Im hunting that area this weekend. Any reports on what to expect?

With the rain anticipated later this week... MUD... expect lots of mud.

Yeah, I'm anticipating that. Im looking for something more along the lines of rut activity. Thanks anyway for the weather report.

Unless it's changed A LOT in the last 20 years, you're probably going to be between rut cycles...ie, probably won't see a whole lot of rut activity.

We always had a strong rut cycle the week of MLK, then it died out until the un-bred does cycled back in around mid-Feb.

I think you should sit this one out. like Hunter said, they're in between rut cycles down there and the hunting will be pretty slow with all the rain. I think you should decline the hunt altogether.

Then again, I am your alternate for the weekend lol

Well played my friend. I'm gonna have to stay with it but I appreciate the effort.😂

From what I've heard from people it is loaded with deer and hogs. Hunt a food source and you should be able to light their asses up.

One of the coolest places I've ever hunted. You will see hogs. Good luck!

I used to hunt the old mossy oak property close to the sod farm the first several years they had the February season. Killed 2 great bucks on 3rd one year and 5th the next season.

I hunted it this weekend last year. A week earlier would be better, but you still should see a decent amount of rut activity.

I went there for my first hunt (mentored) in December. It was warm, wet and one of the slowest hunts they ever had. Once we got out of a bottom and moved to a food plot we saw a buck (that I wasn't allowed to shoot), some spikes too. Seems like hanging out on the edge of a food plot worked best for any everyone else that weekend. There were some hogs taken and I had a shot on one, but was too slow.

WHOA. HOLD UP.....

If you decide you're a novice hunter and say you want to be mentored, all you have to do is sign up for a mentored hunt and they let you hunt an SOA?

Tex....did you get drawn for this or just sign up for the mentored hunt program?

I hope it’s better for you than Fred T was for me. Y’all can have that place.

The rut is winding down. The young buck sightings are plentiful in the food plots as they try to put the weight they lost last month back on. The big ones with plenty of strength and energy left are still roaming in search of a left over doe. That has summed up my hunting just upriver from there the end of last week and this week so far.

Yes, I took the Deer Hunter 101 workshop in Sept and then from that they randomly drew us for mentored hunts. Before you get too excited, they only let us hunt does. We couldn't touch bucks. I think that is the rule for mentored hunts. I had a really pretty buck show up on the last day...but all I could do is look at him. Of course leaving the SOA there was two mature Does staring at me from the highway. The guys from DNCR seemed to think highly of the place. It did seem there was a lot less pressure. My understanding is hunter's are assigned an area. One that we hunted had a shooting house on it next to a food plot, all we had to do was sneak in and jump in the house.

Let me further clarify...they didn't just "let us hunt" We showed up on Friday morning, spent the morning getting "oriented" and at the "target range". We made it out to our first sit with our DNCR buddy, a game warden or biologist, by about 2PM on Friday. Had a full day Saturday and then Sunday morning. We were not just let lose and given access. It was sleeping in a bunk house with strangers and hanging out with Game Wardens and Biologists when we weren't hunting. It was a good experience to learn, I got to ask a billion questions as you can imagine. I am not sure it's how an experienced hunter would want to spend a weekend. You'd only get about half or less of the hunting time that you want and more face time with a dozen game wardens than you'd want although everyone was great. You probably wouldn't even get drawn if you answered truthfully or they sniffed you out. They told me the computer has a formula for picking based on experience.

Side note. I found about Aldeer because I overheard some game wardens and biologists talking about some trouble maker on here. HAHA!

As far as the actual Hunter 101 class you had to take to get your name in the hat, It was a full day. The first half was pretty boring and basically a hunter saftey course. I understand they want to figure out who they are dealing with, but I wish I didn't have to start off proving I could fire a 22 with out killing myself like I was 10. A lot of people there had never shot a gun, so I felt like the kid waiting for everyone else to catch up. There were a few weirdos too that had no intention/business hunting. You had to sit there and listen to their stupid questions which weren't really questions but just stealthy politics statements or them showing off how smart they though they were. I heard a story that one couple showed up from California once and told the DNCR folk they didn't beleive in guns so they wanted help learning how to harvest a deer by digging a pit or something to trap it.

Were the wardens real “stand-off ish” and give you the vibe that they thought you were guilty of something like 90% of them do here in Bama? Nothing makes you feel like your guilty until proven innocent like talking to our wardens.

Yall evidently deal with different wardens than I do. Never had a bad run in with any of them whereever I met them.

I’ve never felt uncomfortable talking to wardens either I’ve always enjoyed talking to them, most a good outdoorsman who don’t mind sharing info but have to be careful what they say because of their job. I kind of feel like most do the best they can and get little credit for it because so many times they work a case and make an arrest and some pantywaist judge gives the offender a slap on the wrist. I’m sure they get sick of dealing with the same outlaws or outlaw families all the time.

No they were really laid back. It was about half game wardens and half state biologists. There were no bad questions or judgment. They want future license purchasers and the truth is the hunter community is not growing but shrinking. It was a great experience for a noob and a good primer.

I am taking the Turkey workshop at the end of this month. Hopefully I will get picked for a mentored Turkey Hunt too. I got picked for a Mentored Dove hunt in Jan but it got canceled due to Covid.