I didn't get a deer but I almost dropped the hammer on my first non-typical.
After this mornings hunt I was excited to get back for this evenings hunt ( see "things are looking up" posted this morning).
I got in my stand at 3:45 pm, got my bow ready, bino's hung and was just getting the grunt call from my fanny pack when I spotted a button buck approaching. He was all by himself and I guessed it was the same one I had seen on Tue. night. He walked down the trail 20 yards in front of my stand and goes out of sight.
I'm digging in the fanny pack to get out my range finder when I look over my shoulder and see a tall, skinny sapling waving like crazy. I've only been there for 5 minutes. I'm looking through the binos and I make out a deers body but can't see the head. While I'm looking, I see a second deer, a doe. They are about 65 yards from me and the doe starts moving toward me. I hear the buck grunt and I'm trying to see him through the binos. I'm thinking it was one of the bucks I'd seen in the morning until I spot a thick tine about 11" long. Then I see an 8". horizontal tine coming off of a g-2 like a pennant and that has 4-5 stickers coming off of it! I go..Holy smokes! a non-typical! get your bow, stupid! The doe passes by along the 20 yard trail then button hooks around me and back into the brush where she came from. The buck busts through the brush and ends up in the clear, about 24 yards away, facing me, then stops. My bow is pointed at him waiting for him to proceed, giving me a broadside shot. No dice, he turns to head after the doe and pauses quartering away from me. I'm at full draw and as I get the pin on him, he darts after the doe before I can shoot[
]. I said all kinds of things including "Dang it!". Five minutes later I see the buck come back out of the brush and start heading away from me. He's about 60 yards off and heading for another doe bedding area. I tried grunting at him several times. He'd stop and look then just kept on cruising. Oh well. I'm no expert on scoring non-typicals but I'd guess he was in the 180s.
I get my range finder and begin to range my first object when I hear something. I look and see two deer approaching. One is a 1 1/2 4 point, the other I can't tell. He keeps coming and I notice that he is a giant of a deer body wise but only about 126" 11 point. His longest tine is a massive brow tine 7-8" long and the other is busted off. The rest of his tines are 4", 3" and 1 1/2" respectively. One of the g-4s was a double tine making him an 11 pointer. He'd dress between 215 and 225 easy.He gave me three shots, 15, 17 and 11 yards. He circled around me and got my entrance trail but couldn't figure it out. At 15 yards he was too close and my scent went right over him. He finally circled behind me and bedded down! Less than 20 yards! The 4 point bedded down 4 yards in front of me! CRAP!! This all happened in the first 20 minutes after I got in my stand! Can you believe it!!??
They bedded for an hour, trapping me like a statue in my tree, holding my binos to my chest. I was going numb. Finally the 4 point got up and started rubbing a sapling the size of my thumb. Then he caught my trail and sniffed all 12 feet of it right to my tree! He never looked up. He just sniffed and licked my foot pegs for a while then moved off. I never touch the pegs with my bare skin. Then the old buck got up (I guessed him at 7 1/2+) and started raking a 4"diameter tree. After that, he pawed a spot out on the ground and rubbed his tarsals together while peeing over them onto the freshly exposed ground. When he was finished he let out a loud, long super deep grunt![:-]It was the deepest one I've ever heard. It sounded like my buddies dairy bull when he was pissed off. Made the hair on my neck stand up. Before that, the deepest grunt I ever heard was from the 220# 9 point I shot in 1996. Finally, both bucks walked off after 1 hour and 15 minutes.
What a night! What a day! I saw 4 different mature bucks today which ties my record from last year. However, the 4 I saw last year were all 3 1/2 s. Today 2 of them were 5 1/2 and older.
You know I'd like to be there tomorrow morning but I got subpoenaed to court to testify in a family matter. That sucks, but you can bet I'll be there tomorrow night!
Sorry it's so long but I had to get it out of my head before it exploded.[:-]
My wildest night ...ever!
Good luck.
