2020 Live from the Stand

My son and I are hunting our 2 day muzzleloader season from our tower blind. Saw lots of deer. Have seen 2 bucks in the 130 range and one of them chasing. Also saw a young buck work a scrape. But have our eye out for another deer we have had on camera. Hard rain just ended and now light sprinkle. Might be a good evening.
 
The biggest mystery of bowhunting and the biggest Pandora’s box at the same time, is deer jumping the shot imo. It never makes sense to me. I never shoot at an alert deer and still have had them jump. I’ve done everything I possibly can to quiet the shot and that has helped tremendously. Still, I had a doe jump so much last year when shooting out of a ground blind, that I missed her clean. Addison was filming so I got the privilege of watching in slow motion. I shot a different doe 15 minutes later and used my ten yard pin for the 22 yard shot. I hit her perfect because she too ducked. The calm night and the blind was the culprit in sure.
Yep! Back in 1990, well before the video craze, I had a JVC camcorder I would occasionally film my boys and guests. Had my 1st cousin down for a hunt and filmed one of his kills and a 2nd that he missed at less than 12 yds. We went home and watched the video in slo-mo. Much to my surprise, the doe actually squatted so low before bolting that she was able to avoid the arrow. She dropped 6 inches as the arrow reached her back. That was eye opening.

A very successful trad bow hunter here in GA says to aim at the junction where the belly white meets the brown. Problem is...I just can't seem to do that. My guess is had I recorded the shot at the buck that I missed, I would have been surprised at his reaction prior to arrow arriving. Oddly enough, he barely jumped as the arrow passed and then immediately settled back down and just slowly walked off.

Pigs on the other hand...a whole different story. Those suckers are easy compared to deer. Here's another thing i find amazing about deer. Saturday morning I saw 9 deer on stand with 2 bucks chasing. I had a young doe with twins come right in behind me and approached within just a few feet of my ladder stand. She got a whiff of something she didn't like and I had the chance to observe her for about a minute as she was trying to identify the culprit that left the scent. You could just tell she was ready to jump out of her skin. She was almost shaking with nervousness, head and nose bobbing the whole time. She never looked up even though I was just a few feet away. But she wasn't having anything to do with continuing on her intended travel route. The twins were mimicking their mom sniffing and fully alert. She turned and went back the direction she came. No way could I have drawn on her.
 
Yep! Back in 1990, well before the video craze, I had a JVC camcorder I would occasionally film my boys and guests. Had my 1st cousin down for a hunt and filmed one of his kills and a 2nd that he missed at less than 12 yds. We went home and watched the video in slo-mo. Much to my surprise, the doe actually squatted so low before bolting that she was able to avoid the arrow. She dropped 6 inches as the arrow reached her back. That was eye opening.

A very successful trad bow hunter here in GA says to aim at the junction where the belly white meets the brown. Problem is...I just can't seem to do that. My guess is had I recorded the shot at the buck that I missed, I would have been surprised at his reaction prior to arrow arriving. Oddly enough, he barely jumped as the arrow passed and then immediately settled back down and just slowly walked off.

Pigs on the other hand...a whole different story. Those suckers are easy compared to deer. Here's another thing i find amazing about deer. Saturday morning I saw 9 deer on stand with 2 bucks chasing. I had a young doe with twins come right in behind me and approached within just a few feet of my ladder stand. She got a whiff of something she didn't like and I had the chance to observe her for about a minute as she was trying to identify the culprit that left the scent. You could just tell she was ready to jump out of her skin. She was almost shaking with nervousness, head and nose bobbing the whole time. She never looked up even though I was just a few feet away. But she wasn't having anything to do with continuing on her intended travel route. The twins were mimicking their mom sniffing and fully alert. She turned and went back the direction she came. No way could I have drawn on her.


She probably smelled where you grabbed the ladder when you climbed into the stand. I witnessed that first hand a few years ago when hunting from a ladder stand. I heard the deer come in from behind me and leaned over and watched her as she came right beside my stand. I had sprayed Primos Earth scent on my boots, which has proven to be effective for me, but I hadn’t sprayed anything on my hands. She stopped dead still even with my ladder, reached out with her nose and almost touched the metal before swapping ends and blowing out. I’m convinced she smelled ME on that ladder !
 
Yep! Back in 1990, well before the video craze, I had a JVC camcorder I would occasionally film my boys and guests. Had my 1st cousin down for a hunt and filmed one of his kills and a 2nd that he missed at less than 12 yds. We went home and watched the video in slo-mo. Much to my surprise, the doe actually squatted so low before bolting that she was able to avoid the arrow. She dropped 6 inches as the arrow reached her back. That was eye opening.

A very successful trad bow hunter here in GA says to aim at the junction where the belly white meets the brown. Problem is...I just can't seem to do that. My guess is had I recorded the shot at the buck that I missed, I would have been surprised at his reaction prior to arrow arriving. Oddly enough, he barely jumped as the arrow passed and then immediately settled back down and just slowly walked off.

Pigs on the other hand...a whole different story. Those suckers are easy compared to deer. Here's another thing i find amazing about deer. Saturday morning I saw 9 deer on stand with 2 bucks chasing. I had a young doe with twins come right in behind me and approached within just a few feet of my ladder stand. She got a whiff of something she didn't like and I had the chance to observe her for about a minute as she was trying to identify the culprit that left the scent. You could just tell she was ready to jump out of her skin. She was almost shaking with nervousness, head and nose bobbing the whole time. She never looked up even though I was just a few feet away. But she wasn't having anything to do with continuing on her intended travel route. The twins were mimicking their mom sniffing and fully alert. She turned and went back the direction she came. No way could I have drawn on her.

A friend of mine told me a story once that I thought was amazing. He was just getting into bow hunting, was using a recurve bow, and was standing on the ground. He had a deer about 30 yards away and it was looking at him when he released the arrow. Before the arrow arrived at the deer, the deer turned completely around. He killed the deer, but the arrow went in on the opposite side he was shooting at.
 
I've seen a few videos done on the Deer Drop. They can drop quite a bit and fast.

Older Bows it was a real issue, even with the Faster Bows of today, they are fast but not at the speed of sound.
 
Live from the stand...I am out sitting in the first remnants of a rain that is the first rain we have had in over a month. Acorns everywhere...I am sitting near the new woods plot but south of me about 100 yards is the south plot. The wind was out of the NW earlier and apparently there were deer in the South plot because I heard a lot of snorting over there when my wind blew to them. I have not seen a thing yet...
To see how youth rifle season went here check out my property tour thread.
 
The biggest mystery of bowhunting and the biggest Pandora’s box at the same time, is deer jumping the shot imo. It never makes sense to me. I never shoot at an alert deer and still have had them jump. I’ve done everything I possibly can to quiet the shot and that has helped tremendously. Still, I had a doe jump so much last year when shooting out of a ground blind, that I missed her clean. Addison was filming so I got the privilege of watching in slow motion. I shot a different doe 15 minutes later and used my ten yard pin for the 22 yard shot. I hit her perfect because she too ducked. The calm night and the blind was the culprit in sure.
You should look up some youtube videos on the subject of deer jumping the string as they say. No matter how quiet you get your bow the deer can hear the arrow whistling in flight. Some people did some research on sound and placed a camera in between the target and archer. It was eye opening how loud an arrow is in flight coming toward you.
 
A friend of mine told me a story once that I thought was amazing. He was just getting into bow hunting, was using a recurve bow, and was standing on the ground. He had a deer about 30 yards away and it was looking at him when he released the arrow. Before the arrow arrived at the deer, the deer turned completely around. He killed the deer, but the arrow went in on the opposite side he was shooting at.

You sure you guys weren’t imbibing some of Kentucks finest??? Lol


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Had a real neat hunt yesterday evening. I sat a stand on the South Plot and about 5:50 I had a 5.5 yr old come out into the plot to work scrapes. 5 minutes later 2 doe and a button head came out and he chased the does all over and he was under me on 3 occasions. I couldn’t bring myself to shoot so I just watched them. He is the same deer I passed from the same stand in November 2018...he left the field about 6:30 and I had several more does show up. The only thing I hate about evening food sources is it’s almost impossible to leave without being busted and yes, there was a snort chorus when I got down in the dark...
 
Have you tried a coyote howler? I don't mean one on your phone, one you can really get some volume with. I've had pretty good success with one; although it hasn't been 100% success.
 
Have you tried a coyote howler? I don't mean one on your phone, one you can really get some volume with. I've had pretty good success with one; although it hasn't been 100% success.
I had an actual coyote that was barking and howling not 60 yards from the deer just before dark. He was closer to them than I was and they paid him no mind...
 
Regarding deer noses, I experienced the following: used to bowhunt mule deer over water holes or seeps. We’d position pit blinds so thermals would keep our scent away. In this one spot, I had to trim some tall grass for a narrow shooting lane. I grabbed clumps with my hands and cut with scissors. My next two evenings, every deer walked over to where I’d grabbed a clump of grass, sniffed it, and started stamping their feet. I understood and should have expected it the first evening when it was only 5 or 6 hours old. I couldn’t believe it when this went on the next evening! Amazing noses!
 
She didn’t last long but we had fun. She had plenty of snacks, a coloring book and her blanket. My wife came for her and on my way back into the stand, 30 minutes from out to in, 2 doe were in the clover field. Maybe another doe will come by. I normally fill all of my doe tags in this muzzleloader season. But it’s not looking good this year.
 
I wish my daughter was able to stick it out. I had a nice 2 1/2 year old 8 point feeding along with a doe just before dark. They were coming up one of our cut roads on the edge of a fallow field from a heavily timbered area. I decided to take the shot since I was on a doe hunt. Not long after my father let me know he also shot when 3 doe entered our clover field at the top of the property. 50845F9F-7FFB-4717-813A-AAE25F3AFECC.jpeg166A34FE-4FBB-4F8D-8EAA-13BF41F2A5C2.jpeg
 
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