I was enjoying the second day of bow season here today. I was hunting with a friend on his farm. He put me in a tree stand on the edge of a hay field. I had some acorns dropping in the woods behind me and deer were starting to move when something odd happened... A big red deer walked up in the field about thirty steps from me. I have never seen a young red stag in the wild, and have never hunted any type of deer other than our native whitetails, so this was something very unusual. Sorry about the fg recurve.... My buddy told me that I might be faced with a longer shot on his land, so I went with the recurve and 2219 aluminums with Woodsman broadheads.
I called the DCNR folks and talked with them about this animal. To be honest, I wasn't sure exactly what it was! Any exotics or anything in the deer family is fair game in Alabama, if they meet the requirements of what constitutes a legal deer. I was informed that it was a young red stag. It weighed about 300lbs and even though it is a youngster, it's the biggest deer I have ever killed with a bow. This thing was the last thing on earth I expected to see in south Alabam. Apparently there is a game preserve surrounded by a high fence in a neighboring county. A big storm a few years back dropped the fence for a time. Not sure if they are breeding in the wild here or not, but I have since learned that this is not the only one that has been harvested in recent years.
