40 yard Doe

[Short Track]

I'm in my platform stand, camo box, with little windows, 6' off the ground. mama doe comes in @ 40 yards. (I'm saving my tag for a buck)
This doe literally looks at me for 1/2 hour. She stood her ground, and just stared at my blind. She took a break, ate some blades of grass. Back to staring at me.

She knew something was askew in the blind. I was perfectly still for 1/2 hour. But she was well aware of the danger within the blind.

Finally it was dusk, and I had to leave the blind. Started moving around alot within the blind, gathering my stuff. That was enough for her, she bolted with her 2 fawns.

Cool experience ... but she won't be back for a while. I just wish a buck followed her around, but that never happened.

 

[EdP]

Something to think about: I have a 6'x6' box blind I built on a hillside overlooking a clover plot. The floor of the blind is about 8' above the closest part of the plot 30 yds away. During one of my first hunts from the blind I had the front and one side window open. It became evident very quickly that the prevailing westerly breeze was carrying my scent out and down to deer on the food plot. Keeping the side window closed solved that problem. It just gets opened if I need to make a shot out that side.

Keep at it, she isn't the only deer around.

 

[Texasbuckeye]

Yeah, I agree, there is no way she saw you if you were still, but she smelled you and that is why she was staring. If you would have made noise or she saw you, she would have likely stomped the ground trying to get you to move again or something. An alert doe will just stare, and that is because she smelled you.

Consider your scent control regimen and get back out there. Trial and error is the only way to get good at hunting. Clothes, boots, food you ate, gum, etc...all can make a difference in the close quarters of bow hunting range.

Also, if she has fawns, don't be shocked if she is back out there sooner than you think. While she knew something was off, there was nothing that d her that she saw. So she doesn't equate the smell to the noise to the spook. She will be out within a day or two and feeding her fawns.

 

[sierracharlie338]

I would no longer have a tag in my pocket lol. Doe that ruins my hunt gets to become sausage.

 

[EdP]

I would rather not shoot a doe with fawns this time of year.

 

[Bullzeyez61]

I had an experience last year that really made me re think how I do things. It was 3rd week of November I am in a tree stand about 16-18 feet off the ground in a white oak. I like to place my stands in a v of the main trunk so I am not outlined in the open and when deer walk behind those splits it gives me a chance to pull back. This tree had many splits and I was right in the center of them I thought for sure nothing would pick me off here. Fully camo, face mask covering my face/nose/and forehead only thing exposed were my eyes and the white around them. It was the last 1/2 hour of light and I was already standing up waiting for the woods to start moving. Two fawns come out and they are at about 25-30 yards in the river bottom. I didn’t move at all didn’t make a noise wind is good and one of the fawns is locked on to me staring me down. We stare at each other for probably 5 minutes without breaking eye contact. I had a branch in front of me that was going across just above her head so I slowly made my neck long and got on my toes a bit. Probably took 45 seconds to move maybe a 1.5” so that this branch between the deer and I was now breaking the eye contact between the fawn and I. Once eye contact was broken she immediately dropped her head down a few inches to regain eye contact with me and the stare down continues. That made me think that if a fawn can lock onto my eyes I need to do something about it and now I always wear a full face mesh screen that drops down from my hat. I absolutely hate wearing the full mesh face mask but after that experience that is what I am going with.

 

[Short Track]

I wonder if you wore glasses, would it affect a deer from locking onto your eyes. I know for sure, my doe was locked onto my face. Whites of my eyes probably.

 

[Rich M]

Dont lock eyes w deer. You are a blob in a tree, not a creature.

a buck would leave 0.3 seconds into such contact.

 

[Short Track]

They busted me tonight up in my stand. I was looking the opposite direction, when I hear snorting from behind me. Definitely not the wind. I had the wind in my favor. they know the stand is there, and must have saw me moving around, or saw the back of my head. 3 doe in the field. they are very well aware of the stand...

 

[SloppyJ]

I always shoot those first. You know what's worse than that, when the buck you're after shows up and that doe does the same thing!

I had one of these standoffs last year in a blind with a buddy. She froze me as I was moving my rifle. I had to sit there half sprawled out for what felt like an hour. Finally she moved on and we dropped both of them.

Thought on your blind, is there a floor in it? Are there cracks in the floor where shadows could move underneath you? I've been thinking about building a platform for blind hunts with my son. Do you like it and was it worth the trouble? I was planning on getting some of those corner brackets and building it out of 4x4s.

 

[Short Track]

I have this platform blind below. Walmart is cheaper than amazon. Little windows, but the deer know you're in there once you take 1 from the group.

Robot or human?

 

[TxLite]

Does the wind swirl in your spot? My stand is near the corner of two perpendicular tree lines and even with a favorable wind, it will swirl directly to unintended areas

 

[Short Track]

I should just leave my dirty clothes in the field. This way my scent is always out there.