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Cumberland Island Bowhunt By Marty Thompson, October 2008 Cumberland Island is state park off Georgia’s coast that hosts several three day quota hunts each year. This is an island paradise loaded with majestic live oaks and palmettos. There are plenty of deer, hogs, snakes, and biting insects. A large population of feral horses calls the island home as well. Groups of horses would pass through camp periodically. The first night two stallions were fighting just 30 yards from our tents. They can raise quite the ruckus!
I was hunting with four compound shooters! I endured many jokes and ribs the first day. It was 85 degrees and humid! We camped in the primitive camp, where the only luxury was a well pump. No camp fires allowed. Foot travel only! We traveled to the island via two boats and set up camp the morning before the hunt.
We spent several hours the first day scouting and setting our tree stands. The first morning I didn't see any thing. One of the guys shot a doe, which would be his first archery deer. My brother had a six pointer walk by him out of range. My buddy Brad rattled in an 8 pointer at 8 a.m. and shot him a little far back at 10 yards. He jumped the deer while tracking solo two hours later. While waiting in his stand, Brad shot two 50# hogs! We met back at camp and formulated a plan. Glenn and Jamie would go north and help Chris track his doe, and I would go south and help Brad track his 8 pt and two hogs. The doe was never recovered. We found Brad's hogs very quickly and pulled them to the nearest road. We took up the track on his deer at 2 PM. We lost blood about where he jumped the deer. We were circling last blood when I jumped a buzzard on the roost up ahead. It was a very open stand of oaks with scattered thick patches of palmettos. We watched the buzzard circle and land in the same tree. I told Brad that his deer was in sight of that buzzard. I picked the nearest palmetto patch, and told Brad I was going in! Our bows were back at camp! I was about 10 yards into the thick stuff and saw the deer bedded about 20 yards ahead and looking at me. I slowly backed out and signaled for Brad to join me a safe distance away. We decided to hunt the afternoon and come back after dark. We marked the position with our GPS and left quietly to deal with the hogs.
We hunted that afternoon and didn't see any deer. I pulled my stand, since I had deer blowing all around me. The wind was swirling something fierce in the spot I was in! Brad had already pulled his right after the morning hunt, after shooting the three critters. We went back to Brad's deer and found him dead in his last bed.
The next morning Brad and I had to hang stands again, so we decided to do some double team rattling. Out of four set ups, we rattled in two bucks. We only saw one of them, but couldn't get a shot. The buck doe ratio is really good on the island. I chose one of our rattling locations for my stand. It was a little oak hammock surrounded by a sea of palmettos. The deer made quite a racket coming through that stuff. It's cool to hear them coming in from a long way off. They will use trails, but when coming in to the horns the bucks tend to charge right in before they circle down wind. Right at dark I had a nice buck come right in to me. It was so dark, that I couldn't see the deer unless he was moving. I was trying to figure out how to run him off without spooking him. I looked around me and determined that if he stepped into this little clearing a 7 yards, I would have enough light to shoot. He walked right to the base of my tree! I had dropped a foil wrapper that the thermacell matts come in. He stuck his nose to that and did a back flip and landed in the little opening! He stuck is head back to the ground and slowly walked broadside at 7 yards! I don't remember coming to full draw, and then the arrow was away. I heard my arrow hit something and fall out just 20' or so down the path. I was pretty excited, as this would be my first traditional deer! I heard him run off for 6-8 seconds then all was silent. I then heard him hit the ground hard as short distance away. It was really hard to stay in the tree after that. I told myself to wait one hour, because I was unsure of where I hit him. Then I thought of the sound I heard. I then questioned what I thought I heard. I saw a raccoon fall thirty feet from a tree once, and the sound was similar. After thirty minutes I couldn't stand it any more. I found the front half of my arrow just down the trail, and tons of blood. My tracking kit was in camp, but I didn't need it. My small head lamp was all I needed. I found him dead after about 5 minutes on a 100 yard trail. I was one happy camper!
You can see where he was standing just in front of
my arrow.
These deer have gotten a lot healthier over the years. Twenty years ago, anything over 100# live weight was considered a monster. These dressed at 105# and 110#. The state has hired a sharp shooter to kill hogs over the years and he claims to have killed over 1,000! The hogs used to be very thick, and the deer herd suffered. There are still plenty of hogs, but the balance is closer to where it needs to be. Here is a photo of both bucks.
~Marty Thompson~
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