So tonight around 1500 hours, I made my way into a new stand location. I wasn't quite sure where I wanted to sit but thought I would work my way up these little shelves that wrapped this small mountain. On one of the shelves I found 7 piles of buck poo and thought this was the shelf I needed to be sitting. I looked around, picked a tree and proceeded to scale the tree to about 15 feet off the ground. I dubbed this stand "Truck Stop" because of the communal bathroom.
Well around 1730 hours, I grabbed the rattle bag and grunt tube and gave a fight sequence. I could hear a deer walking towards me from the opposite spot that I thought they would be traveling. (Isn't that always the case though) Anyways, as this deer approached I saw that it was a beautiful 3 year old deer which was an 8 pointer or better. I guessed this deer to be about 130 inches which is a great deer for New Hampshire. As I watched this buck walked down towards me but angled straight away and never came closer than about 35-40 yards, too far for my longbow. He got to about 50 yards straight away so I gave him a few soft grunts. I got his attention and I remained motionless praying to god that he would work towards my location. This has been an ongoing quest lasting three years so far to take a deer with traditional gear let alone a longbow that I crafted.
Well he never came into range so I sat back down and hung my bow back up. At around 1805 hours I could hear another deer from where the first one came. All of a sudden I heard loud crashing going on and it took me a minute to figure out that it was two bucks going at it. This was the first time I have heard deer fighting one another. We don't have this much excitement happening in the woods around me in the northeast. Once the fight stopped one deer came quickly walking down the same trail. It was another nice 2.5 to 3 year old deer and it looked like he was weak on his left side. I figured he may have broken some tines during the fight. Again the second buck came strolling down to my right at again 30 yards but there was no way I would take that long of a shot on a deer. I am really comfortable at 25 yards and in. So as they walked off and I could not hear them anymore I gave a few soft grunts. Both bucks never showed their faces again this night.
Well it took me a few minutes to get down from my perch because my knees were shaking just from this encounter. What a magical night in the woods it was... I feel that the rut is on its way.
My question to you guys that have many more years of experience is if there is anything I could have done to maybe pull those bucks into my comfort zone. I am going to leave the Truck Stop alone for tomorrow night but may sit it again for Sunday night because the wind will be right for that location.
Another thought I had was to make two mock scrapes in my shooting lanes at 20 yards to maybe coax them into shooting distance. I have a week to go before the smoke poles come out so I would like to give it another couple valid attempts in this area...
Just thought I would share an awesome night with you that I had in the New Hampshire deer woods.
Thanks guys,
Justin
Topic: Magical Night.. Rut Approaching (Read 132 times)
