the deer here are like dang Green Berets. it's amazing. i envy you guys who get to hunt like you see it on t.v. - practically having a conversation in the tree while a 12-point is right underneath you. it ain't like that in Alabama! these two old gals were like the checkpoint squad in Afghanistan... :mad: :mad:
feel your pain. ive been busted so many times this season. scent free and all the other careful stuff too, and still get busted, but hey your seein deer! i saw a quote not sure if it was here or some where else, " we are part time amiture hunters , deer are full time profesional survivalists" good luck i hope ya get one, ruddy
I don't seem to have any of those "dumb deer" running around my place either.
Good luck & stick with it.
I have a doe nicknamed spastic here on my place , she goes spastic if I'm in the woods.
Jack
Yup..Had that happen yesterday afternoon. I had four little one's right under me with two spike's but the lead Doe new something was up. She was stomping. It was a good show. I'll have to try something else..Those lady's have it down on knowing there woods. There not like the boy's. You put out some good smell and there right there..Good figure..
I've been hunting a few stands near a 1/4 acre pond. We've had drought conditions in KY and every time I've been on stand I've had at least 13 deer, including a small 6 point and fork horn, around or in the pond. I've had over a dozen shots at mature does and even had one rub up against the ladder to my stand.
Then it rained. . .
I still saw 7 last night but they were just passing through at a pretty good clip. A couple took a quick drink but they were not interested in water sports. The larger buck I've been seeing is still eluding me.
the hardest thing is not hitting your target,it is getting the bow drawn, your set up came make or break you. sometimes a stand in a certain tree just wont work
NY deer are just as bad, I get away with nothing :banghead:
Its fun isn't it. Happens a lot more now that the leaves are off the trees.
Same here in Oklahoma. And to think that we handicap ourselves even more by using traditional gear. One more reason we call it hunting and not killing.
Here in Virginia, I've found if I don't go 18' or higher, I will get busted. You have to play the wind as much as possible to. Don
No question, we've certainly taught them to look up among other things! I'm seriously thinking of "canning" all the gimmicks and junk... no grunt tubes, cans, scents, rattle bags etc. At one time just being quiet in the woods and hunting from the ground brought results. Who knows it just might be the way to go.
Them dumb deer are usually pen raised and on thier way to the feeder. Wild deer don't put up with much regardless of where they are from.
The deer here in PA are the same,you can't fart in your stand without the deer in the next county knowing about it,LOL. :biglaugh:
I'm of the opinion that there is a zone, that once a deer is inside it, everything has to remain perfect in order to kill it. I'd say 10 yds is about where that zone starts. One tiny little shift in the breeze, one little squeek of a rubber boot on a stand, just an accidental wiggle in the tip of your bow can cause a deer to realize all isn't right in their little world and cause them to bust out of there in a hurry.
Of course....it's never happened to me. :bigsmyl:
I'm so very very sorry to hear about all you fellas having such a nasty time with deer busting you repeatedly while on stand. That's really a cryin' shame, it truly is.
Now would one of you care to tell me what a deer actually looks like? I think they are those brown things with hooves but I'm not entirely sure anymore...
'The man complained he had no shoes. Then he met the man who had no feet.'
:saywhat: :rolleyes: :laughing:
My quarry seems to know exactly how to come from the wrong direction and end up 6 feet behind me, stop, wait for me to flinch, then bust outta Dodge. Happened twice. Gotta love being on the ground and feeling their breath.
I have never had the TV experience with deer ambling about beneath my stand. Not sure where those deer live.
Boy do I agree with you on the that one, I have a blind on top of an oak ridge, I can see all the way around and can sit on any side I want! Never fails this year which ever way I sit they come the opposite way, LOL But I have been seeing lots of deer! Bucks are in rut but the does in my area do not seem very receptive to him, have had a couple chased off by a buck I have not got a good look at him yet cause the does do not sit still long enough. Keeps it exciting!
I had 2 within 15 yards of me yesterday evening.They walked right on by me and never knew I was their.Did I mention it was too dark to see to shoot? I was on the ground as thats how I hunt.I've had that problem 20 times at least this year.
Yep--deeer here trip on down limbs while looking up for us!!
Had the pleasure once to hunt in western Iowa for a week. All six of us could not believe that the deer didn't look up. Our stands were at 16 -18' max while deer milled around below seemingly oblivious to our presence. None of us had experienced this before. My assumption was that these particular deer experienced extremely little hunting pressure.
Four time for me, and the same leader doe. She knows my name I think.
sam
A lot of stuff you see on the TV are out takes that get edited in, don't do what they do.
My doe is leaving messages in the dirt "if you would have been here just a little earlier you might have had a chance" at the last word there was a doe scrape. above the scrape was the word DOE below the scrape was the word PEE.
I'd go spastic with you in the woods too, Jack.
I had a doe track me like a blood hound right to the base of my ladder stand. I stayed still and never looked directly at her but she knew I was there and started snorting/ barking until she scared everything in the woods. Ive since started wearing rubber boots and leaving my hunting clothes outside. Hopefully that will help but it seems like once the old girls go on alert they are really hard to fool. Will probably put up another stand and try to keep from pressuring one area too much.
I had one of those days yesterday. I decided I'd get to my little ground ambush site before daylight and busted a big deer out of the scrapeline. About an hour or so afterwords I see a big bodied deer about 150 yards or so on an old road and I grab my binoculars and was trying to see what it was and lo and behold they were all fogged up from the cold and snow. I messed around with them a minute or two trying to wipe the lenses clear until I finally said heck with it and laid them down and when I looked up about 35 yard straight in front of me I see a nice spike looking straight at me. He must have been watching me fidget with those binos the whole time. I just froze. He tried to circle and get my wind because he obviously couldn't figure me out in the ASAT leafy suit. Finally he gave up and just eased off from. All these gadgets and gizmos are just a pain in the rump for the most part. Just for the record, binos are not in that category! I just got busted trying to get an essential tool working right! But I do find the less thingys I have the better my hunting is.
i had no idea when i started this thread that it would be so entertaining! thanks for sharing the pain, fellas, haha! i did not get busted yesterday evening, but i didn't see deer either. guess i'll take getting busted instead.
i did get to experience my hunting buddy's wife shooting her first deer. it was with a wheelie, but it was exciting for her, and she made a good shot at 25 yards and tracked the deer herself. it's aneat thing to be with someone as they track their first deer, and she found it all by herself!
One of my buddies got busted by the same old doe so many times that he couldn't wait for gun season so he could take her out. She walked through the woods looking up most of the time.
I use ladder stands on my property, and if I'm spotted in a stand I move it. I also don't use the same stand two days in a row. I have 9 of them in the 20 acres of woods behind my house so I can keep moving. I can see the porch light from a couple of them. I also only hunt these woods a couple of times a week, to keep from spooking them out of the area. My family owns another 200 acres adjoining my 50 where I also have some stands, so I can rest the home acreage. My only deer last year was taken late in the season about 200 yards from the house.
Didn't even get half drawn when a 6pt.busted me yesterday.I was 17 feet up and he looked at me as if I were standing in front of him.
I just came back from a visit/hunt in Upper Michigan. Only saw one deer while on stand.
It was a deathly quiet evening, with only a hint of a breeze. Over all, a very nice evening in the blind. Right a sunset, a doe came by from my down wind side. I guess the convection currents from the ridge in that direction kept my scent away from the doe as she moved in front of me. She stopped broadside at 10 yds. and put her head down behind a log....perfect except her front leg was back, so I held off on the shot. She stepped forward and put her head down again, so I started to draw, and she spooked.
I was wearing all wool, though my coat has a fabric lining of some sorts, so maybe that made enough noise to alert her at that distance. Sure had my heart going though!
8:00 this morning I looked over my right shoulder and there was a big mature, bout 200lber, 6pt or so staring at me at 10yds. He had good mass and wide rack just average height on his tines. Didn't matter anyway he did a 90, took about three steps, smelled where I'd walked in and the last time I saw him he was about 200yds still at full throttle.
Yesterday morning I decided to go in late and hunt middle of day. It's 10:30 and I get about 4' up the tree look over and there's about a 4 or 5pt watching me climb.
I'm use to it, don't even bother me anymore.
I've taken to wearing a Ghilie suite in my tree stand...seems to help with slight movement.
Bucks have to worry about surviving and finding a doe to satisfy their needs (which drastically reduces their survival IQ). Does only have to worry about surviving.
I'm with Otto on this one.