Texas Hunting Forum

I chose..."poorly"...

Posted By: cameron00

I chose..."poorly"... - 11/11/15 05:33 PM

Went out this a.m. The bucks are rutting hard in my area, and though I haven't gotten anything but youngsters on my cameras, you just never know in the river bottoms...

Have 2 stands I hunt which are basically at opposite ends of my 76 acres. One is looking into the sun at sunrise, the other at sunset. So I change it up a bit if the wind sucks, but I typically hunt one in the morning and one in the evenings. This morning it was lightly drizzling and overcast, and the typical evening stand backs up to 95 acres of uncut hay that the deer love to bed in. It's also right on about 70 acres of woods right on the river, so I thought, why not? I don't hunt this stand in the morning very often.

Great hunt. Had does coming out of the tall grass all over me. Young bucks pushing them all over the field in front of me. Probably saw 15 deer split pretty evenly between bucks and does. Had a young 9-pt come out about 30 yards from me while I was glassing another buck. He absolutely saw me, but he just did not care. Walked right out and trotted straight towards some younger does out in the field. Mindless.

The only thing that really caught my eye was an old mama doe that was standing about 400 yards down the "cut line" in the tall grass that was acting really weird. None of the bucks were on her, she wasn't eating anything, just kinda coming in and out of the tall grass and when she was out, she'd look back into it. I literally texted a buddy, "I bet her man is back there and they're getting ready to make babies."

About 5 minutes after that text, this wounded crap buck comes out of the tall grass limping badly, but still angling towards some other does. He hobbles out towards my opposite feeder, which is about 500 yards from where I am and I'm watching him when I notice the old mama doe has come a good ways out of the grass. She starts for the feeder as well, and damned sure enough, the single largest framed buck I've seen at this property comes out after her. Main frame 10, I think, couldn't really tell from that distance, but he was massive and his antlers were very heavy and very tall. I'd guess 16-17 wide. That's a monster for my area. His body was also like twice the size of any other buck in the field.

Small problem: There's no way I could just creep down the tall grass to put myself into position to have the wind in my favor and get a 200 yard shot at him. There were a ton of deer in that exact patch of grass, and they'd have busted me. So I walked as fast as I could the 800 yards trying to get into position to brace myself against a tree in the middle of the field. It's not an easy sneak - basically only had 2 ft grass to try to creep through.

I made it to around 40 yards short of where I needed to get and I notice the deer are no longer socially milling around the feeder area. They're all on alert staring my direction. Wind is not in my favor. I'm just hoping they stay scared, but there for another minute or so that I need to get where I'm going.

No such luck. The first blow by one of the 5-6 does in the bunch, and all I see is whitetails bouncing. Oh, and some monstrous antlers teetering back and forth as he bounded towards the creek bottom and tall grass.

Just to put some context on it, my area is a very high pressure area and very, very few bucks make it past 3.5 if they are legal. I am absolutely sick - had I simply chosen the stand I always hunt in the mornings, it'd have been a 120-yard shot for paydirt.

Such is hunting. Hope I see him again.

Oh, and to add insult to injury, my game camera was turned off by someone and had no pictures in the last 3 weeks while the bulk of the pre-rut and rut occurred.
Posted By: DuckCoach1985

Re: I chose..."poorly"... - 11/11/15 05:38 PM

Man, like you said, thats hunting! wouldn't happen any other way! sorry about your experience, but I'll bet you get another shot at him! cheers
Posted By: MoBettaHuntR

Re: I chose..."poorly"... - 11/11/15 05:38 PM

Keep after it. Don't let it get you down. Don't second guess your stand once you decide on one stay there. You never know where a buck may show up this time of year. If you had been in the other one he may have been on somewhere completely different. Keep the wind in your favor give it a few days and I bet you might get another chance.
Posted By: Erathkid

Re: I chose..."poorly"... - 11/11/15 06:23 PM

You'll get him tonight.
Posted By: TravisP

Re: I chose..."poorly"... - 11/11/15 06:51 PM

Where are you hunting at?
Posted By: yeti2009

Re: I chose..."poorly"... - 11/11/15 06:51 PM

Good luck!! Stay after him.
Posted By: BOBO the Clown

Re: I chose..."poorly"... - 11/11/15 06:56 PM

Cameron I choose poorly on 6 stalks last year on mule deer...lol

But I got him eventually on the 7th
Posted By: redchevy

Re: I chose..."poorly"... - 11/11/15 06:59 PM

Dang, that's ruff. Good luck, my grandpa always said be patient and they will come back.
Posted By: cameron00

Re: I chose..."poorly"... - 11/11/15 07:08 PM

Originally Posted By: Erathkid
You'll get him tonight.


Can't go again until tomorrow a.m.

My place is 45 minutes from the house, so I'll swing in before work for the morning hunt.
Posted By: Western

Re: I chose..."poorly"... - 11/11/15 07:36 PM

Hunt that doe and he may come in on a string. She may be coming in heat long enough for you to get on him again.
Posted By: QuitShootinYoungBucks

Re: I chose..."poorly"... - 11/11/15 08:27 PM

Back when my uncle hunted with us in the late 80s early 90s, we had 10-12 stands for 4 hunters but everybody pretty much had a favorite. One night I decided I wanted to hunt his favorite the next morning. It wasn't an argument, but he was less than amused. I killed a 5.5 yr old 18 1/2" 8 point bruiser that morning and then he was even less amused.

Fast forward 4 years, and he and I again butted heads on a stand and he won this time. Killed a 6.5 yr old main frame 11 pt with two kickers, still the biggest deer ever killed at our place 20+ years later.

It's hunting!
Posted By: stxranchman

Re: I chose..."poorly"... - 11/11/15 09:37 PM

One thing about it, you tried. You can't kill him if you don't try to get closer. You have the does and he will be there for a while. up
Posted By: wtr

Re: I chose..."poorly"... - 11/11/15 10:38 PM

That's why they call it hunting not killing. Good luck in the morning!!
Posted By: jshouse

Re: I chose..."poorly"... - 11/12/15 02:24 PM

hi
Posted By: TxDispatcher

Re: I chose..."poorly"... - 11/12/15 04:16 PM

Hate that you didn't get him, cameron...hopefully he'll be back in the morning up

I'm not seeing any mature bucks this year. I have a lot of nice youngun's running around, but the big boys from last year aren't here. I'm assuming that everyone around here had good years last year grin maybe one will slip in before long
Posted By: cameron00

Re: I chose..."poorly"... - 11/12/15 04:46 PM

Originally Posted By: TxDispatcher
Hate that you didn't get him, cameron...hopefully he'll be back in the morning up

I'm not seeing any mature bucks this year. I have a lot of nice youngun's running around, but the big boys from last year aren't here. I'm assuming that everyone around here had good years last year grin maybe one will slip in before long


I saw zero good bucks all summer. Had about half a dozen young but promising deer show up as the rut approached.

The buck I saw yesterday was the single largest framed deer I've ever seen out there, including just driving around. His body was honestly twice the size of the other bucks in the field. Very heavy, chocolate horns.

One of the Bolten boys shot a nice 10 a few nights back. It was pretty young, but out there, I don't blame him.
Posted By: cameron00

Re: I chose..."poorly"... - 11/12/15 04:47 PM

Oh, and he was absolutely not back this morning. At all. Like, zero percent of him was back.
Posted By: TxDispatcher

Re: I chose..."poorly"... - 11/12/15 05:10 PM

Man that sucks. We don't have near the deer we had before the floods. BUT, we also don't have the acorn crop we had last year. So they aren't coming into the fields like they were. The doe we do have coming in, are up by the house. Not down in the bottom
Posted By: QuitShootinYoungBucks

Re: I chose..."poorly"... - 11/12/15 05:44 PM

Originally Posted By: cameron00
Oh, and he was absolutely not back this morning. At all. Like, zero percent of him was back.



Keep after it-as long as you've got the girls, he'll be back around!
© 2024 Texas Hunting Forum