Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting This has happened to me several times

Love the Ruger and the chambering. that buck will be soft as butter!


couple years ago, when i could still hike a buddy and i drove around the mountain above my house on logging roads and parked about half way up the slope.
Bob went south on the old logging road and I cut a trail going straight up the mountain through a clear cut. about 2k rise and half mile distance.
got to the top of the peak and it leveled off into thick new growth tamarack and fir.
started seeing lots of wolf sign so decided not to go into the brush.
when i turned around there was a nice 4x5 whitetail buck about 25 yards back on the trail i had just climbed.
had just bought a Mauser in 300 win mag topped with a 4x16 scope. had it on 6. when i threw it up to shoot all i could was hair. touched it off and shot over his back.
he trotted off another 10 yards and i drilled him.
about the time i was cutting out the tender loins the wolves started singing in a half circle back in the reprod. pucker factor jumped about 10 fold.
my Friend heard the shot and showed up just as i finished boning the deer out, so we packed up the meat and started back down the trail i had walked up.
that busk had been bedded down about 50 yards up from the road, had let me pass and bird dogged me all the way to the top. now i ain't the best looking guy but don't think i look like the back side of a whitetail doe, maybe a donkey but not a deer. i guess he was just curious. him and the cat.
those wolves kept us company all the way to the truck.

Like others have stated it's happened to me making some light but clinking noises using a climbing stand. Always a buck when it happened. I think particularly when approaching or in the rut they are prone to investigate anything they think might be other deer, or in the case of light clicking noises possibly thinking it's 2 other buck messing around.

1 time while climbing a tree I took a break and looking out through the woods past the tree I was climbing I seen a sapling going back and forth and around in circles. Yep, a buck was raking a tree. He came in looking for me until he got 20 yds beside me directly downwind then it was all over.

Another time climbing I just got done and got my bow up and could hear 2 buck clicking horns together right behind me. Nothing serious and when it was over 1 of them came right through, again acting like he was looking for me. Plenty close but never offered a shot.

I was building a stand in a tree one sunny afternoon, sawing and hammering away. I stopped for a water break and look up and there was a nice 8 point feeding in the soy beans 20 yards away. Not a care in the world.

Also, a few different times when I've helped my Uncle cut and split wood along the river bottom, we'd have deer walk right past us and the running tractor, chainsaws etc. One was a really nice 10 point.