Hi, I am 51 years old and I've wanted to deer hunt all my life. I haven’t been fortunate enough to have anyone to take me under their wing and teach me about the sport though. I also haven’t been fortunate enough to have access to deer hunting land. I've had a lot of experiences hunting duck/geese/dove but nothing else. I have never actually been deer hunting before but I plan to go on my first deer hunt this fall and I have been getting ready for this for the past two years. I am posting this thread in hopes of gaining tips and advice from you guys with experience. Since I have never been on a deer hunt, my knowledge is limited to what I’ve been able to find in books, on this forum, and around the www. Obviously, I have no real world experience/knowledge. Anyway, here is my history so far … I know it’s a long read but then again, it’s a long story. Please add your two cents in a reply …

Getting Armed …
A few years back I realized that I was probably not ever going to find a friend or family member to indoctrinate me into the sport and I deemed that unacceptable. So, I started trying to educate and equip myself by scouring the hunting forums. Of course I discovered that just having a good rifle/scope and being able to use it was a sport in itself. I decided to acquire a good firearm and get good at using it and maintaining it. My brother-in-law in FL gave me a vintage (1958) Remington 721 30-06 with an old Redfield Tracker scope on it … What a beautiful piece of equipment it is …



So, I needed to learn to shoot/maintain this firearm. I got a membership at the Blue & Grey Rifle and Pistol Range near Guntersville Dam since it was only 20 minutes from my home. To make a long story short, the scope was way off and I couldn’t hit the broadside of a barn with it. So … off to Gander Mountain I went and bought a Caldwell Lead Sled. I was able to sight in my rifle fairly well and over a couple of years I got my pattern down to under 3 inches at 100 yards and a little over 4 inches at 200 yards. Maybe not stellar shooting but from what I’ve read, good enough for North Alabama deer hunting.

After spending so much time with this gun I realized several things that I felt were going to hurt my ability to bag a deer. First of all, this gun is really heavy. As I will discuss below, I intend to backpack into public lands so carrying a ball and chain like this is gonna be tough … Second, the recoil of this rifle is so strong it sends me into the next county. I’ve learned to shoulder it good enough that getting bruised is not an issue any longer. However, my concern is resetting for that possible 2nd shot. Both of these issues led me to start looking for another rifle. I asked around and found that the 243 with a 100 grain load is a popular choice around here. A family friend that collects and trades guns suggested that I get a Tikka T3 Lite. He also suggested a Nikon Monarch scope with a 50mm objective as it gives a sharp image in low light conditions. So, I bought the T3 Lite and equipped it with a Monarch 4-16x50 scope. The whole unit weighs about 6 lbs … perfect for backpacking. When I took it to the range to sight it in I was really surprised to find that it patterned within 1” at 100 yards on the bench rest. I also found that it was easy (relative to the 30-06) to reset quickly for a 2nd shot as the recoil was much less. The best part of this : I sold a bunch of crap on EBay to raise the cash for it so it cost me nothing … Anyway, here is a snap of my gun/scope :



Finding Land …
Not having any family or friends with land that I can hunt, I went about looking for public land to hunt. I am somewhat limited in the type of land I can hunt as I do not have an ATV or a 4WD truck. I’m working on getting a 4WD truck but times are tight and I can’t just run out and buy one right now plus I don’t have enough crap to sell on EBay to pay for one.
Living in North AL I found that Skyline WMA is a popular place. I dug in on this forum and the WWW to learn all I could about the area. I also am a Google Earth Pro user so I have scoured the areas’ satellite imagery and elevations data … just like in a high end video game. I found references to lots of places in the WMA, found their GPS coordinates, and marked them with a pin. I also got the WMA permit map and stretched it over the area so I could see the WMA boundaries. I started analyzing the terrain looking for somewhere I could backpack into and camp. Here is a snap of the whole WMA :



I quickly ruled out the Poplar Springs and Jacobs Farm tracts as they evidently have tremendous hunting pressure. I ruled out the Big Coon tract as I clearly would need an ATV to hunt the area and to retrieve any deer I might kill there. That left the Walls of Jericho tract … I spent hours looking over this area with GE and I’m thinking that I could camp at Clark Cemetery and hunt just south of there along Turkey Creek. The only downside I see is that if I kill a deer there, I will need to find a route for sled dragging it out and that whole process will probably take hours … I plan a 2 day backpacking/exploring trip there in a few weeks to check it out. Here is a snap of the area I’m talking about :



Like I said, I’m posting this looking for help/info on this area. If you think I’m crazy please let me know why. I’d sure appreciate any helpful information on this area. Also, is there a healthy rattlesnake population at Skyline that I should be on the lookout for?

Thanks,
PHL