Was wondering if i could get some feedback on this. Shortly after getting in my stand this a.m. i started to grunt here and there. After about 45 minutes I had a beautiful 8 point come barreling towards my tree. He stopped about 15 yds away and looked for the source. I sat quiet and waited for his next move. He then started to walk broadside and drifting away from me. It appeared he was going to leave the area. When he was about 30 yds and moving I let out a short grunt to see if I could turn him. He stopped turned and looked around for about 2-3 minutes. He then started walking away again. I gave another grunt and he did not respond at all, just kept walking in the other direction very calmly. After a few seconds, i tried again, still no response, he just went on his way. He seemed so aggressive at first, and then couldnt care less. Just wondering if any of you would have handled it differently or have any advice.

Edited by - gjc on 11/01/2002 11:29:52

One common mistake is calling to often(found that out the hard way), once a deer is headed your way stop calling, once they have pinpointed the area they hear the call in, they expect to see a deer in the area, if they do not see a deer, they get nervous and move on. By stopping your calling as soon as you see they are headed the way you want they have less time to pinpoint where they heard it and will continue in the direction they heard the call from.

One other thing I have found is a buck is like a teenage boy, given the choice between fighting a buck grunting/challenging him and hooking up with a doe(bleating)that may be willing to allow his testostrone to flow freely, he will go to a doe first.

The Tazman aka Martin Price
Founder and President of
Virginia Disabled Outdoorsmen Club

I assume he was either a deer you didn't want to shoot or didn't have a shot? Perhaps he caught you off guard?

Deer can pin point the exact location of a sound, as you witnessed. After going to the sounds source, he didn't see a deer. He knew there wasn't one there, so why come back?

If he was deer you wanted to take, the only advice I could give would be be ready all the time , or use a decoy.

My guess is the deer came in to see what was grunting, saw no buck and turned to leave. I've set up with very little cover at the base of my tree or on a field line and had deer hang up to 50 yards or greater. They look and and just won't make the commitment to come in another 30 yards. Either only set up where you have an obstruction that the deer you are trying to pretend you are is hiding behind (does this make sense?) or use a decoy. Other than that if your close to the rut and the deer is big enough try a snort weeze, this sometimes will piss them off enough to come in anyways. I like to think of myself as the deer you are hunting... what i mean is, if I heard someone yell hey in the woods -- but I couldn't see anyone where it came from, I would think this very strange and probably walk away slowly / looking back and confused. But if they yelled get the heck out of here, angrly (snort weeze) I might feel like seeing what was going on a little closer.

Rangeball

Heck yeah I wanted to shoot him, and luckly I was in postion for a shot, (if I grunt I make sure Im prepared for a quick response)but he never presented one. Its pretty thick in the direction he came from. I was hoping he would stay around a little longer and work his way into a window.
thanx for the replies