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Don't Give Them Anything To Be Suspicious Of

The Silence

The Silence

PMA Member
Last year my hunting buddy witnessed an interesting sight. He was able to watch a deer drive from an elevated position. He was not hunting but knew this deer drive was going to happen and just wanted to be an observer. There were 2 guys posted watching a field which was right across the river from a crossing that deer used coming from public hunting ground on the other side. The drive took place from the public land and would proceed across the river. The guys posted were probably 150 yards from the river itself and were facing east.

As he watched the drive proceed he noticed a very mature buck (5.5 yr. old +) together with a younger buck coming from the direction of the river along with one doe. They were coming up through some CRP 80-100 yards behind the guys who were posted. As they approached a 4 wheeler and pickup the 2 guys had parked in some cover, all 3 deer came to a complete stop in cover and stood there evaluating the situation. They were not in a hurry, did not make any quick movements but were carefully deciding what to do. As it turned out, they basically cut a corner in another field as they moved away opposite the direction the guys were posted.

I thought it was an awesome lesson on how this mature buck reacted. He stayed in cover. Didn't jump to any conclusions and took time to evaluate what he should do next. And then slowly made his way in the direction that he felt was the safest path. Having 5-6 years of experience under his belt, he was not going to beat himself by over-reacting to circumstances. I haven't had the privilege of shooting a real mature buck yet but it seems to me that you've really got to be patient with these guys, move in when conditions are just right and don't do anything that could tip them off that something is "just not right here" and give them something to be suspicious of. Maybe that's one of the reasons guys sometime take mature animals the first time they hunt a stand- that particular animal has not gotten any previous information that he is being hunted.
 
Interesting...I remember something similar from many years ago. From high above I too was observing a drive in progress, only the two standers that I could see were my brother and my dad. I watched a bunch of does and fawns squirt out of the cover, pushed by the drivers, about 1/2 mile to the north and ALL of them ran right where we thought they would and right where my brother and dad were stationed. The last deer though to break cover and make a dash for it was a pretty nice buck and he ran almost in the footsteps of all of the previous deer for several hundred yards and was heading right towards my brother...until he was about 100 yards away from my brother, who could not see him yet due to the terrain.

That buck slammed on the brakes and then took about 5 minutes standing there not moving anything but his head back and forth, scanning for other threats. It was quite apparent that he had sensed something was amiss, perhaps he even saw my brother moving or something, but he then somewhat calmly stood there and assessed things for several minutes before making another move. Finally, he took a hard left and got out of there via a different route than every other deer did. They are smart!
 
I watched a buck do this a few years ago as well. Long story short he cut back thru the drivers as they left an open field and hit the next chunk of woods. A minute after the hunters were in the thick stuff he came out and back tracked across an open field to safety.
 
Id venture to say 90% of the time on drives the mature bucks go a completely different direction than all the other deer. Pretty cool to see over and over again.

I haven't seen it myself, but I've heard a few stories of people seeing bucks belly crawling back the opposite direction of the push. Smart deer!
 
Years ago I was watching some 2nd season hunting push this area that I ML hunt. As the 2 walkers were coming up a draw where an old barn set, they walked by the barn and kept going over the hill. After they were out of sight, out of the barn came this really nice buck, looked around and headed the opposite direction of the walkers.
 
iowavf said:
Years ago I was watching some 2nd season hunting push this area that I ML hunt. As the 2 walkers were coming up a draw where an old barn set, they walked by the barn and kept going over the hill. After they were out of sight, out of the barn came this really nice buck, looked around and headed the opposite direction of the walkers.
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Squatters rights then
 
Remember watching some public land hunting across the draw with my binoculars one day, a nice big buck lay down and put his head flat on the ground as two pushers went right past on either side of him - they were hooping and hollering to drive the deer but it let the big one know exactly where they were and he let them go right past him.
 
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Quick question for you guys. Have you guys ever had a buck stop at the sound of calling, who has turned in that direction but who stands there looking for confirmation of the deer that made the sounds in the first place. Have you tried anything to help convince them that there really is a deer there, so that they will come in closer to investigate? Or does that sort of thing just put them on more high alert and educate them further.
 
The Silence said:
Quick question for you guys. Have you guys ever had a buck stop at the sound of calling, who has turned in that direction but who stands there looking for confirmation of the deer that made the sounds in the first place. Have you tried anything to help convince them that there really is a deer there, so that they will come in closer to investigate? Or does that sort of thing just put them on more high alert and educate them further.
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Absolutely! Adding a decoy to your setup is probably the best thing you can do to convince them. I've not tried but I always thought tying a string to some brush nearby could do it. Just tug the string so it looks like a buck might be thrashing the brush.
 
I like to when possible set stands in spots where a deer has to come within range to see to the next stage. I never call to a buck staring or trying to locate. Sounds without visual I haven't had luck with. Sometimes no visual confirmation can't be overcome. Rattling especially, if you are set in a wide open plat area better have a decoy
 
gunrunr said:
Remember watching some public land hunting across the draw with my binoculars one day, a nice big buck lay down and put his head flat on the ground as two pushers went right past on either side of him - they were hooping and hollering to drive the deer but it let the big one know exactly where they were and he let them go right past him.
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Similarly, years ago I pheasant hunted an area, with my dog, that had just been pushed by a large group of shotgunners and I had already passed by a particularly thick area when my dog doubled back and flushed a nice buck out of the cover that I had just walked past AND the large group of shotgunners had walked past. Without the dog to sniff him out, he would have let me walk past him too.
 
Doing deer drives is not hunting. Think I learned that here.
I killed a decent buck a couple years ago trying to sneak out the back door. The mature bucks know what's going on. They will either let you walk by or cut back thru the walkers. When a mature buck is running with other deer you will notice he's never leading the group either. He is always in the back half of the group.
 
Bowtech84 said:
Doing deer drives is not hunting. Think I learned that here.
I killed a decent buck a couple years ago trying to sneak out the back door. The mature bucks know what's going on. They will either let you walk by or cut back thru the walkers. When a mature buck is running with other deer you will notice he's never leading the group either. He is always in the back half of the group.
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A friend of mine was harvesting corn and a group of deer including a mature buck stayed in the standing corn until the very last pass, he said each time he drove the combine by the group would just shuffle over a few rows. On the last pass the mature buck pushed ever other deer out before he left.
 
Many, many, many years ago (back when they still picked ear corn) a buddy of mine used to call his neighbor to hop in the wagon with his bow as he did the final few passes picking corn when he new that deer were doing that. Maybe illegal, but the statute of limitations has run out on that long ago... o_O
 
The Silence said:
Quick question for you guys. Have you guys ever had a buck stop at the sound of calling, who has turned in that direction but who stands there looking for confirmation of the deer that made the sounds in the first place. Have you tried anything to help convince them that there really is a deer there, so that they will come in closer to investigate? Or does that sort of thing just put them on more high alert and educate them further.
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One of my most memorable hunts ended with this exact scenario. Evening hunt, Halloween. Had some does come to a corn field I was hunting over and milled around a little. Then a buck that I was after entered the scene from a nearby draw to check the does out. He followed them around on the edge of the corn between me and the draw, out of range. He first went one way after them, then they turned 180* and he followed them. I could see they weren't going to turn to come by me, so I grabbed the grunt call and started grunting, trying to sound like a younger buck. He stopped to listen, not sure what the does did. Each time I grunted he would turn his head and look, but wouldn't turn his body toward me. Then he'd take step toward the does, and I would grunt. Again he would just look. I didn't have a decoy out, and there would have been corn between him and where the "other buck" would have been, so I'm not sure he would have seen it anyway. The last grunt I made was a little "off key", and he became very alert and then he figured it out. Don't think he actually saw me in the tree, but back down to the draw he went. Came out at the far end and thru some more corn and out of sight. After that I wished I had just shut up, had a decoy, tried the brush shaking trick, or something!
 
mrush said:
A friend of mine was harvesting corn and a group of deer including a mature buck stayed in the standing corn until the very last pass, he said each time he drove the combine by the group would just shuffle over a few rows. On the last pass the mature buck pushed ever other deer out before he left.
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Deer staying in the last of the standing corn is actually fairly common. I have seen it many times while harvesting with friends. Rabbits and pheasants too!

One time many years ago a farmer friend called me and told me to beat it down to his farm...it seems that he had spotted two nice bucks while harvesting his corn. He knew these bucks were still in the unpicked block of corn...even though the unpicked portion had now been whittled down to 2-3 acres in size. Sure enough I drove down there, went to a nearby stand and watched as he kept picking about 1/4 mile away. Those bucks were visible to both of us as they bounced from one end of that block to the other for the next 45 minutes or so as he resumed picking. I was quite surprised that they simply did not break cover and jog over to the nearest timbered area...but they did not.

Finally, when he was down to about 8-12 rows they bolted and ran across the fresh picked corn up into the brush...but this was probably 3 hours from when he first spotted them...they could have escaped dozens of times prior to when they did.
 
Daver said:
Deer staying in the last of the standing corn is actually fairly common. I have seen it many times while harvesting with friends. Rabbits and pheasants too!
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I stood at the last few rows of corn many many times growing up, shotgun in hand, waiting for the pheasants to fly out! Shot a lot of rabbits that way and missed a lot of pheasants. I used to be a HORRIBLE shot with a shotgun.:D
 
I've known a couple guys that like to hunt near corn fields while they are getting harvested. There's a field right next to a piece I hunt that I've always wanted to hunt when it gets harvested, but I always miss out. I always wonder if they run any deer out of it, but I've never asked. It's beans this year.

Also, I was going to say that I hunted with a shotgun group last year and I was always the slowest walker (apparently I was taught to hunt a different way, or they have longer legs than me!). The whole time I was hoping for a big buck to step out or come back my way thinking he was in the clear after the others had gone thru ahead of me.
 
I have seen a couple deer drives in Warren County, Iowa where the buck absolutely fooled the drivers. We watched the whole hunt from a mile away with binoculars. I'll never forget it. The buck left the does and sneaked down a small sliver of cover. The drivers never knew he cut that direction, and ended up empty handed.

The next year my friend shot a 165 inch 10 as the neighbors pushed the same cover, this time the buck came to my property with 6 or 7 does. He made the shot at 30 yards, we had it all on camera at 2 in the afternoon. I would rank it as one of the most surprised I have ever been.
 
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