Bucking Spike

11
Mar/100

Bucking Spike

Wild Fruits and Deer Hunting

Years ago on a special three-day, permit-only public bow hunt, South Carolina bowhunter Tom and a friend were wearing out their boot soles scouting for deer sign. The place was big and fertile, and they quickly found plenty of spots to hang stands. Tom decided to hunt a field corner where several trails led up from a steep draw. Shortly after daybreak the first morning of the hunt, he zipped a fat doe there, which immediately spun around and raced back into the bottom from which she came.

Tom heard her fall and marked the spot. Limit on that hunt was three deer, so he waited on stand for a couple more hours; passing two more does before climbing down to track and recover his deer.

As so often happens when trailing a shot animal, that doe led Tom to an area honeycombed with fresh deer trails and sign. He quickly found several new spots to relocate his stand while trailing the doe, when he suddenly broke out of a hillside thicket onto a flat, open area that was unusual for the region. It was kind of a hardwood "bench" surrounded by thickets and brambles, and as Tom looked about, he stepped on something squishy. His feet suddenly slid out from under him, and he promptly landed on his butt, holding out his hands to break his fall. His fingers buried into a mushy blanket of over-ripe crab apples that literally covered the ground.

Never before, nor since, had Tom seen crab apples like that. There were three squat trees so heavy with fruit that some of the limbs had cracked from weight. Thousands of apples blanketed the ground. There was so much pungent fruit rotting at Tom's feet, he thought it impossible deer could be eating it. But that theory quickly evaporated when he started looking carefully between the apples, and noted that the soil was also covered with whitetail droppings.

If there was ever a woods sign that screamed "put your tree stand here," that was it. So that afternoon Tom sat high in a nearby oak 25 yards from the mini-orchard, and had plenty of time to survey the spot. He came to believe it was an old homestead, and either the planted apple trees had gone wild, or they were wild trees the former inhabitants had nurtured. There were no old buildings nearby, nor dilapidated foundations. But the place was too perfect a level spot, the trees too ripe with fruit, for man not to have had a hand in the growing of those abundant apples.

An hour or so after Tom settled in the stand, the first deer showed, a doe and two yearlings. They fed for 30 minutes, finally bedding down under his feet beside the oak tree. Two more solo does showed up next, followed by two bucks-a large-body spike and bigger four-pointer. It being a limited, three-day public hunt, the bucks were tempting targets. But Tom decided to wait, as he had two more full days of bowhunting.

It was one of the best woods decisions he ever made.

An hour before dark, a heavy, mature six-pointer showed, and Tom put a three-blade broadhead high through both the buck's lungs, watching him fall less than 50 yards from the orchard. At dusk, a slightly smaller eight-point buck with a nice wide rack appeared, and Tom dumped him, too.

Tom's pal helped him haul out the deer, and he aided his buddy in carting out a doe he'd shot from a distant stand.

Tom had filled his limit on the area, so his pal hunted the apple orchard stand the next morning. He shot a doe and the four-pointer Tom had seen the previous afternoon.

"Why didn't you hold out for another buck," Tom asked his pal as they dragged out the doe.

"You took two bucks yesterday, and I figured I'd better get my deer and we'd head home," countered Tom's friend. "Heck, we've already contaminated the area a lot with human activity."

"Uh huh, well look," Tom whispered, pointing to the apple orchard as they skirted 75 yards from it downwind dragging out the doe.

There, under the oak where Tom's stand was still hanging, was another eight-pointer, much bigger and with a wider rack than the one he'd dropped the previous day.

Sometimes the moon and stars align just right for bowhunters, and that trip some years ago was just such an outing for Tom. But over the years, there have been a lot of successful whitetail trips like that because Tom found wild fruit that deer were feasting on.

This isn't to say that every tree loaded with crab apples, persimmons, wild plums or grapes is an automatic spot to arrow deer, according to Tom. Nothing is that certain. In fact, he has found some fruit in prime deer areas that just didn't attract game. He doesn't know why this is so. Perhaps a pear tree loaded with fruit, with no deer feeding on it, simply hasn't been discovered by animals yet. Or perhaps some fruit trees are just not preferred by deer. Whatever the reason, don't be lured to fruit and assume deer are a pushover there.

Still, Tom believes the odds are good that when a bowman locates abundant wild fruit, he has discovered a hot spot to hang a stand and harvest deer.

About the Author

Albie Berk enjoys hunting and sharing what he has learned and any successful tips he can with others. He enjoys
South Carolina Deer hunting
and usually stays at
Carolina Buck and Boar