On Saturday, November 13th, I headed out into the pre-dawn darkness to one of my favorite tree stands laying down a trail of Smokey's "Doe in Heat" and doctoring up a scrape with his "Tarsel and Preorbital Gland Lure." After getting set up in the tree stand just before dawn, I could hear what sounded like a buck chasing a doe within 100 yards of my set up. The chasing and crashing worked its way away from me and all was silent for about 15 minutes as the sun began to rise. As just enough light lit the forest floor, I heard a deer approaching, quartering into the wind towards me. When the deer got to about 60 yards I could see that it was a buck. I never let it get as far as the scrape I had doctored with Smokey's deer lures. It stopped in a shooting lane at 30 yards, I hit anchor, and let fly. The woodsman tipped carbon arrow penetrated through the low center shoulder. At the hit, the buck hit the ground, regained his feet, ran about 100 yards, and fell to the ground. When I field dressed the old boy the woodsman broadhead and about 8 inches of shaft were dead center, still lodged in his heart. What an unbelievable will to live these animals have.
My Connecticut 8-point weighed in a 168 lbs. and was the first good buck I'd seen all season. Just wondering if anybody else has had good luck using Smokey's deer lures? He is a sponsor here on TradGang and can be reached at smokeysdeerlure.com
From left to right: Brooke, Garrett, Ben, and Billy helped me get the buck out of the woods with my wife Kate filming the whole thing. Sure was a fun Saturday morning.