Mulberry Fork Wildlife Management Area
We had an entire
hunting party in the woods this morning. Jonathan, one of his family members,
Jake, and I all went on the November 25th gun hunt this morning. I took Jake to one of my
favorite hunting spots on the management area called one shot. I shot a 98 pound
button buck at 7:00 AM. My 270 caliber Winchester Ballistic Silvertip did its work on the animal and he did not take another step after the shot rang through the woods. Jake was hunting close to me so I went and guided him for the rest of the morning. I was
able to put him on a doe walking through a hardwood bottom shortly after killed my deer. He managed to make a great shot on one of the branches but not the deer.
Jonathan's girlfriend,
now wife, let us bring her dad and brother along with us for the hunt. No one
saw any deer except Jake and myself. We took my deer back to Whitney's house and processed it for the meat. The hunt continued that
afternoon at a different part of the management area. This marks one of the
best days that I have had hunting on the Mulberry Fork property. Jonathan and I
split up on the same hunting spot and Jonathan was able to kill a big, cow-horn spike right before
dark. It is a rare day to shoot a double on public property but we were able to
pull it off. The success we had today was due to a combination of preparation and opportunity. We spent countless hours scouting this property, finding the best hunting spots and mapping the deer activity. We also spent countless hours in the deer stand waiting for shot opportunities on these deer.
Hunting public
management are in Alabama is very challenging. Most of the hunting property in
the state is personally owned and leased. Majority of hunters can’t afford to pay
the high fees of a hunting lease and resort to hunting publicly managed properties. Most public management areas are severely
over hunted and lack the proper management to grow trophy animals. Mulberry Fork Wildlife Management Area is an exception because it has a unique strategy for managing
its deer population on its 35,000 acres. The state only permits bow
hunting on this property with the exception of a few days where gun hunting is
allowed. These gun hunts attract hunters from all over the state to try their
luck on a low pressure, public hunting property. I have had decent success
during one of these gun hunts and here is the story.
November
25, 2011
We had an entire
hunting party in the woods this morning. Jonathan, one of his family members,
Jake, and I all went on the November 25th gun hunt this morning. I took Jake to one of my
favorite hunting spots on the management area called one shot. I shot a 98 pound
button buck at 7:00 AM. My 270 caliber Winchester Ballistic Silvertip did its work on the animal and he did not take another step after the shot rang through the woods. Jake was hunting close to me so I went and guided him for the rest of the morning. I was
able to put him on a doe walking through a hardwood bottom shortly after killed my deer. He managed to make a great shot on one of the branches but not the deer.
Jonathan's girlfriend,
now wife, let us bring her dad and brother along with us for the hunt. No one
saw any deer except Jake and myself. We took my deer back to Whitney's house and processed it for the meat. The hunt continued that
afternoon at a different part of the management area. This marks one of the
best days that I have had hunting on the Mulberry Fork property. Jonathan and I
split up on the same hunting spot and Jonathan was able to kill a big, cow-horn spike right before
dark. It is a rare day to shoot a double on public property but we were able to
pull it off. The success we had today was due to a combination of preparation and opportunity. We spent countless hours scouting this property, finding the best hunting spots and mapping the deer activity. We also spent countless hours in the deer stand waiting for shot opportunities on these deer.