Last weekend I bumped two does that I seen crossing the property the night before. I gathered this Intel and tried to come up with a game plan for next hunt
I went out on Tuesday evening at 6:30 and glassed across the feild of private land to the east end of the public land. I spotted the 2 does and 1 single doe moving west from the points I had figured they would be coming from. This told me an afternoon hunt was going to be the best time. I used the points I marked on the map to use tidy a line where deer are moving from water, bedding, and food. I came up with a game plan to access the area I wanted and watched the weather all week. Sat evening was my only opportunity to get out and it was looking to be warmer than I wanted. 68 was the high but mid afternoon a cold front was moving in so 20 mph winds out of the north west. This was a good shift in the weather for me because I need a wind from the north to get in and set up plus the high winds and leaves falling still masked my noise coming in.
There were 3 other hunters out there when I arrived at 1 p.m and the two in the lot indicated that they bumped a few deer but they were not nearly as deep into the property as I was planning to go. I slowly moved into my spot stopping every 100 yards or so to listen and glass. Probably I overkill but I knew I had time and was taking everything in. About 1/2 way to where I wanted to go I found a group of stands making me think I had accidently crossed into private land but according to the IDNR map I was on public land. The owner must be trying to push his property line into state land and I found lanes he cut on public land. I hate to create a situation with the private land owner but I feel I have right to public land and I'm going to use it. Another few hundred yards in I found a really nice spot that I could hide in the ground behind some fallen trees but I didn't feel like I was deep enough in for the timing of their movement. I decided to pushed further in and as I was moving across a well lit draw I spooked what I believe were the 2 does. They were a way into the woods and they didn't really seem to see or smell me and were not very panicked. I held my position for a few minutes and backed out and set up just before the draw in an area where there were a lot of white oaks. I setup a ground blind and shooting lane.
Paced off 8 paces and 16 paces. It was about 3 and I sat without seeing anything until about 6. I thought I was going to get skunked but a large buck appeared eating acrons right in the draw. I don't think he seen or smelled me but he meandered back to the north and never came into the area I needed him too. I was shaking and could barely breath being so close. I wasn't expecting to see a buck so the fact I had placed myself so close to a large buck without much experience was exilerating.
I sat for another 15 minutes and there was only about 15 minutes left until legal light was over so my thought was to pull out and not spook the buck to give myself a better shot next time. Just as I un nocked my arrow two more bucks came running into my shooting lane without caution. One stopped in the draw and the other stopped right in my shooting lane but quartering towards me.
He kept on moving fairly quick, I tried to grunt to stop him but he wasn't having it and didn't care. This spooked the other buck off though. I was shaking and was totally pumped full of adrenaline. I realized the arrow I pulled from my sheath still had the sleeve on the broad head.
Lesson here is #1 I should have a little more focus and not given up after the first buck. Then the second one I should have let go when I didn't have a shot and let the other one come in and stayed silent. Lesson #2 is to put more thought in my ground position to give me a wider shooting lane and consider the position of the deer.
All in all the fact after 1 scouting trips I was able to put myself on 3 bucks was a real confidence booster.
