Well, drove up to the Hill to get this years permit. Fairly normal. Vehical inspections running. No problems. Dave at game check got us ready to roll. Rode around to see if I could see if anything has changed. Didn' t spot anything. Dave did say that some logging was done in TA 20. Saw 4 deer at 3pm. A velvet spike, one doe and two fawns.

Dove hunted in Hanover on Monday. Not red hot but not too bad. Shot up 2 boxes of shells. Felt good. Ready for bow season. Except for the skeeters.

Dayton

Hey Ranger....

I was there too! Small world! [8D] I went up on Saturday around 10:30am to check it out and got my permit too. I' ve been by AP Hill many many times, traveling up 301, but just never stopped in. My first impression of the place? HUGE!!!! The potential is incredible! With me being retired Coast Guard, the army guys were really cool and one of the guys in that inspection station joked to me, " Man, let me tell you this place... If you' re hunting deer and you go home empty handed, you ought to just hang it up... I think they said the total last year was 1200 deer that were bagged..." [:-]

If you want to meet up at AP Hill sometime, let me know. I will be using my PSE compound bow on the base.

Butch

Guys,

I' ve been hunting this place for about 15 years now. The guard' s were right, if you go home empty you may as well give up. It is not uncommon for me to se 20-30 deer per day while out there hunting. The bucks aren' t big but there are a bunch. The does are out of this world.

1200 deer is not really a large number. They could stand to take 2000 off of the base and it still would be over run with them. Remember. Last year was a full season and they took 1200 . After Sept 11 they had a 15 day season in December and took 1150.

Yup... I remember watching that safety video thing, and hearing them say something about letting the small 6 pointers walk. Let ' em grow up a bit before taking them. Regarding the does... I think they said they encourage you to take a doe because they keep breeding and breeding like rabbits, and next thing you know, there' s 5000 fawns all over the place!

Butch

They might suggest that you let the small ones go so they can grow up a little bit, but you will see everything in the line to check out, from spikes (with 3" of horn) up to tens. Nothing walks down there and nothing much bigger than a ten has been take recently. I know of one 12 pointer and one 14 that have been taken within the last three years. Most are small bucks. If you look on their webpage you can see some of the most recent larger bucks that came from the hill. Mine is the top left.

As far as does, shoot all that you see. I think that they should allow two does a day on doe days. It is appalling that you can only harvest one doe a day. They could have a doe day all year long and still have a very large herd.

http://www.aphill.army.mil/

I haven' t hunted there very much. And only one day last year. I have been in TA 7, 12 mostly. I am primarily a bow hunter. Any helpful advice on where to go to be overrun with those does would be great. I need the practice. Deer getting close to me while bowhunting still gives me the shakes.

Where should I be looking?

Dayton

I' m not sure... I know that TA 1 is bowhunting only. Maybe we should hang with 02bhntn! [8D] That is an awesome buck that he got in that picture!

Butch