Below are our hunting season reviews. First up is Paul's end of season recap followed by Cory's storytelling of the late season, enjoy!
As many of our readers know Cory and I have been very busy between work and family. I just wanted to let you know that we have a lot of information coming your way in the coming weeks and our in the process of working out some ideas for some short films this year. I personally have a bunch of product reviews to write up for new and cool gadgets that I used this past deer hunting season as well as a few surprises!
Now to get back to the original intention of this post, my hunting season! The last time you heard from me about deer hunting was back in October when I had harvested my first NC buck, a decent spike horn. Since then I harvested two more deer in North Carolina, both of which were doe. I harvested the first deer in the same spot as the buck, out of the same tree stand. It was on the morning of December 15th. It was a cold, foggy morning and there were lots of shots at first light. This particular doe came walking down the end of the field behind me and I waited for her to present a shot and took a 50 yard broadside shot. I was hunting with the muzzle loader and after the smoke cleared I saw a deer running in the distance; "Dang...did I miss?" was my first thought! That was the question I was asking myself for the next two hours. I decided to give her a good wait before getting out of the stand, as if that was the same deer I shot at she was not hit well. Around 9:30 a.m. my buddy met me at my tree stand and we entered the field and to my surprise, and relief, she was about 50 yards in the field and she was down! Apparently there was a second deer I did not see at first that was tagging along with her.
Now we come to deer number three. Cory and I had hunted Jordan gamelands with our buddy Seth the Friday after Thanksgiving to no avail besides finding some good places to check out for next season but decided to just meet in the middle and hunt some public land known as Alcoa that is located beside Tuckertown Lake the week before Christmas. I was set up on the edge of a thinned out pine plot over looking some power lines and Cory was about 200 yards further into the logged pines. At around 9 a.m. I spotted a bunch of deer on the opposite side of the power lines a solid 120-plus yards away. I was again hunting with the CVA Accura muzzle loader, which is topped with a 3-9x variable power scope. I saw at least two deer were in some thick brush walking closer but could not get a shot. Looking behind them I saw that there were more deer standing on a cleared trail, offering me a good shot. I stood up, zoomed my scope in, got a good sight picture and pulled the trigger! This was one of the times I wish I had my shotgun, as after my shot I had 7 or more deer come running 40 yards next to me while I was reloading. That shot is my longest to date and I left me again doubting myself (which I really need to stop doing because I did go "3 shots, 3 deer" this year...oops spoiler alert). I made sure to watch all the passing deer and check each of them for signs that they had been hit. To my comfort none of them looked hit which meant one of two things: 1) I missed or 2) The deer I shot at was between me and where I shot in the thicket. We waited a bit and then went over to where I had marked the deer on the trail 140 yards away. Right away we found blood and after a very short track in high grass we found her, a full-grown, mature North Carolina doe.
This year was my best to date in NC. I had a great time and got to hunt some new spots! I hunted with the muzzle loader all year which I really enjoyed as it gave me a chance to become much more comfortable with the CVA as well as build confidence in my shooting skills. I've included a couple of pictures of the doe I harvested.
-Paul Nicolucci
Now to get back to the original intention of this post, my hunting season! The last time you heard from me about deer hunting was back in October when I had harvested my first NC buck, a decent spike horn. Since then I harvested two more deer in North Carolina, both of which were doe. I harvested the first deer in the same spot as the buck, out of the same tree stand. It was on the morning of December 15th. It was a cold, foggy morning and there were lots of shots at first light. This particular doe came walking down the end of the field behind me and I waited for her to present a shot and took a 50 yard broadside shot. I was hunting with the muzzle loader and after the smoke cleared I saw a deer running in the distance; "Dang...did I miss?" was my first thought! That was the question I was asking myself for the next two hours. I decided to give her a good wait before getting out of the stand, as if that was the same deer I shot at she was not hit well. Around 9:30 a.m. my buddy met me at my tree stand and we entered the field and to my surprise, and relief, she was about 50 yards in the field and she was down! Apparently there was a second deer I did not see at first that was tagging along with her.
Now we come to deer number three. Cory and I had hunted Jordan gamelands with our buddy Seth the Friday after Thanksgiving to no avail besides finding some good places to check out for next season but decided to just meet in the middle and hunt some public land known as Alcoa that is located beside Tuckertown Lake the week before Christmas. I was set up on the edge of a thinned out pine plot over looking some power lines and Cory was about 200 yards further into the logged pines. At around 9 a.m. I spotted a bunch of deer on the opposite side of the power lines a solid 120-plus yards away. I was again hunting with the CVA Accura muzzle loader, which is topped with a 3-9x variable power scope. I saw at least two deer were in some thick brush walking closer but could not get a shot. Looking behind them I saw that there were more deer standing on a cleared trail, offering me a good shot. I stood up, zoomed my scope in, got a good sight picture and pulled the trigger! This was one of the times I wish I had my shotgun, as after my shot I had 7 or more deer come running 40 yards next to me while I was reloading. That shot is my longest to date and I left me again doubting myself (which I really need to stop doing because I did go "3 shots, 3 deer" this year...oops spoiler alert). I made sure to watch all the passing deer and check each of them for signs that they had been hit. To my comfort none of them looked hit which meant one of two things: 1) I missed or 2) The deer I shot at was between me and where I shot in the thicket. We waited a bit and then went over to where I had marked the deer on the trail 140 yards away. Right away we found blood and after a very short track in high grass we found her, a full-grown, mature North Carolina doe.
This year was my best to date in NC. I had a great time and got to hunt some new spots! I hunted with the muzzle loader all year which I really enjoyed as it gave me a chance to become much more comfortable with the CVA as well as build confidence in my shooting skills. I've included a couple of pictures of the doe I harvested.
-Paul Nicolucci
I'm on the hunt I'm after you
As you can see above, Paul had a great season this year and I was lucky enough to be able to share a few hunts with my good buddy as well as a few others. Last you heard from me I was detailing the weekend I harvested my best muzzle loader buck to date, a 2.5 year old 7-pt who I am waiting to get in Euro mount form from my taxidermist (Thanks for the early birthday present Dad!). Well that was mid-October and here it is late January - yea, I know I am a slacker! - and I've yet to summarize what happened after that eventful Friday afternoon so here we go.
November was a whirlwind of working in Ohio and hunting when I was home. Just working up in an amazing place for whitetails will spoil you as I saw 3 pope and young bucks in broad daylight in the middle of the day during that time. The good thing about all that is it had me pumped to get in the woods whenever I got back to good ol' NC. Unfortunately I wasn't able to turn that excitement into many deer sightings though it is apparent the deer behind my house like to taunt me as I keep finding numerous tracks in the path 5 yards behind my back yard. I hunted hard out at Alcoa numerous times and as Paul said above, got to join in the excitement of a successful hunt thanks to my superb guiding skills (isn't that right Paul?). On our last trip out there after Christmas we found a dried up pond surrounded by rubs and scrapes and made a mental note of the area. Come the 2013 North Carolina Central muzzle loader season you'll be find us setup overlooking the pond and numerous cut lanes in the 20-foot high pines hoping to catch a wiley old buck slipping by.
My most memorable hunt though is bittersweet as I shared it with a young man who is no longer with us after tragically leaving us at Christmas time. I knew Daniel ever since he was a little 10 year old boy who was eager to hunt with his dad, my father's co-worker whose land in SC we kept our hunting camper on. After graduating from high school with my brother he also began working with my father and continued to hunt SC and would come hunt the Raleigh area gamelands with another of my brother's classmates, and one of my hunting partners, Josh. I was able to join them the last day of the North Carolina Central muzzle loader season and that morning we hunted on the Jordan Lake gamelands at a spot Josh had scouted a few days before after I told him a place to check out (which wasn't even the right spot I wanted him to scout, I confused myself during that conversation and got a little mixed up on which road was which). I got up the tree a little late and not that far off the road but I was below a pond and overlooking a little sliver of hardwoods that were wedged between said pond, the lake and the pines I walked through to get to that spot from the road. As I listened to traffic on the highway just about 250 yards away, I passed up a large cowhorn spike at 25 yards that came down the same trail I had walked in on around 9:30 a.m. At 10:00 I heard something coming from where he had walked off to in front of me and lo and behold here came a doe trotting in. She stopped behind some trees as I eased the hammer back on my CVA Optima but I was never to get the gun shouldered as she remained skittish and eventually took back off from where she came from.
After meeting up at lunch time and deciding they had actually pushed that doe to me, Josh, Daniel and I headed to the spot I killed my 10-pointer at back in December of 2010 for the afternoon hunt. I sat up on the end of the oak plateau above where I had shot the 10 and they sat along the logging road you drop off of to get to my spot. Right before dark I had 8 large tom turkeys with beards a dragging come by me and then I heard two shots from the direction of the logging road. After some quick texting to see who had shot, down I climbed and back up the drainage I went to go help Daniel look for one of the two deer he had shot at. We never were able to find that doe but he had harvested a tender button buck. I never knew that that would be the last time I'd get to see him smile or hear him replay what happened. I wish now I would have stayed a little longer to help Josh and him on the drag out, but I'll always have that day of hunting in my memory bank and for that I'm thankful. Remember, it's not about the harvest but about the hunt itself and the memories we create. We never know when we won't be able to do those things we love in the outdoors that we call our second home, nor do we know when a hunt or fishing trip with friends might be the last. With that said, make 2013 as memorable as all the previous years have been in the field and on the water and continue to cherish the time you get to spend with good friends and family.
-C.B.
November was a whirlwind of working in Ohio and hunting when I was home. Just working up in an amazing place for whitetails will spoil you as I saw 3 pope and young bucks in broad daylight in the middle of the day during that time. The good thing about all that is it had me pumped to get in the woods whenever I got back to good ol' NC. Unfortunately I wasn't able to turn that excitement into many deer sightings though it is apparent the deer behind my house like to taunt me as I keep finding numerous tracks in the path 5 yards behind my back yard. I hunted hard out at Alcoa numerous times and as Paul said above, got to join in the excitement of a successful hunt thanks to my superb guiding skills (isn't that right Paul?). On our last trip out there after Christmas we found a dried up pond surrounded by rubs and scrapes and made a mental note of the area. Come the 2013 North Carolina Central muzzle loader season you'll be find us setup overlooking the pond and numerous cut lanes in the 20-foot high pines hoping to catch a wiley old buck slipping by.
My most memorable hunt though is bittersweet as I shared it with a young man who is no longer with us after tragically leaving us at Christmas time. I knew Daniel ever since he was a little 10 year old boy who was eager to hunt with his dad, my father's co-worker whose land in SC we kept our hunting camper on. After graduating from high school with my brother he also began working with my father and continued to hunt SC and would come hunt the Raleigh area gamelands with another of my brother's classmates, and one of my hunting partners, Josh. I was able to join them the last day of the North Carolina Central muzzle loader season and that morning we hunted on the Jordan Lake gamelands at a spot Josh had scouted a few days before after I told him a place to check out (which wasn't even the right spot I wanted him to scout, I confused myself during that conversation and got a little mixed up on which road was which). I got up the tree a little late and not that far off the road but I was below a pond and overlooking a little sliver of hardwoods that were wedged between said pond, the lake and the pines I walked through to get to that spot from the road. As I listened to traffic on the highway just about 250 yards away, I passed up a large cowhorn spike at 25 yards that came down the same trail I had walked in on around 9:30 a.m. At 10:00 I heard something coming from where he had walked off to in front of me and lo and behold here came a doe trotting in. She stopped behind some trees as I eased the hammer back on my CVA Optima but I was never to get the gun shouldered as she remained skittish and eventually took back off from where she came from.
After meeting up at lunch time and deciding they had actually pushed that doe to me, Josh, Daniel and I headed to the spot I killed my 10-pointer at back in December of 2010 for the afternoon hunt. I sat up on the end of the oak plateau above where I had shot the 10 and they sat along the logging road you drop off of to get to my spot. Right before dark I had 8 large tom turkeys with beards a dragging come by me and then I heard two shots from the direction of the logging road. After some quick texting to see who had shot, down I climbed and back up the drainage I went to go help Daniel look for one of the two deer he had shot at. We never were able to find that doe but he had harvested a tender button buck. I never knew that that would be the last time I'd get to see him smile or hear him replay what happened. I wish now I would have stayed a little longer to help Josh and him on the drag out, but I'll always have that day of hunting in my memory bank and for that I'm thankful. Remember, it's not about the harvest but about the hunt itself and the memories we create. We never know when we won't be able to do those things we love in the outdoors that we call our second home, nor do we know when a hunt or fishing trip with friends might be the last. With that said, make 2013 as memorable as all the previous years have been in the field and on the water and continue to cherish the time you get to spend with good friends and family.
-C.B.
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