Close call with deer this morning.....

Rackseeker · Dec 30, 2013

Went hunting this morning, there was a little breeze blowing. I took the tarsal glands off of a buck I killed the other day. I had them in a ziplock bag in a side pocket on my pack. I got in there extra early to get set up. I try and not use a light when possible. It was cloudy with no moon so it was real dark at 4:15.
I put my stand on the tree I was going to climb and got the
tarsal glands out of the zip lock bag and hung them on a limb about 6' off the ground.
I turned and started to put my bibs and jacket on before I got in my stand to climb. I reached down to get a bottle of water out of my pack to get a drink. I heard something coming off the hill headed toward me pretty quickly. I had already put my light in my pack and it was hanging on the side of my side. Remind you I'm still on the ground. I figure out it was headed right toward me so I go for my gun. Can't get my gun quick enough so I just step behind the tree. The deer runs in and stops right where I was standing. And figures something isn't right and blows and runs off. It takes me a few minutes to figure out what had just happened and calm down.

duckriver · Dec 30, 2013

That will wake you up!

Shed Hunter · Dec 30, 2013

I had one do that last year. I was bending over to tie my gun to my pull up rope and my rattling antlers kept clanking together. I heard something trot into the holler. It darted towards me (with a little help from me starting to intentionally clank them together.. Dumb I know but I was just thinking about how cool it was.. Not the fact that an angry buck could kill me lol). I could see him in the darkness he was so close. It just stomped it's foot several times and walked off though. I obviously rattled again at daylight.. Ended up having two come in. Both came from behind and never got where I could tell what the where.

Hunter 257W · Dec 30, 2013

On the positive side, you KNOW those tarsal glands off the deer you killed will pull in another buck! But I bet that did wake you up as Duckriver said!

Rackseeker · Dec 30, 2013

Hunter 257W said:
On the positive side, you KNOW those tarsal glands off the deer you killed will pull in another buck! But I bet that did wake you up as Duckriver said!

Yeah I've been using them for years. I had 3 doe come in the other day. They were feeding down below me about 80 yards. The lead doe kept checking the wind. Then all of them started my way. They got right under my tree like they were looking for something. They bedded down under me for about 15 min. when a spike came in and chased them off.

scn · Dec 30, 2013

I was walking into an IL stand one morning without any light and had one give me a snort-wheeze. I turned my light on. There have been some injuries from rutted up bucks over the years, and it wasn't worth chancing. It was a nice 8 pt, but not one I would have shot.