I took two days of vacation time this week to knock out some prescribed burning at the farm and the weather/conditions were perfect!!!

We burned 50 acres of longleaf pines,10 acres of loblolly pines, and a few hardwood SMZ’s in between…








As I was setting the backfire along an SMZ on Tuesday morning, I came across a fresh shed from the 11 point I hunted so hard this past deer season!! I walked about 50’ further and the other side was hanging waist-high in some brush!! That’s the first time I’ve ever found matching sheds!!




My 7 year old son, Emory, shot a nice 8 point right at dark in late October with a crossbow. The lighted nock didn’t work, so I wasn’t sure where he’d hit the buck. We never found blood, the bolt, or anything that evening. We grid searched the nearby cutover/longleaf plantation the next day as well without ever finding any sign of a hit on the buck. After no more game camera pictures of the buck over the next week or so, I felt sure the buck was dead out in the thick cutover. We continued to look for buzzards as time went on, but they never gave us any hints…After burning this week, my Dad and I walked through the longleafs yesterday and we found Emory’s buck about 150 yards from the shot site. I always thought the buck had ran to the East after he was shot at, but he went straight North instead…I started to call in a tracking dog, but I didn’t have anything to verify a hit on the buck. Hindsight’s always 20/20 🤬

We had a happy little fella at home when he got to put his hands on his biggest buck!!!

Those are some good looking burns, I miss those days.......good finds on sheds and the dead head....

well, i'll be. hallelujah for y'all ...

That's a great day!

Great pics

That’s great man

Heck yeah. I’ve burned so much lately I’ve got burners cough. 😂

Glad yall found your sons deer.

Man that's nice, thanks for sharing

looks awesome! Little man is stoked

How old is that longleaf?
Mine is one year old, can’t wait to light it up next February.

This was a stand of naturally-regenerated mixed pine/hardwood that we clearcut in 2018. We burned it in the summer of 2019 and the longleafs were planted in January 2020. Imazapyr was sprayed on all of the competing brush in September 2020. We burned the longleafs in March 2022 as well.

Of course, longleafs are pretty uncommon for northern Alabama!! But, this is a high, dry very sandy site that’s very well suited for the longleafs. They should really thrive after this week’s fire!!