Did not hunt last Friday, but stayed on the patio and drank beer with my wife instead. Saw a doe, fawn, and buck in the east neighbor’s field. He wasn’t interested in her, nor her him.
At 6:30, two adult does crossed from the west neighbor’s yard into ours. They eventually wondered off.
At 6;50, and it was getting darn dark, a huge buck came out of our woods on a path that leads to our treehouse. It was too dark to tell exactly what it was, but every time he moved his head, you could see the rack at about 200 yards against the sky.
Tuesday morning found me in the treehouse and my south neighbor again interrupting the hunt by cutting corn stalks (I figured out he was feeding them to some newly acquired pigs). I saw nothing.
I contacted a hunting body and told him that all buck photos last rut were in the creek bottom and none in the field edge. This year, it was just the opposite. He suggested I create a mock scrape near the treehouse.
Being a gun guy until now, I had never done that before. But I followed his instructions and did it before my Tuesday evening hunt.
Tuesday evening, I saw four deer, two doe and two unknown. None crossed the creek.
Thursday predawn was raining hard enough that the dogs would nit leave the kennel for their morning constitutional. I took that as smart and I didn’t go out either.
It was well light by the time I headed for the treehouse. In the corner of the east neighbor’s field, close to our boundary, was a buck that I’m pretty sure was this one.
At 9:00, the Mom and triplets, showed up and hung out for about 20 minutes. I had vowed to leave them alone and they finally wondered off. I gave it about 15 minutes and did a bleat and a grunt.
It wasn’t long before, I saw antlers in the woods behind the mock scrape. It did not come down the path. This meant the only opportunity was if it stepped in the mock scrape.
When it did, I had about .25 seconds to decide if it was the right buck (it was clearly legal). I decided I like venison bologna and loosed the bolt at 12 yards. I can’t say I saw the bolt in flight, but I heard it hit.
The buck ran behind the treehouse and jumped into the stream. It ran in the water for about 25 yards, blood pouring into the creek. It jumped on the opposite bank and headed down the farm road that ran the length of the corn field. At some point I lost sight of it and figured it went into the corn.
The bolt was firmly in the ground, right beyond the scrape. There was hair and blood in the scrape, and from what I saw pouring into the creek, I knew it wasn’t going far.
I headed home, dumped my gear, and drove the truck over to the neighbor’s. I parked right where the deer had exited the creek and there was blood all over the farm road.
I walked about 30 yards and there was the buck dead as a door nail right on the farm road where I had lost sight of it.
And it was the wrong buck. It was the younger brother (a year apart) of the one I thought it was, but it was a solid six and I’ll take that for a first quasi archery buck in my rookie season
My buddy who suggested the mock scrape said it was more about the process — scouting the deer, getting it to come to the mock scrape, calling it in, and bolting it in a brief time window.