Sunday morning I had just left the truck parked about 3/4s of a mile from my deer stand and was walking westerly on a frozen sandy two-track through a clear-cut focused on not stepping on any frozen snow chunks or ice. I had nearly two hours to visible shooting light. I had my headlamp on and had progressed to all of about 150 yards from the truck when I realized something else was walking along in the thick aspen clear-cut off my right. I stopped and listened intently;heavy foot steps of a deer moving, not the light padding movement of a coyote or wolf. I realized that the deer was actually walking toward me, well, actually it was walking toward my headlamp plume. My headlamp field initially picked-up a pair of glowing eyes as the deer turned and started marching steadily toward me at a walk. At somewhere inside thirty yards I realized that it was a buck. He just kept walking closer with his neck extended until he was less than thirty feet away; a long-tined three point with tips that curved inward at the top. I have no clue how long he stood there rocking his head and neck back and forth, apparently trying to figure out what I was before he backed away and walked off into the darkness.
So far, I have seen three 1.5YO bucks, two of which I called in, and a pair of IDKs that had a go at each other by a scrape over a twenty minute period in poor shooting light. I have not seen the buck I am hunting in daylight, but I suspect he was one of them. I actually heard a snort-wheeze in the woods for the first time prior their fight.
So far, I have seen three 1.5YO bucks, two of which I called in, and a pair of IDKs that had a go at each other by a scrape over a twenty minute period in poor shooting light. I have not seen the buck I am hunting in daylight, but I suspect he was one of them. I actually heard a snort-wheeze in the woods for the first time prior their fight.
