Hmmmm, where too start........
Okay, the day was good and terrible all in one. In the morning, I was set up on the edge of woods where I knew deer would be moving into and feeding at. These woods aren't hunted but everywhere around them is. Well, at abot 7:15, I see a deer comming out of the woods to feed in front of me. I saw antlers, so, I threw my gun up. It was only a spike, so, I put my gun back down and watched him for about 30 minutes. I had seen this buck in archery season, he had ran into my calling, hit himself off a tree branch and knocked himself off his feet, then slipped on the edge of a pond and fell in. Well, yesterday, I noticed that he was limping pretty bad. But, he eventually walked off. A few minutes later, I hear a gun shot and I see my grandfather about 200 yards away walk down and start gutting a deer. I stayed in my stand and a small button buck from this year, maybe 100 pounds came out behind me at 20 yards and walk to within 5 yards. He then bedded down for about 30 minutes. I had seen this button buck EVERY day in archery season. I had shot his mother with my bow this year. Every time I was in that stand, he would come and hang around the base of my tree for a long period of time. Well, while he was bedded down, his brother, another button buck came in and bedded down with him. These two button bucks and I were really cool, I could get away with any movement in my stand during archery season because they knew I wouldn't hurt them. They would sit below me and just watch me all day. Well, yesterday, for some odd reason, the second button buck got up and walked up onto a farmers property and as soon as he stepped across the property line I heard a shot and saw him fall. That bummed me out because I had watched this deer all season. Well, I got down a little while later to help my grandfather and the other button buck that was bedded down wouldn't leave. I climbed out of my stand with him just feet away and I actually said "Go buddy and good luck" outloud but he just wouldn't leave. Finally, I just walked away to see what my grandfather had shot. I got up there and saw that he had shot a button buck. He thought that it was a doe because it was so big. The thing probablly weighed 125-130 pounds live weight. So, there was another bummer. I had already seen two button bucks killed and a spike limping really badly. Well, I went to a different area and on the way to my stand, I stumbled right up on a bedded buck. He was a three point. I saw him as soon as he saw me. He was no more than 5 feet from me when we finally noticed each other. His eyes got HUGE and he sat there for around a minute just looking at me. He finally got up and jumped to about 5 yards and stopped for about 2 minutes to look at me before he finally walked away. I was cracking up at how dumb this thing was, but, when he was walking away, I noticed that he had a slight limp. Not as bad as the spike, but he was limping none the less. Both him and the spike didn't have bullet holes, they were just limping from what was either fighting or getting hit by a car. I think the three point might have stepped on something because he left a tiny blood spot in between his hoofs as he walked away. Well, I saw another buck a little later on, he was a small 4 point, and wasn't legal to shoot. After that I saw roughly 30 doe before another buck. It was getting to be evening when I decided to do a small light push to my grandfather and his friend. Before I even started I heard my grandfathers friend shoot. I still pushed out this little patch of brush but, I was amazed when I came back out. My grandfathers friend had been on his way to his post when he jumped up 3 legal bucks. He shot an 8 point that had a 16 inch spread, another 8 point ran into some private property and a 7 point ran past my grandfather but my grandfather couldn't count points in time. All three of these deer were about the same size, 15-16" wide with 4 inch tines. That was one nice thing, my grandfathers friend got a descent buck. Well, my grandfather still had another doe and a buck tag, I still have my buck tag, and his friend still had a doe tag. Well, I decided to do another small push and in the middle of it, I heard my grandfathers friend shoot. I got up there and saw a small deer. He told me that a huge old doe ran out along with this smaller one, but the smaller one presented a better shot so he took it. I walked up and looked at the deer only to find that it was a button buck, actually, it was the button buck that was bedded behind me all morning. This was another bummer. I had watched him and his brother grow up only to be shot in their first winter.
I came home and called my best friend to see how he had did and he had the worst time ever. He passed on a small 6 point in the morning only for it to walk over the hill to where he younger cousin was and his cousin dropped it. Well, a little while later he had a big 8 point comming in. It need to come another 20 feet before he could get a clean shot at it, when a car pulls up on the road below him. A guy gets out, runs up the hill and drops the buck. That ticked my friend off, but, the farm he was on is opening to all hunters and the guy was far enough away from the road for it to be legal. Well, towards the evening, he had a small doe come in. He passed her up and was watching her when another car pulls up and a guy pulls his gun out the window and shoots the doe. My friend watched the doe try to crawl away on its front legs because it had been shot in the rear end. Well, the guy got out of the car and ran up the hill. He shot it SEVEN MORE TIMES. While he was gutting it out, my friend ran down and got the guys liscence plate number. When he got home he called the PGC and they said that they would get back to him, but they havn't year.
Overall, I saw alot of deer, but I was terribly disappointed to see so many injured young bucks and watch so many button bucks get killed. I am just even wondering if it is worth it to keep passin on small bucks in this area. I have tried my HARDEST to get some huge bucks growing in this area, but there are already 3 less bucks in the area for next year.
Good Luck This Season: Buck Magnet
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