Alabama dear hunt
 

Hi all. New to the board here.

Just wanting to start gathering some intel. Work has me traveling to the Huntsville AL area in mid Oct or early November. I am an experience hunter but beings that I live in AK I don't hunt whitetail. I would like to get some opinions or directions to head to stalk hunt whitetail with a bow during my visit. Any information would be greatly appreciated!

Hey your not going to ethically stalk a white-tail with a bow on the 1st try lol, My advice is respectfully, hunt them with a gun 1st, one shot kill :)

Welcome, but I think the guys in AL will be able to help you more if you are talking about chasing four legged whitetail deer and not two legged dear! Actually maybe they can help you combine your trip and chase both!

Never saw a 2 legged deer or as you say "dear"?

Whoops. Lol. Didnt notice the typo.

Im pretty experienced hunter with bow and rifle. This forum won't allow me to post a pic but I assure you I can kill any 4 legged critter placed in front of me. If I wasn't confident I wouldn't attempt it. Caribou and Moose are much bigger in the body and far tougher to drop and they fall with a properly placed stick just fine. My major concern is private land obviously not being super familiar with the area. I did some scouting mostly from the car as it was near 95 degrees last time I was down there and the spiders were pretty intense (thats a problem we don't have here).

AK, first, welcome to the site. Second, gjersy kinda touched on something that I will expand on a bit. Having hunted Alaska for many moons now, I know the hunting up there and how most of the species act while still hunting. Whitetail deer are a whole other animal than what you are used to hunting. Most of the areas in Alaska have mostly unpressured animals while Alabama deer are most definitely experienced in hunting pressure and equate human scent with danger much more quickly. Stalking whitetail is much different than sneaking up on caribou and moose, especially into bow range.

Im not sure where you were hunting unpressured caribou and moose up here. Maybe you can help me out with some of those areas! I hunt primarily unit 13 here due to proximity of my living area and let me tell you those are some of the most highly pressured animals in any state. I have personally watched a group of 20 hunters unload on a herd of caribou. Granted they typically are less sketchy than dear but they still get pressure. Bear here are probably our toughest quarry along with moose and I've got within bow range of both. I can handle a whitetail.

Trust me, AK. In comparison to probably 95% of Alaskan big game, the whitetail deer, especially in the Southern states such as Alabama, are 100 times more skiddish. I've had Moose practically run over me more times than I care to remember. I've shared my fishing holes with Brownies a LOT more than people. Caribou, while one of the absolute best tasting of the deer family, are pretty much the easiest to take. I'm not trying to cast doubt on your skill set as I know nothing about you. But I AM saying that your inexperience with whitetail will make things much more difficult than you might imagine. Your best bet will be to team up with someone you know around there and hang stands. Spot and stalk archery whitetail, while it is done successfully, isn't as easy as some may think.

I guess I should re-phrase. I dont intend to "stalk" like I would a caribou or moose. More or less find an area and hide and wait. I typically don't "stalk" game I find an area where they frequent and wait for them to pass.

AK, there is a very good reason that most hunters that hunt whitetails hunt from an elevated stand. As has been stated whitetail deer in the woods do not act like other species. I have several friends that have hunted and taken several Caribou in both Alaska and Canada, the one think they had in common was they all said the hardest part of the hunt was deciding which bull to take. If you believe you can stalk close enough to make an ethical shot on a whitetail, go for it, but it will not be as easy as you think.

Whole different story there. Control your scent and remain as motionless as possible and if you have done your homework and found the travel routes with good choke points then you should be successful in getting some meat on the ground. Whitetail tend to use ancestral trails until they start getting pressured then they go to secondary trails and escape routes as well as going more nocturnal. One other thing, them bama deer are some little buggers for the most part so practice shooting at lower targets.

I wish that I had some of the issues you guys talk about. "what bull to take" "unpressured animals". While this may be the norm for some remote areas anywhere a normal person can drive and traverse without taking a bush flight this is not the norm. Im gonna make a guess by the way you guys talk that our black bear are similar acting. Extremely cautious, highly developed sense of smell and very quick to make an escape. We are generally successful by watching where they are traversing and waiting for them to pass. Alabama is much flatter than AK which will present some challenges Im sure but I'm sure there are areas where one can find some cover and spend a little time in the woods.

I have a whole line of scent control stuff I use up here for black bear that would probably work. I typically wash and spray my clothes with enzyme killer and then seal them in a tub with some spruce. Wash with scent free soap before leaving the house and keep my clothes sealed until I'm in the woods.

My biggest issue is land access. A lot more of the lower 48 is private than up here. Probably gonna be some issues I assume.

Gonna be some educational issues as well. You ask for intel and opinions and info on a species and an area you don't know from people who have been there and done that. You chose to discount it. I wish you luck.

Im not doubting that they are hard to sneak up on. What my issue with some of these statements is that you assume or imply that I don't have the ability. I asked for information and what I got was a bunch of "you can't". What I would like is some viable intel like that provided about the trails. Something useful, not just telling me what my abilities are.

No one has said you "don't have the ability". What we have said is you may find it much more complex than I think you imagine it to be. Now, as far as your analogy comparing them to the Black Bear from your area (Dist.13) I think you are probably correct somewhat. I haven't hunted Dist.13 in probably 25 years or so, so my knowledge about that area and the pressures on the animals is somewhat dated to put it mildly. I fly in to areas that the animals have little to no human contact. Have for years. What we are trying to get across to you is that it will be a little to a lot different than what you are used to. Speculation (all you have at the moment) is much different than experience and we have just been attempting to share that experience with you.

AK, I am sure coming from Alaska, your outdoors skills are a lot higher then most of your counter parts in lower 48, myself included, heck, a lot of people in the lower 48 think they are in the "boonies' when blacktop ends...lol. I have never hunted Alabama, but would think food sources would be a top priority, close to bedding area. I have heard Alabama has a lot of leased land and also hunt clubs. So, access might be the hardest part. That is the case in so many states, just getting into a prime whitetail area is hard. I take it your flying down? Otherwise, you would be driving thru some PRIME whitetail states on your way down. The hardest part in states like my home, Montana, is getting a tag this late in the game. Hopefully Alabama has permits available. Good luck with it!

I know for a fact what you are wanting to do can be done in Alabama. Here in Michigan if you were a archery hunter you were forced to hunt from the ground up until the 1970's and many did so.
The secret that most can't under stand with all the crap being sold today is moving slow really slow like if you break a tree branch your around to see a new shoot grow near the broken one, your moving so slow.
If you have the experience which it sound as if you do then your a step ahead.


:D Al

All i can say is, hunt hard bud, watch the wind.

Access is my primary concern. On last visit I spent a good deal of time cruising around and did some hiking in the sipsey wilderness area since it was the only public land in relative proximity to where I was. If anyone knows anything about this area a little information would be appreciated.

You might be able to post some type of ad mentioning when you were coming down and that you were looking to hunt. Craigslist would be a good start. Basically down here we set up in a stand or in a blind and wait. Advertising that you were looking and could pay x amount of $, you would probably have some leads. Even searching craigslist could be helpful.

P.S Watch for snakes. It's still going to be warm during the days.