Bad pictures ... of a good buck
 

I haven't been shooting my bow enough this year to in good conscience fling an arrow at a deer. Nontheless, it is now through Nov. 12th when I get the chance to see the bruisers which inhabit the area. I opted to sit my stand Saturday evening with a digital camera. I set it on landscape hoping to avoid focusing on objects nearby. It wasn't long before I noticed an antler twist against the dark timber at the East end of the field. I found him with my binoculars, at 85 yards. He tilted his head back testing the wind then locked his ears in my direction. He smelled me. As I studied his antlers, it occured to me I might well be looking at the direct descendant of a deer I killed in 2001, a grandson perhaps. Same main frame. Same propensity for points. A kicker off the left G2, a fork in the right. This deer was a 5X4 with the fork and kicker making him an 11 pointer, at 3 1/2. His grandfather, perhaps, died carrying 22 points, multiple kickers off the right G2 and fork in the left...... of lead poisoning.

It took a while before I found the doe standing motionless ahead of him in the tall grass. She had no inkling of my presence. She finally moved in my direction then turned south re-entering the woods 50 yards East of me. He finally entered the field and made his way toward my position. The wind was strong and swirling. At 25 yards he locked up, catching another wiff of "Cameraman". After that long pause with which I am too familiar, he turned to go. When he cleared the sweetgum I snapped the first shot (photo). Then another, and another as he accelerated like he'd been swatted on the ass by a buggy whip, balancing that cage of bone on his head.

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Once he put what he thought was enough ground between us, he stopped again, at 70 yards. His grandfather (perhaps) had made the same decision, stopping at 85, a decision he didn't live to regret, as a 370 grain maxiball put him in the Book.

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I apologize for the lousy focus. I'd say I'll take some close ups when I have him on the ground, but I know from our brief encounter the odds of my killing this buck are a fraction of what they were before we met. He made what might well have been a fatal error and he knows it.

He did end up following the doe, passing East of me and dead downwind at 50 yds. Hope springs eternal.........

RE: Bad pictures ... of a good buck
 

Great photo's (even if they are a little fuzzy).

RE: Bad pictures ... of a good buck
 

WOW!!! that is a great buck.

Have you ever considered a decoy and some doe in heat scents. I used that one year and got a small buck in, but stranger yet... does came in to pester that decoy like mad. One big doe even kicked the ear off my brand new decoy (I had gotten it that day in UPS). Needless to say, she paid dearly for her behavior, with her life.

RE: Bad pictures ... of a good buck
 

Cayugad - I've never used a deer decoy. I've definitely thought about it, just never parted with the 100$. I was thinking of doing some rattling from this stand but there's so much happening here I worry more about screwing things up. I try to arrive undetected and leave undetected and that seems to work. Me thinks I be spoiled...:eek:

RE: Bad pictures ... of a good buck
 

Actually I bought one of those 3-D archery targets and decided I could use that as a decoy. So I carried it out into my woods and put that in front of my stand. I took the antlers off it, and with a roofing nail pinned a chunk of white cloth to its rear. There I applied the doe scent.

I had not been up in my tree for more then half an hourthe first year.. these three does came in. The biggest doe kept snorting and stomping her foot at it. The decoy was only 15 yards in front of me. And then she got closer. All of a sudden she raised up and with a front hoof kicked the ear off my new decoy. Man was I mad. Then she started to circle it. So when she had her side to me I made sure she would attack it no more.

The third year I even had a bear attack it. That bear smashed it and scattered the parts all over the place. The decoy still has the claw marks along the back where that bear swatted it. I bet that bear was surprised when they discovered it was not real.

The little buck I shot near it, I never was sure it it came in for the decoy or the grunt. I set up near a scrape and put the antlers on it. I saw that little buck out there and grunted. Just like that he came right in.

They were on sale one time for $69.00 do I ordered it because most targets would not stop my bow for target shooting. That decoy stops it every time. Plus it really help me tone in my skills shooting at that from a tree stand.

RE: Bad pictures ... of a good buck
 

Sounds like a hoot!

RE: Bad pictures ... of a good buck
 

Hi,


what a ausome buck!! good luck on taking that bad boy down.
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RE: Bad pictures ... of a good buck
 

Get that buck.

RE: Bad pictures ... of a good buck
 

Really nice buck..good luck>!!!

RE: Bad pictures ... of a good buck
 

Shame about that bottom pic being out of focus - really nice pose and a great background (turn off your date stamp so I don't have to edit it out... just in case I "borrow" one of your pictures). :D

Where are you located, yeoman? Exactly where? ;)