Coalcracker

I see more deer during the first week and second than on the first day and first Saturday. On the first day and first Saturday there are a few hunters around on properties in my area, if the move around some it's the best chance at getting a buck, with bow season being the best. Even if the hunters don't walk through the patches of woods, these deer can see and hear them, so they stay in their beds until after dark.

I like to be in my stands by around 3:00, gives me enough time to smoke a couple cigs and drink a soda before the sun starts to go down. By 4:00 I start hunting seriously and came expect to see deer within the next 15 to 30 minutes if they are going to move before dark. The second week on Monday and Tuesday, I hunted from my stand right behind my house, about 75 yards, just to see if anything would come out at the other end of the field. Monday I saw seven, even though the farmer chopped the corn, Tuesday I saw four, but I was only scouting and would have only take a shot at a nice buck from that distance.

Went out Friday night to a closer stand to where those deer had come out, didn't even see a squirrel that night and only one little tweety bird plus two cats. Then Saturday evening I took a doe.

Before starting to hunt my own land about 11 years ago, I hunted SGL and private land open to hunters. I think it was the third year that I shot my first buck here, we didn't shoot doe for the first five years as we were only seeing four around. I was in one of my tripod stands with the camp sides on, when nine deer came acroos the field with two small buck in the back. They all ran across the field until the got to the edge of the woods, some as close as twenty yards and the two bucks about thirty. Didn't know if I wanted toshoot at the first buck or second, until the first buck put his horns down and went towards the second, that why I shot the first buck, no other reason. The buck I shot ran a piece into the field, all of the others took a jump or two and stood wathing the buck I hit. When I pumped a secondround is when they all took off running. The rest of that year there was a doe with two young ones, that would cross the field down along the creek, keep walking at a nice pace with her two young, also seemed to be looking up at my stand that I was in.

Since then I don't put another round into the rifle, untilafter the deer are gone out of sight. This year when I harvested my doe after ten minutes the others started movingaway, when they were around 75 yards I put another round in and that's when they started running. This is not a two time deal, because the four doe I harvested in between in between these two examples didn't run off because I didn't put another round in and two of those times I was using my in-line.

I was wondering if anyone else had these kinds of experiences, if it happens more in the farming areas or also in the big woods. Our farm country deer grow up living with humans and hear all kinds of noises, including gun fire and cars back fire. I have already fired my shotgun off down the bank, when deer were in the field, they just look on the first round but run if I fire again. I still don't know if it's because of the second round going off or if they hear the metal to metal noise from over a hundred yards away.