RE: anyone hear
In New York a couple of years back we did a "soft drive" during archery season of a really thick patch. About 10 minutes into the drive I noticed an old doe working her way towards the woods edge. About 40 yards from the field edge she decided not to cross the cut corn field. She was about 30 yards from me at this time, but the wind was in my favor. I watched her calmly look around until she spotted a brush pile along an over grown tote path that suited her, and she proceeded to calmly walk over to it and I about fell over when I watched her worm her way into the center of the pile like a chipmunk.
About 20 minutes later 1 of my buddies walked slowly down the same tote path and passed the doe at just about 10 feet.
I waved him over and asked him if he had seen any deer, which he said not a one. Now the doe was about 30 yards from us, and I told him there is a really nice mature doe in that wood pile..... and he politely told me B___S___, I just walked right past that pile. I asked him to put his money where his mouth was .... he told me dinner was on him if there was a deer in the brush pile, mind you .. we are only 30 yards from the pile speaking at normal level.
We walked over to the pile, speaking normally and stood about 5 feet from the brush pile and my buddy started laughing and saying I must have fallen asleep and dreamt it. If I hadn't seen the deer with my own eyes I would have sworn there was no deer in it either. I really couldn't see it and I was 5 feet away. So I handed my bow to my friend and jumped onto the pile the same way you would bust rabbits and started jumping up and down .. about midway into my second hop that doe busts out the other side of the brush pile like an explosion. Even expecting it .. it startled the crap out of me .. but my buddy who wasn't expecting it ... well when I turned to start rubbing it in .. I started laughing because he was on his butt about 15 feet farther back from where he'd been standing.