The bucks are chasing and hunting is great -- if you can get there

The southern rut is on! I just returned from the P Arrow Plantation in Livingston, Ala. as a guest of Remington's Eddie Stevenson and Linda Powell on an early January hunt to field test Remington's new Accutip slugs and ShurShot 870 slug guns.

The trip itself nearly fell apart due to airport delays that cost me a day of hunting. However, the writers in camp before me reported seeing bucks running does on the first morning and I decided to reschedule the flight and try again.

I was glad I did. Stevenson reported that he and head guide Wes Hurt watched a wide-racked buck chase a doe onto the neighbor's property on their way back from a morning hunt.

I didn't reach P Arrow until 4 p.m., but Hurt insisted I had time to make an evening stand if we hurried. Twenty-minutes later, we were creeping up to a shooting blind along a green field not far from the lodge.

We settled in, and within 15 minutes a doe popped out of the woods -- followed by the wide-racked buck Hurt and Stevenson had watched run onto the neighbor's property that morning.

The buck was running the doe, but Hurt was able to stop the buck for a broadside shot at less than 50 yards using a bleat.



The 385-grain polymer-tipped slug dropped the buck in it's tracks. Later, we found the new Accutip had retained 93 percent of it's mass (96 percent if you don't count the polymer tip -- which Stevenson said fragments on impact, leaving an impressive entry wound).

Despite the 70-degree highs, all of the hunters in camp saw mature bucks and rutting activity. On Wed., the final morning, Stevenson connected on a nice buck that lifted a doe off the ground with its nose as it tried to "convince" the doe to breed.

We all had plenty of chances to harvest does with new slugs and all connected on shots ranging from 60 to more than 100 yards. I was also impressed with the new SureShot stocks teamed with Remington's new SuperCell recoil pads. The new combination was a pleasure to shoot, even with the heavy slugs and their high-velocity loads. Check them out at http://www.remington.com/products/2008_new_products/.

If you are interested in the P Arrow and it's abundant deer and quail you can find them online at www.parrow.net. Owners Drayton and Zina Pruitt are sensational hosts and the plantation is a spectacular property.

Jake Edson
Deer & Deer Hunting Associate Editor