So I am new to the forum and this is only my second year bowhunting, and the bug has really bit me. I had no luck last season, and actually did not even see a deer during the whole bow season. This year has been a different story. The first Saturday of bow season came in the first Saturday of October. Just missed a fox by only about 2 inches and saw 3 does that same day, but the were a little too far for my taking. After a couple of dry days in the stand and hunting from the ground I decided yesterday to try a new location that I had some luck seeing some deer last year and killed a doe with the black powder. My family owns a 1,000 acre farm and there are lots of good places, however, I only hunt there during bow and black powder, because I hunt with a neighboring club. The club that hunts my families land does not hunt it very hard and the land has produced quite a few nice bucks. After walking around for a bit I found a couple of nice rubs on some decent sized cedar trees in some large hardwoods within about 150 yards of a bean field and about 100 yards from some thick pines that I know deer are using for bedding. So I setup about 40 yards from the rubs and about 75 yards off the field and 50 yards from the pines. I started rattling and doing a little grunting and I had put out just some doe p scent and within about 1 hour I had 2 deer get up in the pines and head to the corner of the field. I could see the lead one was a large deer but couldn't tell if it had any hardware or not, so I grunted a little and waited for awhile. After about another 30 minutes another deer comes out of the pines and is now about 45 yards for me and it was a nice buck. He was just walking along going the same direction of the other 2, but this time within range. Draw my bow have him in my sites and let the arrow fly.....thunk, right into a big red oak. It was right on target but the the tree got in the way...lol. I thought, well there goes my chance. I sit there, literally, cause I haven't bought a climbing stand yet and do not have one of my ladders in this spot yet, notice I said yet.... I look up the hill and there he is. He only ran about 30 yards up the hill after my first shot went into the tree. I grunted some more and he started to turn and head to me, but he was in thick cover. Then I did something stupid...rather than waiting a few more minutes I hit the rattle bag and he busted me. What a rookie mistake. He ran right back the way he came but I was not able to get a second shot. Right before dark I decide to go up to the bean field. When I get to the edge I see a deer crossing the bean field about 200 yards from me. I decided to start grunting and using a doe bleat and got the attention. The deer was coming to me. Little did I know there was another deer within 50 yards of me, but I couldn't make out what it was and spooked that one, but the other was still coming. It gets to about 100 yards and I am quickly running out of daylight. Then I notice another silhouette in the background, another was trying to cross the field. I could only get them within about 75 yards from me, and the dark got me, but man did I have a blast. This was absolutely the most fun I had hunting in all my 15 years chasing the game. I hope there are more days like this to come, just hope they end with some meat...or more favorably, horns on the ground!
