Last year I was hunting a little ways from our property line. It was about an hour before prime time when I have several does come running off of the other property. Of course I figured it must have been a buck chasing since it was during the rut but soon I hear a 4 wheeler coming in the distance. The woods are pretty open so I could see the guy drive down their trail and drop off his treestand and then drive back towards the houses. Soon here he comes tromping back out....snap, crack, pop, cough.... He gets to the tree and starts putting the stand on, must have been an old climber. Clank, clunk, ting, cough...soon he was on his way up the tree. I will never forget the sound that aluminum stand made on the tree as he drug it up without any care... scrape, clank, scrape, clank... I tell you the guy no more than gets settled, pulls his bow up and soon......crack...bang...clack...he starts rattling as if there were 5 deer fighting all at once. He does this for about 10 minutes!!! I am half pissed off and half laughing my ass off by this time!! It was so close to prime time I could only hope he would just stop and let things quiet down. Maybe 20 minutes go by and I don't hear much from him other than a light cough so I think I am golden. Crack....bang...clack.. there he goes again with the rattling!! This time it only lasts for about 5 minutes straight. He ends up doing 4 more rattling sequences before the end of the evening.....and then with a good half hour left of light.......quitting time for him.....scrape....clank....clunk...ting...scrape...clank... OMG I couldn't believe it!!
Well he leaves the stand at the base of the tree and starts heading back toward their houses and sure enough he starts spooking deer out of the thicket and they start heading my way. I counted no less than 20 deer beelining it off of their property!! Of course it's gotten pretty dark by now and soon I realize he's coming back again with the 4 wheeler!! I just sat there in disbelief as him and another guy start heading back out. Figuring they were headed out to pick up the stand I started preparing for my descent. Well, they stop and start wandering around with flashlights. Here I start thinking there is no way they are tracking a deer!! That's all I could think of.....one would walk with his flashlight and the other followed with the 4 wheeler!! These guys were talking back and forth, shouting at times. They do this for 25-30 minutes and soon I decide I needed to get going. Well my dad had been waiting for me and saw these guys down there looking around so he gets nearer the property line and shines his lights their way thinking maybe it was me over there I guess.
Soon the guy on the 4 wheeler heads up and talks to my dad......yep just as I guessed.......HE SAID THEY WERE NIGHT SCOUTING!!! WTF IS THAT?!?!?! He wanted to check out the scrapes and rubs along their trails and put scent out..... Made my stand choices much easier the week they were there!! Oh and it did help our deer sightings that week as well!! Maybe I got something to learn bout this night scouting shit!!
