Does bedding down close to stand?
 

I recently had a bit of a dilemma that I would appreciate your perspectives on. I was hunting on a mountain in George Washington National Forest here in VA. I got in just before 1st light and didn’t see any deer until about noon, when a doe came from uphill, browsing towards me. I browsed for a bit then bedded down 15 yards uphill (and crosswind) from me for an hour and a half. Then it got up, calmly groomed itself and started walking towards my tree, eventually walking within 8 feet downwind of me and finally leisurely trotted off into some thick new growth pines from a previous clear-cut. I could’ve shot her easily multiple times, but my friend, whose land I hunt and access the national forest from, asked me to only shoot bucks, after I shot a doe on opening day, because he wants to get the population up a bit.

About 20 minutes later another, different doe comes from the thick pines where the other doe disappeared. And browsed around and bedded down 15 yards downhill of me for over an hour. Then got up, groomed itself and walked right at my tree, eventually coming within 5 or 6 feet of my tree downwind of me, then calmly walked off over the next 20 minutes.

While it was kinda cool having two very wild deer that close to me for so long, it was also kinda nerve-wracking. Since I wanted to get a buck and it was so nerve-wracking, I had considered doing something to scare them off without really spooking them but didn’t know what. But on the other hand, I am not sure if I SHOULD have done anything.

Any advice if this happens in the future? Thanks for any help.

Lucky you, leave them be as they will draw the bucks in come rutting time.

Yeah don't disturb the does, because where they go the bucks follow!

Thanks, guys. That's what I thought, but wanted to do a reality check. They each peed, so they saved me having to use my code blue doe pee!

I'm going hunting tomorrow and may not have another chance to hunt until mid-November, if at all the rest of the season. Do you think it's too early to use estrous doe pee? I know the bucks have been ready to go for a couple of weeks at least, but it's a little early for the does to be in estrous. Do you think putting out (no pun intended) estrous pee would draw in the ready-to-rut bucks who haven't had a chance to mate yet, or do you think they'd be suspicious?