First off let me say, I have seen more deer this year than I ever have at the same point in a given season. Almost every time I sit I see large numbers of deer. This has been the norm for every spot I have. Well this year I got permission to hunt a new spot, its only about 40 acres but it is surround by a factory some other commercial buildings and is bordered by the interstate. So I go in last week and do a little scouting and I find a pretty good spot to set up. I come back in a few days later and put out a 50lb bag of shelled corn(Its legal in NC). This was on a Monday. I go back in on Wednesday and the corn is all gone. :bigsmyl: But that's not even the best part.....
So I take another bag of corn in to put out. I was kind of stunned that it was all gone, but as I was inspecting the ground, I noticed a buck rub on a tree near by, then another then another, then another :eek: There were seventeen of them within about 25 yards of where the corn used to be. They were all made within two days....It gets better...
Sounds like a big buck found a nice hiding spot close to civilization. Joseph
The next day I planned on hunting the spot. That night I could hardely sleep, I kept thinking of what potentially could be coming in to my corn pile. Never in my entire life have I seen that many rubs in one place before, let alone made inside of two days.
I hate these stories, the suspense kills me.
:jumper:
I just got in from hunting....Now I have another story to tell...Didnt even get a chance to finish this one.....I promise I will get back to this one soon...
Are you up yet ? < come on now out with it :0)
zzz zzz zzz :D
Oh, I'd forgotten about this one...next! :readit:
WELL? Shawn
Sorry guys, its been a wild weekend...
Where was I..oh, the following day, I took my climber and headed to the "spot". I got to the tree about 4:15. I picked a pretty skinny tree that ended up being to close and not high enough...
Cruel and unusual punishment...having to wait like this for the end!
One of the reasons I wanted to tell this story, is to maybe help someone not make the same bone head mistakes I made.....
First off the wind was all wrong..well it was blowing in one direction when I went in. About a half hour later it switched and started blowing in the complete opposite direction (which ended up being the wrong direction by the way)....Hind site 20/20 I should have climbed down, backed out and tried it another day...Oh well, live and learn.
Someone needs to get a gamecam over to that site
Is that it? Nothing came in? Something came in? What? Racoons were eating it and gnawing on the trees?
Back to the story.. As soon as I pulled my bow up and knocked an arrow the action started.. From my right I saw a deer heading in my direction. He was a new born, he barley had nots on his head. Behind him was his twin brother. LOL. They came right in to the corn and started feeding. At the time I thought my set up was going to work ok...Boy was I stupid..I just did not spend enough time thinking about how to execute my hunt plan. All the buck sign I saw really screwed with my head. It was all I could think about..
As the 2 small bucks were feeding I could feel the wind blow across the back of my neck....Bad, very Bad... a couple of minutes later one of the deer starts licking, putting his nose up in the air and acting all nervous. This made the other deer act the same way. Eventually they left pretty shook up, they didnt blow out or anything, jsut walked off. I guess they were just to young to figure out what was going on...
300 pound chipmunk???
Well about 15 min later here comes three mature does. They hit my wind and it was over. It took them all but 30 sec. to spot me up in the tree. The didnt blow out either, just turned around and walked out. I feel so stupid that I picked the tree that I did.(What the heck was I thinking), Im not new at this hunting game. I knew better. Anyway we are now up to 5 deer in the first half hour.....
By this time I am kicking myself severely. It was to late to come down and back out, besides at that moment, out of the corner of my eye to my left, here come 4 more deer....all were does. Same scenio they hit my wind, spotted me up in the tree and walked out. (Up to 9 deer inside 45 mins) Now for the real action....
There was one other thing I forgot to mention, because I started and stopped this story so many times. From the first Monday that I put out corn until Wednesday(two days later), 17 buck rubs were made on trees around the corn pile. This is what had me all screwed up in the head.... I cant believe I left out that part....
QuoteOriginally posted by slayer1:
[QB] There was one other thing I forgot to mention, Did I nmention it alreay? :confused: I started and stopped this story so many times. From the first Monday that I put out corn until Wednesday(two days later), 17 buck rubs were made on trees around the corn pile. This is what had me all screwed up in the head.... :knothead:
I got deer to clean.... More in the morning...
oooohhhhhhhhhhhh,,,dat's so not nice :banghead: :pray: ing for the rest of the story!!!
Wrong on so many levels......LOL. Congrats!
.....oh man!!! I'm gonna get an ulcer;) Congrats on getting something! Now out with it!! :readit:
Ok, here we go again. Going to finish it this time. I wish it had a better ending... Over the next 2 hours (after the first nine deer came in) I watched 6 more deer come in all with the same result. The last 6 were all bucks. (This explains all the rubs).
Each time a deer came in they got bigger and bigger. The last one was at least an 120" 8 point. The good thing is that none of them blew out they just turned around and walked out. I dont think I spooked them enough to do any harm.
Why could you not of just switched trees, one that was downwind of where they were coming from? Shawn
The reason I wanted to post this story is because I wanted folks to learn from the mistakes I made. I will list them in order of what I think is important:
1. NEVER NEVER NEVER hunt on a bad wind. This will always get you busted, especially by a mature doe or buck. (This is the number one rule for bow-hunting, I cant believe I was that stupid!)
2. Always pick a tree that will give you cover and that will put you high enough to take you out of the line of site from the ground. In my opinion there is a fine line here. You don't want to get so high that it gives you a bad shot angle but at the same time you want to get high enough that you are not easily spotted from the ground.
3. Don't let the sign get the best of you. In this particular case, I was so excited about all the rubs that I saw that I completely lost my head. I should have thought this through more thoroughly. I should have had a better plan going into this hunt. (See number one and two above)
I probably made more than 3 mistakes but these are the major ones......
I went back in on Saturday and hung a lock on stand in a proper tree at the proper elevation I also set it up so I could only hunt it on a north or west wind. I made sure that I had a entry and exit so as not to disturb the bedding area. I guarantee that I will have a chapter 2 to this story, hopefully it will end with a picture of me with a 120" 8 point :thumbsup: ......
so you are cleaning a deer but I have not heard anything about ones coming up to the bait or anything!!!
Shawn, the thought went through my mind many times. Everytime I started to get down, another deer was coming out. It was almost constant action. I was happy to see them all but I just screwed everything up from the beginning. Since I had a few days to think about it, I am kind of glad it happend. I learned a lot in the course of about 3 hours. :thumbsup:
try hunting ridges in the Adirondacks where the wind changes A LOT! impossible to never hunt with a bad wind. did you kill one???????
Rob, I will post the hunt from Thursday night in another thread.It had a much better ending. :thumbsup: I started this story earlier in the week and just didnt get a chance to finish it before my next hunt.