This past Saturday I’m using my climber tree stand and climbing up in my tree, making a small amount of racket. I get up to about 18’-20’, get everything set up and my safety strap set, etc., turn around and start sit down so I can pull my bow up, when I hear three hard footed bounds that I knew instantly was a deer that was spooked. I look up and sure enough there is a doe with a very dark chest (relevant in the rest of the story) doing her little head bob stare at me. I freeze in mid crouch hoping she’ll move on. No such luck. She does a few more head bobs, stomps her foot some more, snorts and takes a few more leaps up and behind me. She is currently on my left and down wind. She then circles around me to get behind me and to my right, which is down wind of me. There she sniffs, snorts and stomps some more. “Great!” I think to myself, “She has busted me by sight and now by scent. This hunt is likely ruined.” But I talk myself out of leaving since it is 3:45 PM and I still have at 3 ½ hours to hunt. I figure she’ll take off and if I’m lucky, any alarm pheromones she released will blow away (I’m an optimistic guy).

Well, I wasn’t to be so lucky. This same doe, which I knew was the same doe because of her dark hair, especially on her chest, just kept circling me and looking up at me doing her little head-bobbing stare. She didn’t snort anymore, but would look for a while and then turn and take a few leaps away. At about 5:00 PM I have had enough and decided that I had one of two choices: Shoot her or leave. (Yes, I would have retrieved her and put her in the freezer, not let her lay). I decide to leave and go to another spot and hope for the best. Just as I put my arrow back in the quiver in preparation of leaving, I look up and here comes another doe and her two young ones coming straight at me from my right- down wind of me!! “My scent must not be that bad.” I’m thinking to myself, so I pull my arrow back out and watch these three for a couple of minutes when long and behold, here comes that stinking dark haired doe again from down wind. I’m about fit to be tied. She looks up at my location some more and as the other doe and her two fawns move on from underneath me, she circles around behind my stand and meets up with them off to my left, where she first saw me. She walks off with them and I think I’m rid of her finally.

Not so fast! 15 minutes later, here she comes back from the way she just left with the other three, looking up in my tree some more. She circles up behind me and disappears. It’s 6:30 now and I have about 45 minutes of shooting time left. I sit there fuming, hoping to still ambush an unwary buck (I told you, I’m an optimistic chap) before dark. At 7:05, I hear footsteps off to my left and my heart jumps as I think that I have finally ambushed that big buck as he starts his evening movement to his food plot. I make sure all is ready for me to shoot, I sit rock still looking out of the corner of my eye… Just to see that darn doe coming back for another look. I almost threw my bow at her!!!

Why would she do this? Has anyone else experience a hounding by a doe like this? After the first couple of snorts, she didn’t snort anymore despite being down wind of me at least 3-4 times, and hanging out in the area for 3 ½ hours. Does that mean that maybe my scent elimination program was working a little bit, at least? I know she saw me initially, I was moving too much not to be seen as I set up my treestand, but maybe she didn’t scent me like I thought. Any thoughts or advice?