mohunter82

So after a morning of freezing my olson twins off and not seeing anything but 3 coyotes i debated goin back out in the afternoon. That was a short arguement!
I get to my stand at a little before 4pm and before i can even pull my bow up i have a doe underneath me. bow still on ground so i decide to get some video vootage. as i watch these 2 does i finally get my bow up and thats when things got interesting.
all of a sudden i hear a freight train coming through the woods. a big doe followed by a nice 8 pointer and guess what his behind him another 8 pointer both grunting their heads off. Forget getting them to stop. So after they quickly vacate my view i do a little rattling and grunting and a little spike comes in, mouth open and tongue hanging out. i let him pass at 10 yards and hit my grunt call and heard more footsteps....Holy !@#$ there he is. A MASSIVE 8 or 10 not for sure really, was trying not to pay attention to his rack. all i know is he was wide tall and had plenty of mass. easily surpassing my best deer. i come to full draw. he closes 50 yards within 30 seconds. he stops broadside at yards to my left. I'm waiting for him to step out from behind the tree. he looks around it and right up at me. Snorts and bounds off just out of range.
talk about mad. I'm trying to figure out what i did wrong but i'm not for sure. the only thing i can think is i didn't have my full facemask on. he didn't see me draw. i didn't even make a noise to stop him. not on a deer thats gonna push 150".
I guess i should just be thankful for a chnce at this beauty. but if anyone has any suggestions i would much appreciate them. rifle season starts sat. morning and he wont make it with my neighbor.

StrutNtom

I am a firm believer in a full face mask. Our deer in SC spend more time looking up in trees than they do the ground. I noticed that I got busted a lot less when i started using a face mask.

I got busted a few weeks ago by a doe that see me move my hand to reach for my bow. she never looked at me...she just caught the movement out of the corner of her eye.

stabnslab_WI

I used to hut with a face mask, now that I can finally grow a beard I haven't hunted with one for years. And I can say that it doesn't bother deer. When I have a good buck close I raise my bow to break up my outline of my face, that works awesome. I have also tried camo paint and I think that gives off a clay smell or something, so I don't use that anymore. I'm just guessing that the buck came in looking for a fight and zoned into your calling and when he didn't see any deer around looking for a fight, he got nervous, A decoy is good in that situation, but I have also seen them come in, see the decoy and take off. So when I hunt with a decoy I take one antler off and then he appears to be a easy win in a fight situation and they come in ears back. Good luck and get after them.

mohunter82

i am hoping this buck will come back. i have been waiting for a buck like this to take for my first buck witha bow.

solocamcan

You might want to set up in "plan B" next time out, I think if he seen you, he won't be back by thereduring daylight hours anyways IMO.

huntingson

Great attitute! You really need that kind of thought process or bowhunting will eventually drive you bonkers. There are a couple of possibilities. ONe is that you are not high enough. Another is that your tree does not have enough cover behind it. When picking a tree you have to look from a deer's perspective. If you look up at the tree and there is nothing behind you but the sky, you are in real trouble. Especially when you are talking about mature bucks that have been around long enough to know what that blob in the tree is.

mohunter82

I have seen this buck 3 times but this was the first time he came close enough for a shot. I'm not worried about him coming back. there is simply to much competition for the does with my average ratio of 3 bucks to 1 doe. the thing i cant figure out is that i had seen 6 deer before that and not one of them picked me out. my stand are on an average of 20 ft.
But dont think that just because i didn't get him i'm not gonna be back out trying again this afternoon. every buck i saw was in rut so i'm gonna try to take advantage of this special time while he is most vunerabe. i know he is the dominate buck so my chances are good.
perserverance is the key.

bushanic

Mohunter82. where are your hunting looking for some rut info. i am in Virginia kingGeorge area i get one day in the woods a week and have not seen any sign of rut yet.

Vabowman

Maybe he caught wind of you at that time??

Vabowman

Im in southeast Va and have not seen much rut activity either..