The scrapes and deer movement have really been picking up in the woods I hunt. Been seeing deer almost every time out which is a big change from earlier in the season. Last nights hunt was the best so far. I had hung a new stand for my son to hunt the previous night and decided to hop in it as he had basketball practice. The area I hung it in faces a bunch of white oaks to the north, and a bedding area just north of them. There's cut bean fields and an old apple orchard to the north of the bedding area. It's surrounded by lots more hardwoods with a field to the south, and an old slashing to the southeast. With the north west wind, I should have a good hunt.
My buddy had hit a decent 8 the night before at 5:00 and I had missed a small buck at 5:20 a few nights ago, so I wanted in early. By 4:00 I was settled in and checking TOO on my phone. Basically I was drooling at some of the bucks ya'll have been killing. I quit looking at Mao's buck and decided to put my phone up. Ten minutes went by watching squirrels when I heard the faint steps of a deer to my left. As I eased my attention in that direction I could see a a nice doe 50 yards away walk into a clearing. She was uneasy and kept looking behind herself. Within seconds a very wide and tall buck comes charging her with his neck stretched out and flattened. All I could think was here we go! She would let him get a sniff and that was about it. He tried to mount a few times but she wasn't having it yet. They kept walking in circles with her leading, and never getting closer than 40 yards. I'm not good at all on aging or scoring deer. All I can say is he was a very symmetrical 8 with good mass, very tall & wide and looked to be an older deer in the face & body.
After 15 minutes or so, she started walking away with him following. I've never used a grunt call much but figured this was as good of a time as any. I expected him to ignore me and stay with his lady, but to my surprise he stopped and turned around walking to me! He only closed the distance to 30 yards facing me when he stopped and froze. This time he was staring in the direction they had come from. Here comes another buck following the two of them. This one was a younger deer with a smaller rack & body, but was a 10 or a 12. The first buck postured up and was letting him know who was boss. It was obvious the younger buck wanted no part of him. They had a short stare down with the younger guy backing off. Damn, I was ready for a fight!!!
The big guy returned his attention to the doe, and the other buck kept his distance. I lost the 8 point and the doe and figured they had walked off. Now I couldn't see the younger buck any where's, he had vanished as well. I've never been a rack hunter so I was more than happy to have got a shot at the smaller one but he was gone. Just when I was going to sit down I made out a deer rump 40 yards away behind some briers. It was the younger buck who was now bedded down. My hopes started building again as i was hoping the other two might be bedded too. At 5:30 the young back stood up, swapped ends and layed back down. I stared at him until 6:15 when I heard a stick snap. Out of no where steps the big 8 again. Him and the doe messed around a bit and then walked off. With that the young buck was following and I decided to use my doe bleat a few times. He stopped and would look, but he had his mind on taking a chance with the for sure thing. I stayed up till dark never seeing anything else but squirrels.
No shot, but a hell of a night in the stand.
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