I'm sitting in my treestand, 14' off the ground, in a timber stand. Several well used Deer trails intersect within a 40 yard circumference of my watch area and come off the ridgeline, from a swampy-creek area, to & from a 3 yr old clearcut. I rattle some antlers and make a few calls randomly in the morning hours.
Then about 10am the noise starts. Doesn't sound like a blacktail buck coming and then the beast appears. It is a 5x5 Rosy bull and walks to within 22 yards (pre-ranged stump) of my Lone Wolf treestand. A few cows move in behind me, feeding along an old, grown over road and past my stand further into the timber.
The bull stops, looks out at the clearcut and then beds down in a slight depression. I watch for a several minutes, the cows are now well behind me but I see them bedded in the timber. I try to get the camera out of my pack. All of a sudden, the bull comes up on his feet, whirls and back into the thick timbered ridge above me he goes. Looking behind me the cows are gone too. Hmm, I didn't make any noise, wind check proved in my favor...
then I hear voices coming up the logging road. 2 hunters diddy boppin along, that bull had great ears (& nice antlers). Positioned 40 yards into the timber from the road & clearcut, I chuckle to myself as I over hear them complaining about no elk. Dang it, it would have been a good photo of the bull.
Other than a doe, that was my action all day with 3 morning hours in the stand, some stillhunting the timber and finishing with the last 2.5 hours in the treestand. The doe had passed within 15 yards of my stand in the late afternoon and headed into the clear cut for the evening feed. I nocked an arrow in readiness for my big buck to be following her. But no big buck appears. I continued to watch the doe thru binocs feed in the clear cut until dusk, no buck. Rut must be over with, darn
my big blacktail buck pursuit for 2009 continues, Maybe next weekend.
