Official Live From The Stand Thread 2022

What an encounter.

I’m down but I’m going way east and then cutting north to get back.

 

Outstanding! Congratulations!!

 

Wow! That really got my blood pumping. I will attach an OnX shot to explain some of this after I finish typing. It shows the exit route I took.

I was in the stand with the blue stand icon. I caught movement 80 yards to the WSW of where I was sitting. I glassed and it was a heavy antlered 6 point. I saw a deer behind the 6 and assumed it was a buck and the 6 point was the Toady. I was right. The other buck finally moved and I saw his antlers and started trembling a little. He's about 4 inches outside his ears on both sides, decent height and very heavy - good mass. He was just a stud. I'd guess somewhere between 130" and 140"

They were feeding along on acorns working toward the trail that would take them 25 yards from me, but when they got to 50 they fed for a few minutes and the big boy cut north and headed to the pond. A little later the six point followed. Then a group of four does followed more or less the same trail headed to the pond. They weren't feeding. They were thirsty I guess. All of them probably walked right by my stand with the red stand icon, but the wind was out of the NW which is why I wasn't there.

Anyway, where they went left me with a dilemma. I walked in from due north along the east side of the fence row and the pond. I knew if they weren't still at the pond they were in the picked corn field north of the pond. I reasoned that the only option was to get down, go east a good way and then use the terrain to hide my exit. When I thought they might be able to see me I walked hunched over, but I never saw them. There was still enough light that I would have been able to see their silhouette on the hilltop. I kept heading north and walked back west to the camper on the north side of another patch of woods.

When I got to the truck I got my thermal imager and scanned. The bucks were where the buck icon is and the does were where the doe icon is. I managed to get out of there without spooking them.

Now here's a question for you folks. The wind is supposed to be NW again tomorrow. I will hunt the same stand in the morning and maybe I'll see them again but I doubt it. For the afternoon sit, should I move 30-35 yards west anticipating them doing the same thing tomorrow afternoon? The does took the same route, so it stands to reason that this is a solid travel pattern. It's still a gamble because tomorrow they could take the trail that goes by the tree I was in today.

What would you do?

 

I'm not sure there is a tree in that row that is climbable, but that is a good idea. If I had a lock-on and sticks there is a ring of big pine trees ringing the pond from north to west, but I don't have that set up. For the first time I wish I did.

Edit: If they do the same thing that wouldn't work. Shooting light was gone by the time they got there.

 

I know where they are bedding. It's on the property south of the one I can hunt, probably within 100 yards. I know this because the kid that built the dirt bike track told me that the patch of woods was a bedding area. I'll pull it up on OnX and show you.

 

Somewhere in this triangle is where the kid said the deer like to bed. I say kid because he is to me. He's probably 18-20 years old.