The rut is starting here in PA. This morning I hunted in an earn a buck area inside Letterkenny Army Depot. This hunt was different than hunting in the ammunition supply point because it was focused on small wood lots in between the warehouses and work areas on base. You have to shoot a doe before you could shoot a buck, but at the end of the day I ended up telling the base biologist that he might want to revise it to an "earn a doe" are vise the later.
I had 15 bucks come in on me today. Most were 1.5 year old four pointers and spikes. One was a 2.5 year old eight who will be a very nice buck next year. I also had a 130 class buck stand broadside to me at 25 yards and had NO ideal I was there. He was lucky, because I had to kill a doe first.
Doe sightings were far and few between this morning. The first one I saw came in down wind. She stopped for 10 minutes sniffing the air with one of the smaller bucks behind her. I'm thinking the scent smoker saved my butt because eventually she started coming into my 25 yard shooting lane. She was on high alert though, but she was coming in. (BTW is this common when using the smoker?) She finally offered me a perfect broadside shot. I picked a spot, released, followed through, and watched the arrow fly PERFECTLY towards her vitals. What happened next is something I've heard of, but never witnessed.
Just before the arrow got to her (maybe 5-10 yards) she ducked and damn near turned the other direction. It was so fast that at first I thought I had dropped it into a quartering away shot that went through the top of her back. She ran off, quivered for second when she hit the RR tracks and then took off like someone had just kicked her in the ass with a steel toed boot. I gave it 10 minutes and climbed down only to find my arrow clean as a whistle. I guess thats what happens when you shoot at a high alert deer with a slow trad bow.
About this time the woods unloaded with deer. I swear there was one behind every friggen tree. I almost got ran over by a button buck and his mother and as I tried to climb back into my tree that was when MR BIG came by to taunt me.
What a great morning and it's one I won't soon forget. The bucks aren't chasing yet, but I'll bet by this weekend they will be.
I had 15 bucks come in on me today. Most were 1.5 year old four pointers and spikes. One was a 2.5 year old eight who will be a very nice buck next year. I also had a 130 class buck stand broadside to me at 25 yards and had NO ideal I was there. He was lucky, because I had to kill a doe first.
Doe sightings were far and few between this morning. The first one I saw came in down wind. She stopped for 10 minutes sniffing the air with one of the smaller bucks behind her. I'm thinking the scent smoker saved my butt because eventually she started coming into my 25 yard shooting lane. She was on high alert though, but she was coming in. (BTW is this common when using the smoker?) She finally offered me a perfect broadside shot. I picked a spot, released, followed through, and watched the arrow fly PERFECTLY towards her vitals. What happened next is something I've heard of, but never witnessed.
Just before the arrow got to her (maybe 5-10 yards) she ducked and damn near turned the other direction. It was so fast that at first I thought I had dropped it into a quartering away shot that went through the top of her back. She ran off, quivered for second when she hit the RR tracks and then took off like someone had just kicked her in the ass with a steel toed boot. I gave it 10 minutes and climbed down only to find my arrow clean as a whistle. I guess thats what happens when you shoot at a high alert deer with a slow trad bow.
About this time the woods unloaded with deer. I swear there was one behind every friggen tree. I almost got ran over by a button buck and his mother and as I tried to climb back into my tree that was when MR BIG came by to taunt me.
What a great morning and it's one I won't soon forget. The bucks aren't chasing yet, but I'll bet by this weekend they will be.