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                                                            Walking Familiar Ground

              October 19, 2008. I'm out of the bed about 1 hour before daylight. Slipping around the kitchen, trying not to wake anyone up, trying to figure out where everythings at, this takes me about half an hour. I turn on the tv for some weather, and it's a nice crisp 29 degrees outside with sunny skies in the forecast. With the signs I saw yesterday on my 45 minute scout and the position of the moon, everything is perfect, well maybe not exactly perfect, the moon is a little bit off, but close enough.

              The reason I entitled this story, walking familiar ground, is because it is about 90 acres that I have access to every year in the area where I live. I've walked this ground every since I was a kid. I know every big tree, every big rock, ditch, hollows, benches and ridges. The day I decided to go scouting, I already had a pretty good idea where the deer would be. My scout consisted of a 45 minute ride on a 4 wheeler, I recon that's a little bit lazy, but that's what I had time for. But whether you are hunting familiar ground or unfamiliar ground, there are certain signs that you always look for.

           First stop, nice rub, and to the right you can see a hunting blind i built a few years ago, it's sits up on top of a ridge, definitely a good location, a little bit thick though, but this rub wasn't here a week and a half ago when I took a walk thru this area. To the left of this rub, the ground is littered with crab apples, as shown in the picture below.

             After the frost hits good, the deer should be hitting these apples and they are giving frost warnings for tomorrow morning, second stop, beech tree in the bottom, where I hope to find a scrape.

              Sure enough. You can see the beech leaves and poplar leaves out side the scrape. You can also vaguely make out, the hoof drags through the scrape. This is an indication of which way the buck is traveling. Next stop, back upon another ridge. I think I will see how the persimmons are doing.

              Well the persimmons are starting to change colors. But they are not dropping very well yet and they haven't had a good frost, which increases the sugar content, then they turn real sweet, I don't know if any of you have ever tried persimmon candy, but you take the seeds out of the persimmon, put sugar in the bottom of a mason jar. Put a layer of persimmons, then another layer of sugar, and you do this until you fill the jar up. Put the lid on it and let is set for about a week or so until "walla" you have candy. Now don't let anything like that sit in the sun. The suns rays starts the breaking down process. All that sugar, guaranteed not to be good for you, but it taste pretty good. As an herbalist, I reconize that the persimmon tree has much greater value as a medicinal plant. It's tree bark was once used in helping to treat leopracy. But let's get back to the story. Deer love these things, this is not the right place to be just yet. So I think I will swing around to a white oak ridge

              Deer most usually will pick the white oak trees over any the rest of the oaks, they also like beechnut. As you can see in the picture below, there is a good mass crop this year, and I will definitely be hunting close to these oaks.

              There is no doubt about it, these are all good signs. The deer activities have definitely picked up and they have definitely been working on these acorns. About 65  yards from here, I have a tree stand in a maple, and there is a good chance there will be another scrape.

             This stand sets on the edge of a small field with a nice oak grove behind me. And just as I figured, here is a scrape. A lot of times you will find a majority of buck signs down in the hollows. But hollows are hard to hunt, and the biggest reason is probably scent control. Winds swirl and twist and carry your scent in different directions, and even though I use baking soda for scent control, 90% of the time I will always pick the ridges unless it's a windy day. And then I go for benches where the wind is blocked off of them.

             Well it's starting to get light, it's the day of the hunt, and I have not felt this kind of cold since last year, and does it ever feel good. I make my way to my hunting spot on top of an oak ridge. As I make my way to the tree I am going to hunt from, I spot movement. After a few minutes of being still, I can make out a small rack on a buck about 60 yards from me. I slip back down the hill hoping not to spooke the deer, then I circle around as quietly as possible and make my way to the tree, finally I get set up. I'm about 25 feet up off the ground. I pull my crossbow up and try to get comfortable. I hang my crossbow on a limb, lean my head back and relax. After about 15 or 20 minutes, here come 3 doe. I watch the doe casually feed for a long time. One of them gets about 10 yards away from my stand. I think to myself, I bet that sure would taste good in a skillet. But I opt not, and after a while the doe's  disappear down into the hollow. My toes are a little bit cool, but when the sun came up, it started heating through my black rubber boots. I can still see my breath, so far it's just been a perfect morning. After a while had passed, I spot movement again coming across the field. First I see 2 doe, after a few minutes another one, after a few more minutes another one. They make their way by my stand about 40 yards away, they are moving their way up into the white oaks. But after a while they make their way over top of the ridge to where I can longer see them. After about 10 minutes of them leaving my sight, I spot movement again. This time it's a buck. He is following the exact same path that all 4 of the doe were traveling. I try to look at his antlers, and determine the size of his rack. He looks pretty descent to me. He's following the exact same path as the doe, and when he gets within that 40 yard mark, I think to myself, I think I'll take this one. I wait until he enters the range, I've already got my crossbow up, he walks into a perfectly clear shooting lane. My crossbow is sighted in for 30 yards, so I put the bead a little high on his shoulder and squeeze the trigger. The shot looks good.

I sit down and wait for about an hour. The buck went about 30 yards and laid down. Then I hear dogs. Here come the 4 doe that went over the ridge earlier right before the buck. But the buck that was laying in a thicket, hadn't moved yet. Then the dogs came down and jumped the deer up. I thought to myself, this is just great. I went back to the house and got me something to eat. I thought to myself, I know I made a good shot on that deer, even though there wasn't a lot of blood, so after eating, I went to take another look, and after an extensive search, I recovered the deer. The shot was about 4" back farther than I wanted the arrow to be placed. So instead of getting both lungs, I got the bottom lobe of the right lung.  So I recon in it's own way, it was a perfect morning. These are the rewards of walking familiar ground.                                   

10/22/08

Scott Adkins

These writing and pictures are exclusive property of crossbowhunters.com

                                                The last hunt of the year

             Here I am in January with a tag to fill, and the rut is long gone. Gun season has come and went. The weather has turned real cold. On my way to the stand, I never even seen so much as a squirrel. I go into the woods with a positive attitude, that this is going to be the day I get my buck. After about 1 1/2 hours of sitting on the stand, the cold starts to work thru my clothing. I take a chill, with an hour before dark. My positive attitude is not as positive as it first was when I entered the woods.

             It's about a 1/2 hour later. I think to myself about my stand setup, have I put it in the right place? Then I go over the facts in my head. In late season deer are looking for just one thing, and that's food. There is a patch of honeysuckle running along a pine thickett with a stand of white oaks running across the ridge, this is a good edge, the deer have to be there. My clothing has been scent treated, I've done everything I should do.

            It's about 15 minutes till dark now, and it's getting colder. Then finally I spot some movement. Then a deer appears. It's an old doe and another one right behind her. I watch the deer as they feed on the honeysuckle just to my left. After watching the deer for a few minutes, it begins to get darker. There is only one day left and it's going to be colder tomorrow.I haven't seen the buck that was in this area since gun season. Maybe someone got him. If I take one of the doe's, I can be eating tenderloin, summer sausage, or deer roast with potatos and carrots while in the warmth of my home, so I slowly pick up my crossbow and take aim at the doe that is standing about 25 yards away, perfectly broadside. I launch the bolt. It's a perfect shot. When I hear something behind me, I quickly turn and look. It was the big buck I was hunting for, running away. I drop my head. What did I do! AFter a few more minutes go by, I get down out of my stand and go to look for the doe that I heard crash about 60 to 70 yards away.

            Two weeks later, I am still thinking about the big buck that got away, but I am doing it in the warmth of my own home, sitting here writing this story, and eating summer sausage and crackers. HUH. I recon that's deer hunting

written by Scott Adkins

                                                                     A SPRING HUNT

       Turkey season came in the 18th here in Ohio. Here it is the 23rd and  I haven't even been out yet. Looks like tomorrow is my lucky day, as far as having the time to go hunting. I check my calls, check my crossbow and arrows, to make sure everything is ready to go. The weather was pretty cool today, after having a nice week with temperatures in the 80's, there are some places giving a chance of snow tomorrow. I recon we will just have to wait and see. I set the alarm clock for 6 am and get to bed. I finally get to sleep, and then I am awakened by the alarm clock. I jump out of bed and get my camo on, I go to the door and turn on the light and there's snow. I think to myself, snow! and this is the last of april and we have snow on the ground, in a bad mood, I walk around the house, then I decide to call and find out what the temperature is, 31 degrees, the last of april and it's 31 degrees!! MAN. This stinks. So I go lay down on the couch, and after a few minutes I fall back to sleep. Then about 9:30,a.m. I wake up. I get up off the couch and look out the window. It's spitting snow and raining a little too. I think well, do I go out or sit in the house all day. I decided to go out, so I put an extra sweatshirt on under my camo, grab my crossbow and take off. After walking for about 20 minutes, I'm finding my way thru a swamp bottom. Thinking if there are any turkey's out, they'll be up on the ridge above the swamp.

       Now I'm making my way up the hill toward the top of the ridge. I'm walking thru sycamore, elm and popular trees. Then I look down. Look there it's a morrel mushroom. A nice big white morrel mushroom.

                                            WARNING!!! some mushrooms are very, very

                                            poisonous. If you are not familiar with edible and  non

                                            dible mushrooms, before eating, contact someone who is.

         I think to myself, well if there's one there's probably more. I walk slowly around the hill looking for more mushrooms. After about 2 hours, I have 15 of them. In the area I live, it has not been very good for morrell mushrooms. It seems like you find fewer and fewer every year. But there's definitely enough here, to make a good meal. It's about 10 minutes till 12:00, and legal hunting time ends at noon. So now my turkey hunt has turned into a scout. I walk on up to the top of the ridge, and follow the ridge for about 200 yards. I drop down over the bank onto a bench that runs around the side of the ridge. Guess what I find? Turkey signs. Turkey scratchings everywhere. You could tell they were fresh. They had been in here this morning sometime, here's a picture.

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