Grunted one in this evening, unfortunately he came in about ten minutes too late for a shot.
South wind tonight. North/South treeline behind the house is about 2000' long with an old East/West fence row intersecting the north end of the treeline. Went and set up a quick ground blind at that intersection. I have a tree stand set up about 200' south of that corner that I hunt when there's a N.W. wind. About two weeks ago, this is the stand that I had a beautiful buck face me head on in my shooting lane, but would not turn broadside to offer a shot. The encounter ended with the wise old dude just backing out of the predicament (I STILL cannot believe that one!)
Anyway, on my way to the north corner tonight, about fifty yards south of where I intended to set up I hung two scent "Bombs" laced with doe in estrous scent. Went and set up a quick ground blind facing south on the edge of the treeline which offered a shot opportunity to the S.E. sort of quartering into the woods and another shot opportunity to the S.W. looking out into the bean field.
I've seen this buck about half a dozen times from the house and he always shows up a few minutes before dark. When there's a southerly wind I see him at the north end of the treeline; When the wind is from the north, I see him at the south end of the treeline.
Set up at 4:30, sprawled out on the ground and proceeded to take a nap until about an hour before dark. Mostly to wait for my neighbors to call there four young sons in the house. The deer are used to hearing the kids play, but won't come out into the field unless they can smell the kids or until after they go in the house. Such is suburban-rural hunting.
About a half hour before dark, I started to rub a stick up and down against a small sapling while intermittently pawing at the ground and softly grunting on a grunt tube. My hope was to set up twenty yards downwind - i.e. north of - where I thought the buck would enter the field and with luck, he would catch a whiff of the scent bombs and look to the south thereby offering a shot.
Well it ALMOST worked. He came in grunting and broadside about 12 yards upwind of me, but DANG IT, I couldn't draw on him because looking into the woods, I couldn't see his head well enough to allow me to draw on him at that distance. For a brief moment I thought he was going to continue heading out into the beans where I could still see well enough to shoot- but unfortunately it took him what seemed like ten minutes to walk the final five yards out into the field and by then, although I could clearly see his silhouette, it was just too dark for a reasonable shot. I can also report that he walked right through the scent stream of the "Code Blue" scent bomb without so much as slowing down.
Made me wish I was hunting with a compound bow with a lighted sight and 80% letoff so I could have come to full draw before he came in and then shot him in the dark. NOT!!!
Like clockwork, it always begins about one week after the second full moon (the hunter's moon!) following the autumnal equinox. What a thrill! This is the BEST time of the year...
Topic: Grunted one in tonight (Read 244 times)
