Guest LDB Posted January 9, 2005 Report Share Posted January 9, 2005 You are bowhunting mule deer in open, hilly pastures. You are doing a combination of spot-and-stalk and still-hunting. You notice a white rump moving through a patch of wolf willows on the edge of a dry slough about 600 yards away. You put up your binoculars and catch a brief glimpse of the solid main beam of an antler as the deer beds down. The wind is strong and in your favour, so you slowly make your way to the wolf willows. You find a well-used cattle trail about 100 yards from the edge of the patch, so you silently follow this trail into the patch. Once you are in amongst the wolf willows, you slowly creep along the cattle trail, constantly scanning the bushes around you. During the hour or so it took for you to reach the willow patch, you did not see any deer spook out of the patch, so you know that there is at least one deer close to you. Suddenly you spot antlers. A large mule deer buck is bedded only twelve yards away from you. You drop down on your knees. You are downwind, and the wind is strong and constant at 15-20 miles per hour. What do you do next? You have to look close, but you can see some tines right-of-center in the above photo. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mo_hunter Posted January 9, 2005 Report Share Posted January 9, 2005 Re: What do you do next ? (photo) crawl up and stick him with my cutco Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimT Posted January 9, 2005 Report Share Posted January 9, 2005 Re: What do you do next ? (photo) Cool pic and scenerio. I would toss a rock or stick to the deer, and when it stands whack it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fisherguy Posted January 9, 2005 Report Share Posted January 9, 2005 Re: What do you do next ? (photo) If the wind is steady and not swirling i would sit and wait at the ready. At that close range i would be worried that whistling or tossing a rock would make it bolt without offering a shot. By doing nothing, hopefully it would eventually stand and give me a shot before it walked off. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buckee Posted January 10, 2005 Report Share Posted January 10, 2005 Re: What do you do next ? (photo) I would gather my thoughts, settle my nerves for a few minutes ...then I would draw my bow at the ready and give a whistle or make a doe bleat with my mouth. I wouldn't wait, because he could be there for a long time and the adrenalin would kill me, and make me fall apart after too long...LOL.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tominator Posted January 10, 2005 Report Share Posted January 10, 2005 Re: What do you do next ? (photo) After I got my legs to feel more like legs than rubber, I think I'd belly crawl and look for an open shot, but first I'd wait till he's not looking at me. In the picture, it looks like the deer is looking right at you. I'd try and wait him out, but that stuff looks really thick. Too thick for a bow at least. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LDB Posted January 10, 2005 Report Share Posted January 10, 2005 Re: What do you do next ? (photo) Here's what happened (you probably guessed this scenario was not hypothetical). I decided to wait him out. I had asked CLB about this sort of scenario before the season started, and CLB said that he usually sat and waited the deer out. By throwing a rock, whistling, grunting, or even drawing and moving closer, you take a chance on the deer exploding out at 100 mph. This stuff was too thick for me to get any closer or try to drill an arrow through to his vitals, so I waited. After approximately 30 minutes he lifted his head up to scan his surroundings. When he saw me, he focused on me for a long time. I basically hid behind my bow and did my best impression of a 200 lb weed. I had a 3D ghilly suit on and face paint as well. After he evaluated me to be non-threatening, he just settled his head back down and started chewing his cud. I was a little unsettled at this point. This buck was a lot larger than I had first guessed. For some reason, muley bucks' racks don't look as big when they are bedded. After getting a good look at him, I figured this buck would score somewhere in the 170-180 range. For the next hour, I tried to calm down and rehearse the shot. Of course my mind wandered a lot, thinking about every detail from how I would get the deer back to my truck to how I would tell my wife we needed to get this deer shoulder-mounted (I was very optimistic that I would kill this deer). It was during this vigil that I took the photo. After about an hour, the deer began rustling. I slowly rose and came to a full draw at the same time. The buck stood up completely and was broadside to me facing right. However, the bushes were too high, and I could not see his chest. I held at full draw while he began grazing around the bushes. I kept changing my pins as he wandered to 20 yards, back to 15 yards, out to 25 yards, etc. Now there were two other bucks and a doe that got out of their beds and were grazing around me. At this point, I had been at full draw for quite a while. Even though I wasn't shaking yet, I figured I would start shaking pretty soon, so I let down. None of the deer seemed to notice. The big buck started moving towards an opening. I came to full draw. Again, the deer seemed oblivious to me even though I was right in their midst. The doe was feeding towards me and was now only 10 yards away. The big buck stepped into the opening just as one of the smaller bucks entered the opening. I waited for the smaller buck to move and prayed the big buck would stay where he was. My prayer was answered. When the smaller buck moved clear, I settled my 25-yard pin on the big buck's vitals and touched the release. My arrow flew harmlessly underneath his chest. I ranged the shot later at 33 yards. In hindsight, the one thing that never occured to me during my vigil was to take my rangefinder out of my pocket and range various bushes around me in case I didn't have a clear shot when he initially stood up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogdoc Posted January 10, 2005 Report Share Posted January 10, 2005 Re: What do you do next ? (photo) oh man----what a bummer. Hind sight is always 20-20 but i think i would have pulled the rangefinder out before the camera!!!! oh well---you did a great job just getting that close and not getting busted! great story todd Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tominator Posted January 10, 2005 Report Share Posted January 10, 2005 Re: What do you do next ? (photo) Yeah, but I bet your legs were rubbery for hours after, and you just can't put a price tag on that adrenaline rush eh? I had a scenario kind of like that 3 years ago. We had high winds so I went stalking in the corn. 1/2 hour later I jumped a buck, but 10 rows of corn later I saw him again, and I watched him bed down facing me. I stalked him for over 3 hours, crawling feet by feet, inch by inch ranging him all the time. When I got within 35 yards I saw that it was a deer that I didn't want to shoot so I stood up and watched a priceless look on that 8pt's face as he stood up and bolted away. I literally had a tough time walking home and I skipped the evening hunt because I was just whipped from the 4 hour adrenaline rush. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buckee Posted January 10, 2005 Report Share Posted January 10, 2005 Re: What do you do next ? (photo) You forgot to tell the rest of the story. You know...the part about you falling apart after the miss, with your face to the ground in disbelief. OUCH Waiting that long, I would have been really worried about the wind shifting slightly...especially being so close. What a bummer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GWSmith Posted January 11, 2005 Report Share Posted January 11, 2005 Re: What do you do next ? (photo) "What do you do next?" Before or after the HEART ATTACK I would have had to hope that the buck would not spook when I grunted with my voice...waiting would have destroyed me Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hangunnr Posted January 11, 2005 Report Share Posted January 11, 2005 Re: What do you do next ? (photo) "What do you do next?" Call in the coordinates and wait for air support...... hangunnr Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest jereseyhunter101 Posted January 11, 2005 Report Share Posted January 11, 2005 Re: What do you do next ? (photo) I would wait it out doing something that close could cause the deer to spoke. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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