8 replies to this topic

[pond jumper]

Well I just got back in from deer hunting and there is no one home to rant to about my stupidity, or rather misjudgment on how smart a deer really is so here we go.. its a bit long winded but you need details to know why am writing this instead of skinning out a huge buck....
Monday night I got done my night shift early and thought it would be a good idea to go deer hunting tuesday morning, it was sposed to be pretty crappy but hey id have lots of sleep and my time is ticking away...tuesday morning comes get up have a cup of coffee, and go out on the deck to see what its like out. Lets just say my warm bed with my girlfriend seems a lot more inviting then the 40k winds and sideways rain outside, so i go back to bed. Tuesday night comes i get home from work to a message on my phone " Seen a big buck call me back asap...dad". Apparently my dad was on his way home from work last night and about 10 minutes after legal light and saw a big deer standing on teh road across from a trail that leads to a beaver pond i often duck hunt and said it looked to be atleast an 8pt. I had the day off work today so i decided i would take a look. I hunted my usual spot this morning only seeing a doe and a porcupine (no i didnt shoot him), so this afternoon i took a walk out the trail. What i found was a well beat down game trail running off teh main trail to the east, where i discovered a very big set of deer tracks. I looked around and assesed the wind and where the best spot would be to sit, and decided that sitting with my back to the big pond( understatement, pond is unmeasureable its so big) with the windf in my face would be perfect, if the deer came either down the game trail, or the main trail or down either side i would be set up for a shot and he would in no way smell me, the wind would blow my scent behind me across the pond , and unless he was going to swim, he couldnt come that way anyways (except for one little flaw ) My idea of sitting on the edge of the pond is a bit flawed because there is a bit of a hump between me and the trail that is about 50 yards wide and is full of chest high fir and alders so I can't quite see over or through it so I decide to sit on the outside of this buffer so i can get a clear view of both trails and surroundings (because thats the way the deer is supposed to travel, they have been so why would they change thier minds?).Besides with only 50 yards of this stuff behind me and the pond, whats the likyl hood of a deer going through that jungle and me not hearing it??...you can prbly see where this is going. So i sit for almost 2 hours and let out a few doe bleats here and there with no sign of anything other than a pesky squirrel that insists on finding out whats in my pack and a huge owl sitting in a popular tree about 20 yrds from me. About a half hour or so before dark the wind is undecided to what direction it wants to blow so as an idea to cover my scent incase it shifts to much twrds the trails i let out the last blast of my buck bomb...behind my so the wind takes it away from me and not at me..(this is what i think did me in). Not ten minutes later i think i hear leaves rustling directly behind me and close..prbly that damn squirrel again i think, but then i hear a snap , then this wierd noise like someone running a rake through an alder bush....i slowly turn my head over my shoulder and in my peripheral vision there not 20 yards away stands the blury figure of a deer. I shift ever so slightly so i can move my head another couple inches and see it and then i notice the deer is not any deer but a huge buck with really tall tick antlers...staring at me. My heart just about comes out of my chest but i calm down almost immediatly, as if my body knows there is no need to get excited cuz it aint happenin. The buck had skirted the edge of the pond and came almost directly behind me and was now standing maybe 20 yards away. Apparently the buck bomb covered my scent...but a little to good. I watch unable to turn my body and gun to get a shot as the buck stands there sniffing the air and licking his nose. He takes about three steps straight towards me, his head slightly turned but me still being in his vision( answer to why do deer have eyes on teh side of their face intead the front like us...damn evolution!!) he stands for a bit sniffing the air and looking around, but his head is never turned completly away from me, every time he moves his head i make an inch movement. I now have the gun raised but my body isnt turned and he is about 110 degrees to my right side and going to smell me any minute. I debate whether to snap quickly and take a shot but decide agianst it, if he bolts or i dont have time to aim ill wound him. The only thing i can do is wait and pray he goes to my left and around me so he doesnt smell me until i can get a shot...but of course not, a white tail being a whitetail he takes another few steps to the right, and shakes his head through a small bunch of alders...atleast he's occupied..all this time (about 10 minutes)has given my a good look at him. He is now atmost 10 yards away. I guess that he is def pushing 200lbs, he is way bigger than me, and has atleast 5 main points per side, and what looks like a few stickers on each side , not a wide rack but he has icredibly tall tines and his main beams are thick! Much bigger than what i ever expected to see anytime soon in my hunting career, let alone a spot ive never deer hunted, but then like a flash he jumps and does a 360 and takes off, i jump to my feet and try to get the scope on him, i yell at him to try and get him to stop but he doesnt even look back, for a split second i see his rearend and put the cross hairs ahead of him and think shoot! but i don't pull, dont need to wound deer by making a careless shot, in a heartbeat he clears the wall of alders and i hear him hit water..so i run to try and get through it to maybe get a shot as he crosses teh marsh..but a deer can go through alders much faster than a cold human who has been sitting on a stool for 3 hrs, by the time i get to the edge i hear him clearing ground on the other side, flipping me the bird with his tail. He had taken the short route by running the marsh and jumping the brook, which put him right in the thick stuff , a distance of about 75-100 yrds, before i had even gotten through the wall he cleared in 3 jumps. I dont think ive ever swore so much in my life (and i swear a lot) even more than when my shotgun broke (which still hasnt been repaired). I still cant believe i had the buck of a lifetime within spitting distance of my without even getting a shot off or even close for that matter, the buck bomb did me in I figure, he must have smelled it and decided to follow the scent instead of sticking to his normal trail...but then again thats what bucks do...thats ok he won this round but now i know where he lives and what his tricks are...maybe..next time one gets that close i might just try to knife him.hopefully he wont abandon the area, i dont think he will as there are a lot of doe in teh area from the look of the tracks and im sure he spends a lot of time in there

[archerynutNB]

Great story, Pond Jumper. To bad you didn't get a good shot at him. But don't give up just yet. If he came to the scent once, he will probably do it again. Get a better set up position next time, and wait him out.

"Good Luck"

[PhillNT]

HAHAHAHA Bob you're stories are always the light of my day.... You had me laughing at you good old boy.. Maybe you should learn to shoot Southpaw that way you'll have both lanes clear and would be able to shoot.

Sounds like a real nice buck buddy... Hang in there he;ll go back I'm sure.. Nothing like having a big buck around

[tom]

HAHAHAHA Bob you're stories are always the light of my day.... You had me laughing at you good old boy.. Maybe you should learn to shoot Southpaw that way you'll have both lanes clear and would be able to shoot.

Sounds like a real nice buck buddy... Hang in there he;ll go back I'm sure.. Nothing like having a big buck around

Bucks were moving good this morning, had a couple heads come in at 5pm, both shot this morning.

[nbbucks]

That's a heart attack story.

[linnie]

Man I know what that situation is like. What a rush!!
Now go get him!
Looking forward to your pics when you get him.
Good luck.

[pond jumper]

Couldnt have spooked him to badly, my uncle seen him late last night in a field about a half click from where we had our encounter, tmrw morning its on like donkey kong!

[pond jumper]

Well its looking like the old brute might just make it this year, im running out of time, but he hasnt run out of luck, definetly has got a horshoe up his arse. Friday night my uncle saw him at 8 oclock in a field not far from where i saw him, so i figured id get him saturday morning. Seems to be that im not the only one who has had some close encounters with him, Saturday morning i sat in the same general area and when i walked in i realized that wednesday night i had actually been sitting right on his rub line,did some rattling and had a real nice doe come through at about 9:00am, i figured for sure he would be shortly behind her but i saw nothing else, then at 1130 the frost had melted on the leaves and it was nice walking so i did some still hunting. At about 1pm i decided to run home for a bite to eat and come back and try the evening. I went back that night and saw nothing but a grouse who was really annoying running around in the leaves all night. On my way home i stopped at the store and a guy i knew had a run in with him on saturday.. right in the middle of the afternoon. He was on his way to driving out an old logging road about 5-600 yrds down the road from where i was hunting to do some scouting when he saw him standing on the edge of a white birch thicket 20 yrds off the road, and again no shot as it was right at the start of the road and to close to a house to shoot, so yesterday in the rain i decided to check it out, at about 8 I met my cousin on the road in his truck who was also out for a drive, he had heard someone seen him the night before just before dark crossing the road. He said there were no tracks on the road and he didnt see any deer but i decided to walk out anyways. I walked out about a kilomter or so and found some fairly fresh tracks and a game trail at the top of a big ridge and sat on top and rattled. I sat for about 2 hours or so until i had to leave to go to work. On the way out what did i find... 2 sets of tracks, a set of doe tracks and a big set of buck tracks in the mud at the bottom of the ridge crossing the road, about 300 yards away on a turn just out of my line of sight..so he managed to evade yet again...if i hadnt had to go to work who knows they may have amde thier way to me. i may recruit a friend tmrw morning to try and ambush him, while one of us sits on the ridge and rattles the other is going to sit in the edge of a thicket at teh bottom...if he crosses anywhere one of us will get him...maybe

[Wardo]

Good luck PJ, I hope your luck turns, but if not, he'll be all the bigger next year for you