Close encounter stories
- Thread starter BSK
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BSK
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When giving talks at hunting expos about outdoor photography, a well-known outdoor photographer that specialized in deer pictures would tell a story of how he got so many pictures of mature bucks outside of high-fences in TX. I don't remember how the whole story started, but he rescued a button buck and hand-fed it corn from a blue plastic container. The button buck was allowed to run free near the photographer's home in New York State, but all he had to do was go outside, shake the container full of corn, and the young buck would come running. Over time, this buck grew up. Despite his advancing age, he would still come running whenever the photographer would "call" him with the corn container. Eventually this buck lived to be the monarch of the area, and he would allow his human "friend" to follow him around through the woods while he "did his thing." The photographer got to witness and photograph all sorts of interactions between this mature buck and other deer, and this led to many of the photographer's most famous published pictures.
I had decided not to post about another deer "Buck" because I inherited the situation when I bought where I now live but after BSK's comment I figured I'd share.
"I've heard other interspecies "friendships" like this between humans and wild animals. Very much intrigues me."
Over 10 years ago I purchased the "woods farm" I now live on. I ran a small firearms/personal proection/training business here for the first few years. Part of purchasing the land was a handshake agreement for me to support "Buck". (for those of you raised wrong, a handshake is a binding contract that involves a firm grip, direct eye contact, and usually ends in both heads nodding in acknowledgement of what the eyes saw)
As described by the prior land owner Buck was a truck induced birth, the truck hitting a doe, bursting her and Buck popping into the world. The owners girlfriend got Buck breathing, wrapped up and took home to be raised in their log cabin on their goats milk.
(I DO NOT ENDORSE TAKING IN ANY WILD GAME nor any of the early actions taken on behalf of Buck. I do respect the commitment of the lady in particular but would never advise anyone to do so.)
Buck grew a runt but eventually became relatively healthy and an indoor/outdoor member of their family. Unfortunately for Buck he managed to get himself totally wound up in a section of barb wire fence to the point where he needed cut out and he had torn open his nut sack. At this time an unknown (by me) Vet patched up Buck and in the process disconnected Buck's buckness... (AGAIN NOT ENDORSED ACTIONS probably designed to make sure Buck was not aggressive. )
Before me history done:
Buck lived to 13 years old. I was around him for 4. He was adopted by the old matriarch doe in our area since he was not a breeder and he traveled around our hollow with that family group. He wore an orange collar during deer season.
Buck came to the call, came whenever scared (thunder/lightning, bobcats, coyotes etc.) Buck was mercilessly harassed by large bucks but 1st year bucks where beat down by the old matriarch when they tried to pick on Buck.
Buck expected to be brushed when coat change time came and when ticks/fleas got bad he let you know. (Imagine explaining to the nice lady in Tractor Supply you want the flea treatment for a 140 lb deer...)
He ate apple slices from your hand, loved chocolate kisses, would come straight down the hill and walk on the deck to the table soon as he smelled my wife's pasta and pesto sauce. He expected kibble & bits mixed with corn when he came. He often slept behind my range embankment and when I had folks on the range he would come around the corner when we finished, make sure I was there, then walk up to the nicest lady present and wait for me to give her chocolate kisses to feed him.
He got slow and arthritic his last year (to much chocolate???) and coyotes finally got him. I will confess I cut an impressive swath out of the coyotes for a few years after that.
I learned more from the deer around him in 4 years than I had in decades in the woods. Will try to find a picture for y'all
"I've heard other interspecies "friendships" like this between humans and wild animals. Very much intrigues me."
Over 10 years ago I purchased the "woods farm" I now live on. I ran a small firearms/personal proection/training business here for the first few years. Part of purchasing the land was a handshake agreement for me to support "Buck". (for those of you raised wrong, a handshake is a binding contract that involves a firm grip, direct eye contact, and usually ends in both heads nodding in acknowledgement of what the eyes saw)
As described by the prior land owner Buck was a truck induced birth, the truck hitting a doe, bursting her and Buck popping into the world. The owners girlfriend got Buck breathing, wrapped up and took home to be raised in their log cabin on their goats milk.
(I DO NOT ENDORSE TAKING IN ANY WILD GAME nor any of the early actions taken on behalf of Buck. I do respect the commitment of the lady in particular but would never advise anyone to do so.)
Buck grew a runt but eventually became relatively healthy and an indoor/outdoor member of their family. Unfortunately for Buck he managed to get himself totally wound up in a section of barb wire fence to the point where he needed cut out and he had torn open his nut sack. At this time an unknown (by me) Vet patched up Buck and in the process disconnected Buck's buckness... (AGAIN NOT ENDORSED ACTIONS probably designed to make sure Buck was not aggressive. )
Before me history done:
Buck lived to 13 years old. I was around him for 4. He was adopted by the old matriarch doe in our area since he was not a breeder and he traveled around our hollow with that family group. He wore an orange collar during deer season.
Buck came to the call, came whenever scared (thunder/lightning, bobcats, coyotes etc.) Buck was mercilessly harassed by large bucks but 1st year bucks where beat down by the old matriarch when they tried to pick on Buck.
Buck expected to be brushed when coat change time came and when ticks/fleas got bad he let you know. (Imagine explaining to the nice lady in Tractor Supply you want the flea treatment for a 140 lb deer...)
He ate apple slices from your hand, loved chocolate kisses, would come straight down the hill and walk on the deck to the table soon as he smelled my wife's pasta and pesto sauce. He expected kibble & bits mixed with corn when he came. He often slept behind my range embankment and when I had folks on the range he would come around the corner when we finished, make sure I was there, then walk up to the nicest lady present and wait for me to give her chocolate kisses to feed him.
He got slow and arthritic his last year (to much chocolate???) and coyotes finally got him. I will confess I cut an impressive swath out of the coyotes for a few years after that.
I learned more from the deer around him in 4 years than I had in decades in the woods. Will try to find a picture for y'all
BSK
Well-Known Member
RockMcL,
Considering having been "fixed," did Buck grow and shed a normal rack each year?
Considering having been "fixed," did Buck grow and shed a normal rack each year?
Thinking man are ya??
Buck never rubbed his velvet off. Every so many years he would get broke off/injured and then grow again. hopefully I can get these pictures posted.
One is with him in the cabin helping me come up with reloads to take out "#2" a big bully buck that gave Buck no mercy. The other picture will show a better view of the interesting mess his odd life story left of his antlers.
BSK
Well-Known Member
Classic "cactus rack." Bucks that have lost their testicles (or loss the use of them) can produce enough testosterone to start the antler growth process but not end it. They grow the same antlers all their life. However, the velvet cactus antlers often get killed by freezing temperatures and have to restart the growth process.
Here is Buck's adoptive "Grandmother"
. She protected him and favored him over her own buttons when she had them. (My observation has been that doe with twins always favor the buttons for first food etc unless they were sickly.) Watching her over the years forever changed my thoughts on harvesting older does. If they are still "dominate" I leave them. If they are not dominate their wisdom does not help the overall herd.
Not sure how old she made it too but she was in this hollow before me and before Buck and lived past him. I was there when she was killed. I am guessing she was 15-16 years old.
She still was the dominate doe and though she only was having single fawns by then, she would usually end up adopting an extra fawn each year. Very interesting to observe the social interactions of inside and outside family groups.
I put a 255gn hard cast through her heart/lungs with my Ruger through a hole in brush at about 10 yards. She had encountered the magazine emptying "nickname withheld" from the hunt club next door who had manage to completely break one leg in front and one leg in back without hitting any vitals. A yearling 4 point chased her back and forth through our woods for a couple hours before I was able to intercept and put her down. When this old Grandma was killed, the coyotes and bobcats started winning much more consistently.
Not sure how old she made it too but she was in this hollow before me and before Buck and lived past him. I was there when she was killed. I am guessing she was 15-16 years old.
She still was the dominate doe and though she only was having single fawns by then, she would usually end up adopting an extra fawn each year. Very interesting to observe the social interactions of inside and outside family groups.
I put a 255gn hard cast through her heart/lungs with my Ruger through a hole in brush at about 10 yards. She had encountered the magazine emptying "nickname withheld" from the hunt club next door who had manage to completely break one leg in front and one leg in back without hitting any vitals. A yearling 4 point chased her back and forth through our woods for a couple hours before I was able to intercept and put her down. When this old Grandma was killed, the coyotes and bobcats started winning much more consistently.
Both hogs & dogs are not smart enough to double mask, that's why the poisoning gets through...Too funny. Back when I first acquired my hunting property it was over-run by feral dogs. But for some unknown reason, they all vanished due to a lead-poisoning induced mass extinction event. Very strange.
BSK
Well-Known Member
Ha!
BSK
Well-Known Member
As someone who has been involved in the deer research world for a while, years ago we began noticing interesting data from herds with different dynamics. More and more research suggested a trend, and that's when "we" (the research community) began talking about the importance of "herd dynamics" (adult sex ratio and age structure of a deer population). Hunters thought we were crazy. Why would all these things matter? Buck breeds doe, doe has fawn(s), what's the difference? To be honest, at the time and to this day we really don't know how it works, but we know that herds with particular dynamics perform better than others. And those "positive" dynamics mirror what low-harvest (or non-selective harvest) deer herds look like; i.e. a balanced adult sex ratio and a natural age structure (deer of all ages present, including mature members).
Back when I was a little younger and more nimble. I was hunting on some new TVA land . I had put Fox scent on my boots as a Cover scent. I spotted a likely tree and climbed up in it to what looked like a comfortable looking crotch that I could lean back and stretch out. no stand, no safety belt . Only about 6 feet off the ground. I fell asleep . Doe woke me up nose to my boot sniffing that Fox pee. Looking through the cracks of my eyes she never spooked till I opened my eyes.
Carlos
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I had a fairly close encounter yesterday, sorry about the shaky video.
I was trying not to act like a hunter, and moved along like it was nothing unusual.
Here's a video, he was only about 25-30 yards away.
I was trying not to act like a hunter, and moved along like it was nothing unusual.
Here's a video, he was only about 25-30 yards away.
I wouldn't have moved until he left
I was hunting an old buck that was bedding in some real thick cover. I hunted the outskirts that morning and had planned on still hunting to the middle of the thicket during midday to bowhunt the rest of the day. I started working my way through the thicket with my stand and bow packed on my back. I was using my muzzleloader as I moved slowly to where I wanted to end up. A friend of mine had killed a mature buck off a different farm a few days before and let me take his tarsal glands, I was dragging them in as I went. I had the wind blowing across my face from right to left and planned on making a drag trail that would bring him in upwind of my tree I had pre-picked several weeks before. I had been taking my time and watched several deer working my way in making sure not to spook any. I was using hand pruners to cut my way slowly through some of the thicker areas and I reached a spot where I felt like if he was bedded in a certain spot he would smell me if I continued the direction I was traveling. I decided to rattle. I stood in that same spot for about 15 minutes after rattling when I thought I heard some footsteps. I had circled around a big thorn bush before rattling and the steps were coming down my scent line on the otherside of the bush. I would stand there for 10 to 15 minutes and I would hear a couple more steps and then nothing. I started to think it was a bird and then he would move a again 2 steps at a time stop and stand there. This went on for about 30-40 minutes and every time I couldn't hear him I would doubt what I heard. Eventually I could see the tips of his rack on the other side of the thorn bush I had circled around before rattling. But I couldn't tell what deer he was. I knew he was a huge bodied deer because he appeared to be taller than me. I was lucky I had brought my shooting stick because my muzzleloader had been resting on it the whole time. I had a facmask on and a boonie hat, he couldn't see me on the other side of the bush. He stretched his neck to try and look over the bush at one point and I realized his points were about as big around as my thumb and I knew from that it was the deer I was looking for. I closed one eye to look through my scope and all I could see was thorn bush and hair, I couldn't tell what I was looking at. I took just my finger and tried to make sure my scope was zoomed all the way out and he saw my finger move, he stretched his head to my right and when he did so I saw the white throat patch move into my scope. I placed my crosshairs right below it in the middle of the neck and pulled the trigger. The woods were silent..and I had no idea if he went down or not. I took 2 steps to my left and he was laying there on the other side of the bush. It was a total of 5 steps to go around the bush and be at the deer. It probably would have been 2 steps total in a straight line if the bush wasnt there. I sat there and just soaked it in for the next 30 minutes before realizing he was so big body wise I would need some help getting him out. If I remember correctly he field dressed 225lbs.
Oh to reminisce, it makes me want to skip work and hit the woods tomorrow morning.
That was the closest I think I've ever been when I shot one. I had another big deer many years before that and he threw snow all over me after I shot him and he ran past me. I had tucked myself back up into a big hollowed out tree trunk and shot him eating redoaks after a light snow fall at about 30 yards and he ran right past me within a few feet after the shot.
Oh to reminisce, it makes me want to skip work and hit the woods tomorrow morning.
That was the closest I think I've ever been when I shot one. I had another big deer many years before that and he threw snow all over me after I shot him and he ran past me. I had tucked myself back up into a big hollowed out tree trunk and shot him eating redoaks after a light snow fall at about 30 yards and he ran right past me within a few feet after the shot.
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deerhunter10
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Heres a few. The best deer encounter is back in the day when we hunted on the ground a lot more I was sitting on a big tree and I kept hearing something but never saw thought it was a squirrel. Finally saw it was a doe she came behind me a put her nose on me to sniff. I never knew how loud and how much air come out of a deers nose til then.
The other when I was a teenager I went on a black bear hunt in Saskatchewan Canada. And we hunted on the ground over bait I had a sit in guide because of my age. We had multiple bears at least 4 or 5 at literally 3 to 5 steps. And the guide would always say if they take another step shoot he carried an old 45-70. Great times.
The other when I was a teenager I went on a black bear hunt in Saskatchewan Canada. And we hunted on the ground over bait I had a sit in guide because of my age. We had multiple bears at least 4 or 5 at literally 3 to 5 steps. And the guide would always say if they take another step shoot he carried an old 45-70. Great times.
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I think after 30+ years I've convinced my dad this actually happened. We were hunting Mule Deer in the Guadalupe mountains in New Mexico. Long day of hiking and not seeing much.
Me being a young un, decides to hike up the hill by our camp. Get to the top and am shocked when a really nice 5x5 Mule Deer stands up maybe 10 yards away. Lasted a long time. Just a face off. He eventually turned and trotted off the hill and I ran back down as fast as I could to tell my dad.
He was taking his time fixing something and was like "Yeah, ok, sure son". Eventually we hiked up to the top together.
I'm like "Dad, I'm almost 40 now. I promise it happened".
"Yeah, ok, sure son"
Me being a young un, decides to hike up the hill by our camp. Get to the top and am shocked when a really nice 5x5 Mule Deer stands up maybe 10 yards away. Lasted a long time. Just a face off. He eventually turned and trotted off the hill and I ran back down as fast as I could to tell my dad.
He was taking his time fixing something and was like "Yeah, ok, sure son". Eventually we hiked up to the top together.
I'm like "Dad, I'm almost 40 now. I promise it happened".
"Yeah, ok, sure son"
BSK
Well-Known Member
Many years ago when I still bow-hunted I was coming out of my stand because it had started to rain. Walking back to camp wearing one of those cheap plastic rain ponchos, I see a doe walking towards me on the old logging road I'm using. I see her before she sees me, so I just crouch down in the road. I tilted my head down to hide my face from her but still expected her to bolt once she saw me. But instead, she keeps walking towards me. Eventually, she's so close I'm looking from under my poncho hood at her front feet about 5 feet in front of me. After standing there for a few moments, she just walks right past me at touching distance. I'm assuming that will be it - she just thought I was a stump or a log - and she'll go on her way. Nope. Next I can feel her standing right behind me. I start to get nervous because she might suddenly catch my scent, realize I'm a predator and lash out with her front hooves. Apparently, those old plastic ponchos really hold in the scent, because the next thing I know, I can feel her nose pressing against the back of my head, and I can hear her loudly sniffing away. She spent about 30 seconds running her nose over my poncho-hood covered head before finally being satisfied I was nothing of concern and went on her way.
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This is amazing. Thank you for sharing.
Great thread.
My closest deer was a 5 pter. I was easing up a logging road that ran on the side of a ridge. I heard steps up above me, and he angled down and to my left. Thought hard about shooting, then decided against it. When He got to the logging road, he turned and starts coming up the road toward me. No idea why he didn't scent me. I raised my muzzleloader and am having a serious internal debate about shooting or not.
He kept coming. Closer, closer, closer. I thought he was going to sniff the end of my barrel, but instead he turned about 2 steps from me, and went back up the hill at his casual pace.
The actual closest I've been was diving on a turkey I had shot and then strangling him with my hands. It's a long story.
My closest deer was a 5 pter. I was easing up a logging road that ran on the side of a ridge. I heard steps up above me, and he angled down and to my left. Thought hard about shooting, then decided against it. When He got to the logging road, he turned and starts coming up the road toward me. No idea why he didn't scent me. I raised my muzzleloader and am having a serious internal debate about shooting or not.
He kept coming. Closer, closer, closer. I thought he was going to sniff the end of my barrel, but instead he turned about 2 steps from me, and went back up the hill at his casual pace.
The actual closest I've been was diving on a turkey I had shot and then strangling him with my hands. It's a long story.
JCDEERMAN
Well-Known Member
Quite a few close encounters. One that comes to mind - I was hunting on the ground overlooking a small field many years ago. Had a doe come up from behind me. Something had spooked her. She jumped straight up over top of me. If she was about 6" lower, her hooves would have hit my head. She ran about 15 yards and stopped looking the opposite direction into the field (and straight toward our cabin). She started stomping and turned and starting running straight back toward me and proceeded to jump over me again. This time I had my hands and arms over my face and I laid back real fast in defense mode. Needless to say, she was OUTTA THERE that time 
. I then looked up and saw one of our buddies at the other end of the field. She had seen him before I did leaving the cabin. Got jumped over by a deer twice in about 30 seconds. I guess she thought I was a stump sitting there on a log
. I then looked up and saw one of our buddies at the other end of the field. She had seen him before I did leaving the cabin. Got jumped over by a deer twice in about 30 seconds. I guess she thought I was a stump sitting there on a log
