Had Lovin' On His Mind!!!

[Cabin Fever]

Finally got lucky. Worst season I've had, as far as sightings go. Been out 26 times (69hrs in the stand) and only seen 13 deer!

I hunted Monday morning and saw nothing. This made exactly 2 weeks since I had even ‘seen’ a deer during shooting light! Talk about frustrating... Planned on taking the rest of the day off to "recharge". On my way out of camp, I pulled SD cards from my trailcams to check. When I got home, I noticed there was a good amount of daytime activity in the previous couple of days along the edge of this one thicket, as recently as 45min before I checked the cams! I wondered if there may have been a hot doe in the thicket. Due to a series of events that happened that day, I decided to head back to camp to hunt that afternoon. Just had that feeling...

I went to a stand along the edge of a thicket. I've never bowhunted this stand before. If you saw it, you would understand why! The tree is only 4-5" in diameter up where my back is when I stand up in it! Hard to hide 240lbs of "red-hot-lovin" in a tree that small!  http://huntingny.com/forums/Smileys/akyhne/grin.gif[/img]  Anyway, I thought I'd roll the dice and hope that a buck would come out of the thicket and be so focused on the scent trail that I laid out along the thicket that he wouldn't see me in the tree.

I got into the stand 3hrs before dark. Within 10 minutes, I heard a couple of sticks crack in the thicket. I thought/hoped it might be a buck chasing a doe. I grunted 3-4 times. A buck grunted back ~6 times and began making more noise. Then, all hell broke loose crashing!! They were so close, I could see the brush shaking ~50 yards away in the thicket, but I couldn't see the deer. They took off running towards the other end of the thicket. I've played this game before in previous years and knew that they would probably be back. To make a long story short, over the next 90 minutes, they crashed back and forth 4 times! Each time, so close that I could see the brush shaking. Man my heart was pounding and the adreneline rushing!! I grunted to the buck every time they came back my way. I even heard the buck snort-wheeze, that I've never heard before! The first few times, I thought it was just a snort, like they had smelled me. I thought there was NO way with the way wind direction was. Then it dawned on me, that it was the snort-wheeze that I had heard them use on several hunting shows. I knew I was in the money and just needed the doe to bring the buck out to the edge of the thicket.

Finally,I saw brush shaking ~60 yards to my right. The doe stepped out of the thicket and into the mowed path along the edge, then continued walking across. Then, what looked like a big 10pt stepped out. I grunted to him and he stopped and looked back over his shoulder at me very majestically looking. He put his head down and trotted after the doe. I hoped that she may eventually circle back to the thicket and lead the chase back by me. Then, seconds later, a spike stepped out following the 10pt. I again grunted to get his reaction. He continued the pursuit.

I got a glimpse of something else behind the previous deer that appeared to be coming my way. I then saw a rack come out of the brush and look like it was looking for the source of the grunting (me!). He angled right up to me looking for the other 'buck'. Shooting opportunities were very limited, as I never trimmed into the thicket, nor did I ever plan on bowhunting this spot. My only clear shooting lane was up and down the edge where I keep mowed. I scanned ahead of him on the path he was taking and found a clear spot on his way to the mowed path. Figured if I couldn't get him stopped there, I'd have to wait AND hope he continued to the mowed path. As soon as he entered the clear spot, I stopped him broadside at 15 yards with a grunt and settled the pin behind his shoulder. I shot and saw the arrow pass through right where I was aiming! He crashed into the thicket for ~70 yards, then everything went silent. THEN the shaking started!!! LOL  I waited ~30 minutes and texted a few people to let them know.

After a short tracking job, I found the buck and recognized him from trailcam pics that I had gotten 3-4 weeks prior on the other side of my property. He was a nice 8pt.Unfortunately, he had broken off 8" or so of his right main beam! That sucked, but I was still very happy with him. Ever since I saw him on the trailcam, I really wanted this buck. Considering how hard I hunted this season, makes me appreciate him even more!

[outdoorstom]

Excellent!!  Great looking deer.....looks like you made a nice shot on him to. Congratulations!!

[burmjohn]

Nice deer!!!!  What heads you using?

[Lawdwaz]

Great job!  Looks like a Rage broadhead.  (You know, like you hit 'em with an axe!)

[skyzmine]

Congrats on your buck. real nice deer,

looks like he was hit with a cannon, must be the RAGE heads.

nice job ;D  and nice story, good read.

[burmjohn]

Great job!  Looks like a Rage broadhead.  (You know, like you hit 'em with an axe!)

LOL, it does.

[Lawdwaz]

Hey Cabin Fever.........

Bummer on the broken main beam.  One time probably 20 years ago I shot a pretty decent 8 pointer,  made a so so hit and it took off.  About 300 yards away a guy starts banging away at it.  5 shots later and the deer falls to the ground.  The other guy and I get to the deer at the same time.  Hmmm, interesting, only one hole in it and the main beam looks like yours!  5 shots and the guy put him down with a shocker to the melon!

Basically he was dead on his feet from my shot.  The other guy was a bit disappointed but he understood!!

[NYBuckHunter87]

nice buck, congrats