I shot my birthday buck this morning (27 years old).
Got in stand about 645am, had deer all over by 715am or so. What I thought was a hunter acrossed the field in a swamp thicket using a grunt call...turned out to be a small buck chasing a doe. They came in to the woods by me around 730am. The buck went busting over by a row of rubs and scrapes...never saw him again. The doe smelled all around the tree I was in..as I had sprayed doe estrous everywhere. She even smelled the ladder sections at the base of the tree..and them directly up at me. She walked into a corn field a few minutes before I could see my pins.
745am...had 3 does come by. I took aim at one broadside @ 10 yards...and blew it. She took off...but the other two hung around out of range.
8am...I heard what I thought was the first small buck that came in grunting...making a bunch of racket 100 yards in front of me. I grunted 3 times, turned the can over twice. Then I saw movement...and grunting. I looked at the deer with my binoc's...and knew he was a shooter. He came in to what would have been a 20 yard shot to my left...which is my bread and butter. He then (maybe?) got a whiff of the estrous I sprayed...or one of those does that came through there. So instead of a broadside shot to my left, he gave me a perfect broadside shot directly in front of me. Double lung shot..ran 70 yards...and ended.
What was great, is that when he was walking towards me from 100 yards out...he was grunting..and his hair on his neck and back was sticking straight up! I've only seen them do that in video's. Also, the signs of him just doing his business with a doe were all over him. Both visually, and by the fact that you could smell an estrous doe all over his weiner area. lol
http://i418.photobucket.com/albums/pp270/studpat/bdaybuck.jpg
http://i418.photobucket.com/albums/pp270/studpat/ethanbuck.jpg
He's a 12pt...and will probably go 130's or so I'm guessing.
Birthday Buck
