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This years cool Hunt

D

deerman

Guest
Sitting in the old deer stand,the one nicknamed the big Oak.It's a honey hole during the rut.It was about 8:30 in the morning and the air was cool and the sky was clear.I had seen several deer,so I decided to stay in longer.The action really started to pick up at a quater after 9.The bucks were really movein.I was watching a 4 pt. for a while when he started to move my way.As he got closer,I saw that he didn't have any browtines and the rack was pretty tall for a deer with only 4 pts.But I decided to let him go on by.Now in the big oak,the branch I was on comes straight out from the tree and is only about 10 ft.from the ground.The buck starts to come right for me so I'm getting that rush,you know what I mean.He comes directly under me and as I'm looking down at him I'm thinking, This guy doesn't have a clue that my feet are only 6 or 7 feet from his head.As I watched walk away I thought,Man this why I love deer hunting.This Is why I got up so early.I got my deer the next morning out of that old stand,and I'll never forget that But the coolest thing this year was that 4 pionter that came under me the morning before.And the feelings I felt haveing the experiance.It's great to be alive and be in the timber.
 
Sounds like you had a day to remember for a long time! That's what it's all about...nice to hear from someone enjoying the little things that come with bowhunting.

I, also, have a tree named 'the big oak', but mine is from turkey hunting...where I've had some great hunts in the spring.

TB
 
2 Beards,this oak would make a great turkey stand too.They like roosting init or walk by it in route to eat or roost in another tree.But I'm not a turkey hunter,Well not yet anyways.
 
One of my most memorable mornings this fall was mid November and the rut was going pretty strong. I had watched a big bodied basket racked buck for over an hour, he would see some does, then go check them out and round them up and herd them back to his thicket about 25 yards west and up the hill slightly from my tree. He made about 3 trips doing this and had at least 8 does/yearlings rounded up and watchning them was quite a show. He even chased off another bigger antlered buck who came too close to his thicket. Then when I thought it couldn't get better, here comes a coyote, and he stops at a ground squirrel's hole about 10 yards North East of my tree in a little ravine and he intently checks it out for a few minutes. The ground squirrel had been running around just a few minutes earlier so I suppose the scent was hot.
So I'm standing like a statue in my tree watching the deer, the deer are standing like statues watching the coyote, and the coyote was trying to figure out how to get that ground squirrel. Eventually the coyote moved on and the deer returned to their normal activity.
That particular morning, none of the animals had the slightest idea I was even there, and I stayed until almost noon when the last deer wandered off.
 
One of my most memorable experiences of this season had to be watching a 6 point buck chase a doe during bow season. My uncle, who is not a hunter decided to go out with me and my dad just to spend a morning out in the woods. At sunup he got to watch me miss a shot a huge buck as he sat across a field from me (something I'd just as soon forget). Anyway, after all the excitement we thought we'd do some walking around the woods we hunt since he hadn't been back there since he was a kid. We were coming down off a ridge near a creek bottom when we saw the doe. She was trotting along toward us. Then we saw the buck chasing her. They made three circles in the clearing next to us, circling closer each time. Every time little bucky thought he might get lucky she'd move a little quicker and he'd have to catch up again. On their last pass they were only about 10 yards from us and were so into the chase they had no idea we were there. The both looked very tired, tongues hanging out and breathing hard. They continued the chase away from us. It was interesting to witness this whitetail romance, and a good show for my non-hunting uncle to see.

[This message has been edited by Driftless (edited 02-04-2002).]
 
We went out one day with my family to take some deprivation does. My dad set me down in the grass at the edge of this wooded finger that kinda shoots out from a fence into the buffer strip around a picked cornfield. I'd been sitting, and I'd heard things all around me, including a buck fight just over the low hill in front of me. All of a sudden, I see movement to my right. Then I see this buck strut up about 100 yards away. Nothing special, just a big spike. All of a sudden he turned toward me and ran full speed. I thought he was gonna run me over! He eventually stopped...4 or 5 yards away. He turned into the grass, and just before getting into the into the trees, he snorted and took a couple of bounds. He was straight downwind of me, but after that whiff of human scent he couldn't get anything else and just trotted off. I was shaking like a leaf.
 
I had a great bowhunt this fall because my 10-year old son had a close encounter with a buck. Taylor was along with me as a non-hunting partner this year, and I placed him in a big oak tree about 10-12 feet up. It was a nice setup because the tree had a natural platform that allowed him to stand in between the big branches and be well concealed. I was in another stand about 50 yards away. About 90 minutes into the evening hunt, I noticed a nice 8-pointer was working his way down the trail that my son was 'guarding'. Before long, the buck was less than 10 yards from his stand. I was sure my son would flinch or do something to spook the buck, but to my surprise, he stayed perfectly still. Even when the buck looked straight up at him, Taylor stayed still. Eventually, the buck moved on down the trail, and out of sight. When I came to his stand at dark, my son was VERY excited about the buck. Up until that day, we did not have good luck seeing deer when we were out together. It was a great time, and we have had other buck/doe encounters since then. I am really looking forward to taking my son bowhunting next fall. Taylor and I are planning a deer hunter's weekend during the deer classic, complete with a hotel stay and a night out on the town. I love hunting, but I love having someone to share it with even more!
 
Guess I forgot to ask about your coolest story of this past years hunt.Lets hear It you guys!!!
 
Hey folks, I enjoyed reading the stories. One thing that stood out is the fact each mentioned how much fun the hunts were. Most ended without a deer even being taken.

One of my favorite outings this past year was the opening weekend of Iowa's first shotgun season. I didn't even draw a tag! With video camera in hand, looking over the shoulder of my buddy (you know him in this forum as Trpr) I watched all kinds of deer, including several bucks. Like many have said before, it was just a thrill to be out enjoying nature and watching iowa whitetails.

MO
 
My most memorable hunt was about 3 years ago. I decided to try and use an old mount of an 8 pointer as a decoy. I hung the head about 25 yards in front of me and got in my stand. After a short while I grunted a couple of times and in no time I heard a deer coming my way. A basket racked 8 came right in to my setup and trots right up to my decoy to within 5 yards takes a look at it and then starts feeding around the area, and then slowly walks off. About 10 minutes later a 6 point comes in, notices my decoy and walks over to take a look at the new guy. He seems a little more curious as to his new friend having no legs. He takes a couple of steps closer to have a better look. He stares down under the decoy and then looks it right in the eyes, cocks his head to one side then the other like he was thinking, "boy,you got a yourself heap of troubles" I could hardly keep myself from laughing as he turned to walk away. I would have given anything for a video camera that day. Since then I've used my decoy, now affectionately named "Bob", on other hunts and had good success with him. Even used him to play a joke on a buddy. Bye the way, the joke worked perfectly, "Bob" now has a hole in his neck from a well placed arrow........another memorable hunt!
 
One of my favorite hunts was last bowseason. I had been in my stand for a couple of hours. I looked up and there was a huge 10 pointer about 150 yds from me. He walked right to me. It only took him about 30 sec. to a min. for him to get to me. He was about 15 yds. and checking out my decoy. I was going to shoot him sitting down. Then he decided to keep walking. He walked about 8 yds. from my stand. I tried to stand up but my pants got caught on my seat and my seat came up and then fell and the looked right at me. I didn't get a shot but it was still pretty cool. A couple days later my brother had an encounter with the same deer, he couldn't get a shot either.
 
Last fall left me with many great new memories. Several of them were while my two sons(12 & 14) were hunting. One afternoon, while sitting against a osage orange tree, I watched a mink work up and down another osage orange just ten yards away. When he didn't find what he was looking for, he hit the ground and headed straight towards me(the next tree on his route). When he was about three feet away, I wiggled a finger, because I really wasn't interested in having him run up my leg. Well he stopped and looked at that gloved hand then continued coming. At that point I gave him him a good look at my face and he hit the trail. One of God's small blessings.
Another day, while still hunting in the middle of a willow thicket(staggered open areas then extremely thick and completely canopied against the river), I suddenly hear deer breaking into a run in the thick stuff between me and the river. I freeze I expect the deer to be running out accross the river, but the craziest thing happens. A small doe comes running out of that stuff right at me. At no more than a yard, and thats the first I see of her, she veers hard to my left then stops. She looks around and never looks right at me then just walks back into the thick stuff. Less than a minute later serveral large does and the small one walk back out at about 6 yards and just wander on by. The setting all by itself had a very surreal feeling, then you add the deer. I 'll never forget that one. Thanks for all the great stories.

ironwood


[This message has been edited by ironwood (edited 02-09-2002).]
 
This years coolest hunt happened just last evening. It was the last day of our small game season and I took my oldest daughter who turned 12 on Jan. 18 squirrel hunting. My youngest daughter, age 8 asked to tag along so it was the three of us. We worked our way down into the timber behind the house and found a good log to take up post on and got comfortable.After about an hour a fox screamed up in the brush along the field edge about fifty yard away, well I knew what it was right away but I believe the hair stood straight up on both girls heads. We slowly stood and turned toward the fox, which I managed to spot right away. Well the youngest ( Miss Fidgit) said she saw a beaver up in the brush, and I told her she was probably seeing a stump as we were a good ways from any water, but she kept insisting.Well to speed things up there was a huge racoon in there that the fox was trying to make a meal of, thats what she saw that she was sure was a beaver. As you probably figured no self respecting racoon is gonna end up in the belly of a fox and there was quite a battle going on for about ten minutes, with the animals getting as close as 20 yards in plain view at one time. The coon finally prevailed and the fox went in search of easier prey and the coon fed past us a 10 yards.We didn't get any squirrels, but I wouldn't trade one minute of my whole bow season to miss last evening with the girls, the excitement and awe on their faces was wonderful to a father.

Steve
 
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