Awesome hunt last year!
Thought I'd share this cool story that had a lot of firsts for me last year. Maybe this will get a few of you fired up for upcoming season.
November third day of rifle season in Missouri. I had to work that morning so I got in stand early that afternoon. After about an hour I had three does come blasting by me. Thinking they had busted me I got upset. About ten minutes later however another doe came in about 15 yards from the stand. She stood around for minute looking in all directions. Then as I was watching her she let out an estrus bleat. This was the first time I've ever heard a deer do this. Another fifteen minutes and a small basket rack 8 came sneaking in. I noticed he was acting strange, next thing I saw was a split main beam buck I had on camera coming from the other side. Both deer ended up meeting up, but never did actually fight. I watched the two circle each other before the small 8 conceded and decided he'd better walk away. I then shot the split beam buck. After waiting as long as I could stand before getting down. I got to the bottom of my stick ladder and heard crunching leaves. There was the small basket 8 standing not ten yards from me. It is very thick where I hunt so it was hard to see him at first. This deer stayed about ten to fifteen yards from me just walking and grazing. Finally he went on and I was able to track and retrieve my buck. This was the most interesting hunt I've ever been on. Complete with real deal estrus bleat provided by doe and two bucks squaring off in front of me.