First I will say this is a gun hunt story but its so unique I just had to share... On Oct 19th I killed my first deer with a bow...It was a doe and was part of the management plan we had to thin the does out some on our properties... On Nov 2nd during NYs gun season I drove down onto our property at about 2:45 pm and parked my truck in a turnaround area...After spraying down and locking my truck (which is somewhat loud on a dodge with its tailgate locking system) I started to walk towards my stand which was only about 100 yards away... About 20 yards from my truck I heard what I thought was a deer jump from their bed in an area of small pines...I stopped immediately right in the middle of a log road waiting to see what would happen next...Within seconds I saw a head appear above the small pines getting ready to cross the very road I was on... I thought I had seen horns so was ready when it stepped out...Unfortunately it was a very big doe and she was slightly quartering away...She just took her sweet ole time and never looked back...I knew there were a number of does with yearlings and fawns so I waited to see what else might come out... After waiting about 30 seconds or so I didnt hear anything more so I started to very slowly walk down the road to continue to my stand... Almost immediately I saw another head appear above the small pines and this one "did" have horns...I saw it was a decent rack so once again I got ready to shoot... He did the exact thing the doe did and never looked back and offered me a 35 yards shot...He traveled only about 30 yards before piling up...I took out both front lobes of the lungs... He was a 143 lb 6 pointer... What makes this so unique is that after talking to a couple of my hunting buddies we concluded that the "noise" I heard was more than likely the buck finishing tending the doe...Its the only thing that makes sense as to why they didnt hear me drive in and lock my doors within 40 yards of them and then walk out in front of me as if nothing was going on... They both certainly didnt act like a deer that had been jumped from a bed so it makes lots of sense to me... Moral to the story is ALWAYS be ready...You just may end your hunt within 5 minutes of getting out of your truck... It was a great year for me and I hope everyone has a successful 2016 season!
Congrats to your success! Good story. Yes, they could have certainly been doing the nasty however, they could also have just been bedded with no reason to really move, regardless of the truck noise. If the buck was paired up with the doe and she was bedded, he would not care what you were. He would have only cared about his women. If she bolted, he likely would have. If she stayed put and calm, he would have, etc. No golden rule here of course. I think one important angle here which I was suprised to hear in your story. If a doe walked past me during the rut, I would not just wait 30 seconds and move on. I would wait a minimum of 20 minutes for a buck to pass by. It has been my experince that this time of year, a buck can be following behind a doe, 20 minutes later. Regardless, awesome to hear of your success.
