Been working 6 am to 3:30, then going back in from 5 to midnight. Every few days I get a morning off to rest up, this was one.  I woke up beat and decided to sleep instead. Several moments later my wife brings me a fresh hot cup of coffee and explains that she will not tolerate my whining later about how I should have gone in the woods. "Get your butt out of bed and get in the woods." Okay.

    I get in late, already sunup. Good wind for my "8 point" stand. I climb in and settle down. A few moments later I hear movement behind me...I see a deer in the thicket. It's a buck, moving away. I give a grunt just hoping...and he turns back in my direction.

    He's behind me though, and downwind. Not good. He comes into view and is a 5 point, missing a brow tine...about 150 pounds or so. I've been instructed by my 8 year old to put a buck down, so I'm decided already.  But the wind is killing me....oh yeah...stiff breeze and he blows.

   He makes a big counter clockwise circle about 75 yards in front of me. I give several grunts and he actually turns around, all the way back and is behind me again. I turn around facing my tree, and have a possible shot coming. About 15 yards. Damn, my harness strap prevents me from turning any more and I cant draw. He is jittery and on full alert. He moves slighly more to the edge and is broadside at 20+ yards. LOTS of saplings and twigs.

    I have one shot, but can't aim low due to brush. He's gonna jump on the shot...hes just too alert. If he drops I'll hit him high.   Decided to pass on the shot.

    He moved off to the southeast....about where my "twin oaks" stand is. Waited till 8:30 and moved to the other stand to try and coax him in if hes still around. 250 yards away, I climb up the twin oaks.

    I strap in, hang my quiver and am ready to call when I see a deer walking the cartroad I just crossed. A doe, sweet! Good bait! (no doe tag). I hold off on grunting so as not to spook her off and she comes right down my access path to my stand. She's upwind, this is great.

    She comes directly below me, scratches her chin and lays down.  15 feet from my tree.  Now I'm pumped for the bucks to come a runnin'!

    2 hours pass and she is out cold. I gotta go to work....now what?  I throw my bag of Redman at her. Sniffs it, a bit alert for about a second and calms right down again.

    After tossing a few sticks and my folding knife at her, I decide its time to ask her to leave. Got it all on video on my phone. Started politely, but ended pretty much yelling at her. Refused to leave. I finally had to put my quiver on and start climbing down for her to move off about 50 yards, watching the whole time....and then she finally trotted off.
 
    Thanks to my wife, she knows me well.

   

Yeah.  Once they move in it's hard to get rid of them . . .

The doe, of course I'm talking about the doe!

   

Sounds like a good adventure.  I can usually get them to bolt by doing things like blinking or allowing my heart to beat.

Good story!  Word must have been out that you didn't have a doe tag!!  Your supposed to keep that a secret lol.

Yep, if you were trying to fill a doe tag, everyone that came by would be on high alert and flip out at the slightest movement.

Great story and cool pics. I had a nice buck come in and bed behind me right after I killed my buck this year. It's like they know when you can and can't shoot them.

P.S. The can call works well for running off deer under your tree if you hit them in the back with it. It scares the crud out of them.  

Great story!  I can't believe a work schedule like yours!  Hopefully, you'll be able to get our a few more times and enjoy your time in a treestand.

Bernie Bjorklund

NC Iowa/SW Wisconsin

Good Stuff David! ...I got a real good laugh out of that story. Like Charlie, I don't ever seem to have any trouble getting them to move away from me...

Guess she felt a lot like you, when you got woke up, great story indeed.

Good story! They do seem to have a sense about when they are potentially on the menu.

I got my first deer after watching a mature doe and yearling bed just out of range for nearly an hour. Suddenly they jumped-up, looked back the way they came from and tore off down the trail in the opposite direction. A heavy small racked 8 pointer came sniffing their trail right into my shooting lane.    

ONLY time I ever have does act nochanlant is when I don't have a tag for that area!

Glad to see I'm not alone. Still a great, great story...btw, great wife you got!  

 Great story! Thanks for sharing

It's funny how those deer know if you have a tag or not.  Somehow she knew you were not a threat and decided to stake her claim under your stand.  

I love it when deer bed under my stand.  They are really neat creatures to watch.

Thats your live decoy.

yep ALL females are the same...tks for the story

you got a great wife! my girlfirend says the same thing! were lucky guys

Too funny.  It is good to have a wife that knows you so well.

Kinda looks like a kangaroo in that pic? My kids mentionbed it.....

Thats cool,next time throw some beachnut or levigarett at her then she'll spook.

QuoteOriginally posted by Stumpkiller:
Sounds like a good adventure.  I can usually get them to bolt by doing things like blinking or allowing my heart to beat.

Now that right there is funny!

I have a video on my phone of the knife and Redman pouch on the ground right in front of her, then the whole conversation of me asking her to leave. I'll try and figure out how to transfer it here so you can see it.