Might of happened to me today. I've had the bug real bad to start deer hunting but I've been holding off as long as I can. Problem Is I don't have many other areas to go hunt on so every year the woods I always hunt gets a little over hunted as time goes on. There Is some state land with In a mile of where I live that gets pounded by the duck hunters and also by the pheasant hunters when that opens. Duck season Is open now and pheasant opens In a couple weeks. Today I said I can't take It anymore and I'm going deer hunting finally!! I headed to this state land and I knew exactly where I wanted to go and set up on the ground. Surprisingly the wind direction was NE with this warm weather and where I wanted to go that would be perfect. I set up 70 yards off of a swamp. In the middle of the swamp Is a high spot that's about 30 yards long but It's very narrow. I never went to this high spot In the swamp but figured If there was an older buck In the area this could possibly be a place where they'd bed. I also remember listening to Dan Inflalt In his Marsh bucks video talking about these high spots In these swamps. I was sitting on a lightly used trail that looked to come out of this swamp. I was sitting on the ground In some switch grass about 17 yards off of this trail and I felt real good about the switch grass and my Enigma Camo blending In with each other. There was a cut bean field that was 50 or so yards to my right that this trail led to. An hour Into my sit I'm getting pounded by mosquitoes and I look back towards this swamp and all of a sudden I catch movement. There was no mistaking the movement either on what It was. There trots out a 135 Inch class buck looking back where he came from. He stops at about 80 yards from me looking back and I can hear something walking through the cat tails. 5 minutes later a coyote makes himself present 30 yards or so from where I 1st saw the buck get up. I don't think he even knew this buck was around being he kept trotting In the opposite direction the buck was and before you knew It the coyote was long gone In the opposite direction. I watched the buck for about 20 minutes watching where this coyote was and just like that he bounded of slowly. I watched him carefully seeing the direction and area of his escape route. The problem Is that where this buck Is bedding Is damn near right on the line of this state land. The people who own the land next to the state land are some different people so If I was to stick this buck and he ran on to their land I'm not so sure that would go to well. Not sure what I'm going to do with this buck yet. What would you all do? Remember what I said about these landowners. In Minnesota you have to have permission to retrieve an animal. The landowners can say no and there's nothing a CO can do about It.
For a 135" buck and you dont have to have permission to retrieve a deer...if it was cold enough i would wait until very early morning to retrieve him. Its not illegal and they'll never know.
Tough call Steve, any advice I could give would be useless...hard to leave a good buck though, especially when you know where his home is.
Sounded like a cool hunt, regardless. Could you talk to these people first and get advance permission for retrieving a deer? Edit: I think I misunderstood. You don't have to get permission, right? I'd say go for it. Good luck!
I edited my post. What I'm saying Is the landowner has to give someone permission to retrieve an animal. If they say no there's nothing even a CO can do about It.
i dont have that many coyotes round here but the foxes on the other hand are everywhere. They constantly screw up my hunts. Since last saturday ive seen seven red fox just sittin in my treestands.
Unless I know the landowner will let me on to retrieve an animal, I usually place my stands no closer than 100 yards to the property line. A family member had a run in with a landowner a while back after he had shot a deer and it ran to his property and died. We did the right thing and asked for permission and his particular guy refused access (it was in a location where he had a clear view from his house so no sneaking in possible) and was happier to see the deer waste and rot than let us in. As you said Steve, a CO in MN cant make it happen either. In my opinion its just not worth it flirting with deer on a property line that you know you will not be able to access. I always think well yeah, a quick double lung and maybe I can get in and get out but then what happens if its a gut shot. I wouldn't stop kicking myself. Maybe time to start looking for this bucks rub lines and does he access this island from another direction?
Good thinking but the few tree's that are there are either right on the line or by the highway. He's more then likely entering this bedding area on the east side which Is private land or where I was sitting this evening. Kinda thinking this myself Craig. Might just let It be like I was thinking. Bummer though, he's a nice buck. He might even be better then 135 Inches. His spread Is lacking (15 Inches) but his tine length Is nice!! Oh well. That's hunting.
So far Steve, I have never had a Yote screw me up, BUT Those two Dogs on opening day kinds pissed me off
Steve, I arrowed the last coyote that screwed up one of my hunts...... He chased a pair of does by me, I let out a loud whistle while at full draw, and he stopped and looked, and I THWACKED him. I hear your pain. Sucks to have situations like that. I know it's against the grain of a lot of guys, but if I kill a deer, I'll retrieve it, even it that means sneaking on private property at 3:00 a.m. to get it. Fortunately, I don't have issues MOST places I hunt. I am looking at a place right now that may pose that problem though, and am in the process of getting in contact with the owners for retrieval permission if needed, we'll see how that goes......
OK Im getting senile forget last post ^^^^^^^^^^^^ I was hunting the late late season years back and had a 110" 8 point come in, I passed him and as soon as he got behind me he freaked out and ran off. seconds later two Yotes came under me. 1 left didnt really screw me up but hey!
Real weird to hear from you guys in different areas that coyotes mess with deer. Not one time in IL. have I seen a yote mess up a deer. But, our coyotes are mostly nocturnal in my areas and only move at night. They get hunted hard. In 15 years of bowhunting, I've only seen 2 yotes while in a stand. This scenerio sounds pretty tough. It sounds like its a 100% chance that this deer is bedding on the high spot in the swamp. Tough thing is the bean field is probably not going to help you that much. Cut corn and I would think different. I agree with hunting the rub line leading back to the bedding area as this is my favorite method of hunting. It's a tough call. If I was you, I would check with the people before I thought of hunting it again. They may tell you they don't care and then it's game on. Tough situation for sure.
I tried smoking a coyote the other night, there are quite a few on the farm I hunt. They have bumped does out of their bedding areas, but haven't really skrewed up any of my hunts yet.
Had one come within 5 feet last year. I was still hunting for elk and I knew some elk were in the area so I didn't want to cause a bunch of ruckus and I thought he would see me before that. The look on his face was priceless! I scared the crap out of him. Honestly I was a bit scared too, I really didn’t feel like trying to kill this thing with my hands if he decided to fight instead of flight.
Two nights ago a small 8 pointer walked by my stand just as he was leaving the area I heard something coming from the corn and so did he. He stopped, turned around and waited to see what it was. It was a red fox that came onto the trail and walked towards the deer. When they saw each other they stared down for 30 seconds or so and then the deer put up his tail and took off like a banshee and so did the fox in the other direction. So I don't know who scared who but they both took off in a hurry. Didn't really ruin my hunt as the deer has some growing to do and I had already drawn on him and let off ... just for fun/practice. As for the buck in the marsh issue if were me I might try to hunt/find other bucks ... if none found and season is getting late I would say game on for the marsh buck.
