Deerhunter80
New member
Southern Connecticut. Snuck in the stand at 5am. Does showed up around 730. They were mulling around for about 30 minutes when they started acting spooky. I thought maybe they smelled me, but before long I heard the unmistakable swishing of a buck walking through the leaves. Well he got about 30 yards from the does and just stopped. The does were very nervous and looked like they wanted to walk off and then he bounded for them chasing them back toward my stand but too quick. The two mature does went low and he followed. The two yearlings ran toward a yard up the hill behind me. All cool but they were down In a little bottom about 100 yards away. I heard some chasing down in the bottom then doe 1 popped up over a rise about 80 yards, then the second doe and they reconvened with the younger deer. At this point they were going to walk off and I thought we were done. But I grabbed my grunt tube and hit it 5 times. Urp, urp, urp, urp, urp... Then put it in my pocket. I heard some more leaves rustling down below, it was loud and it got closer. Finally he popped up where the does just came from. All bristled up an clearly aggravated from the unresponsive does and now his perception of an intruding buck. He continued to beat up saplings and rub some hanging vines, whatever he could get his horns on. Then he made a scrape then another... He started to walk toward the does and I quickly hit my grunt tube again and he didn't here it so I gave him a very loud grunt then a few more subtle grunts and that got him interested in a fight. So with that he starts toward where the does were originally. He got to about 30 yards and let out a long and loud snort wheeze. Not like in the tv shows this was more a really loud shhhhhhhhh that lasted for a few seconds . I was so geeked and hoped he took a few steps to give me a shot. No luck, he turned around and started beating up a sapling again and was walking toward the does. Then unexpectedly he turned right and was headed my way. He got to 6 yards and made a scrape and that's when I let my arrow fly. He did a huge kick and bounded off. I hit him a hair back so I gave him some time. Didn't have any blood, but was able to find his tracks in the leaves and mud which gave me his general direction. I had an idea of where I thought I heard him crash and he was probably only 100-150 yards from where I shot him. Awesome experience. Real rutty activity
