Well I got out for the first time yesterday. I pulled up to my parking spot, got all my camo on and all my other gear ready to rock, walked maybe 20 yards and had deer snorting at me right away, I was like great, scaring deer already this morning. I then continued walking the edge of a field to get to my stand, I got about 100 yards from my stand looked back into the woods with my headlamp and saw nothing but deer eyes as I continued to walk down the edge of the field before I got to the trail to walk back into my treestand. There were deer everywhere and I had no choice but to scare everyone them just to get to my stand, which was a bit frustrating to start my morning. I finally made it to my stand, got up the tree, got settled down about 45 minutes before sun up. Just as it started to get light enough out I could start to see (it was about 6:45 I'm guessing), I had what I thought was a decent 8 point (I believe it was one I had got on cam several times in that area and was 3rd best buck I'd got on cam) walk right down a heavy trail I set up on, I drew my bow back as he started to get into my clearing and it was too dark, I couldn't see my peep site to line up with my sites so didn't even bother trying to stop him and watched him walk away.. As I watched this buck start to disappear into the timber I saw this little scrub (one side was a spike the other side was a Y) come out of the thicket below me, that bigger buck I'd seen must have seen or smelled this smaller buck, that 8 point let out a grunt and the little buck takes off with that 8 point right on his *** chasing him away. It got to be about 8 am and had a doe and 2 yearlings come down that same trail as the 8 point, momma doe just got to the point where she was about to walk out into my clearing and froze up, she must have smelled me, she stood there for 10 minutes stomping her feet, but being scentless she never snorted like she knew I was a person, she must have smelled something that made her uneasy about crossing that opening, she turned around and headed back the other way with the yearlings on her tail. It got to be around 9 am and a scrub 6 point showed up, he came in perfect as he fed in 2 separate shooting lanes for a good 10 minutes, I know there are a lot nicer buck so I just watched him and enjoyed every second of it. Then the lull began as I expected, I didn't seen another deer until 2 P.M and all I saw was a small spike buck that came barreling down the same trail the 8 point and Doe had followed.. At first I thought maybe he was being pushed by a mature buck so I got up and ready, but nothing ever did come behind him.. I decided I'd check my cam before heading out of the woods.. On my way out of the woods, had that same scrub 6 point bedded down right on the edge of the field and young doe feeding behind him.. I just watched them for a bit before stepping out in to the field and scaring them both off. I got back to my house, checked my cam pictures and realized the 2 best buck I've got on cam had been coming in at about 3 in the morning about every night, then out of nowhere I get pictures of a completely different buck I had never seen, it was a big wide 6 point, but what really bothered me was as soon as that 6 point started to show up (which didn't start to show up until about a week ago), the 2 bigger buck quit going to that spot which made me think that 6 point may be a bully buck and pushed them out of the area. Overall it was a decent day and I really enjoyed my time out there.. I didn't see as many deer as I would have liked but it was eventful enough to know I'm in a decent spot. Now I'm hesitant to visit that spot in the morning because it seems the deer are in that area just before dark and it seemed it's not a great spot to sit in the P.M.. So I'm going to have to make a couple adjustments on where I enter my stand. This Saturday I'm probably going to try one of my other stands just to see how the deer are moving in that area.
I wouldn't worry about the "bully buck". This is the time of year that bucks start to change their patterns. I just had a brand new buck show up on camera in the last week, and the bucks that had been running together this summer, are now spliting up. As far as blowing all the deer out of your area, I would suggest that you find a new stand sight farther into the woods, so you can catch some of the deer going back to bed, and less of a chance you will spook them all eating in the fields.
They weren't eating in the feilds they were all about 50 yards into the woods some right next to my stand.. the way the feild and woods connect I can walk the one edge without disturbing deer. But once I hit the corner of the feild to cut in is when I seen the deer.. the oly other option I have is to park on a secondary road whicy makes for a long up hill cimb for me in the morning and most the deer were still well within spook range of my stand no matter how I enter.. I'm actually in stand now t hunt out and he rest of the afternoon, maybe I'll have better luck snce I know I didn't push anything on my way in.
