Hi all,
Saturday the 4th was an awesome day hunting for me. I got to my stand early, about 6, and waited for shooting light to come, shich is about 6:30 in my part of Wisconsin. We had been seeing lots of sign, but felt the rut really hadn't kicked full swing yet. I was wondering what I would see.
Well, what a morning, the rut is definately on! At exactly 6:30, a 1 1/2 year old buck came into the area slowly munching on acorns. He was about 70 yards away. My stand is in thick hardwoods, but this particular spot is sitted on a draw where three small ridges intersect, and, it is a little more open. You can see quite a bit of area. I had laid an esterous scent walking in, and he crossed right over it without batting an eye. No biggie, I ws thinking it was fun just to see him. Well, from that moment on, I never sat down. All kinds of deer were moving, and at one point, I saw two 2 1/2 year old bucks and three 1 1/2 year old bucks and 7 does all at once in my area. For the next two hours I watched them chase, rub, check scrapes, fight and run around.
At about 8:30, a very nice 2 1/2 year old was chasing away one of the 1 1/2 year old and ended going about 70 yards straight downwind to my right. I had the drag I used with the esterous strung up in a tree and I saw him stop and stick his nose into the air. I hit my bleet can and he started coming right at me. (my stand is 20 feet high and I was on ground higher than him). I was not too worried about being scented. I got up, not sure if I was going to shoot him or not.He walked right up to my scent wick. At that same time, I heard the crunch/crunch of a deer to my left. I assumed it was one of the does or maybe a small buck that I saw going that way just a few minutes earlier. I looked over and here was a sweet buck, hair up, low aggressive grunts looking right at the 2 1/2 year old, ready to rumble! He was about 45 yards away, sorta behind a tree. I quickly, trying not to be seen, grabbed my bow. The 2 1/2 year old did a ten yard charge/trot towards the bigger buck. The big boy moved forward to challenge, and when he got to 35 yards, I drew back. I knew he would have to turn more broadside to get to the other deer, and at 30 yards he did.
I released the arrow and saw a good hit. The arrow stayed in and he bounded back the way he came. He slowed down and slipped over the ridge.
I got down from my stand and beelined it exactly the opposite direction about 30 minutes later. I came back 3 hours later to track him. He went another 200 yards after I saw him! I was getting a little worried, but had a great blood trail to follow. I finally found him over another ridge. I hit an artery and his liver, but not his lungs. He literally bled out trying to get to a thick swamp another 100 yards away.
His rack has awesome mass, just not big tines. He was a pig. He weighed 187 lbs field dressed and had a 24 inch neck! You can kind of see his neck in the pic. I took these the next day. My field pics were taken by my father-in-law and I do not have those yet.
Good luck to you all! I hope you are fortunate to have the experience I did.
Broc
