Jeremy Deer Hunts
11/13/10 - What an incredible day! I really was getting the feeling that I had burned out the spot I have been hunting all week, so this morning I made a change and went back to the spot in which I killed my big KS buck last season. It was a great move, and one that I wish I had made a couple of days earlier. I hid in a blow down that I brushed in a while ago for a scouting trip. Almost immediately this morning I had a doe walk along the tree line by the wheat field. Moments later, 3 does came right by me. A little while after that, 
3 more does went the opposite way. Then later in the morning, a nice young basket 8 point came through. He walked by at quite a distance and I didn't get the photos I really wanted so I gave a grunt and a snort wheeze. He actually turned around and walked right back in to me! I wound up taking what must have been 50 photos of this deer at a distance of 10 yards. Great opportunity to be so close to an animal like the whitetail deer! I only wish he had been big enough to shoot. After a successful draw, I let my bow down and let him walk.
Around 10 o'clock I heard a grunt. It was coming from the top of the high bank behind me. In a panic I realized that a buck was running a doe right down the steep bank. I turned and looked over my shoulder and saw the doe, and then saw a very good rack coming behind her. I snatched up my bow into ready position and tried to be still. The doe ran RIGHT by me at 5 yards and she was moving fast. As soon as her body was past me I just drew my bow. I didn't even bother looking for the buck. I knew he was coming. Sure enough, he 
was hot on her track and ran right by as well. He was so close I felt dirt spraying me. I immediately started grunting repeatedly in louder and longer bursts, but the buck would not be stopped. He ran right on through, hard after that doe.
I immediately decided that I would spend the remainder of my hunt in this spot. I went and pulled my stand and all my straps from the other location and re-hung my stand in the same tree I killed my buck out of last season.
That evening it didn't take long for me to see deer. 2 does crossed the edge of the wheat, headed west to the cut milo field. A few minutes later I heard a grunt to my east. I looked and spotted a small buck running across the wheat. He was followed by the same 8 point I photographed that morning. Shortly after that, a couple of does crossed the wheat field. The deer were moving through quickly and they were not using my funnel like I would have assumed. Then I saw motion again out in the wheat and saw doe after doe coming out of 
the little peninsula of trees to my east. I found a clear spot to view through the trees in line with their route and counted 6 does jogging into the western patch of trees. Right on their tails was a massive, heavy beamed 8 point. I could not believe these deer were not using my funnel. It was really frustrating. A few minutes later more does crossed the field. I counted over 15 does headed across that wheat field. This was very early in the afternoon.
For the next 2 hours, I debated and 
debated about what I should do. Something kept telling me that I had probably seen all the deer that were in the area that night and that they had all just gone by me, just out of range, and were now working their way into the milo field, bringing the big buck with them, and my time to kill on this trip was running out. But the reasonable side of me was suggesting there could be still more does coming that might take the funnel and they might be towing a buck. But the hunter in me wanted to take action. I wanted to give the deer enough time to work through the woods and then enter the milo. I knew I didn't want to stalk them in the woods because the wind was still and they would have the great advantage. Plus I didn't know that piece of the woods very well. I thought I would give the stand until 4:45 and see if any other deer came through, and if not, I would take a carefully planned route that would allow me to see if there were deer in the milo field. 4:45 came and my mind was made up, so I quickly climbed down. By 5, I was standing on a high vantage point, hidden in cedars, staring at 4 deer in the milo. Two were the small bucks I had already seen. I watched them for a few minutes, trying to decide if the big buck was with them, but further north and out of my vision. I knew if I waited patiently, that something would happen to reveal the buck's location. Then it came. I heard a loud crash from west of me that sounded like thrashing brush. The two bucks looked in a direction to a small depression that I knew held brambles and a couple of trees. I guessed that buck had to be in that depression and was either fighting another buck or making a rub. I dropped off into a creek, using the ditch as my cover from the high milo field. I got all the way around to where I was situated south of the milo field and in the bottom of the drainage for the depression where I guessed the buck was. I eased my head up and immediately sighted antlers.
The beams swung side to side and there was no doubt it was him. I glassed his head and saw that he was looking away. Raising up, I saw a doe in the milo near him, but the buck was looking in another direction. As I watched him, his head swung and I saw another deer appear out of the drainage and go into the milo. He turned and walked slowly in her direction. There was a wide-trunk tree there that I put between myself and the buck. Again using the slope of the hill and the drainage, I closed fast on that buck. When I was within what I thought was 30 yards, I felt like I had this buck killed, I slowly rose to draw. I was only concerned with the two does in the milo and their heads were covered by the stalks. Unfortunately I missed the doe that was entering estrous that had taken refuge from the buck in the brambles. She busted out of there in a fury. The buck never saw me, but he stayed hot on that doe's trail. She took every deer in that field over the rise and to the far edge of the tree line. I knew there was no way I could follow, and I was out of daylight. What an incredible experience. Two stalks in two days! Tomorrow morning is my last hunt for this trip.
11/14/10 - I kept the faith for this morning's hunt based upon the good buck sighting from the night before. But in reality, a few does and a small buck came through early and then I had pheasant hunters hit the milo field on my section. They really worked it over good, and I wound up listening to them yelling at each other so loudly I considered yelling back, "Hey, do you mind? I'm trying to deer hunt over here?" It got pretty ridiculous. When I could actually hear the distinct conversations they were having in normal tones, I knew my day was pretty much done.
It was an incredible hunt! Truly and amazing experience. To require a hunt to end in holding a set of antlers, would rob us of the joy of some of life's most amazing moments.
Perhaps I'll get another hunt in still this year.
Jeremy
