The Chase is On..

Oct. 27, 2007

The alarm clock went off at 4:30 am, I lifted my head off the pillow, heard the rain pounding on the roof and overflowing the gutters and went right back to sleep. The rain stopped in mid afternoon and the sun starting peeking through the clouds. I already made the decision to hunt that afternoon with hopes of increased deer activity after two days of rain and the pre rut chases starting..As I was getting ready, I look out my window and see a 6 pt buck going off on a small tree and then start chasing an unwilling doe up the ridge behind the house..As I climb into my truck for the drive to the farm, I see him 150 yards up the hill right under one of my stands…

The deer were taking full advantage of the change of weather and were on the move. I saw dozens on my short trip to my hunting area. ..I wanted to hunt my stand in the thicket but the wind was all wrong. My other options weren’t any better, the river stand was getting flooded out, my stand in the marsh also had wind problems and it was too late for a climber. So it was back to the oaks. This would probably be the last hunt from this stand, with the leaves down and the canopy open the deer tend to move around the oak flat instead of through it and I feel too exposed. I still had high hopes, with deer on the move and the last of the acorns blown of the trees, there should be some action..

I was 10 yards from my stand when I kicked up a small buck that was bedded in the thicket behind my stand. I quickly got up the tree and a few minutes later see some movement from a far side of the thicket. I tried grunting and the Can, but the deer kept moving away towards the marsh….I quickly settled in for the afternoon hunt and it wasn’t long before I see movement to my left..A button buck came trotting up the trail behind my stand, the same one I just hiked up..He stopped near my tree, munched a few acorns and moved off into the thicket, following the first deer into the marsh..

The next hour, nothing moved..Then I hear that snap of a twig behind my tree, and my heart is suddenly in my stomach as I am slooowwwly try and distort my body for a better view. I can see the brown of a deer and what seemed like forever, he came into view..Another button buck..But I see another deer following him..Could this one be my shooter..No another button buck…Then they do what I absolutely didn’t want them to do..They fed under my tree for the next 15 minutes. At one point, I had the two directly under me less than 3 yards from the tree. I wanted to shoo them away, I have been bit too many times by small bucks as Mr. Big comes in range…Once I had a huge Wall Twp 12 pt buck 15 yards from my stand only to get caught by a spike that didn’t like the look of the Huge squirrel and walked right to my tree and sniffed my step and snorted soo loud I almost fell out of the tree..Never saw that buck again…A few years ago I had a small rack buck catch movement as I was trying to get off a shot at a nice 10 pt, again a loud snort..Too many of those stories in my hunting career, I didn’t want these two around when Mr. Big showed up and that what was going through my head when a doe entered the oaks..Luckily she moved on and the small bucks followed her..

A few minutes later I hear something running and I see a doe at full speed coming from the gully in my direction..I can see a deer behind her..She climbs out of the gully and enters the oaks 20 yards from my stand and stops..Her tongue is hanging out of her mouth and she is panting hard…I am preparing for Mr. Big to come out of the gully right behind her..Instead I get a decent 8 pt, but he decides to flank her and he enters the oaks 50 yards away..As soon as she sees him, she starts running again and she ran right under my tree..He continued trying to cut her off and didn’t even look back as I tried grunting and the Can..They ran through the thicket towards my stand that I originally wanted to use today….I continued calling but didn’t attract anything but an angry tree rat…I saw a few more deer moving through the thicket but nothing in range…as I was walking out of the woods just after last light, I kicked up a dozen deer in a small grove of oaks and another 5 does were feeding on the field edge 15 yards from my truck..

The chase is on..Its time to hit the woods…My next hunt will be next Sat and I will try and do an all day sit in hopes of seeing a horny Monster..