earnabuck

I had a situation last Sunday that was both fantastic and depressing. I got to my stand which is on the edge of a picked cornfield around 6:40 and had about 20 minutes before shooting light, I sat until I felt that it was light enough to shoot and then stood with my bow in hand. After standing for about 10 minutes I see a doe coming directly to me in the corn stubble. I hear a grunt as she is coming and standing at the top of the hill is a big ten. She jumps the fence about 20 yard from my stand behind me. The ten follows her but he ends up about 40 yards away and stops. I took a shot, it was wide open and shot low. He ran off no worse for the wear, and I found my arrow....later. The was the beginning of the excitement. About 10 minutes later a big 8 appears in the same spot as the ten but he is simply following the trail of that doe, who I am assuming was very hot. His nose was to the ground and he was just tracking her back and forth. I knew he was going to come right next to me. I waited until he was about fifty yards away from where I wanted to shoot. I drew back and as he walked to where I anticipated the shot perfectly I mouth grunted. He was about 22 yards away and I had to grunt 3 times to get him to stop. Needless to say he stopped just as he was half covered by cedar branches. I never got the shot but what a great opportunity I had. My question is...do you try to stop a deer a little ahead of where you want to take a shot especially if they are scent tracking or was it just bad luck, I did everything right and he just didn't stop in time. I keep kicking myself because I could easily have stopped him sooner and had a shot because it was into open field, I just waited until he came into my best position. Anybody have any thoughts on this scenario. This was my best opportunity I've ever had at two P&Y deer, 10 minutes apart and I messed up both.

Thanks for any tips

early in

I've stopped a few bucks so I could get the good shot, but each time my bow was already up and drawn and he was where I wanted him to be for the shot. I haven't had to give more than one "errrp" to stop one. I much prefer not to have to stop my target, because now you're shooting at an alerted deer.

Adirondack AL

Sounds like that buck had one thing on his mind when you tried to stop him.
Kind of like us reading the paper or being absorbed in to something and someone having to repeat themselves trying to talk to us when we're busy.
I would try to be more vocal or a little louder, kind of like someone yelling at us to get our attention.
Goodluck