Sorry for the delay in my report back. I really appreciate all the responses! I like to type when in a certain mood. So if you like to read, go for it. If not, the end result of that hunt was getting very close to 6 more does but no buck.
I am hunting a new-to-me WMA and I am glad I decided to give it a try. I have spent many a day in a nearby state park and most times have not seen a single deer. So far I have been to this WMA three times and have seen deer every time, even though I am hunting blind (i.e. no pre-season scouting, so I’m hunting by topographical features, etc). I killed a button buck I thought was a doe my first outing there by setting up 60 yards in the woods from an inside corner.
The story of the scrape mentioned in my OP came from my second outing there (which was the second to last day before the general firearms opener). I set up early in a tree on a small hill overlooking a creek where a swamp begins. It was raining hard and windy and cold, but me and my rusting Omega stuck it out. By around noon it had stopped raining, but I was really cold, I hadn’t seen a single deer and had decided to climb down around 2pm. Just before doing so, I remembered a quote that goes something like, “persistence is the pregnancy that gives birth to success.” I decided to stay in the stand. Then around 4:30, I caught the unmistakable glimpse of antlers. A nice 6-pointer was headed in my direction. The thickets in the swamp were…thick. But there were openings here and there. He turned broadside and was about to hit an opening. I raised my gun and prepared to fire. I timed my exhale so that I’d hit the bottom of my breath at the time he entered the opening. As he entered and I exhaled, my scope lens fogged up from my breath!!! I couldn’t fire and was pissed. I never got another shot opportunity after that, but moments later I saw a sapling suddenly arch over and shake violently as the buck was working a scrape. I still didn’t have a clear shot at him but noted the sapling. After he finished I didn’t see him, so I grunted a few times on the grunt tube, but I got no response. I may have been overzealous by burp grunting several times, and it’s possible he saw me. I’m not sure.
The next day, and the final day before the gun opener, I decided to work the WMA from the opposite side, and still-hunt my way to the other side of the swamp to see what was there. That’s when I came across the does. I am pretty new to hunting, so for me to have snuck up on and stalked these 6 does for an hour without them being aware was huge for me, especially on a day when I didn’t have any wind noise for cover. But once the does started moving downwind, I decided to back off. This is about the time I started this post. I thought about going back to the place I was yesterday where I saw the buck, but I would have had to hoof it 2 miles back to the car and work up a serious sweat, drive around to the other side of the WMA, walk to the hillside and get set up. I didn’t feel like I had that amount of time, and I wasn’t sure if the buck ended up seeing me after I grunted (if he had, I’m sure he would have been looking in that direction for me the next visit to the scrape). So I decided to continue still hunting to the other side of the swamp.
When I came to the “end of the road” and the swamp began, I could loudly hear the same creek I was over the day before, and could see from the map that I was about 200 yards from my previous spot and in the direction the buck was headed that day. There was a small open area about 50 x 25 yards with various grasses (and some grasses that were planted there, if you know what I mean by
grass), bordered by the thickets where the swamp began. The wind was in my favor so I hunkered down behind some a few straggly plants on the edge of this open area and waited. About an hour later, about 6 more does crept out of the swamp with about 30 minutes of shooting light left. After about a minute, the lead doe spotted me on the edge and started blowing and stamping (soon another doe joined her in the stomp fest). I suppose she never noticed that stump before (I should have chosen better cover but it was thin pickins).
But I kept completely still, though my back was screaming at me to change positions (I have bad lower back problems). After 10 minutes they became more comfortable with the new stump but kept looking back at me. A couple of them actually came within 10 yards of me, which was very exciting for me.
After 20 minutes they slowly slinked off into the woods, and I was waiting for THE BUCK. But he never showed. I am sure their initial alarm warned him off if he was around. I don’t think it would have mattered it I had created a little blind or not, I think they were very used to the area and would have snorted at anything out of the ordinary. If I could go back, I would have just stood behind a tree. Regardless of the lack of harvest, I consider that day my most successful hunt to date. I have been that close to deer before, but not so many and not for such a long period of time…twice in one day.
I did not hunt that WMA on Sat, the gun opener. I have heard that place is nuts on the gun opener. I hope that buck was smart and made it through. I may not be able to hunt him again until 12/10, so who knows what will have happened between now and then.