Dang , hopefully you get another shot at him soon!
Just wait and let all that wind do the work for you on Saturday..leaves be gone. Lol
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.
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
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
