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The "Ridge" Stand by Matt McAnally

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I've got a great stand location for whitetail deer that I want to share with you all. I was in the woods recently trimming limbs for shooting lanes, checking the stand for any problems, and thinking about all the great hunts I've had in this particular location the last six years. This ridge is on the farm we moved to about six years ago, and I can still remember how excited I was about this farm, and the potential for some great whitetail deer hunting. I scouted the property, and was really excited about a ridgetop that was running between two creek bottoms that had been recently logged for timber, and these bottoms were THICK! You can barely walk through these two valleys today. The ridgetop had been spared from the loggers, and it's a long, narrow ridge with mature stands of white oak, red oak, and hickory trees. It is laced with rubs, scrapes, and well worn deer trails going to and from feeding and bedding areas. I started a mineral lick there two years ago, and it is getting huge! It's probably the size of a car hood in circumference, and 8 to 10 inches deep. The deer just love the stuff. I use ingredients from the local feed store and mix my mineral licks.You can go to any feed store and buy the supplies.
I've been fortunate enough to take several deer off this ridge, and the deer are using the two thickets to either side of it to bed down all year round. The does give birth to fawns and raise them in there during the Spring/Summer, and the bucks stay there to chase and breed does, and avoid hunting pressure from nearby farms in the Fall/Winter. I have had great luck intercepting does moving around throughout the day. I remember this one particular doe I harvested about 3 years ago. It was muzzleloader season, and I had a tag burning a hole in my pocket. I went up there midday, and sat on the ground awaiting action. It was cold, with sleet and snow covering the ground, and I didn't want to take a chance going up in my climber stand. So I sat on the frozen ground. I like doing that sometimes anyway. There's nothing like being eye level with a whitetail deer, especially when there less than fifteen yards from you. That's what happened that afternoon, when a mature doe and a younger doe walked right up into my lap. I eased the scope of the .50 cal muzzleloader on the deer's vitals, and squeezed the trigger. The deer dropped like a rock. But to my surprise, the other, smaller deer was still standing there. When the smoke finally cleared, the other deer walked directly at me, staring as if she couldn't make out what I was, or what just happened. Finally after five minutes, she snorted and ran off. The doe I took was a four year old, and it was quite a drag back to the house from off that ridge.
A couple years prior to that hunt, I harvested a non-typical 13 pointer. I'm convinced that buck was the reason for all the torn up cedar and pine trees on the ridge that year. I rattled him up out of one of the thick bottoms adjacent to the ridgetop. You can read more about this hunt in my article titled ( Challenge Your Next Big Buck) on my website at www.whitetailworks.com, or in Missouri Deer Hunter Magazine (Vol. 2, No. 2, Summer 2001 Edition). That mature buck was bedded down in one of the thick valleys that border the ridge, and he came up to the top of the ridge downwind from me that evening, looking for the rattling and grunting sounds he was hearing. This ridge just always seems like there is deer movement anytime I hunt it. That non-typical sported a 9 inch droptine and is a very unique rack. No one around the area had ever seen this deer before, according to everyone I talked to after I harvested him.
This location is a doe bedding area. The does bed here all year, with the bucks chasing and trying to intercept the receptive does during the pre-rut and rut breeding stages, respectfully. Whereas the does use our property as their home range year round, they draw mature bucks, whose home ranges are far larger, onto our farm during the breeding cycle. The bucks usually hang out around here and bed among the does, breeding each doe as she becomes receptive, from the end of October, to the beginning of December. I've found through visual observation, and game trail camera pictures, that some of these bucks remain here throughout the winter, till Spring arrives.
If I do get an opportunity to take one of these older bucks during the hunting season, I can always count on new faces and racks from the local whitetail deer population to show up the following season. As long as the does stay on this ridge, and bed in either valley adjacent to it, the bucks will be there each year.
As I mentioned before, I've taken many deer up on that ridge, or near it, with a couple nice, mature bucks to be proud of. I have got to say my most memorable (or at least my favorite hunt so far!) is the buck I took last year during the 2004 archery season. It was November, Thanksgiving day to be exact, and I was taking advantage of the couple days between the ending of Firearms season, and the opener of Muzzleloader season, to get out my Mathews bow and hunt. My wife had alternative plans though, and after a few early morning chores, At 10:00 a.m. I grabbed my bow, my gear pack, and walked up to the "RIDGE". I had to be back at the house by 1:00 p.m., because we had dinner plans that afternoon with family. At 10:10 a.m., I was sitting on a fallen tree with the root base still attached, which made excellent cover for me on the upwind side from where I was. I was able to sit on the trunk of the tree, with my feet resting on the ground. It was a perfect seat, and I immediately made a series of tending grunts with my grunt call, followed by a couple doe estrous bleats. A few moments later, I caught a glimpse of something shining on the side of the ridge, which the sun had just peaked over on. At 100 yards through the woods, I realized the shiny thing I saw was antler, and the deer was coming to me. At 80 yards, I knew he was a shooter buck, and he was coming in on a string to the calls I had just made. At 20 yards his head was down, and the roots of the fallen tree had me hidden, so I drew my bow back, and at 11 yards, I put an arrow right through him, without him even knowing that I was sitting on the ground at about 10 yards. Talk about your adrenaline flowing, my blood was pumpin'! The buck dropped within 20 yards of where I'd hit him, and at 10:20 a.m., I had my second buck with archery tagged, completing the two buck limit we're allowed (one buck before firearms season, and one after), and it was twenty minutes into the hunt! Man, I love that ridge! That mature, 9-point buck was bedded down in the thick valley just of the side of the ridge, and when he heard the grunts and bleats, he got up from his bed and had to investigate. Next year, there will be another buck to replace him, because as I said earlier, the does are always there. Enough dreaming though, because I still have to get this deer back to the house, and get to the Thanksgiving dinner! Well, I hurried back down to the house, and got my 4 year old son, and 6 year old daughter to help me. They were very excited, and would have been disappointed had I not asked for their help. I keep them involved in as much of my hunting and fishing as I can, and this would'nt be their first tracking and dragging job either. We went back up, field dressed the deer, and since I couldn't get the 4-wheeler up there, I lugged the deer back to the house. After my wife snapped a few photographs, I loaded him into the truck and made the ten minute drive to our local check station( yes, we used to have check stations here in Missouri). After getting the plastic MDC tag, swapping the hunt with a couple other folks there, I was off, back to the house. Backing the truck up to my "skinning tree", I hung the buck up. Processing would have to wait, and with the temperatures plenty cool enough, I went inside and hopped in the shower. We were off to eat Thanksgiving dinner by early afternoon, and I had accomplished all that in less than 4 hours. Thanks to God, and to the "RIDGE" because after all it was Thanksgiving Day!
Friends of mine, and also myself have taken several nice Gobblers of that ridge, and in my opinion, with its hickory nut trees always having a bountiful crop each year, you can't beat the squirrel hunting. I've seen coyotes, coon, fox, and about anything else you can think of up there. It's a great spot for all wildlife, and a great spot for me too I guess. I've got a couple other hunting areas I like also, but I'll have to share those some other time. This story was all about the "RIDGE".