 |
 |
| click on banner to return to home page |
 |
| Welcome to the Deer Hunting Article Page of Outdoors Louisiana. We hope everyone enjoys these hunting stories, and feel free to send in one that you wrote yourself as well!! |
| It was a "typical" weekend during the later half of the Louisiana deer season......raining! I was sitting around wishing I could go deer hunting, but the rains were a little to hard for me to brave to outdoors. Sunday morning came along and I poured myself a cup of coffee, sat down with a new hunting magazine and read an article on wet weather deer hunting. I figured what could be more fitting for the weather we have been having this deer season! Well, as I read on, I started to get the "itch" to go ahead and get out. And, as luck would have it, the rain had slowed to a steady sprinkle by noon time. After talking things over with myself, I decided what the heck! Can't do anything else anyway, it is way to wet anyway! |
| So, after my morning coffee, and "constitutional", I got my deer hunting cloths on, loaded my Remington, a hand full of shells, and rubber boots in the truck, and headed off to the woods. As I drove towards Bodcau WMA in Northwest Louisiana, the rain would pick up at times and make me reconsider my earlier decision. Then the sun would pop out at times making me think that I'll have the woods to myself, no one will be hunting today! As I drove the thought of where to hunt came to mind, becasue of my late start, I would only have a few hours to hunt. |
| I decided to hunt the borderline fence of the WMA, this fence runs all the way around the thirty-six thousand plus acre management area. The particular section I had in mind, ran paraell to a dirt access road, but seperated by a hundred yards or so of oak bottoms. On the other side of the fence was some of the thickest brush I've ever seen, this was the "crawl on your hands and knees" to get through it kind of brush! |
| The fence line ran pretty straight for a few hundred yards, and aside from a few brush piles here and there, was clear enough to see for a good ways. Now, here is where the key to hunting this type of area is......there was a spot, where a large tree had fallen over the fence. This tree had crushed down the fence, making it easy for any deer in the area to simply step over it, moving from the thick bedding cover to the oak feeding area. Whitetailed deer are kinda lazy sometimes, they figure, why jump the fence, when it's down over there? And, I knew this to be true because of the deeply rutted out trail I had found there earlier in the season. |
 |
| When I "sloshed" up in my old four wheel drive truck, there was a pretty steady rain falling. Not the down pour kind, but a steady rain. I looked at my watch as I loaded the ol' 06, it was three o'clock in the evening. Despite my efforts, I had managed to leave my rain gear at the house! Oh well, I closed the door of the truck as quietly as I could, shouldered my rifle, and started towards the fence line. |
| I managed to reach the fence line before I became completly soaked, took a right turn and started towards the "log" crossing the fence I had planned to hunt. As I closed the distance to the log, a movement caught my eye in the thicket on the other side of the fence. I frooze, and studied the movements, it was dark, skinny, vertical and black, and in a few minutes, these turned into deer legs, and they belonged to a buck! |
| It seems, the buck was making his way to the log crossing at the exact same time I was getting there. I was on one side, and he was on the other when I noticed him making his way to the crossing. I slowly eased foward some more, he had no idea anyone was around, that's the good part about hunting in a steady rain, it covers your scent, sound, and movements. As the buck neared the crossing, I slowly raised to 742 Woodsmaster to my shoulder. But, and here comes that word again, as "luck" would have it, he stopped! That's right, he stopped but before he crossed the fence, yep, still on the other side! Things started to come unwound a little now, because there he was, head held low, looking right at me, and I was stuck there looking at him through the rifles scope, and not having a clear shot through all the brush! It was a stare down! The buck eyeing me with his head down low, and me through the scope. I guess the buck figured that he had better back up, and return to the thicket to figure things out. He shifted his weight and took one step back, and that was his wrong doing! Because when he made that little move, he lined up his vital area with a hole through the brush. The cross hairs found their mark, the rifle went off, and the bullet was already on it's way when the buck tried to wheel around and head back into the thicket. When it was all said and done, he was down in mere feet from where the stare down took place a few moments ago. |
| I looked down at my watch, that's when I noticed how long my hunt had lasted. It was three o'clock in the evening when I got out of my truck, the buck was laying still on the ground at three-thirty!! I walked over to the log, and stepped over the fence to admire this fine little six pointer. He was colored really dark, with almost black legs and a lot of black on his face and back. I hauled him out to the fence, and then on to the thruck, and, after a few attempts, some huffing and puffing, finally got him loaded into the bed of my truck. As I headed back towards the house, it wasn't even dark yet, and I tried to recall if I have ever had a shorter hunt than thirty minutes......nope! |
| I entered that little crossing spot in my metal files (along with many more) for future use. And the future use came the very next weekend, and with almost the exact same results. It took longer than thirty minutes, but not much more! Another hunter had ventured into my hunting area, and had pushed a big five pointer over to the crossing I had hunted earlier, and the end result was the same! |
| Those sending in articles will recive a free "Team Outdoors Louisiana" window decal, please include a mailing address with your e-mails |
 |