara Falls is a group of three waterfalls at the southern end of Niagara Gorge, spanning the border between the province of Ontario in Canada and the state of New York. The largest of the three is Horseshoe Falls, which straddles the international border of the two countries. Formed by the Niagara River, which drains Lake Erie into Lake Ontario, the combined falls have the highest flow rate of any waterfall in North America.  Niagara Falls was formed when glaciers receded at the end of the the last ice age, and water from the newly formed Great Lakes carved a path over and through the Niagara Escarpment en route to the Atlantic Ocean.

Deer Processing 101

 November 11, 2021

Birmingham, Alabama

After watching every episode of the Netflix series "Meat Eater," I decided to begin processing my own deer meat. I bought a meat grinder from the local Bass Pro shop, high grade beef fat from the local butcher and started watching YouTube videos from prominent game processors. For my first deer, I soaked the backstrap in ice water for two days and then used the butterfly cutting technique to make nice fillet style steaks. I carefully worked my way through the front shoulders and rear hams and ground the venison into a 50/50 burger. I've made a chili and am Italian meat sauce with the burger and it couldn't taste any better! The meat had very little "game" flavor and, I think, this is mostly due to the ice bath and care used to remove all unwanted connective tissue fatty meat.

Arcole 2021

January 10-14, 2021Arcole Hunting Club
Arcole, Mississippi

Arcole Hunting Club

Mississippi Delta Zone

This hunt started out with near perfect conditions which wasn't a surprise because we've been planning this hunt since December 2019. The moon was new, the weather was cold and the deer were rutting. The first day brought sleet and rain and the following days were filled with early morning frost and endless deer activity. We spent most afternoon eating steaks and staying warm around a wood-fired stove and campfire. Our hunting group saw several rack bucks but let them all walk in hopes of that once-in-a-lifetime deer. I captured most of the deer on video including a big shooter 10 point that I decided to save for another year.

"Prime Time" written by Doug

It's 5 o'clock now, the wind has died down. The sun has said its goodbyes for it has left the blue skies. There is left but a beautiful glow with all the colors of the rainbow. It lingers long enough for you to enjoy the show. It dies away for it is the end of the day. But it's not, it's about to be the best part of a deer hunter's stay. The phone is put away for there is nothing left to say. It's just you and the deer and the hope that he'll appear. All of your senses are in tune, with your eyes enhanced by binocular zoom. Your ears listen for the sound of a hoof breaking the ground. Your eyes scan around for an unfamiliar spot of brown. It's funny how they seem to pop out of the ground. Then it appears, you can see the flickering of its ears. You look at its head looking for bone not yet shed. Your dreams are coming true for it is he that you view. You know him all too well for he is your screensaver at Shell. This is why you never give up, but a problem erupts. Your heart starts racing and your whole body begins to shake. You take off the safety and hopefully, maybe, your shot will hit its mark as the 300 barks. You didn't see him run, nor did you see him fall. There is a moment of hope but then, nope. Maybe I missed are the words that dampen your bliss. I need to go see for the wait is killing me. You try to stay cool but you take off running like a fool. He is not there and you curse the air. Please God let me find blood or a tuft of brown hair. Don't need to though, he fell further back than you know. Now you see where he lies and you break down and cry and kneel down beside the animal that died. Only a hunter understands these feelings that arise. This is your deer that you've hunted all year. Time to go drink some beer.

Grand Canyon

September 16, 2020

Grand Canyon National Park, Nevada

Mom and I have talked about taking a trip out west to visit my brother in Los Angeles for many years now and we finally bought the plane tickets and took the trip. We started in Atlanta and flew to Las Vegas. 2020 was an unpresented year for many reasons but the most impactful event was a global pandemic caused by COVID-19. Because of the quarantine restrictions, most of the traditional Vegas restaurants and shows were closed so we had to settle for watching the fountain show at the Bellagio and losing our change at the slot machines.

After a couple of days in Vegas, we rented a convertible Ford Mustang and made the drive east to Nevada. We made it to the Grand Canyon just in time for a short afternoon hike. The views were stunning and could have been used for the background of a post card. I'll cherish the time spent on this mother-son trip for a lifetime. We stayed in Flagstaff for the night and then drove west to LA to see my brother where we walked Hollywood Boulevard, met my brother's friends, spent time walking the beaches of the Pacific Ocean and shared food and drinks on a beachside patio.

Arcole 2020: The Third Time Wasn't the Charm

December 14-17, 2019 & January 3, 2020

Arcole, Mississippi

Arcole Hunting Club

There is always an optimism in deer camp at the beginning of a hunt and this was my 3rd year hunting at Arcole with David and Mark. Everyone is excited to get back into the woods and reconnect with your hunting partners from years before. Hunts are typically planned well ahead of time so that all of the major factors can be considered and optimized: a new moon is always preferable to a full moon because it's more difficult for the deer to be active at night, colder weather always incites daytime activity and the mating cycle of the local deer population. We started this hunt a little earlier in the year and most of the influencing factors were not in our favor. For most of the hunt we had a full moon and lots of nocturnal deer activity, warm weather and limited reports of rut activity. We saw a few deer but it was mostly during the middle of the day and the pigs on the property were more active during hunting hours than the deer. I caught a quick video of a big black boar one morning running through the woods but he never really stopped so I could get a shot. David continued the hunt in January when the weather was colder and the bucks were rutting and he was able to take a nice 8-point.

Trout Fishing in North Georgia

August 31, 2019
Clayton, Georgia
Tallulah River

My trout fishing trip to North Georgia started well before daylight as I met my friend, Kellan, and his dad to fly fish the Tallulah River. We researched the trout stocking schedule published by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources to determine which mountain stream we would fish. We went from fishing "hole" to fishing "hole" roll casting the flies upstream of the strike zone. We caught several brown trout and a few rainbows!

Deep Sea Fishing in the Gulf of Mexico

June 27, 2019
Gulf Shores, Alabama

"We need to go deep sea fishing this year." That statement marks the start for the planning phase of our annual family beach vacation. For my dad, it wouldn't be a true beach vacation without some saltwater fishing with his sons. This year we had the whole family together so dad and I were joined by Garrett, Joseph and Kala. We were shocked that some of the women wanted to go on the fishing trip and, I think it's safe to say, that may have been their last fishing trip. 

Saltwater fishing trips come in many forms - early morning bottom fishing, late afternoon trolling and overnight, deep-water adventures. On this trip. we met at the marina before dawn not knowing that we were about to have a world-class fishing experience. We started fishing under the infamous Perdido Pass for baitfish which is where most deep-sea fishing trips begin. After loading the live bait well with mullet we motored out to deeper water in search of some red snapper. 

We caught mangrove snappers and red snappers until we could barely hold our rods upright. The midday sun was our cue to begin the slow ride back to the dock. We smelled like sweat and sea salt but we had caught our limit of red snapper!

Colorado Rockies

February 22-26, 2019
Breckenridge, Colorado

It was a long-time dream to ski the Rocky Mountains while they are covered in late-season snow. This was a memorable trip for so many reason but mostly because of the lack of oxygen. I thought of myself as a resilient young man that could handle the altitude with no problems. I could barely sleep at night because I couldn't catch my breath. Most mornings started with a quick ski lesson and the afternoons ended sharing coffee or hot chocolate in a warm restaurants.

My favorite part of this adventure was riding snowmobiles at Vale Pass. The drive to the outfitter wound through narrow mountains roads covered in ice at times but getting to such a remote location was part of the experience. The snowmobile trail increased in altitude so much that the weather changed at the halfway point and it began snowing and visibility dropped so that you could barely see 20 feet in front of you. The sun came out for just a few minutes at the peak of the trail and I was able to take a quick picture.

Arcole Time

January 16, 2019
Arcole, Mississippi

Arcole Hunting Club 

The second annual Arcole hunting trip was a success. David, Mark and I have made a tradition of hunitng this property every year. I made the trip from Atlanta, Georgia on Sunday and we started the hunt on Monday morning. The weather was cold and the Mississippi river was high. The flooded Mississippi river bottoms had pushed even more deer to Arcole's hunting property and we were excited to get into the stand. The first day was slow and very few hunters saw deer. We were fortunate enough the find a section of the property that had not been hunted much and held rutting bucks. I shot an eight point on Wednesday that was trailing a doe on Wednesday. Freddy Smith at Wildlife Reflections Taxidermy does great work and is going to get this trophy on my wall!

This camp is a special place. The members come from all walks of life including doctors, lawyers, judges, retired military officers and law enforcement. 

Cades Cove and the Abrams Falls Trail

November 11, 2018 
Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tennessee

Cades Cove

Abrams Falls is know for being a small waterfall, only 20 feet in height, with a a large volume of water rushing overs the falls. The long, deep pool at its base is very picturesque and quite dangerous. The October 2008 issue of Backpacker Magazine listed Abrams Falls as their 9th most dangerous hiking trail largely due to the risk of drowning and hypothermia. The slippery rocks and strong current around the pool have caused 29 deaths since 1971.