Sat. 110511 all day hunt

Can you find the spike buck in this first picture?

How about now?

How about a close up?

 

Tough to see when they are not moving ‘eh?

This guy snuck in on me in the wind and bedded down about 25 yards on stand Sat. am.  It was probably when I was watching a nice 6 point come up behind my friend Brent’s stand on the crest of the hill from me.  It winded, or spotted him, and he left the way he came.  Then after about 20 minutes he returned to the same spot looking in Brent’s direction for about 10 minutes before heading into thick stuff around the top side of his tree.  Brent never saw it but I got a good view through my binoculars.  

I looked back to my front after it had gone and noticed a deer head 25 yards away.  It wasn’t moving so I eventually determined it was bedded.  It was only about 5 yards away from a mock scrape I made, but the wind was blowing the scent away from him.  I saw through the binos it was a spike and determined right then that I would not shoot at it, even though it was legal for me to do so.  I wanted a bigger one for my “one buck” this year with the bow and not this spikey.

I watched and photographed it for close to 3 hours.  Even when a pickup truck drove through the woods trail at 11am, he just turned his head and watched it go by with me, despite being only about 60 yards from a truck in the woods.

The truck was the local poacher…. ‘er hunter…… I guess he was too fat and old to walk to his stand.  "Nice" old guy who admitted poaching deer on the property for 30 years on our first meeting. 

Anyway, the spike eventually got up and fed away.  I radioed Brent he was coming toward him.  He saw it, but I think the spike saw him as well.  I watched the stare down and cautious trot around his area.  Brent has already got his buck with the bow this year so he would not have been able to shoot it anyway.

We went back out in the afternoon and I shifted my tree closer to where that big boy was, but no real action.  I did see 3 deer busting through the woods at high speed.  The group ran down behind my stand and milled around a bit.  I suspect it was a small buck chasing 2 does around but I could see no real headgear on the training deer.  They did not return.

I did try my hand at ratting antlers, but it had no real affect.  I think that technique will not work so well in this area with low density of bigger bucks.  I doubt I will carry them in the woods to try again at this farm.