LIVE! From the Stand 2022-2023 Edition

[bowhunter1023]

Ground assault. Got some shitty news yesterday that's changed my outlook on hunting here. The gloves are off. Had a the #1 buck out here in the Corner Pocket at 7:07 last night. No way he didn't travel through this bottom to get where he was. Hoping the coolness of this creek bottom is attractive to them tonight. Zero expectations, but zero fucks given too. Just happy to be out and not doing something else.

 

[Spencie]

I’ve seen 9 so far. 5 bucks. Another good hunt.
Correction: 10 deer. 6 bucks

 

[Gern186]

Broke the streak with this trophy 4 pointer...

 

[Stressless]

Forky bedded up about 18yrds from me...waiting16m and then the yote comes out.

 

[bowhunter1023]

Should have stayed home raked leaves...

 

[ThatBuckeyeGuy]

Skunked per usual

 

[jagermeister]

So. Darn. Close.

The bold move paid off, but it didn’t. My #1 target buck showed himself around 6:30, right where I suspected he would. I hit him with a short rattle sequence and a couple grunts, he saw the decoy, and a-marching he came. Wind was blowing SE and he was coming from the NE. I thought I was golden. Except this is a smart, 5.5 or 6.5 year old buck. I was ready for him, bow in hand, cool calm and collected. But he hung up at 45-50 yards away, due north of the decoy. He did exactly what I was worried he would do. He circled into the thick vegetation and got NW of me, straight downwind at about 40 yards. I had evercalm and doe estrus scent all around me, hoping it would be enough to distract him. But he was too smart for it. He never blew, but he certainly knew something wasn’t right. After 5 or so minutes of a stare down and throwing his nose in the air, he swung out wide in the field to the east and continued on his way to the neighbors farm. What a kick in the nuts. I was really depending on this decoy to draw him in. And it did. But now he’s seen it… and I feel like I just stacked the odds against myself even higher. Once again, another close call to add to my incredibly long list of close calls.

 

[Boarhead]

We saw some does and one pretty nice buck just not close enough..pretty warm out and no rutting activity at all and they all moved late. Grace still had fun and was really excited to see the buck.

 

[ThatBuckeyeGuy]

So. Darn. Close.

The bold move paid off, but it didn’t. My #1 target buck showed himself around 6:30, right where I suspected he would. I hit him with a short rattle sequence and a couple grunts, he saw the decoy, and a-marching he came. Wind was blowing SE and he was coming from the NE. I thought I was golden. Except this is a smart, 5.5 or 6.5 year old buck. I was ready for him, bow in hand, cool calm and collected. But he hung up at 45-50 yards away, due north of the decoy. He did exactly what I was worried he would do. He circled into the thick vegetation and got NW of me, straight downwind at about 40 yards. I had evercalm and doe estrus scent all around me, hoping it would be enough to distract him. But he was too smart for it. He never blew, but he certainly knew something wasn’t right. After 5 or so minutes of a stare down and throwing his nose in the air, he swung out wide in the field to the east and continued on his way to the neighbors farm. What a kick in the nuts. I was really depending on this decoy to draw him in. And it did. But now he’s seen it… and I feel like I just stacked the odds against myself even higher. Once again, another close call to add to my incredibly long list of close calls.

Dang , hopefully you get another shot at him soon!

 

[Boarhead]

Should have stayed home raked leaves...

Just wait and let all that wind do the work for you on Saturday..leaves be gone. Lol

 

[giles]

So. Darn. Close.

The bold move paid off, but it didn’t. My #1 target buck showed himself around 6:30, right where I suspected he would. I hit him with a short rattle sequence and a couple grunts, he saw the decoy, and a-marching he came. Wind was blowing SE and he was coming from the NE. I thought I was golden. Except this is a smart, 5.5 or 6.5 year old buck. I was ready for him, bow in hand, cool calm and collected. But he hung up at 45-50 yards away, due north of the decoy. He did exactly what I was worried he would do. He circled into the thick vegetation and got NW of me, straight downwind at about 40 yards. I had evercalm and doe estrus scent all around me, hoping it would be enough to distract him. But he was too smart for it. He never blew, but he certainly knew something wasn’t right. After 5 or so minutes of a stare down and throwing his nose in the air, he swung out wide in the field to the east and continued on his way to the neighbors farm. What a kick in the nuts. I was really depending on this decoy to draw him in. And it did. But now he’s seen it… and I feel like I just stacked the odds against myself even higher. Once again, another close call to add to my incredibly long list of close calls.

Maybe now you should use it to your advantage and put it where you don't want him to be. Something I've done using my every day hat.

 

["J"]

Maybe now you should use it to your advantage and put it where you don't want him to be. Something I've done using my every day hat.

Can you enlighten us on that method?

 

[Snyder10]

So. Darn. Close.

The bold move paid off, but it didn’t. My #1 target buck showed himself around 6:30, right where I suspected he would. I hit him with a short rattle sequence and a couple grunts, he saw the decoy, and a-marching he came. Wind was blowing SE and he was coming from the NE. I thought I was golden. Except this is a smart, 5.5 or 6.5 year old buck. I was ready for him, bow in hand, cool calm and collected. But he hung up at 45-50 yards away, due north of the decoy. He did exactly what I was worried he would do. He circled into the thick vegetation and got NW of me, straight downwind at about 40 yards. I had evercalm and doe estrus scent all around me, hoping it would be enough to distract him. But he was too smart for it. He never blew, but he certainly knew something wasn’t right. After 5 or so minutes of a stare down and throwing his nose in the air, he swung out wide in the field to the east and continued on his way to the neighbors farm. What a kick in the nuts. I was really depending on this decoy to draw him in. And it did. But now he’s seen it… and I feel like I just stacked the odds against myself even higher. Once again, another close call to add to my incredibly long list of close calls.

Ouch! What’s your plan moving forward? I can almost imagine this scenario happening to me and I have no clue what my next steps would be

 

[giles]

Can you enlighten us on that method?

Pretty simple. Using some outside the box thinking some years back. I would take my work hat or shirt and put it on the deer trail I didn't want the deer to use. Then I'd set up on the escape route.

Where I hunt I am very limited on access areas. So I got creative with it to help me. Now I know how to hunt the place a little better and don't need to stack the odds as much. But this idea could work with a decoy also. All is never lost, you just gotta use it differently.

 

[jagermeister]

Ouch! What’s your plan moving forward? I can almost imagine this scenario happening to me and I have no clue what my next steps would be

I honestly don’t know yet. I’m still pouting over this. I’m afraid an old buck like that is not going to make a mistake a second time. But then again, it is November, and he could very well lose his mind on any given day and slip up. Possible, yet unlikely. The good news is, there is another buck on my list. I just haven’t seen him for a couple weeks. Hopefully he’s still alive. I think my chances with the decoy are slim to none with the buck I encountered tonight. But I may keep deploying it in hopes that #2 shows up, or another traveler buck that I’m unfamiliar with. I’m probably not going to make any more ultra-aggressive/risky moves like I did tonight though. That was my one shot at the end zone. Now I’m gonna go back to playing it safe and smart. If I don’t push #1 out of this zip code in the next few weeks, I’ll have a decent chance of killing him during gun week.

 

[Sgt Fury]

Pretty simple. Using some outside the box thinking some years back. I would take my work hat or shirt and put it on the deer trail I didn't want the deer to use. Then I'd set up on the escape route.

Where I hunt I am very limited on access areas. So I got creative with it to help me. Now I know how to hunt the place a little better and don't need to stack the odds as much. But this idea could work with a decoy also. All is never lost, you just gotta use it differently.

I did the same thing using Irish Spring soap. There were two trails the deer would take from field to bedding area…I was set up on one and the night before opening day I went to the other trail and cut up several bars of soap and tossed them to the ground as I walked the trail. It worked for a bit but the bastards got used to it.

 

[giles]

I did the same thing using Irish Spring soap. There were two trails the deer would take from field to bedding area…I was set up on one and the night before opening day I went to the other trail and cut up several bars of soap and tossed them to the ground as I walked the trail. It worked for a bit but the bastards got used to it.

Yeah, the hat or shirt was less intrusive. The deer weren't on full freak out either. They'd just take another route. Almost always down wind.

I could also control when it was happening better than something like soap.

 

[jagermeister]

So. Darn. Close.

The bold move paid off, but it didn’t. My #1 target buck showed himself around 6:30, right where I suspected he would. I hit him with a short rattle sequence and a couple grunts, he saw the decoy, and a-marching he came. Wind was blowing SE and he was coming from the NE. I thought I was golden. Except this is a smart, 5.5 or 6.5 year old buck. I was ready for him, bow in hand, cool calm and collected. But he hung up at 45-50 yards away, due north of the decoy. He did exactly what I was worried he would do. He circled into the thick vegetation and got NW of me, straight downwind at about 40 yards. I had evercalm and doe estrus scent all around me, hoping it would be enough to distract him. But he was too smart for it. He never blew, but he certainly knew something wasn’t right. After 5 or so minutes of a stare down and throwing his nose in the air, he swung out wide in the field to the east and continued on his way to the neighbors farm. What a kick in the nuts. I was really depending on this decoy to draw him in. And it did. But now he’s seen it… and I feel like I just stacked the odds against myself even higher. Once again, another close call to add to my incredibly long list of close calls.

I think it’s worth mentioning, for the good of the order, that I screwed up with my setup. I really should have known better. I should have expected a deer of that caliber to circle downwind of the decoy… and knowing that, I should have put myself further downwind of the decoy. If I would have been just 20 yards further to my north/northwest, that buck would have been inside bow range when he hit the brakes. That lack of foresight on my part made all the difference in success vs failure. Always something to be learned… oftentimes the hard way.

 

[Gern186]

Sorry to hear that Jim. A buck that old is gonna be very hard to fool with a decoy imo. I've had decoys cost me more mature deer than they've accounted for by far. But thats just me. When they see the decoy and do the stare down and the decoy doesn't move for 5 minutes they know its not right. Hindsight is always 2020 when you experience it like you did. Im sure there's thoughts running thru your mind where you could have possibly done something differently. Set the deke in a different location predicting he would circle downwind of it or sit in a location that would have put you in range of him circling it. Dont give up on him.

 

[Gern186]

Dang Jim I was typing that up as you were saying the same thing. Lol