Thursday, October 9, 2008

Good Bye City I'm Country Bound!

After 2 months of Charlottesville and school life, I finally get to go home this weekend! It'll be the first time I get into the woods this season and, more importantly, the first time I get to see my family since August. Cody and I haven't really talked too much about our hunting strategies for the weekend, but we're both hoping to have a successful weekend. I actually have two days off for fall break next Monday and Tuesday so I'll be able to hunt for 3 days over this long weekend! Anyways, I can hardly wait until tomorrow when I can head home, hopefully Cody and I will both have some success stories for you next week sometime. Good luck to all of those heading into the woods this weekend!

2 comments:

Tommy Nunley said...

Hey Cody,
If you have a chance shoot me an email at tnunley@gmail.com, I would like to talk to you about your Pursuit II XLT. Hope you're having a great season!

Anonymous said...

http://www.mikehanback.com/rutReport/index.cfm?region=south

Thought I would share this link with you guys. Mike Hanback has set up a section on his blog where hunters post what they are seeing (in terms of rutting activity) in the woods.

Since I don't bowhunt, I've always had trouble gauging what stage the rut is in once muzzleloader season opens. Because of that, I've been hesitant to call and rattle during muzzleloading. After reading several articles, however, it seems to me that the peak of the "seek & chase" phase in Virginia occurs sometime between the first couple of weeks in November, with peak breeding occurring during the general firearms season. To me, that indicates that aggressive rattling and calling would be more productive during muzzleloading than rifle season.

During the past two general firearms seasons, the woods have basically been dead (i.e. breeding stage) and all but one deer, including both bucks, were tagged via stillhunting. Now I'm not very good or keen at stillhunting, but when bucks are "holed" up with their does, I'm beginning to think that covering more area during that lull is a very productive tactic.

I am interested to see what yall's take and experience has been as to the dates of various rutting stages and the techniques you employ during each stage, since both of you are in the woods throughout the various seasons.

Good luck and take'r easy