First Frost Overnight: Will the Cold Snap Trigger the Rut?

With our overnight temperature dipping into the low and mid-thirties, we have that first good cold snap of the fall here in the Blue Ridge. Many deer experts believe a sudden cold snap this time of year triggers does beginning their estrus cycles. We all know that does beginning that cycle is what actually triggers the rut.

Combine this significant change in our temperatures with the decreased amount of hunting due to an unseasonably warm fall [low number of deer taken during archery season is being reported by Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency] and we have what I believe are the makings for a fantastic muzzleloader season scheduled to begin Saturday, November 3, 2007.

Hunters should note that the number of days anterless deer may be harvested during the first segment of smoke-pole season has been increased:

This year, there have been two days added to the time antlerless deer can be taken by muzzleloader hunters. Last year, hunters were allowed either-sex deer during only the first 3 days of the muzzleloader season. The last 4 days were antlered-only. Hunters are still allowed to take one deer during the 7-day muzzleloader season, but they have 5 days to hunt either-sex, with the last two days being antlered-only.

Finally, we have good news all the way around to get excited about.

Time Travel: I Just Went Back 40 Years

By Mike Faulk
Dad was a simple man with simple tastes. If there was an easy way and a hard way, he'd try the easy way first. And so it was with the selection of meals when in deer camp.

In 1967 as a fifteen year old boy, he and older brother Loy let me tag along on a deer hunt with a single shot 20 gauge Savage shotgun loaded with a 'punkin' ball. The firearm was my Christmas present the year before and I had put it to good use during squirrel season.

Shot shells were one thing. A round with a slug in the shell casing was another thing all together. In Barney Fife tradition, I was allowed to carry two extra rounds in my front shirt pocket "just in case."

While I didn't want for food, my selection was limited. All suppers were the same: fried bologna sandwiches and baked beans. Dad packed all the extras needed to fire up the taste buds when eating that fried bologna sandwich: mayonnaise, lettuce and tomato.

He'd bring the late season tomatoes still green on the vine inside before the first frost and let them ripen in the garage. They would be just about right by the time deer season rolled around.

Mayo and lettuce would usually keep outside in late November. Ice was just too much hassle to haul along when staying in a camper in deer woods of northeast Tennessee.

I had a fried bologna, mayonnaise, lettuce and tomato sandwich for lunch today. The contrast between the succulent, hot bologna and the cool lettuce was striking. The smell and the taste of today's sandwich triggered a memory long lost.

The memory hit me like a ton of bricks. It hit me so hard that I was instantly transported back forty years to those glorious days in the woods with Dad and Loy to that time when - by merely letting me go with them - they acknowledged I was man enough to hunt.

I'm so grateful that he included me in his deer camp - that he made that memory for me which is so vivid and sweet today. While I surely miss him, I can't tell him thank you. He's been gone over 25 years now. Until I see him again, the very best way I know how to tell him "thank you" is to make a similar memory for my son - for any of our sons and daughters who are ready for their time in deer camp.

Take a child hunting this weekend during Tennessee's juvenile hunt. You'll both be glad you did.

Mixed Reports on Mast; Chuck Swan Slow

Given rainfall totals running at one-half of normal and the abominable heat that has persisted into October, I fully expect to hear from each of my hunting buddies and others who've spent time in the woods reports of a poor mast. Surprisingly, I have, once again, been proven wrong. It's my habit to inquire about mast to get a read on what deer might do once the leaves are gone and the first frost falls.

Oddly and with some consistency, ample acorns have been found high - especially along ridge lines. Others report average mast in certain hollows and valleys that have been blessed with more rain - those areas with a micro climate better than the region's averages.

These mast reports have me more optimistic about the upcoming muzzleloader and rifle seasons than I was a month ago.

Saturday's travels took me past a couple of convenience stores filled with bow hunters taking lunch breaks at Chuck Swan. Some of my first rifle hunts as a teenager took place at Chuck Swan - then called Central Peninsula. It's a rugged, beautiful, and remote expanse surrounding Norris Lake that always triggers fond memories of times with older brother Loy, Dad, and their hunting friends.

The number of deer checked at local designated stations was low. The continuing summer-like heat seemed to be the most often cited reason for the low harvest. I also heard the same mixed reports on Union and Claiborne County mast.

Stay on the Stand

DO AS I SAY- NOT AS I DO: “STAY ON THE STAND”
By
Mike Faulk

You have heard it before. You’ll hear it again. Stay on your stand as long as you can. The sacrifices one makes in staying perched in a tree are miniscule in comparison to the reward for staying. You’ll never know what you missed [unless, of course you’re using a trail camera] when you leave.

Often times I just don’t have twelve consecutive hours to stay on the stand to deer hunt. The point here is to maximize the amount of time one spends on the stand when you are in the woods.

My “stand survival” fanny pack, which when filled with these contents weighs less than two pounds, includes a bottle of water, an empty bottle for discharge of urine, nature bars, crackers, an apple or pear, a couple of pieces of hard candy, hand-warmer heat packets, an extra pair of gloves heavier than the ones I’m wearing, an extra toboggan warmer than the cap or toboggan I’m wearing, eye drops, a few tablets of ibuprofen, a handkerchief and some lip balm.

Long hours on post allow my mind to drift. If I’m not totally zoned into the hunt, my wandering mind inevitably turns to some matter of personal comfort. Very item in this fanny pack is included based on a previous bad experience that led to my climbing down out of the stand to take care of some personal need.

If I’m cold, I’m distracted. If my tummy is rumbling for something to eat, I’m distracted. If I’m sneezing or coughing, I’d distracted. If my back hurts or muscles ache from long hours clinging to a perch, I’m distracted.

Distraction and boredom are my two worst enemies. Too much of either and I’m ready to climb down.

Sometimes, we do know what we missed from climbing down too soon. How many times have you half-heartedly scanned your surroundings before exiting a tree stand and then on the way down watched in wonder as a group of white flags wave good-bye with a hardy gallop? Or on the way out on the trail away from the stand you are busted by a blowing doe warning all wildlife in ear shot that danger is near?

Just this past Sunday, I climbed down to sate my caffeine lust. The old log cabin is less than 60 yards from the nearest ladder stand overlooking a small food plot of greens. We carefully groom the trail so as to leave the least amount of scent when we go in and out. I didn’t think I’d mess up the trail by a brief trip to the coffee pot. After all, I thought, that cabin is close by for my convenience.

After making it to the stove and taking my Styrofoam cup to the front porch rocker, I watched in utter disgust as 3 deer passed less than twenty yards to the far side of the tree holding the ladder stand where I’d been ten minutes before. Had I stayed one of the does would have been easy pickings. Giving up backstraps and smoked venison hams for a cup of coffee was hardly a fair trade. I knew better when I climbed down. But that need for caffeine and the shear convenience of close-at-hand coffee was just the distraction that caused me to make a bad deal.

“Do as I say; not as I do," Mom said often. I should have listened more carefully.

Deer Love Water-born Plants

Find water; find water-based plant life; find deer!