So had a bad last Friday, already talked about that unfortunately. But to be honest the rest of the morning before had been absolutely awesome. Hunting at a spot not far from the house on the lake. Now, the best part of living out here is that it’s especially out in the middle of nowhere, 15min east, west, or south, to even a small town, yet since it is a lake in the middle of a prairie, it’s also somewhat surrounded by houses. Much of the WMA & CoE land is only a few hundred yards wide or less in most spots. Deer feed out in people’s yards at night then back onto the Corps land during the day. In fact, I’m pretty sure that the buck I made a bad shot on Friday I nearly hit twice in as many weeks.
So I got out there early before first light, set up my Montana dekes and waited. The field is sandwiched between houses to the West, the lake to the East and stretches out 400yd x 150yd. My folding decoys were pretty much straight N/S and I was tucked up tight to a cedar on the North side with a South wind. I didn’t even have to wait long as I began seeing shadows moving about 40-50yds out front. A group of does made there way from the houses back to the bedding areas to the East, but apparently they didn’t like the look of the white throat patch on the doe deke facing them. Had it been light already they would have been able to see them from the side prior to getting straight in front them. Well, they didn’t seem to like that at all! So the busted out of there to the South.
After they bugged out of the area I felt a bit out in the open because the cedar had me a little out in the field so I moved down about 5yds & tucked in a cutout of some wild rose bushes. I’ve driven past this area for 3yrs and had never hunted it so wasn’t sure exactly where to sit. At 1min after legal light I noticed movement at the far end of the field. A doe & yearling with a buck in tow appeared. I put the binos on them and could tell the buck was huge, at least by my standards. Probably 3-4” outside his ears & at least 12-14” tall G2, and the rest of the 8 tines weren’t much shorter! He and the adult doe crossed halfway to me, but the yearling was a scaredy-cat that blew at every leaf or grasshopper in the field & took them all back to the South. I tried grunting at them and he definitely wanted to come fight, but momma said let’s get outta here.
At this point the dekes were still more set up almost straight towards where they approached, & the wild roses were catching on my ghillie suit so it was time for a double move. Another 10yds put me inside an oak and some sumac, and the dekes got twisted around at 45°’s to the field so that deer from most any angle could see them. Nothing moved for a while till the yearling popped out at the far end 30mins later. She killed around down there and disappeared into the trees on the East side. Started looking at my phone looking at some of the waterfowl regs. I didn’t think I had looked at them long but all of a sudden I look up and there’s a yearling (same or not I don’t know) nearly standing in between my decoys. She kept spooking in and out of range, and to be honest, I had no interest in shooting a yearling that was that tiny. But I did take the time to practice moving my bow in and out of position. She was out front of me for nearly 5min before finally leaving.
Then “it” happened. I had seen my wife drive the kids to school behind me 25min before. Yes, I was THAT close to the county road. I heard her drive by returning home, and all of sudden she starts calling me! I’m thinking something is wrong so I quietly answered the phone, & she says that a good buck had just hopped the road in front of her in the Jeep to my side of the road. So I started making some long deep grunts. Nothing happens... I figure he followed the horse trail or one of the others that parallels the field/lake.
I was wrong! I hear crunching of leaves to my left/east and the footsteps are moving fast. I lean back a little bit and turn to see a buck high stepping through the oak saplings on the other side of the tree I’m standing beside. He pops out less than 10yds away but with several of branches in the way of either his vitals or at least my lower limb. The dekes were to my right and the buck is just staring at the buck decoy and licking his lips. He wasn’t as tall or wide as the 8pt, but this 10pt is thick in bases all the way to the tips, and in his girth as well! Besides, you can’t (at least not me) eat antlers. He then started that bushy, stiff legged walk and it all went South from there. I went from “pick a spot” to “whole deer” and though the shot felt good I got almost no penetration and nothing in the back of the truck. Anyway, that part of the story has already been told elsewhere on here.
Regardless, that was one of the most exciting trips I’ve had all season, if not ever. But it’s always amazed me how much these deer seem to not care about scent at times. They have people living, fishing, farming all around them all the time. Then you travel 1/2 mile and it’s sprawling hay and wheat fields. It’s almost like hunting totally different ecosystems. Same thing in the creek bottom areas as well.
Topic: Rural yet urban, great day but bad? (Read 1167 times)
