Sat. 011412 bowhunt

Sat. morning bowhunt. Brent and I decided we would both change tactics and wait until daylight to enter the woods. Then we would sit from the ground until around 9am and then start still hunting. I placed Brent at the trail crossing and his plan was to then still hunt uphill behind his tree and get a lay of the land. I continued on to the back side of the property and would do the same from that location in the valley. I used my new 3 legged walkstool and it worked great. I am really happy with this seat. After about 25 minutes of sitting I caught movement about 70 yards out and checked with the binoculars. A nice sized doe was eating leaves fromwhat looked like Mt. Laurel and standing on both rear feet to get at them. Then my radio crackled and I quickly powered it down. The doe slowly wandered up the ridge I was adjacent to and over the edge. The wind was not as bad as I suspected it might be, but there were intermittent stiff breezes. I suspected she might have picked up my scent if she continued uphill on that ridge. Brent radioed me, after I turned my unit back on, that he had seen a couple turkey pass by him in shotgun range, as well as a group of 8 deer. I decided to go over the ridge where that doe went and see if she was still around. I managed to get up on top very slowly and quietly by avoiding the dry leaves and walking on either moss or rocks. I got low and crawled up to the ridge. I peeked over and saw a nice doe and another deer looking opretty much right at me. I froze for about 3 minutes until they started eating again and backed off. They seemed to be heading downhill so I decided I would circle on my side of the ridge and try to head them off. I went down the ridge about 70 yards and snuck back up to the edge. I peered over and saw nothing. The laurel was very thick. I waited quietly and scanned for movement when I felt the breeze pick up. The all at once deer were moving everywhere. I watched approximately 15 deer move away down the valley at a trot. They went up the adjacent hill. My guess is that they winded me when that breeze picked up. I was out on a peninsula part of the ridge where it meets the valley and there was a bit of swirling going on there. Brent and I both still hunted our way up the Mountain and I met him near the top of my ridge. I sent him back down where I came from, and I went toward his tree again. I cleared a thick laurel patch and was trying to get a reading on my gps when I bumped a deer that must have been bedded down right behind Brent’s tree. Who knows if it would have been there had he hunted from his climber like he usually does….but aint that always the way! We tried to head off the animal again via the radio, but we did not see any sign of it again. I used the longbow and have been hitting very well with it lately. I think the main thing is the length and less finger pinch. I may need to get a new takedown longbow before we go to CO again this year. I am just not sure which kind. I love the 69 inch length but that is too much to fly with without a TD system. I might look at the Hill bows. Still no pictures as my camera broke last week.