About 10 years ago, my first year - my dad had seen this nice 6 pointer crossing this same field nearly every day about an hour to hour and a half before sun down. We got down from our stand early, and went to the edge of the field and waited. He came through a little late, but he did indeed come through. That was the first buck I had ever shot, unfortunately though the neighbors ended up recovering him before we did.

This year there was a "10 pointer" that one of the neighbors said he had seen crossing the road all the time in the same spot, heading in the same direction - which was just off to the west of the land we hunt on. If the neighbor's story was true, it put him just over the hill - out of sight, and on the neighbor's property. Opening night I'm sitting on my stand, it gets dark, stuff is moving around me. I hit my call, doesnt seem to react. I unload my gun and wait a few minutes - climb down. The moment I got to the last step I see the two white flags no more than 20 yards behind my stand take off. Mind you, it's piss-dark since I waited to keep from spooking anything since I wasn't able to identify what it was. Next morning, I shoot this a nice 9 point buck.


Moral of the two stories - sometimes they'll stick to their path, and sometimes they'll get caught up in something to wander into new territory. In both cases, they had been known to go to the same place nearly every day!