Getting ready for deer season. Deer hunters are getting all excited, planting food plots, scouting for natural food sources and getting equipment ready. Archery season opens this Saturday and hunting a food source, or the trail between feeding and bedding areas, is usually the best bet now.
On October 15 Primitive weapons season opens for a week. That week you can continue to hunt with a bow but you can also use a muzzle loader. Then gun, or modern fire arms, season opens on October 22 and stays open here until January 8, 2017.
Like last year hunting is buck only in area counties until November 5, then you can shoot does until November 13. It is buck only again until November 21 when doe days are open until January 1. There are a wide variety of different doe seasons around the state. Those dates include Spalding and surrounding counties but doe days are different as close to us as Merriweather and Bibb counties, so check before going.
If you hunt with a long bow you should have been shooting it for weeks, making sure you can hit your target. If using a cross bow it is more like shooting a gun but you need to practice with it to learn its range limitations and accuracy.
Gun hunters should never go into woods without zeroing in their guns. I have heard all too many times a guy say “I don’t know how I missed that big buck.” Than they shoot their gun at a target and the sights are way off. Their excuse is usually something along the lines “It was dead on four years ago when I checked it.”
Griffin Gun Club hosts a sight in day, usually the first Saturday in October, when the public can bring their guns and some ammo to the range and members will help make sure your gun is accurate. It is a great time to have someone that is good at sighting in guns help you.
Right now deer are feeding on a variety of things, from grass and vines to mushrooms. After the rain this weekend there should be a lot of mushrooms to attract deer on opening day. Deer love mushrooms and I usually find them in pine woods, growing in the pine straw litter. The only problem with hunting mushrooms is they are scattered and it is hard to pattern the deer, and they last for only a few days.
It won’t be long before acorns start falling, and they are deer’s favorite food. Find a big whiteoak tree dropping lots of acorns and you are almost guaranteed a deer will find it too and feed around it. Set up on a hillside with lots of oaks and you should see deer feeding through the area.