Went out again Sat. am with orange hat as it was Jr. firearms day. I had a rough morning finding a tree on the lower end. I almost got my climber stuck on a tree that was too big for it. I eventually found a nice area, and ended up only about 10 feet up a tree because of some cover I had with a clump of saplings that still had green leaves. I thought this was better then being a bump on the side of a barren tree trunk and higher.
Around 9:30am I saw this large doe milling about uphill near another guys climbing stick / treestand. She was about 70 -80 yards away and being very cautious in the still windy conditions. I found out later there were a couple scrapes in that area she was visiting. She never came any closer and I decided to call it a day around 11:30 and get down.
Close up:
I got down from my tree and made my way up toward where I saw the doe. Moving and hunting slowly. I caught movement out of the corner of my eye and glanced out into the open horse pasture. There I saw a group, or should I say herd, of approximately 12 – 15 deer running directly toward me. I had just enough time to kneel and nock an arrow when the first of the group hit the opening a mere 15 yards away. When I was kneeling I caught a glimpse of bone so I was straining to pick out the one mature buck I was sure was pushing this party. They streamed through the opening in single file, trotting at a good clip angling away in front of me but I was having trouble finding a clear shot window and a large deer to shoot at. Before I knew it they were all by me and no big buck! I never even got a shot away! In retrospect it looked like a big nursery group? I saw a few spikes but mostly small deer???
I took a few steps and tried to regain my composure when here come 2 more deer from the open field. Lagers. These two looked very small and one was a button buck for sure as it stopped in front of me at about 10 yards and milled about grunting softly to the other, which would reply. The one deer in the photo was slightly bigger then the near BB and I was at half draw at one point at the spot of the photo….but knew they were both immature….especially since they did not run when I started moving for my camera! I knew they saw me. They would start moving again and I would make a noise or grunt and they would stop again and look at me. It would have been a gimme shot even with the recurve! I just could not bring myself to shoot these little guys. Too much trouble and so small.
Eventually they took off after the group which by now was coming back down the mountain around me about 80 yards away in a big line of running deer. These crazy deer were just running in circles? I have never seen so many this early in the winter and never just running around before with nothing chasing them?? I was hoping there was a big buck somewhere but never saw one.
I dropped off the stand at the truck and walked the trails slowly and quietly hoping they were going to run by again, and second guessing the non-shot at the small ones…..but did not see anything else but squirrel.
I also got my new Birthday/ Christmas present in the mail. I need to get it sighted in before firearms season opens next weekend!
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