I almost believe that, I saw plenty of deer in July/August but only a couple does since our season started. I'm not too worried about it, in a few weeks I'll be hunting private land in Louisiana for the rest of the season.
Ya put a doe down on the fourth day of bow season!! Seen abot 15 since then but havn got any shots off!!!
I'm glad somebody is having luck. Part of my problem is that I hunt on a military base and some of the areas I have scouted have had training related activity, and a food plot I was hunting near got cut down and tilled up. The hogs are liking the tilled up ground, the deer not so much.
2 in our hunting club has so far. I still haven't got one yet. Haven't been out much with work and all. 1 doe and 2 big bucks. We got land in south Georgia but we all live in west Georgia.
This is Django killed 10/20/2013 at 12 noon. On October 20th 2013, I got settled in my stand early about 6AM. I knew I was not going to see deer early due to a bright waning gibbous moon but I wanted to be ready if an opportunity presented itself. Not until 9:45 AM did I start seeing deer. First a 6 point then a 4 point. At 11:30am a Tom turkey came in… And this is when things got exciting…Shortly after the turkey arrived the two bucks seen earlier returned. Along with them came a smaller spike and a deer with small non-typical rack. Keep in mind we are a week into gun season and I’m a bow hunter. Shooting usually stops before 10AM, as they head to the house. It was a gorgeous day. Sunny and clear. Beams of light were raining down through the funnel point I was hunting separating hardwoods and a bedding area. Now I have a turkey and four young deer under me. The bucks were sparing…Then, in a dash of movement I saw a doe walking fast out to my front at about 45 yards. Behind her was HORNS… Big Deer! It was him. Django!! A 7 point with a huge body…I had started seeing him back in June and he had established himself in my set as the “buck of the woods.” Oddly enough the doe seemed receptive. She wasn’t running. Instead she looked as if she was flirting with him. Moving well beyond effective bow range, I had to figure out how I could get this buck back to me. I had a turkey, four other deer and an arriving fifth button within 25 yards of my set. It never dawned on me why they all were there. I just had 6 sets of eyes under me and a big shooter buck chasing a doe. It was the most exciting yet surreal hunting experience I have ever witnessed. Keep in mind its coming up on 12 Noon. In a moment of complete abandonment, I tossed out conventional wisdom and slowly raised my grunt call. I became the pied piper with my Quaker Boy Brawler grunt call. With all the action before me, I softly grunted two short calls. Since the younger bucks were sparing and the turkey had moved out and away, the only deer that heard me was the doe and Django. They both turned and looked my way. Nothing. For what seemed like an hour of motionless tension, she started walking to me. Django followed suit. Now keep in mind the sun is at the top of the sky…Shadows and rays of sun are making this scene look like a crazy bedtime dream!!! If I could have only had this on film…But you had to have seen how I had my set arranged. My stand was in the apex of three converging hollows opening up to meadow of thinly placed hardwood and pine saplings that abruptly end on a heavy growth of more young pines sloping aggressively to my north. Immediately in front of me there is a string of mature pines and poplars draped in honeysuckle jetting out straight 30 to 40 yards. My stand is at the foot of the ridge, right in the middle of a heavily traveled trail. Facing north means that to my right or east is the meadow. To my left, is the third ridge and its hollow of oaks and poplars. On this day the wind is in my face. Perfect. As a kid playing “hide and seek” did you ever stand behind the door in a room and as your brother came in to look for you he walked on by not thinking to look behind the door or you jumped out and scared him? That is my setup. Once they walk past me from left to right, west to east, or out from the hollow into the grown up meadow, I’m behind them. But on this day, all those tactical advantages have been played out. So, now I have to count on what a doe is going to do with a little bit of luck and even fate to even have a chance to draw on this guy. If irony can be a probable variable, the bucks under me became my saving grace. So now the doe, after responding to my grunt comes in and she cautiously comes into the meadow. Her caution is on the four bucks posturing get behind her…And then in that moment where irony met predictability, she turned and crossed 10 yards in front of my stand and headed slowly toward the hardwood hollow. My heart sank. Blinded by my defilade of honeysuckle covered trees Django was making his decision. I had already unhooked my bow from its hanger and had my release attached to the D-loop with the limbs resting on my right leg. I was shaking. After a few seconds the story reached its pinnacle. Instead of choosing the chase of the hot doe the big 7 pointer chose the fight with the younger bucks as if to make impression on who was boss. He walked perfectly into what I call the “killbox” and stopped broadside at 20 yards. I was already drawn as he made his way through scattered pines of the meadow and my pins were locked. In a lapse of complete idiocy, thinking I had to bark him to stop, I sounded out “MEP…” All the deer at that instant came to attention trying to find the source of the intrusive noise I had just made. I squeezed my release trigger sending my arrow through him making the sound all bow hunters know is a sure past though. Everything bolted and Django pivoted to his left giving me all the signs I needed to know that I had hit him good. It was over. I got down after sitting for another hour. I eased toward the point of impact. My arrow, covered in blood, was stuck in the ground. Grim Reaper had deployed. Blood was found immediately and not short of my killbox I found an enormous scrape with a licking branch chewed down to the thickness of my thumb. It was the scape that had all those deer there. A scape not 40 yards from my set I had never discovered in scouting due to keeping my footprint low and the killbox scent free. I found him about 400 yards just feet from a pressed out place I figured was his bedding spot on the edge of the ridge overlooking the county road. I’m a “bow only” hunter and I won’t have it any other way…
