I honestly didn't tape him Zach. He fit my needs.
No does in the area. Guess I didn't really add many details of how he came in. Here comes the second chapter of my novel.
I passed on a button 15min prior. Saw the bb milling around looking for momma. BB came back through but it was a quick pass through. This is when I saw my buck through the binoculars in some thick stuff. I thought it was momma. Not really very big bodied compared to many of the ones i have watched this year. I really don't think he is very old. 3.5yrs at the oldest. He came out of the thick bedding area to the edge of the woods. Bedding area was due west. Tilled under cornfield was north of the bedding area and picked bean field was due south of the bedding area. He headed straight to the edge of the woods and acted like he was heading south to search for does. Milled around nibbling on this and that a bit and I grunted. No reaction. I grunted a little louder. No reaction. He was not in a hurry and i left some time in between grunts. Maybe a minute or so. Then i hit the big can call and followed with a series of 4 tending grunts through the grunt tube pointed behind me. He looked! Took two steps towards me and stopped to figure out why he was hearing this but seeing nothing. I lifted the fleece baclava facemask and covered my mouth. I did a snort wheeze with my mouth into the mask. Yes, I have been practicing while driving. haha Then I followed it with a long, low, irritated sounding grunt. This did the trick. He didn't bristle up and get pissed or anything. He still hadn't seen any deer to make him feel like he should be flexing his muscles yet. He did though, feel the need to head my direction very casually. He must have figured it was time to show some manhood just in case there was actually another buck in the area. He started rubbing a tree not 15yds away. Not violently, but rubbing. He was close. I was 15-18' up but in a telephone pole tree with zero cover. I drew while his head was close to the ground on the downstroke of the rub. Next time his head went down, I moved the bow over pointing towards him. Lined up the vitals and my 20/30/40 yard pins were all in the brown. I squeezed the release and it was game time! He took off forward instinctively. Then threw it in reverse to unwrap the antlers from the tree he was rubbing. Friggin' hilarious really! After that it was a waiting game. My arrow showed poop and belly hair. I waited over 4 hours. Gathered Hank, my buddy's dog, and two more friends to search for him. Four guys, two dogs, and 100yds or so later we had him!
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