I picked up a few new deer leases this year but it seems like the biggest bucks are on my own property. We've been seeing a lot of rut activity over the last week and the big buck activity has really picked up. The only thing is that they become so unpredictable during the rut. They don't have a pattern so it's just a crap shoot as to where to sit. One stand may be on fire one day and dead the next. I have been hunting hard every chance I get and I've been striking out. Friday morning I woke up and decided to flip a coin to decide between two stands I had picked out. It was heads so I went to a stand behind my house. There were some really good bucks using this feeder before season started so I was hoping one of the big boys would stop by to check out the does.
I had deer all over me before the sun came up. I watched a 3.5 year old 8 for a few hours. There were a half dozen does running around and about 30 turkey joined it. The deer were calm and comfortable so I made a ton of good video. Finally everything filtered out around 8:45. It was all quiet till about 9:15. I had a few does slip in and eat for a bit. They were just moving out when I heard something walking through the grass only a few yards from the blind. I had one of the windows open towards where I was hearing the foot steps. I looked out and saw antlers and knew immediately it was a shooter. I feed and run cameras all year so I thought I knew every deer that was in the area. Wrong, I've never seen this deer and my trail cams have never picked him up.
He made his way in and stared to eat. He came in so fast that he was already at the feeder before I could turn the video camera on. He was facing me and I filmed him for seven long minutes before he finally turned broadside. He was just over 20 yards and the shot was textbook double lung.
He bucked and ran off. I waited about 30 minutes to get out of the blind and found him on a trail about 50 yards away.
I haven't checked the trail cam from the other stand yet but right now I'm glad that penny landed on heads!
I had deer all over me before the sun came up. I watched a 3.5 year old 8 for a few hours. There were a half dozen does running around and about 30 turkey joined it. The deer were calm and comfortable so I made a ton of good video. Finally everything filtered out around 8:45. It was all quiet till about 9:15. I had a few does slip in and eat for a bit. They were just moving out when I heard something walking through the grass only a few yards from the blind. I had one of the windows open towards where I was hearing the foot steps. I looked out and saw antlers and knew immediately it was a shooter. I feed and run cameras all year so I thought I knew every deer that was in the area. Wrong, I've never seen this deer and my trail cams have never picked him up.
He made his way in and stared to eat. He came in so fast that he was already at the feeder before I could turn the video camera on. He was facing me and I filmed him for seven long minutes before he finally turned broadside. He was just over 20 yards and the shot was textbook double lung.
He bucked and ran off. I waited about 30 minutes to get out of the blind and found him on a trail about 50 yards away.
I haven't checked the trail cam from the other stand yet but right now I'm glad that penny landed on heads!
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