I've had 6 bucks within 15 yards of me, so far this year. The first time I had 3 young bucks sneak up on me from behind, catching me while I was retrieving an arrow shot at a squirrel. They stared hard for a few minutes, but never could figure out what I was. They then fed at 50-75 yards for 30 minutes. They never presented a decent shot.
A few days later, during a pretty heavy wind storm, I spotted a huge 10 pointer feeding on acorns on about 100 yards from me. He was moving angling away from me and I tried to put a stalk on him. I started easing toward him, moving during the big gusts. Soon I was within 50 yards of him. He was facing away from me on the other side of a huge white oak.
I was so focused on him, I didn't pay attention to what was going on around me. I took a couple of steps out from behind a big downed pine, and saw movement 15 yards to my left. A very chunky 8 point was moving directly toward me. He had a mouthful of acorns and saw me about a second after I saw him. Needless to say, he boogied on out of there, taking that big buck with him.
After letting that area cool down for a week, I went back. I found several new rubs, and signs that they were still hitting the mast pretty hard. I settled into a great spot amid an old blow down. Early on, several does moved through, but out of range. At about 10:30am, I was getting a little antsy, so I decided to still hunt upwind, in the direction the does went.
I was standing on an old stump, surveying the area in front of me, when I thought I heard a sneeze. I then heard what sounded like a dog shaking it's head, flapping it's ears. Sure enough, as I looked in the direction of the noise, I saw the gray body of a deer about 75 yards from me. It was moving in my direction.
I stood there for a second and saw that it was a small 6 point. I looked around for a better hiding spot and realized that I was standing in a area littered with dead limbs and big crunchy leaves. There was no way I could step without drawing attention. There were a lot of small oak saplings around me, so my best option was to just squat down on the stump and hope he didn't notice me.
Fat chance. His original path would have taken him parallel to me at 15 yards. I had a perfect shooting lane. I slowly turned in that direction and got my bow up and put tension on the string. I slow glance to my left revealed he was just on the other side of a big oak, 30 yards from me.
When he passed the oak, he turned directly toward me. I froze. He'd surely see any movement. He kept coming. Twenty yards. 18. 16. 14. This is going to get interesting. At about 10 yards, he halted abruptly. His black eyes got as big as saucers and he started bobbing his head around, staring holes through me. I continued to make like a statue. After a minute or so, a swirling wind blew it for me.
I never heard one deer blow so much. He bounded off to a thick patch of brush about 60 yards away and stood there, making the world aware of something smelly in his backyard. I sneaked back out, and let him be for a few days.
Yesterday, I met up with him again. I was sitting under an mountain laurel with a jumble of small logs in front of me, hidden pretty well. Squirrels were everywhere, making nests and stashing acorns. I heard some steps behind me and a slow turn of my head revealed that same young buck moving in my direction less than 30 yards away.
My bow was leaned up against a tree to my right and as I reached for it, my pac seat squeaked pretty loudly. That did it. The buck, now at about 20 yards, stopped in his tracks and stared in my direction. I still didn't have my bow in my hand, so I just remained frozen. He stared for a few seconds, then gingerly stepped into the brush directly behind me, at less than 10 steps. He eased his way around to my right and stood directly downwind of me. Through the branches, I could see him bobbing his head and smelling the wind. After a couple of minutes, he'd had enough. He made a couple of bounds and stomped his foot a few times. He then must have caught a big whiff, as he blew a couple of times and bounced off. He didn't go far, maybe 50 yards, but by then it was dark, to I quietly left.
I'm going to go back over there on Friday. A front is blowing in and the ground should be quiet.
Topic: ground hunters? (Read 511 times)
