I made a little map to illustrate how it went down. Sorry for the length of the post. It happened pretty quickly and when I walked in I was not expecting this result.
This area was some public ground that I had scouted last season and didn't have a chance to hunt. It was pretty overrun with horses and people last year. A few good rubs, no big tracks or other major sign. I did find quite a bit of sign and some good doe bedding as well as a heavily used buck bed about 300 yards south of this spot last year that I hunted twice but couldn't make anything happen.
On October 21 around 3pm I decided to get into this spot as I did not find the human/horse sign in the surrounding area like i had last year. I thought it might be getting some use because of the lower pressure. There was a S wind, gusts between 15-20 mph.
THE MAP:
-Up is north.
-Purple is my route in.
-Red arrow in where the buck was bedded.
-Red line is the path the buck took.
-Star is the impact site.
There was some redbrush/thicket coming off of the subtle oak points jutting into the cattail/grass marsh with two tiny trees at the end of it. I figured this is where a buck was bedded if the area was in use. I walked in with the wind in my face, trying to locate any trails/big tracks coming from that area looping around the oak point between the lake. My assumption was that this was the path a buck would take if bumped and I intended to setup a camera along one of these trails in hopes that as the pressure increased towards November I would have my assumptions confirmed with pictures.
I found a good trail right where I expected, and as i was looking for decent tracks I heard the unmistakable sound of a deer bust out. I looked over toward the where I expected a buck to be beding and sure enough, that's where the noise was coming from. As I stood there I was watching the tops of the cattails move from the deer pushing through them and to my surprise saw that he was headed straight towards me. I drew back and he flew by me at five yards, moving too quickly for a shot, but I did get a look at his rack and knew he was a good buck. I tried to stop him with a mouth bleat but he just kept going. I also knew that I did not spook him. There was no way he smelled, saw, or heard me when he busted.
He ran about 50 yards past me then I lost sight of movement and couldn't hear him any longer. I thought well ... I can go after him or go check out that bed. There may be a chance that he loops around and tries to scent check the bed, so I waited about five minutes. I had my grunt tube with me and on a wind gust blew one short bleat and two short grunts, then waited another five.
I was watching for movement of cattails in a direction that was different from the direction the wind was blowing and after the ten minutes of standing there I caught some cattail movement. He was moving pretty quickly 15-20 yards in front of me. I looked around, saw a thick patch of 9ft grass that was mixed with cattails and knew that he was going to loop around to scent check the bed he busted from. I figured that he would cut across the end of the tall grass and get downwind of the bed. I decided that I had to beat him to the tip of the tall grass or he would slip past me. *(could i have let him slip past and set up on this buck to come out of his bed before dark? Sure, especially because I knew he was there. However, I thought I had a shot and like being aggressive.)
I moved as quickly as I could on wind gusts and beat him to the tall grass. As i got there I saw his rack stick out from a gap in the cattails, he turned and was about to cross the edge of the tall grass so again I had to make a move. I blew one short grunt into my shirt to muffle it (Only 10 yards away). He stopped, took two steps toward me and gave me a small opening in the cattails to shoot through. A head on shot. I put the pin right on the top of the bristle of hair running up his chest and let it fly. He crashed off and was down in 35-40 yards. The shot went through the major arteries and esophagus, the blood trail looked like it was painted with a high power paint sprayer. Mixing it up with a buck like this is the main reason I love hunting on the ground. Racing to cut off this buck while he was 20 yards away then having it come to a 8-10 yard shot was exhilarating and this will be one that I won't soon forget.
The thick stuff I shot him in.
Yeah! Buck down!
He barely fit in the car.
The dog getting a sniff of the kill.
Congrat!
