11/16 Big surprise in Kentucky

  • by Rick Hill
  • November 17, 2010
  • 264
                        
Last week I told you that Cowboy Jon and I would be heading down for our annual deer hunt to the property in Kentucky. This is usually a pretty low key trip. We see some deer, and shoot a doe or a spindly racked buck. The terrain is rugged, and the walking is straight up or straight down. There are no crops planted within twenty miles of the properties, so the deer subsist on the little bit of grass available, and acorns. With no crops to attract them, the deer are spread out over large areas, and difficult to pattern. With a few exceptions over the years the only successful way to hunt them has been spot, and stalk. We have also passed on several opportunities in the past depending on where we saw them because of the difficulties in dragging a harvested deer off the mountains. I called this an annual trip because we had been going down once a year since the ninety’s. We skipped the last several years because of busy schedules, and a general lack of enthusiasm. I had been down for several family funerals the last few years, but was really surprised when we remembered it had been five years since we had hunted the properties. Three years ago a neighbor ask if he could hunt the property, and put some feeders out. Since we spend so little time down there, we agreed to let him hunt, and keep an eye on the place. He also mentioned that he might put out some food plots, and we thought that would be great. It worked out that another hunting buddy, Randy “the French hater” could go with us, so Sunday evening the three of us loaded up for the six hour trip. Not knowing the condition of the house, and arriving after midnight, we opted to stay in a motel. Monday morning we drove out to the property, and met with the neighbor. The next two hours had my head spinning, this guy had devoted most of his free time, and a ton of money to improving the quality of deer on the property. The first thing he did was cut access roads around part of the place. This allowed him to refill feeders, and plant food plots. He had been working on improvements for three years and the results were incredible. He showed us trail cam pictures taken this fall of six bucks that went 130 class or better. Besides having world class deer to hunt, we can now hunt out of tree stands because the deer are regularly visiting the feeders, and food plots. Another huge benefit is we can haul out harvested deer on an ATV. I had to pinch myself to make sure I wasn't dreaming, but it gets better. He had only been working on a one hundred acre section. After some discussion we both agreed he should do the same thing on the other four hundred acres, and he is looking forward to starting that in the spring. We hunted Monday afternoon and saw some does. The forecast was heavy rain the next two days so we came home Tuesday morning. You can bet we will be back in Paintsville for muzzle loading season on December 13, and I have already marked my calendar for several hunts down there next year. Once again I find myself blessed with way better luck than I deserve. Catch you later Rick Rick Hill lives in Wayne County with his wife, daughters, and a kennel full of well bred, poorly trained bird dogs. E-mail Rick at rhil8147@embarqmail.com


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