Mule deer hunting a couple weeks ago, I climbed up this hill and spooked up a buck and a doe. It was a pretty good sized buck. I didn't get a count, but the antlers were fairly tall and had good mass. Anyhow, they were about 80 yards when I heard them take off into some thick trees heading up hill from me. I sat there cursing myself for a bit, and about 15 seconds later I heard a snort, maybe 100, 120 yards in the direction they went, then all kinds of commotion as the doe came charging down the hill full bore passing me at about 50 yards, snorting the whole way. She was in some trees so I only saw here for a brief instant. I sat there in awe listening to her crash down the hill side. She seemed to have stopped about 150-200 yards below me, snorting over and over. I sat there waiting to see if the buck would follow, and finally heard him give a snort back, a little further across the hill. It was a pretty amazing experience, but got me thinking. It seemed almost like the doe was trying to distract me or lead me away from the buck so that he could get away, or maybe she was just plumb crazy and took off. Of course it's also possible it was a second doe the was spooked up by the first two deer and headed the opposite direction. Has anybody ever seen anything like this? Or have any ideas what was going on?
