Headed back out into the woods this evening in hopes maybe with the approaching full moon maybe some of those bucks would be up and moving. Secondly, I have an itchy trigger finger and my freezer that is ready for some more meat, so does are welcome.
I headed to one of my spots in Loch Raven, got there early and looked around to find not much sign of deer at all. That made me worry it was going to be a long night... I was happy to hear acorns falling, it has been an awful year for acorns so, hearing a few falling was a good sign and that lifted my hopes and seeing deer.
I sat, and I waited.... Did some grunting trying to entertain myself and maybe get a curious buck to come in. Around 6:15 as sunset was quickly approaching I was getting worried I wasn't going to see a thing other than about what seemed like 1000 squirrels. About 6:25 - 6:30 I saw movement up the hill from me, I got my binoculars up and saw a big doe working back and forth feeding about 75 yards from me. I watched her and as she worked off sort of toward me but away, she was coming down the hill to me, but on an angle off to my left. I then saw she had other deer following behind her, 3 more to be exact. It was a group of 4 does and they all followed each other about 50 yards off to my left as they came down the hill working into where the acorns had been falling all evening. This all happened in a matter of 5 - 10 minutes, so it was sunset and I was guessing that is all I would see for the evening, but a couple minutes later a fawn came up the hill from below me. She walked about 5 yards from my tree right past me, turned and walked about 18 yards in front of me the other direction and headed up the hill where the other deer had come from.. In a hurry at that.
So now it was about 6:35 and I figured I wasn't going to see anything else and I only had maybe 10 minutes shooting light even though legal shooting hours were until 6:59 this evening. I started packing my stuff up and figured I would just go slowly and see if anything else came by, well I was surprised when I was just about to lower my bow and I heard leaves 20 yards out in front of me. So.... I waited a minute and quick saw it was one of the 4 does that had passed off to my left working back to, she was pretty good size and I figured well, if she gets close enough maybe I will take her. Well, she was eating and moving slowly, and could care less that I was there because I was moving a lot and she never even looked at me.. When she finally got 20 something yards in front of me, I held my bow up and looked at my site and she was behind it but all I saw was brown blur. That meant there was no need to draw my bow, it was too dark. So, I waited a couple minutes on her to walk off down the hill and I got down...
Real slow night until the last 20 - 30 minutes... But, still no antlers to be seen... Maybe next time..
Anyone else get out? Did you see anything better than me?
