Hey guys it was a pretty unbelieveable weekend. As you know Okie, the temps here last week were great, low 30's in the mornings and cool throughout the day. Anyway, we went to an area that Chief whitehat (guys that run the hunt each weekend) had told us to go to. I found a rub line on cedars that were up to 6" in diameter, scrapes, beds, persimmons... you name it. I set up a stand in a cedar tree where twoHUGE trails came together. Hanging that stand, I hadone of those feelings it was perfect and that you couldn't ask for a better situation. Thursday night I was able to meet Millertime and his better halffor a steak and a beer (which was a lot of fun).

Anyway at about sunrise on Friday morning I had a doe and a button buck come through at 5 yards (my stand was only 12-14' up because I didn't want a steep shooting angle with the recurve) they came fromalmost directly down windhad absolutely no idea that I was there, and I passed waiting for a buck. I had a coyote come on the same trail about 15 minutes later moving the opposite directionand didn't shoot him either. I sat for the rest of the day and didn't see another deer.

My buddy was 200 yards from me and rattled in 6 different bucks, 4 shooters (120's or bigger [to him]) but the second deer he saw was an absolute monter and he kept waiting on that buck to return so passed on the rest. Another friend saw 22 deer, 11 bucks and also passed on lots of deer. The fourth guy missed a pretty decent buck first thing in the morning, so the deer were definitely moving

So day two, I walk to my stand and bump deer out from under it in the dark. I couldn't give up on that stand just yet, Ihad donemy scouting and hung it there for a reason and I was going to give it another shot. There were 3 fresh scrapes within 15 yards of my stand and I could smell them before the wind started blowing. 3 does came through and that was it, I climbed down and headed to the truck for some lunchto devise a new plan. I decided I was going to build a natural ground blind on the edge of a very small wheat field out of sut cedar trees. The blind was great, the cedar provided a pretty good cover scent and I'm pretty maticulous about scent control anyway. I got settled in and in no time there were deer within 15 steps, does, fawns and little bucks. I had shots at several different bucks up to about 100-110" but I passed on them as well. About 30 minutes before dark I saw a flash to the NE and a doe came full speed into the field, stopped at 20 yards and looked back. I figured she was getting chased and got ready for the buck to follow her out. Like in a dream he appeared and trotted my direction... "perfect" I think. Idon't count points I lookat width, height and mass but assuming hewas an 8pt, he would be in the high 130's. About 5 steps before he enters my 20 yard shooting zone the doe turns and sprints directly away from me and he follows, and that was it for my Saturday night action.

Sunday morning it was pouring down rain and I decided I would try to stalk some deer because the conditions were perfect. I stalked within range of 14 deer two of which were bruisers, both of them were well over 140but I could never get a shot through the brush and tall grass. My two other buddies passed on some deer as well, one of them sent his "shooter" qualifications at 130+ and he had 2 shooters in range but they didn'tpresent an ethical shot.

Okiedude, I think the temps helped us out a lot and obviously the rut as well. I'm not sure how many deer were killed but I think there were 5 p&y's killed. A few does some smaller bucks. Also, tell me if you noticed the same thing. It's no wonder that more guys don't kill deer, they all stand around the campfire in their camo before they go out, they smoke cigarettes, pipes, cigars etc. I would say about half of these guys could be smelled from upwind.

It was funny saturday morning how many ofthe guys standing around the fire in their camo were talking about not seeing many deer at all... coincidence?
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Maybe I should have taken one of those bucks but I just feel like I can kill does and little bucks about anywhere this was the perfect trophy hunt opportunity so that's what I did and it didn't quite work out but that's deer hunting..