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Old 09-07-2011, 08:34 PM
  #16  
MountainHunter
Typical Buck
 
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Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: Virginia
Posts: 753
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I almost always hunt in a tree, but a few years ago, after seeing a group of four, a group of three and a single deer all out of range throughout the morning, it was about 11 am, and I was debating on getting out of the woods, since I had planned only a morning hunt.

Then I noticed what I thought were two black-winged birds on/near the ground, flapping their wings about 35 yards off through some trees. They just seemed to keep flapping their wings and not going anywhere. I wondered what they were…maybe turkeys? It was hard to tell through the branches. Then I realized they were two deer, bedded down, with their dark ears twitching to keep the bugs off.

I watched them for about 20 or so minutes, when one of them got up and started walking around. From its size and the careless way it moved, I guessed it was a button buck, which I have decided not to shoot this year. The other deer stayed bedded as the button buck moved around and eventually wandered off. I waited and watched for about an hour and she never got up. I knew I needed to be headed out of the woods soon, so I decided to see if I could convince her to get up by grunting and bleating on my deer call. She looked around but did not seemed inclined to get up. After about half an hour, I decided to try to stalk hunt her.

I waited until she seemed to be looking the other way (it was hard to tell for sure through the thick branches), then carefully climbed out of my tree stand 15 feet above the ground, down my climbing sticks, which happened to be on the opposite side of the tree from where the doe was bedded down, carrying my bow. When I got to the ground, I saw that she hadn’t moved. To get within range of her without wading through think, noisy leaves and sticks, I had to first go down a trail that angled away from her, then back up another trail that angled in her general direction.

I followed the first trail away from her and saw from the top of her ears that she had not moved. Then I started down the trail towards her, being very careful not to make any noise at all. I got to about 25 yards away, where there was a trail of sorts that led straight to her. But then I saw that, about 25 yards straight up the main trail that I was on, there was another, large deer standing. I couldn’t see if it was a doe or buck, as its head was obscured behind an oak branch. I froze and waited. After a couple of minutes, the large, standing deer slowly walked off into the brush to the right and just beyond the bedded deer.

I turned my attention to the bedded deer, which was still lying down with her head up, mostly looking the other direction. She turned her head sideways a couple of times, but never looked straight at me. She seemed to be focused in another direction, but I didn’t have a shot, because of the way she was bedded down. I took a couple of careful, quiet steps towards her to see if I could get a better angle. But then she shifted, and almost got up, getting her feet under her, which presented a perfect broadside shot at what was now 20 yards. I first checked to see if I could see the other deer that had walked off. I didn’t, and started to move my right hand with my release towards the nock on my bow. She never looked directly at me, but then the deer saw some signal from what I assume was another, unseen nearby deer that must have spotted me, and she bolted. No shot. Not a “successful” hunt by many people’s standards. But very exciting!
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