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Opelika Hot Trails it to the wall
By Donald Word
Oct 31, 2006, 00:43
Donald Word woke up about 8 a.m. on January 17th and after a breakfast of waffles, and conversation with his wife Cindy, daughter, Bailey and son, Chris, he went out and worked on his dog pen. After running several errands with his daughter, he headed out to his hunting land early in the afternoon.
It was a good day to hunt. A full moon had been shining the night before, the calm winds took the chill off of a cool day that saw high temperatures climb into the fifties. Around 3:40 p.m., word began walking toward a tripod stand on a clear cut. He stopped about 60 yards north of the stand, noticing a little southwestern wind.
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| Hot Trails - Hot scent that brings the bucks. |
"I got a can with a Hot Trails Scent Candle in it, (Doe-n-Heat) and when I pulled it out of my bag I heard a blow west of me. I looked and saw her ears, she was just below a hill. I squatted down and she blew again. I grunted several times on my Southern Style grunt call then looked through my Nikon binoculars, but didn't see anything," Word said.
The doe blew again and trotted down the hill. Word blew again on his grunt call, and then continued walking toward his stand. The stand that had been built five weeks ago didn't hold up when he started to climb. It was a tripod stand, and the legs were uneven as they set on a small rise. Word decided to hunt from the ground, lit a scent candle, and then sat under the tripod against some bushes and limbs.
"I was facing south, and had sat for about 25 minutes. I had done about five short grunts and one long one to end the series. Twenty minutes passed and I heard some leaves rattling west of me. I thought it was mice or something in a limb pile about 10 yards from me. Three minutes later I heard the same deer blow at me. I grunted again just like before. Ten minutes passed and I grunted once more the same way."
Five minutes later heard a limb break followed by foot steps in the leaves.
"I knew it was a deer. I figured it was another doe fooling around." He said.
Word positioned himself to shoot as he heard a noise coming from a wooded thicket below him to the south.
"Not even a minute passed after hearing the limb crunch, and I saw a body come out headed toward the east. I saw some antlers on one side and said to myself, "Well, it's a buck. If it gets where I can get a shot, I'll shoot it, unless it's a young eight point that looks real good for next year."
The big buck walked straight towards Word and the scent candle. The deer nervously raised his head, put it down, then raised it again as he continued to walk closer to the hunter. Word waited until the deer quartered him and he took his best shot.
"He only ran about 20 yards and fell in his tracks," Word said. "By this time I was thinking this is the buck I had been hunting. I let out two 'whoopie yeas' and hollered 'I got the big one"'.
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| Word with his Hot Trails Big Boy. |
After letting fifteen minutes pass Word walked closer to the deer which lay about 40 yards away. The buck was taken around 4:30 p.m., a nice 12 point with six tines on each side. Width was 18 ¼", mains were 23 inches. The longest tines were 10 ½ inches. The deer weighed 150 pounds live weight, 120 dressed. A close to perfect Basket rack was on the animal's head.
The deer won the Kiss'n 99.3 Go Outdoors Big Deer Contest. Donald won a Suzuki 160 Quadrunner ATV and a free Mount. He still can't believe how well the Hot Trails Candle worked for him, along with his grunt call. A deadly combination.
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