Did an afternoon hunt today. Was not into the woods until 12:00pm. Took a walk up over my favorite bench to do a little still hunting. Weather was perfect with a strong wind out of the south/southwest.
Found 3 really nice scrapes,one of them being almost 4 ft across. I know it's early,but there they were,and on top of a bench to boot.
Picking my way down over now-4 steps at a time-always ending with my left foot forward. It is looking good and I glance down and over to my right and there is a nice 7 or 8 pt staring me down at about 14 or 15 yds. Twenty yds below him is a huge doe and she is on to me too. Wind is strong out of the south, from them to me,but they have me on the visual.
Lock down lasted about 3 minutes,then the buck whirled, snorted, and headed down the ridge collecting the doe as he went. Awesome!
Kept heading into the south wind working my way down,have to be to work by 4:00. It was 1:15 when I had the encounter with the deer. Got down into a stand of Hemlocks that has a really nice signpost rub. It is being hit good this year. There is a big one around. It's going to be a good season!