close encounter

[Looper]

The other evening, after this happened,  

 
I had a pretty cool encounter.
 

[Sam McMichael]

That little buck better wise up or somebody will surely get him.

[Possum Head]

Nice video. Funny how woods always remind me of places I hunt. Looks just like our National forest north of here.

[Looper]

Originally posted by Sam McMichael:
That little buck better wise up or somebody will surely get him.

He'd have to travel a pretty good ways to be on a place where someone could legally take him. This property has a minimum antler size for bucks.  

I had a bunch of does just to my right about 20 minutes earlier, all within about 10 yards. They glanced at me, but didn't really pay me any attention. They ended up browsing on the beauty berry patch I was sitting in for about 10 minutes before moving on. I would have filmed them, too, but my phone was on the ground beside me. I had just picked it up when I saw this little guy coming.

The does had come from the same direction that little buck came from, but where he veered to my left, they veered right. That little burnt branch he stepped over was 8' from my knees.

[Yewbender]

Yep, close it was. Very cool!

[katman]

Awesome, good job not spooking and educating him, got to love the 5th rowed pine plantations for visibility.

[Fattony77]

That's the stuff that I hunt for, right there!! Very cool!

[Looper]

Yeah, me too. I usually have several encounters like that each year, but never have my phone handy. This time, though I had a chance to have it up when he came in view.

I showed the video to several other hunters at the check-in station and, to a person, said they'd never been that close to a deer before. They were all very intrigued by my methods (longbow, wood arrows, and hunting off the ground).  

The game wardens were equally amazed and the next day really asked a bunch of questions about traditional archery. I shot my bow for them, and they could't believe how quiet it was. Outside of myself and Mike Cooper (MCNSC on here), and a couple of guys I brought to hunt, they don't see any traditional hunters.

[MCNSC]

Cheney,  That's a cool video, I did see quite a bit of Beauty Berry growing on the property, I never knew deer ate it.

[Looper]

Apparently, they really like the leaves, not the berries. I haven't figured out where those deer are headed. Right past where you were is the property boundary, so someone might have a food plot or a feeder set out.

[EWill]

Wonderful encounter. The anti's really don't understand this part of a hunter's heart.

[mangonboat]

I liked that little bit of "Moonwalking" he did to back out....dont get to see that often.