Yesterday morning found us bowhunting the park where the rules are posted at every trail head cautioning hikers that an Archery Deer Hunt is in progress on the property and that park rules will be strickly inforced ( Such as ... All Dogs must be leashed at all times, no hunter harassment allowed, warning them not to stray from the foot trails... etc ) I took my climber headed to a spot to bowhunt on the top edge of a ridge pretty close to a foot trail where the deer seem to come thru almost every morning late to bed on the ridge edge( now keep in mind that the deer in this park are used to people on the foot trails and tolerate them well... but only on the foot trails NOT IN THE WOODS ) My Hubby Louie decided he wanted to try bowhunting my hangon stand , its located on the ridge opposite to the ridge I was bowhunting ( same stand I killed my buck out of last year ) and he had never tried bowhunting my stand on a morning hunt ( This is an awesome morning spot ) and he still had a buck tag to fill. 8:40 am I hear deer behind me coming in fast and they are coming in from behind me ? They never come from that direction... What the heck ??? So I stand and turn with the bow redied only to have the 8 doe's and fawns stop at 47 yards in front of me ( Im down wind of them so they have no idea I am there... they are looking at the foot trail and are very nervous, so I hope they will calm down and eventually start browseing my way, BUT NO they stayed nervous staring at the foot trail and after about 2 minutes decide they dont want anytrhing to do with it and turn and runoff down the ridge and up the next ridge right to where my husband is bowhunting my hangon stand. So I can hear a lady talking very loudly while allowing her 3 dogs to run loose thru the park and she is talking NON STOP, as they walked past me on the foot trail I so badly wanted to ask her " Do you ever shut up ????? But I was nice and held my tongue. As they slowly past my area and her non stop verbage finally faded away I thought THANK GOD FINALLY some peace and quiet , the odds are that this is what got the deer all spooked.. her 3 dogs were running in and out of the woods all the while roughly 50 to 75 yards away from the lady and her walking buddy. The doe's came in behind Louie at 28 yards and the third doe in the group offers him a broadside shot and he puts his arrow right thru her lungs. Once the doe runs off he starts to text me that he just shot a doe when he hears a noise behind him just about where he had just shot the doe. he turns to see a buck behind him & coming up behind him is an even bigger buck,so he pocketed the cell phone grabbed the bow and then the larger buck stops at 30 yards and he takes the 30 yard broadside shot at the bigger buck and double lungs him. Seeing dogs on leashes within the park is not the norm.. in fact we very seldom see them on leashes ...but what ya gonna do ? Just goes to show that on public land you can sometimes get lucky and use the other hunters and the public to your advantage. plus I have met some really nice people whom are dog walkers out there, some have even offerd to help us drag out deer, and sometimes tell us where they are seeing the deer and big bucks. And the ones that cause problems out there are I feel in the minority....Thankfully Now you can either cuss the dog walkers breaking the rules and allowing their dogs to run loose in the park or hope it works to your advantage.... which in this case we believe they pushed the deer right to us. So to the Park Dog Walkers My Husband Thanks You for helping him Tag Out His buck also had amber colored eyes , I have never seen a deer with this coloration to its eyes... pretty neat.
Congrats to him ! So how do you guys get the heads to stay up? I didn't see anything supporting them. Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk
Glad to hear it all worked out for you. I also hunt an area that is similar to yours. The recreation area I hunt is heavily used by the public. I get hikers, mnt bikers, volks marchers, and lately horse back riding has become very popular. But its open to archery hunting only and motor vehicle travel is'nt allowed. I set up some of my stands in places of hiking trails where the deer get pushed to. I've learned to just accept the many desturbances throughout the season. But at least I don't have to deal with gun hunters. Nice buck, by the way!
