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.