Oh boy, did I ever have the best day in the stand today!Yesterday, as I posted, my buddy scored on a little 8 pt. He rattled 4 bucks within shooting range yesterday for himself, so I was pumped to have him rattling for me today.
He sat in the buddy stand with me, and around 7:45, hit my leg to tell me there was a buck coming down the trail on the other side of the ditch (10-15 yards). I whispered, "That's a dead deer walking." It spotted us at about 25 yards, but it didn't phase him, he kept coming. I stood up, and waited until he got behind the tree to draw.... or try to draw. LOL I couldn't draw my bow back!!! I was in shock, as I have been practicing with it and having no problems, in fact shooting very accurately out to 30 yards. I kept trying and trying... couldn't get it. Meanwhile, I look at my buddy and say, "I can't draw my bow!" He's looking at me like I'm crazy... the buck is standing there staring at us the entire time. So, for sh*ts and giggles, Joe bleats at him... he looks at us and cocks his head like a dang dog. We are both just rolling at this point. We are sitting there laughing so hard we had tears rolling down our faces!
So, I try again... nope, can't pull it. LOL Laughing so hard I can't compose myself at this point. The thing STILL standing there watching us. He stomped a time or two, and went back to what he was doing... all at 15 yards! So then he turns and is facing us, probably thinking, "This is what my mom warned me about... she can't even pull that thing, dumb human." While Joe and I are saying, "Dumb deer" Seriously, this went on for about 5 or 6 minutes. I eventually got the bow back and he started walking away, I was laughing so hard I just had to let it go.
I'm glad I did though... 10 minutes later, mind you, we were still laughing and talking, I look out and see an absolute monster of a buck about 80 yards out. I'm like, Joe, BUCK! BIG BUCK! He finally spots it and hits the rattle bag. That thing stopped dead in it's tracks, did an about face and walked straight for us! It was all business at that point. He hit the rattle bag a couple more times along with a small grunt, the thing came straight to us. He lingered at about 20 yards, but was behind a tree, couldn't get a shot. I had to wait til he started walking away. He got to 30yds and was perfectly broadside. He too saw us there, he HAD to have, he was staring right at us, and we were even whispering back and forth. He ended up stopping right where I wanted him, but too far out. I almost couldn't pull the bow back again and I though... OH NO!!! I got it back and fired, right under him. He didn't even spook, just turned around and sauntered across the field. At one point we were sure we saw him limping and I thought, "Oh god!! Please tell me I didn't just hit that deer in the leg!" We got down and walked out into the field, couldn't find the arrow, but knew it wasn't in him, since he didn't dash away we got a good look as he walked away. [&o]
We climbed back up in the stand, about 8:20, 10 minutes later, same place we saw him first, two huge deer, one 10, one 8 walking across. We hit the rattle bag again, no interest in it. They acted as if nothing was goin on and kept along their merry way. 10 minutes later, another large 8 (could have been one of the same ones cuz we lost sight of them) comes from the corner of field about 50 yards out. He looked for the rattle bag, but that was the extent, he didn't have much interest in it, headed across the field.
5 minutes later, I turned my head and looked over my shoulder... there was yet another smaller 8 pt or so about 5 yards from my stand. How we didn't hear him come in, I'll NEVER understand, but we didn't. When I turned, it was too late, he had spotted us and went behind some thicket at about 35 yards.
I have NEVER had a hunting experience like this. It seemed we did everything "wrong" according to some people's book... we had hot chocolate broke open drinking it right in the stand out of the thermos, talking the entire time... laughing so hard we couldn't contain ourselves, up and down to check for an arrow, clinging and clanging all morning long, dropping things out of our stand accidentally... I guess when rut is approaching, they forget about all instincts... or maybe they just really aren't as smart as people give them credit for
That's my philosophy.
Any way you look at it, it was an unbelievable day, and although I didn't bring that big boy home in the back of my truck, it was the best hunt I've ever had. I was doubtful of rattling, I'm a diehard believer now. I watched it work in the best possible way... it was unbelievable.
**I figured I better edit this to add: We did get down at 9:20 and found the arrow I shot at Brutus, clean as ever, clean miss... thank GOD!"***