North Georgia Sportsman: A Storm Bruin

I love chestnuts. I mean, they're pretty good to eat, with a sweet and nutty flavor. Apparently you can roast them on an open fire, but I've never tried. But I really love to hunt over them in the early parts of archery season here in north Georgia. Deer have been browsing all spring and summer on native flora like blackberry, honeysuckle, clover, wild grape, dogwood and if near a settlement, garden staples like okra, beans, peas and your wife's favorite hostas. As summer wanes and fruit trees start to drop, apples and pears are in high demand.

And then there's the lull between the time that apples have been mostly consumed and the time the most prominent mast crop, acorns, begin to fall. Deer that have been easily patterned on reliable food sources all summer, seemingly up and disappear. Unless you have something drawing them in.

Enter the chestnut. In my neck of the woods, chestnuts (And we're talking the blight-resistant Chinese chestnut) usually begin to drop their heavily armed burs around the end of August or first of September. Being the only high protein, high carb mast available, deer will flock to them.

Notice the cracked, and emptied hulls where deer or bear have chewed them to get at the sweet meat inside.

I'm fortunate enough to own some property with a pair of old chestnut trees that still produce. These particular trees were planted on an old farmstead many years ago and though the farm and all remnants of it are gone, the twin chestnut trees remain and drop their bounty every year.

The smaller of the two is pictured in the background of this trail cam picture with the yearling directly under it. I had several series of pictures with as many as five does feeding on the chestnuts in late August and early September.

I was fortunate enough to harvest a doe underneath the chestnut trees on the opening morning of archery season. She rolled out the red carpet for me!

Two days later, the governor declared a state of emergency for all 159 counties in the state of Georgia. Hurricane Irma was working her way up the coast of Florida and was expected to bring widespread destruction far into Georgia. Watching the radar, I knew I would have several hours before anything destructive made it to the mountains and I figured game would be moving ahead of the approaching storm, so I headed once again to my ground blind overlooking the chestnuts.

Daylight had just broken softly under cloudy skies and light rain. It was still very dark inside the blind and I had just checked the radar again on my phone when I caught movement out of the corner of my eye. I was momentarily shocked when I looked up and saw a bear loping into my field of view. He made no sound and when I first saw him, he was only ten yards away. I had no pictures of him on camera, but he clearly knew the chestnuts were there because he went straight to them and began feeding. I drew my bow, settled my pin behind his front shoulder and released an arrow. I watched the arrow disappear and the bear grunted, then wheeled and ran. After giving him half an hour, I found him about 100 yards from the blind.

Bear meat has a reputation for being tough and gamey. I believe this reputation is undeserving and points more towards mishandling of the meat after the kill than the actual properties of bear meat itself.

Bear meat has a distinct flavor that is more similar to beef than venison.