On my stand around 10:00am. I' m in a corner of a soybean field with the beans to my left and a swail to my right. Thinking about the meaning of life when I see a rack coming through the thickets behind me at 15 yards. My stand sits back off the edge of the field about 5 or6 yards to give some cover. I have trimmed 3 shooting lanes (left, right, and center). I set it up primarily for bow, but saw enough deer from there that I decided to sit for gun.
I grab my gun and stand up. I click off the safety knowing that I am going to take this guy. He' s going to come out of the thickets and head straight across the beans (only about 75 yards wide) and head up to the hardwoods ahead of me cause that' s what they " always" do (haha). This guy takes 1 step out of the thick stuff into the beans. Now I' m psyched. He then turns left and walks along the edge to the left of me presenting me with absolutely no shot. makes a quick scrape and heads down a little. I lose sight of him and try to grunt to no avail. I peak my head around as far as I can but he' s gone. He must have came out for about 1 minute and went right back in.
Now I' m kicking myself wondering if I should' ve snuck down and taken a few steps out into the field to get a shot. I had a pretty stiff wind in my favor and the ground was soaked. A cut bean field. I probably could' ve walked up and tapped him on the back. On the other hand I didn' t expect him to do that and by the time I realized he was it was too late. And I wasn' t sure I wanted to take a chance on spooking him. Then again, you just don' t get a lot of chances at a buck during gun around here with all the pressure. Sort out my thoughts for me please!!

you did the right thing...in my opinion (for what it' s worth).

goog luck the rest of the way.

If you watch a lot of The Outdoor Channel, or whitetail hunting videos that' s what they do and it works every time!

He may have been spooked by your call knowing there were no other deer in the area and quietly but quickly moved off to another state. Then again, he may have been 10 yards. The hard part I see here though is the lack of cover in going after him. Sounds like you would have had to stay in the bean field in order to get anywhere. You may have done the right thing NY - if he never knew you were there, chances are he' s going to run this same line again, perhaps soon. If he detected you, he won' t be there until next year more than likely.

you had the deer patterned and did what sounded right ........... any number of things could have gone wrong had you stepped down ...... he' ll be back maybe next time, maybe the time after ...........

Don' t you just hate hind-site? You always wonder what would have happened " if" you would have gotten down from the tree.

I would say you did the right thing.

when I was younger I would have gotten down, and then I would have blown somethign else coming through, happened several times with a bow..... now remembering if this was a gun, I guess I would have to take into consideration how big a buck this was!

I would have stayed in the stand. I' m always worried about spooking something else that might be coming down the trail.

You can never sneak down as quietly as you want or think. You' re more apt to NOT get a shot by attempting it than you are by just sitting tight. ME, I' m sitting tight and maybe once I realize he' s veering the wrong way I' m grunting or something this time of year. Stuff happens..... and then you go home empty handed.[:' (]

i would have stayed. you probably woul dhave spooked em if you moved.

Nah... stay up. That round goes to him.