Need some help understanding what I did wrong. Admittedly I'm not a big buck hunter, more on the side of subsistence to feed the family, however this year it just so happens there are a few nice bucks running around.... sooo
The property is only 40 acres so it forces you to set up in the center to prevent a deer from running onto adjacent land where I don't have permission to be.
Yesterday morning I walked into a new stand location that I just received permission to hunt. As I sat over a bunch of crisscross trails, near a overgrown pond area, deer started to flood in from all directions (so much for hunting the wind). My tree stand is approximately 30 feet up and well concealed with other trees and branches. I can see a geat deal, however only have shooting lanes in two directions. At one point I must have had 18 small bucks and does with fawns within 50 yards of my stand with as many as 8 at one time within 30 yards and 4 down wind of me. As the morning progressed and the deer continued to mill about, I realized that I might be a little to close to the bedroom area and to make matters worse the wind started to shift from blowing uphill towards the truck to downhill towards the pond. Still nothing seemed to bother the deer and they continued to mill around and moved into the pond area to bed, maybe 150 yards or more away from me. I slipped out of the stand around 1030.
I wash my clothes and shower before sitting on the stand and have a backpack that is only used during hunting season. I've tried to descent everything prior to the season so its not me that jacks up a hunt.
I went back to sit the afternoon with the wind blowing up hill again, slipping into the stand around 3:30. At some points during the evening the wind would switch blowing down hill but would change back quickly to uphill, almost like a 180 degree gust and then back to normal. Since I was confident with my scent regiment, I really wasn't concerned. One of the big bucks stood up in the center of the pond and started feeding at 6pm. It was the largest buck on the property. He feed for awhile when I lost sight of him. I wasn't sure if he bedded back down or left the pond. About 6:30 three more bucks stood up and started feeding; they were working there way towards me when without much fan fare, they darted out of the pond area (still well over 100 yards from me). At just about dark a single doe walked down the hill 30 yards from me headed past the pond and she simple blew up!
Started to snort and raise a fuss until she left the way she came in. Honestly, from the morning hunt having deer everywhere, I was still convinced it wasn't me and started to look for other reasons. To include looking for a mountain lion in the nearby trees. There is a fairly large population of coyotes in this area, however when they come around the deer get a little excited but stand their ground and watch the coyotes until they leave, then go back to normal. I also have trail cam pictures of a black bear in the area, but none on camera within a few days of yesterday.
The only difference to my regiment yesterday was using outdoor research scent killer spray prior to stepping to the stand for the afternoon. It was an old bottle of scent killer, but I can't believe that stuff goes bad. What am I missing??
