TOW
Senior Member
A week ago Saturday....
The pre-rut is fastly sliding over into the REAL RUT. I was situated in a
scrub area in Kentucky that had pretty good rut activity in the years past.
This was the first time I had hunted this stand since mid October. The
reasons being that I didn’t hunt as much as usual (couldn’t walk much on my
sprained ankle and recovering form a double hernia) and the weather has been just too blamed too hot.
The hernia is healed and the ankle is doing a lot better. The weather had
cooled great. It was a perfectly clear morning with just a slight breeze
with a temperature of about 44.
As dawn was breaking I could tell that there was a lot better visual vantage
now than the last time I was in the stand. I could see for a hundred yards
or so in some areas. This is an extremely thick area and when the leaves are
on the trees a deer can get within 20 yards of me without me seeing it.
Good shooting light came and I caught movement out of the corner of my eye.I slowly turned my head to see a pretty decent ten point making his way
through the woods out about 70 yards or so. The direction he was walking
would take him past me, so I tried to grunt and wahh him in with a grunt
tube and a Primos can. That stopped him and he was looking. I wouldn’t make any sounds while he was looking. If he turned his head or started to walk again I would repeat the grunt –wahh sequence.
It was all to no avail as he decided that he would continue on his merry
way. He had not gone very far when he made an abrupt left turn and started
trotting- he was after a doe that had came into the picture. I’m sure if she
was attracted to the grunt - wahhing or not. As they both made there way
back towards where he had come from I noticed another deer over by where
they were. Undoubtedly it was her fawn.
No sooner had they went out of sight I heard a commotion of running deer in
behind me. A spike buck came running a yearling doe right past my stand. It
was a god thing he wasn’t a good one as I couldn’t have even got my crossbow up in time to shoot. They went on down through the woods.
About 15 minutes passed and there were no deer anywhere. I had settled back down into my seats when a rather large does and two fawns walked past me out at about 75 yards on the opposite side of where the buck had been earlier. They were in no hurry and just meandered up through the woods
No sooner than they had passed a looked out in front of the stand and a
basket racked eight point 1 ½ year old buck was walking right to my stand.
He slowly made his way through the woods and ended up passing within 5 yards of me as I watched him carefully. He had almost an ear width rack with
slender tines that stuck up pretty good. If he can make it a couple of years
he will be a superb deer.
The busy morning was about to get busier.
Another single doe came through some brush and went by my stand about 40
yards out. She didn’t seem in any hurry and being alone I thought just maybe
a buck would be trailing her. No such luck.
I couldn’t see very well in behind the stand, but I did hear a deer walking.
I eased my head around the tree and there stood a small 4 pointer. He was
going to walk right past my stand going on the same run as the eight pointer
earlier only in the opposite direction. When the pre-rut and rut is on there
is no rhyme or reason to which way deer will travel.
When he got a little past my tree he went on alert. Whoa! I don’t think he
smelled me, but I did have out some “Doe in Heat” scent in my Pee Willie
Wick. That was stationed 20 yards on the other side of the tree. I wasn’t
sure if he was smelling that or not, although the eight pointer never
stopped to sniff. He started doing that stiff legged walk and would just do
a little stomp and stare.
This went on for about 5 minutes when he started staring down through the
woods. I eased my head around and picked out the motion of a pretty decent buck meandering through the woods. He wasn’t trailing anything, but
basically just browsing here and there.
He was out about 60 yards or so when the two bucks made eye contact. The forky forgot about the smell and started going back the way he came. He got in behind me and I lost sight of him. I could still hear him every now and then so he didn’t go far.
The buck I was now concentrating on was making his way towards my stand to the spot where the forky was at. That would put him at 15 yards straight out from the stand. I slipped the safety off of my Excalibur Exomag and waited. He went in behind some honey suckle and I eased the crossbow up.
He STOPPED!!
OUCH! Did I make a noise? He wasn’t looking in my direction but up through
the woods towards where the forky had went. I couldn’t take my eyes off of
him to see if the forky was still there and had picked out my movement.
Whatever it was – me making a noise, my scent or the forky sending body
language signals to him he didn’t like it. I thought once about sending an
arrow through the honey suckle as it was not very thick and close to him.
I just as quickly rejected the thought.
He started to turn and when he did I put the 20 yard crosshair on him. He
started back down the path that he had came in on, but this time he wasn’t
angling towards me, but angling away. When he cleared the honey suckle at 15 yards I pulled the trigger. The hit was perfect and the angle would take out both lungs.
I watched him as he ran for 70 yards and then pile up. The Exomag with the
Wasp SST Hammers had done the job quickly again.
The buck scaled out at 178 field dressed. He is a nine pointer if you count
the broken brow tine. Inspecting him showed an old wound on the top of his
neck. I thought at first that it was a grazing shot by an arrow, but during
the skinning process we could see that it was a tine wound from fighting.
He is not a whopper, but I am pleased with him since I really haven’t hunted
that much this year due to my double hernia operation and the busted up
ankle.
TO BE CONTINUED...
The pre-rut is fastly sliding over into the REAL RUT. I was situated in a
scrub area in Kentucky that had pretty good rut activity in the years past.
This was the first time I had hunted this stand since mid October. The
reasons being that I didn’t hunt as much as usual (couldn’t walk much on my
sprained ankle and recovering form a double hernia) and the weather has been just too blamed too hot.
The hernia is healed and the ankle is doing a lot better. The weather had
cooled great. It was a perfectly clear morning with just a slight breeze
with a temperature of about 44.
As dawn was breaking I could tell that there was a lot better visual vantage
now than the last time I was in the stand. I could see for a hundred yards
or so in some areas. This is an extremely thick area and when the leaves are
on the trees a deer can get within 20 yards of me without me seeing it.
Good shooting light came and I caught movement out of the corner of my eye.I slowly turned my head to see a pretty decent ten point making his way
through the woods out about 70 yards or so. The direction he was walking
would take him past me, so I tried to grunt and wahh him in with a grunt
tube and a Primos can. That stopped him and he was looking. I wouldn’t make any sounds while he was looking. If he turned his head or started to walk again I would repeat the grunt –wahh sequence.
It was all to no avail as he decided that he would continue on his merry
way. He had not gone very far when he made an abrupt left turn and started
trotting- he was after a doe that had came into the picture. I’m sure if she
was attracted to the grunt - wahhing or not. As they both made there way
back towards where he had come from I noticed another deer over by where
they were. Undoubtedly it was her fawn.
No sooner had they went out of sight I heard a commotion of running deer in
behind me. A spike buck came running a yearling doe right past my stand. It
was a god thing he wasn’t a good one as I couldn’t have even got my crossbow up in time to shoot. They went on down through the woods.
About 15 minutes passed and there were no deer anywhere. I had settled back down into my seats when a rather large does and two fawns walked past me out at about 75 yards on the opposite side of where the buck had been earlier. They were in no hurry and just meandered up through the woods
No sooner than they had passed a looked out in front of the stand and a
basket racked eight point 1 ½ year old buck was walking right to my stand.
He slowly made his way through the woods and ended up passing within 5 yards of me as I watched him carefully. He had almost an ear width rack with
slender tines that stuck up pretty good. If he can make it a couple of years
he will be a superb deer.
The busy morning was about to get busier.
Another single doe came through some brush and went by my stand about 40
yards out. She didn’t seem in any hurry and being alone I thought just maybe
a buck would be trailing her. No such luck.
I couldn’t see very well in behind the stand, but I did hear a deer walking.
I eased my head around the tree and there stood a small 4 pointer. He was
going to walk right past my stand going on the same run as the eight pointer
earlier only in the opposite direction. When the pre-rut and rut is on there
is no rhyme or reason to which way deer will travel.
When he got a little past my tree he went on alert. Whoa! I don’t think he
smelled me, but I did have out some “Doe in Heat” scent in my Pee Willie
Wick. That was stationed 20 yards on the other side of the tree. I wasn’t
sure if he was smelling that or not, although the eight pointer never
stopped to sniff. He started doing that stiff legged walk and would just do
a little stomp and stare.
This went on for about 5 minutes when he started staring down through the
woods. I eased my head around and picked out the motion of a pretty decent buck meandering through the woods. He wasn’t trailing anything, but
basically just browsing here and there.
He was out about 60 yards or so when the two bucks made eye contact. The forky forgot about the smell and started going back the way he came. He got in behind me and I lost sight of him. I could still hear him every now and then so he didn’t go far.
The buck I was now concentrating on was making his way towards my stand to the spot where the forky was at. That would put him at 15 yards straight out from the stand. I slipped the safety off of my Excalibur Exomag and waited. He went in behind some honey suckle and I eased the crossbow up.
He STOPPED!!
OUCH! Did I make a noise? He wasn’t looking in my direction but up through
the woods towards where the forky had went. I couldn’t take my eyes off of
him to see if the forky was still there and had picked out my movement.
Whatever it was – me making a noise, my scent or the forky sending body
language signals to him he didn’t like it. I thought once about sending an
arrow through the honey suckle as it was not very thick and close to him.
I just as quickly rejected the thought.
He started to turn and when he did I put the 20 yard crosshair on him. He
started back down the path that he had came in on, but this time he wasn’t
angling towards me, but angling away. When he cleared the honey suckle at 15 yards I pulled the trigger. The hit was perfect and the angle would take out both lungs.
I watched him as he ran for 70 yards and then pile up. The Exomag with the
Wasp SST Hammers had done the job quickly again.
The buck scaled out at 178 field dressed. He is a nine pointer if you count
the broken brow tine. Inspecting him showed an old wound on the top of his
neck. I thought at first that it was a grazing shot by an arrow, but during
the skinning process we could see that it was a tine wound from fighting.
He is not a whopper, but I am pleased with him since I really haven’t hunted
that much this year due to my double hernia operation and the busted up
ankle.
TO BE CONTINUED...