Woulda Coulda Shoulda : Report and request for Coaching...

[1eyeReD]

Long REPORT, but EXCITING!! Read on, I tell you:

Left the truck at dark 30 this morning for a walk that's roughly a mile through some woods on a winding trail through some public land in the SEish part of the state. Got climber up to about 18 ft by 6:15. Heard some trotting, chasing, shuffling through the crispy leaves in the distance from where I came from. Whew, made it before they did... A welcomed sound indeed. I Knew I was in for some business.. Settled down a bit for another 15 minutes or so and as soon as I stood up to get my rattle pack out of my pocket (and it's still dark) a huge deer bolted from 20 yards out and below me. What the eff? I didn't even know it was there... He or she must've blew and stomped for about 2 or 3 minutes before trotting off on the nearby ridge.

I thought it was over due to the snorting and blowing of the earlier incident. It was pretty loud. As a rookie to whitetail hunting, that even scared me.. I was sure it alarmed every creature within that ravine and the adjacent ravines as well.. Crud.. So I wait faithlessly..

About the time when there was enough light to see the red on red squirrels. I wasn't foreseeing any action so decided to try out the new Knight & Hale Pack Rack.. Couple sloppy clunks & whatnot followed by some subtle grunts. Repeated sequence about 10 minutes later. I mean, that's what they do on the huntin shows, rite? By now it's about 8.. And then I hear.. Trot trot trot... No more than 5 minutes after my second round of rattle/grunt sequence, the trotting and shuffling through the leaves is getting alarmingly close and now on the downwind side. I am standing and knocked. I look in that direction which was over my left shoulder (and I'm a lefty) and could make out a brown body headed my way straight down the ridge. Could this be true? I make a quick adjustment in positioning. Now facing the tree. It closes to about 30 yards on the other side of the brush I see antlers! Counting... K - I see 3 up top and a tine on each side. He gradually works his way through with head bobbing up and back to ground and doesn't see me. Looks to be about a 125" or so 8 pointer. Will I take it? Hell yeah, why not? It meets the 4 point requirement and is probably one of the most decent ones I've seen in this area this whole season.

I'm shaking like a cold wet dog by now... Worst case of buck fever I've ever had. [PoorWordUsage], he's in full broadside view and I haven't drawn yet - 15 yards now. I think, "wait til he puts his head down." Branches crack to my right. I glance over.. About 12 yards away in full frontal view and staring me dead in the eyes, stands a wide, but short 10 pointer.... I'm counting in my head to reassure "one, two, three, four, five - k good. But [PoorWordUsage], I'm sandwiched between two good bucks and can't draw!" By now it's most likely that they both see me as I don't have much cover in this tree (which is the only good one for my climber). Anyway, so that's what the 8 pointer was looking at. The other buck. About a minute later after a good staredown between the 10 pointer and me trying to hold as still as possible, 10 pointer jumps and heads up the other ridge. The original buck follows and I think I just blew it... I hear blowing, stomping, the whole nine yards. I see them up top just trotting away though. @!$%#&@!!!

Probably the most exciting thing that's ever happened to me during a big game hunt. And most frustrating.. Good thing is I had that rattle pack for a month now and decided to try it out and IT WORKS! And gotta thank God for Dead Downwind body soap, deoderant and Scent-Lok. These boys got directly down wind of me, but still came within range for a for a few seconds. I am finally seeing good deer in daylight which is definitely a plus. Now if I can only close the deal the next time if there is a next time (before gun season, hopefully).

Woulda coulda shoulda - @$#!. I'm kicking myself for the delayed reaction as we speak. Should've drawn on the 8 pointer the minute I saw them antlers as he was still behind brush and not paying attention in my direction. I think I would've only had to hold for about 30 or 40 seconds. What the eff did I wait for? I must've forgot that I can still count at full draw. That must be it. Geeze, I will have to drink it off, but after Friday.

Conditions:

Crispy morning. Lots of frost and activity. The bucks are moving in daylight at my area, finally. I hope those boys aren't too spooked. Probably gonna give it a day rest and go back Thurs morning as this stand location seems to only see deer in the mornings and I have to work Friday.

Please feel free to critique and correct my actions. I am asking, actually. Still a NOOB.

1ER

[musky hunter]

Stop kicking yourself. You had a great encounter. I'm still trying to figure out the climber/cover formula. No cover, go higher and have more swaying in the wind. Nothing is perfect. Perhaps try a decoy. I'm taking mine out tomorrow. I have some cover but need to add a distraction just in case I do get lucky enough to get an animal in range. Great story, thanks for posting.

[BRULEDRIFTER]

Something I'll add, and I feel is something a lot of folks get too worked up about, is getting busted/jumping deer/being loud for a little bit, etc. Sure, it stinks at the time, but you have to remember there are more then just that one/two deer in the area, deer from all over the area move all day, all over.

Sure, there are times when you get busted and the jig is up, but a lot of times just hold tight and wait, eventually everything calms down and it's a clean slate. The critters aren't out there taking notes and passing along info. Their brains are not that complex!

I used to beat myself up and leave early because of those things happening, but now I've had multiple times where I get busted going in and within no time I see more deer in/around the area.

Sweet hunt, Dude! Ya can't get 'em all the time, that's why we become obsessed and keep coming back for more.

[Scoot]

I agree with the above comments. This is bowhunting... it's part of the process to have more "woulda, coulda, shoulda's" than hero pictures! If you can't deal with close calls, don't bowhunt!!! I don't mean that last sentence to be a cheap shot- but it's really true. You had an awesome encounter, one that'll probably keep you up at night in the months to come. There really is nothing like rattling in a buck, is there?! Double the plessure with your encounter!!! Congrats on an awesome experience that most hunters will never have.

As far as suggestions, the only thing I can offer you is that I typically use one of two approaches regarding when to draw: 1) either draw early, or 2) draw late. More often than not, I try to draw early. If I see the deer and he's moving with any pace at all, I'll definitely lean towards drawing early. If you let the buck get to 15 yards and haven't drawn, it can get tough to get the string back without getting busted. Sometimes the situation requires you to draw late. In those cases, I try to draw when his head is down (like you mentioned) or his head is behind some trees/bushes/leaves. But I've been busted several times trying to draw late, so for me, drawing early typically works out better than drawing late. When do draw your bow is extremely important and definitely plays a major role in if a hunter brings home a deer or not on many occasions.

Congrats again on a really cool experience.

[Meat-Run]

I learned something from Bill Winke last year during one of his shows that you should pull back while they enter your shooting range and THEN worry about when he clears the opening. The most trouble archers have is when to pull back. If you get tired or have to let down do so but least you are ready to shoot vs. needing to pull back when there already in the strike zone. I hope this make some sense and maybe when you saw the 8ptr coming you should have pulled back and then decide IF you wanted to shoot him.

Most archers can hold there bows for a good minute while it's still somewhat warm out. That tip from Winke helped me score my first buck last Friday. To recap, be at full draw before the buck enters your shooting lane instead of pulling back when he's already there.

good luck,

mr

[deerminator]

Ditto. I did the same on a nice buck a few weeks ago and if I wouldn't have missed him, I could have had a similar ending to MR. : ) I was sick about that for a day or two and then remembered that at least I had such a great experience and next time around, the story will probably end differently. In that case, I drew as soon as I lost site of him and anticipated he would be in front of my blind in about 10 seconds. My mistake was that he appeared about 15 yards further out then I thought he was going to given his last position and choked mentally on the yardage.

Another tip Winke had that I like - if you don't see any deer around, get the heck out of there as soon as shooting light ends. You do yourself no favors by waiting around til it gets completely dark to avoid spooking deer. In fact you probably will spook more deer the longer you wait to leave. So get out as quickly and quietly as possible.

Good luck!

[Bear55]

Hey don't worry about, those great encounters are what bowhunting is all about, they keep us coming back for more.

I can guarantee there isn't one bow hunter on this site who hasn't wished they had dome something different at one point or another, it is what makes archery hunting the most difficult and also the most rewarding style out there.

The best we can do is learn from our mistakes and have fun, no doubt those two deer are burned into your memory. Its sometimes the ones that got away that make us better hunters.

[InTheNorthwoods]

That is what hunting is all about! Sounds like an awesome encounter.

The only thing that I am curious about, is what your set up was like in the tree. Were you concealed? Skylined? Were you moving too much, making noise, etc.? USUALLY, and I don't mean this is a rule, but when bucks come in to agressive calling, they are looking for another deer and they can be so jacked up that they are oblivious to alot of things around them that they are normally very cautios about. Here, you had two deer both looking for a fight. So I am a little suprised that they took their focus off of one another to focus on you. I would simply try to think back to see if there is anything that you did to cause the deer to be drawn to your presence that you could improve on in the future. Thats all we can ever do, live and learn.

[96trigger]

I agree with Brule, I have been busted, blown at, snorted at, you name it when walking in and walking out. The deer don't know what I am, only that I am some kind of danger. I don't take it as a good sign that they bust me, but I don't get discouraged either, I know that I won't be seeing those deer, not that there won't be others that come my way. Might take a little while, but things will calm back down.

As for whent to draw, I agree with what everyone has said, but want to add that location also plays a role. I hunt both woods, and field edges, in the woods, I am much more prone to draw later as there will usually be trees in the way or some obstacle that I will be able to draw without being seen, if the buck is in the fields, the sooner the better. When I go to my stands, I take a good look at everything and play out every scenario in my head. Which way he could come from, which trees will let me get a draw on him etc....Some times it works just like I pictured, other times I have to improvise, but I am always much more calm when it happens like I mentally pictured it would.

[1eyeReD]

Thanks for all the pointers guys. I definitely needed a talk from experienced people to help me realign myself with reality. It aint as easy as it looks on the shows.

As for my setup, it is probably the better of my options - but not the best as I haven't found that yet. I sit in a bottomed out ravine in the woods below a huge field of "grass?" and the where I'm at, there is about 70 yds of flat between the foots of two ridges with me being in the middle. Lots of the smaller trees, brush and all the stuff deer like to weave through.. At the bottom and half way up each ridge on my left and right sides, there are some really heavlily used trails. You never know which ones they will be using at any moment as I've seen or heard deer on every one of them on numerous occasions. Where I am facing is the top which is somewhat of a ridge. If ya go that way, you get to the top and it's flat and just fields of crop and CRP.

Where I am set up, I am sort of skylined. No back-drop of any kind, but I can "sort of cover both "foots" of the ridges. The thing is I popped a doe there last year and she had no idea I was there. Even gave me the chance to stop her with the usual "meh". But those bucks came in way alert and totally on the opposite side of where I've seen deer usually come from. Dang tree has way less limbs & stuff for cover after that wind storm too... I think they showed up where they did most likely because they had to get downwind before coming in... Either way, as everyone has helped conclude, I should've drawn early.

I'm going to stop kicking myself now and get some rest. Gonna try it again another day. Was just up north on a piece of private (edge of a huge field) I got permission to hunt on. Passed on some spikes, forks and a couple fawns. Tons deer, tons of grunting and saw the two spikes battle within 20 yards of that stand. But even the owner says there aint much for big bucks in their neck of the woods. Tomorrow I'm goin' back to the public piece..

Thanks all...

[Bear55]

It aint as easy as it looks on the shows.

Actually it is as easy as it looks on those shows because they are hunting no to low pressure managed farms that are literally stacked with big bucks. The reality of it is most of us are hunting pressured deer who are far harder to kill, especially mature bucks. You almost have to un-learn a lot of stuff you see on tv or read in magazines.