Hunting this morning 11/18/2010

I hunt in an area close to my house, there is a nice corn field that was just cut last week and some thicker woods right beside it. If you keep going in the woods you will come upon some hard woods. While exploring these hardwoods this year, I found a lot of sign, mostly rubs on trees up to 4" in diameter! There is also a stream that flows through the woods. Usually I will sit in my ladder stand on the edge of the cornfield in the evening, but in the morning it seems as though the deer stay in the woods more. So this morning was the last morning for bow-hunting for me this year, I had to decide where I wanted to sit. In the front of the woods in a thick swamp with some nice runs, I thought this might be a good place to sit for the morning.

I got up real early this morning to make this one count and get out in the woods and set up before it started to get light out. I got out into the woods and the swampy part of the woods, where my other ladder stand is, was very wet because of all the rain we got last night. The deer in this part of the state are in heavy rut right now, it was pushed back due to the warmer weather. So i decided that maybe i could find a nice buck following the sent of a doe on one of the three runs that go right past the stand. When I got to the stand i put out some Tinks rut and pre rut sent to get the bucks going a little. When i get up in the tree stand I like to sit until I hear something coming, this usually works because I can stand up and get my bow before the deer even sees me. This morning this was not the case however, because the deer came in very quietly from behind. I did not here this buck coming until it was 20 feet behind me, by then it was too late to move. So i waited for it to go past me, but when it was directly beside me it looked at me and just stood there starring like he knew i was there. I got a good look at him during this time tho. He was a good size deer, around 165 lbs with a nice tall rack with 4 points on one side and 3 on the other, making him a 7 point. I wanted him to turn away so I could get up and set up on him. That didn't happen, he just kept looking at me as he walked away. There were so many times this season that this experience happened to me where the buck came in without me knowing and saw me before I could set up on him. Not sure if it was the camo pattern I was wearing or the cover scent, or the scent eliminator that clued him in. Either way, something needs to be changed for next year so I can get a nice buck during bow, because I like hunting with a bow much more than hunting with a shotgun.