Because smokepole season dates differ, hunters from across North Carolina must use different tactics to put venison in the freezer and racks on the wall.
With North Carolina’s deer seasons divided into four regions by the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission — along with seasons that cater to three different kinds weapons — hunters find themselves in different weather and deer-activity conditions but relegated to using the same types of weapons. That can cause some problems that can be overcome. For instance, archery hunters have the closest thing to a consistent opening date as the statewide archery season began at approximately the same time. But muzzleloader and gun seasons vary widely by region. Zoned seasons mean hunters must make choices how and where to pursue whitetails, particularly with muzzleloading rifles. Muzzleloader season was expanded from one to two weeks last season, and the length of season is the same for 2012-13.
In the eastern third of North Carolina and the western mountains, the season falls too early — Sept. 29-Oct. 12 in the east and Oct. 1-13 in the west — for hunters to take advantage of the rut — something hunters in the central and northwestern third of the state regularly take advantage of with a muzzleloader in hand. The Central blackpowder season is Oct. 27-Nov. 9; it’s Nov. 3-16 in the northwest.
With these dates in mind, different tactics are needed for successful muzzleloader hunting, depending up where one chooses to hunt.
The experiences of three hunters from across North Carolina should provide some ideas as to best *tactics to use in each of these regions.
Tim Stewart of Richmond County lives in the Sandhills region, on the western edge of the Eastern deer section. The land is sandy, marked by gently rolling hills and large flat terrain dotted with pine forests, scrub pin oaks and agricultural fields.
“I only hunt muzzleloader season if I know there’s a big deer in the area I hunt,” said Stewart, 54, who owns and operates 14 chicken houses.
Stewart said his area isn’t a particularly good archery area, nor is it especially decent for muzzleloader hunting “because the season happens here before the rut, so there’s not much reason to muzzleloader hunt.”
Muzzleloader hunting in other areas usually is an all-day affair, as hunters climb into stands and wait to see if a hot doe or group of does will pass close by with a rutting buck in pursuit. That’s out the window in the east, because there’s no rut and the weather is so warm.
“It’s very hot here that early in October,” Stewart said.
A prolonged stay in a tree stand can be miserable because of biting insects, particularly mosquitoes, gnats and deer flies. In other areas with muzzleloader season in November, the first frosts have usually occurred, reducing the number of biting insects and keeping a day in a tree stand from being such an ordeal.
Stewart doesn’t totally ignore preparations for muzzleloader season.
“I got several long fields that contain 14 to 20 acres that I’ve put box stands around,” said Stewart, who also has smaller food plots, mostly planted in rye grass and peas, with permanent stands around their perimeters. “Some of the smaller food plots I’ve planted in (clover), but rye (grass) seems to do better in this soil,” Steward said.
Most of his largest fields contain cattle, and “cows love rye and so do the deer, so I hunt cow pastures quite a bit, too,” he said.
Stewart believes in letting small bucks survive. His daughter and a nephew hunt his land as well, and he encourages them to harvest does.
Stewart, who downed a 15-point, 160 1/8-inch non-typical buck last November during a rainy afternoon, has kept a notebook since 1980 with information about each deer he’s harvested.
“That’s 120 deer in 32 years, but only 10 were with a muzzle-loader, so you can see this isn’t really a great muzzleloader region” he said. “Most of the best bucks (in Richmond County) are in the 120-inch range, but dog hunting is allowed here.
“I believe the big buck I killed came from some other place. I’d never seen his picture on a trail camera.”
His top deer walked out of a thicket into a 1 ½-acre food plot planted in rye and peas.
Further east in coastal counties, muzzleloader season can be complicated not only by a negligible rut and insects, but the presence of black bears and active snakes. Some hunters have had bears claim wounded or dead deer, and wearing snake-proof boots or leggings is advisable, especially in swampy terrain.
Trophy deer are more available to muzzleloader hunters in the Piedmont than in any other region, particularly in counties that border Virginia. The two-buck limit, started by the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission in 2000, is mainly responsible, and the two-week smokepole season covers the pre-rut and peak of the rut in the Central deer section.
Randy Garrett of Roxboro said he lives in great deer country.
“There are just a lot of deer and good bucks in the area I hunt,” said Garrett, whose 155 6/8 10-pointer captured the 2008 Dixie Deer Classic typical muzzleloader category.
That’s not the only trophy deer he’s shot with a muzzleloader in recent years.
“For four years in a row, I killed a big 8, a 9-pointer that scored 144 inches, the one that won the Dixie Deer and a 10-pointer (in 2009),” said Garrett, who uses an in-line .45-caliber CVA Optima Pro.
Garrett credited the rut and using corn for each kill.
“The 8-pointer came running up a hardwood bottom,” he said. “I shot him when he stopped in the middle of a creek. I killed the three other bucks in open fields where they were eating corn with does around.”
He once planted corn and used part of it to attract whitetails, but now, working two jobs and having no extra time to farm, he buys corn.
Garrett said the lack of time, especially during September when the tobacco he’s growing must be prepared for market, also ended his bowhunting.
“I used to bowhunt the majority of my stands, but now I save them for muzzleloader season,” he said. “In fact, that’s all I do now, hunt with a muzzleloader.”
Trail cameras once helped him locate trophy bucks, but Garrett said he’s stopped using them as well.
“My main problem was I enjoyed looking at the pictures too much,” he said. “I was always going to the trail cams, especially on Sundays. I think my walking around to the cameras actually spooked deer.
“Since I quit using cameras, I see more bucks. The only times I go near stands now when I’m not hunting is to put out corn. I stand in the back of my truck and scatter it on the ground so I don’t leave any scent.”
Garrett also has reduced time he spends at his stands.
“I don’t go (to a stand) now until I hunt it,” he said. “I don’t scout and don’t really need to. Because I’m at the farm so much, I see where deer are coming into the fields. It seems like the less time I spend near stands before the season, the more deer I see later.”
His “less-is-more” approach has worked well in recent years.
“I’ve got one place that’s really been good,” Garrett said. “It’s a three-acre field with hardwoods nearby and a half-acre area near a power line. I’ve killed two nice bucks out of the same tree stand. It’s a place where does gather during the rut, and the bucks are there.”
Muzzleloader season comes at the perfect time for hunters in Ashe County in the extreme northwestern corner of the state.
“It’s usually when the rut is in full swing,” said Lamon Perry, a 60-year-old construction superintendent.
Ashe County is a mountainous county with two major river drainages: the North Fork and South Fork of the New River. Many of its mountain slopes have been cleared for Christmas tree farms, cattle farms dot the landscape, and it’s also apple orchard country.
“I’m lucky because where I hunt once was a farm my dad owned that he sold off (to build) summer homes,” Perry said. “There are Christmas tree farms and apple trees, a lot of them growing at old homesites. I take care of the homes in winter for the owners and have permission to hunt there and at tree farms, too.”
Perry scouts for bucks early, putting up trail cameras in August to locate areas deer are using Because of a shoulder problem, he uses a crossbow, starting in September, and hunts from ladder stands.
“I pretty much know where the bucks are gonna be, especially during the rut,” he said. “They’ll be near does, which like clover planted between rows at the Christmas tree farms.”
With 10 bucks on his wall, Perry doesn’t pull the trigger unless he’s looking at a deer with impressive headgear.
“A lot of the summer homes have apple trees and wild apple trees are around,” he said. “There aren’t any white oak acorns for deer to eat, so they mostly come to clover or apple trees. I use bait — corn — unless I can get my brother-in-law to bring 50 or 100 pounds of trail mix. I put that out in the summer, too.”
Perry hunts mostly from ladder stands, but he has one enclosed wooden stand with windows he visits during frigid, windy days.
“It gets so cold up here in winter, it’s tough to sit outside,” he said. “Sometimes I’ll hunt from ladder stands set up between laurel thickets and tree farms because deer will hold up for two or three days in a row during a storm. When the weather breaks, they’ll go to clover or apples.”
Perry shot an 8-pointer that scored better than 151 inches last November, hunting near one of the summer homes he tends, acreage that had apple trees. He used a .50-caliber Knight 985 in-line rifle.
“(The buck) came out in a road below the house and walked straight up the hill,” Perry said. “I was sittin’ on the porch in the sun and out of the wind.”
“I killed a 140-class 11-pointer in 2011 and a high-130s 10-pointer during 2010 at the same place,” he said.
A key to northwestern muzzleloader hunting is wind direction.
“I hunt with my brother, two brothers-in-law and their sons, and we determine (which stands to hunt) depending on wind direction,” Perry said. “We pick our spots after watching wind, weather and trail cameras, plus does during the rut, to tell us where to go.
“I don’t know how far a deer can smell you, but it’s a long way. I use scent killer on my clothes, but I think they can smell even that stuff. So taking the wind into consideration is real important to hunting up here.”
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