Sit # 23 - Rut Action

So after getting all those great pictures by the creek, I decided I need to be in there. The wind was from the south, which was not the best, but a person needs to get aggressive at some point during the rut. I got set up without making too much racket and I was quiet and settled by 6:38am. I sat and saw nothing. And then nothing. 9:00 rolled around and I was getting a little cold. I didn't know how much longer I could sit. I figured it out that since I had a meeting at 11, I could only sit until 9:45, so I was determined to do so. At about 9:20, I looked to the east along the field edge and I spotted a deer halfway out of the woods. All I had for optics was my rangefinder. At 200 yards, I could tell that it was a decent buck. I could see mainbeams and a 17" inside spread. I thought that it might be Bullwinkle, so I grabbed the camera and tried to shoot what I could of him working his way down the field edge directly toward me. So he's coming east to west along the north side of this woodline and it didn't make sense till later. He was just scent-checking the little woods. We had a south wind and so anything in that woods, he would find out about it fairly quickly. He shortly disappeared back into the woods, but I figured he would be still heading my way. I flipped the camera around and got it into position for him to come right in front of me. After what seemed like forever, he finally broke a limb and I knew he was close. I hit record and took my bow off the hanger. Suddenly I looked behind my tree and sure enough he came out into the corner of the field. When I got a good look at him and decide that he wasn't in fact a shooter, I hung my bow back up and put the camera back on him as fast as I could. Trying to get video footage by yourself is not easy. If that was a bigger buck, I don't know if I would've had time to change the angle of the camera. When I first got that glimpse of himbehind my tree, he was at about 25 yards, but by the time I got the camera on him he was already at about 35 yards. Tricky stuff. Anyway, I got some good footage of him - enough to know he was probably a 3 year old (maybe a 2 year old), but just not what I was hoping to end my season with. It was an awesome encounter. Just not the right deer.

We're on the backslope of the rut and these bucks are looking for the last does to be bred this cycle. This is a good thing actually, because it means they're on their feet in the daylight. Friday is a west switching to northwest wind and I'm hoping to sit all day if I can.