Hi all,

I'm a novice deer hunter. Earlier this year during gun season, I shot my first deer...a button buck. In my county, the bag limit is one deer, so I'm done for the season. So yesterday afternoon, I tagged along with my dad while he hunted with a crossbow

We got back to the blind about 3:00 PM. The blind sits on the edge of a woods beside ditch. After we put out some Wildlife Research Center Excite Doe in Heat Urine, I sat on the side facing the woods while my dad with his crossbow sat facing the wheat and corn stubble fields. I immediately began to blow on the doe bleat call....on or two short bleats every 10-20 minutes in the direction I figured the deer would be bedded down in the woods. At about 4:30, a buck emerged from the woods on the other side of the ditch about 50 yards away. He walked slowly out in into the corn stubble. He stuck his nose into the wind and smelled the doe urine. He took a few steps towards us and stopped...sniffing the wind. He must have gotten wind of us because he turned and started to walk away across the field. I got out the doe bleat and gave it a short, soft blow. He stopped immediately and stared at us. Then he headed back in our direction and stopped...and then turned around and walked away. I blew the call again. This must have gone on for 10 minutes...the buck basically walked in circles as I blew on the call ever 3 minutes, but I could never get him to come close enough for a shot. When an ambulance drove down the highway a quarter mile away, he spooked and ran away into another woods.

This was the first time I'd ever used a deer to call a deer that I could see. Did I do it right? Why didn't he come closer? I can think of two possible reasons. Perhaps he could smell my dad and I...our clothes weren't totally scent proof. We tried to use a lot of cover scent for what we didn't have time to get washed. Or maybe he didn't come closer because couldn't see what he heard. Are calls made to only bring a deer in 40 to 60 yards? If it was shotgun season, or we could use rifles around here, that buck (a 4 pointer) would be dead. Would it be worth it to try it again to bring a deer into shooting range for a crossbow?