Four blown opportunities this week

Eship

Eship

Lil-Rokslider
Joined
Jan 29, 2025
Messages
202
Location
Maryland
So, I took off Tuesday-Friday this week to get out and hunt the rut. I have been pretty fortunate to see 4 different bucks worth shooting come into range.

Here’s where I’m getting frustrated though: every single one of these bucks walked within 20 yards of me, I was able to get my bow back, but all four stopped just behind brush/trees preventing me from taking a shot. In all four instances, the wind was in my favor, but the bucks just knew something was off and they turned around and slowly trotted off. Not a single one snorted, blew, stomped, or sprinted away. For three of them, I was on the ground, and for one I was in the saddle.


What makes me so mad is that in 3/4 cases the bucks came from the opposite direction I was expecting, so I wasn’t perfectly concealed and I think that is what threw them off despite not catching any movement. It seems like this whole rut has just been a matter of me making one wrong decision on each hunt that is costing me.

Anyway, maybe I’ll I get it all right tomorrow.
 
Blind Squirrel said:
Wow, you suck at life. Thats never happened to me. J/k
I’m always amazed how they can stop with their vitals concealed. Every time. Hang in there. You’re obviously doing more right than wrong to be in position on 4 shooters in one week. Tomorrow is your day.
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shooters is relative of course. Any 8 point on public land is a shooter to me. I have a good feeling about tomorrow morning. And if it doesn’t come together, at least I can’t say I didn’t see anything.

I’m also finding that I hate/suck at evening hunts during the rut. I don’t see anything in the evening.
 
Can you clean up the shooting lanes? I saw you mention public and I’m not sure if that’s an option.

And as far them coming from a different direction, all patterns have went out the window here since about last Friday.

The girls are dictating what the boys do right now.
 
BLJ said:
Can you clean up the shooting lanes? I saw you mention public and I’m not sure if that’s an option.

And as far them coming from a different direction, all patterns have went out the window here since about last Friday.

The girls are dictating what the boys do right now.
Click to expand...
Yeah I can, the problem is that, like you said, patterns have gone out the window, so it’s difficult to clear everything.

What’s interesting is that does are usually everywhere where I’m hunting and you typically won’t see a buck at all until now. Now, I’ve only seen one doe, and I had bumped her. They’re not in their usual bedding areas, so it’s hard to predict anything
 
Sounds like bow hunting whitetails to me. Keep going, it’ll work out eventually.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
If they didn't see you or smell you they heard something . If 4 in a row stopped when you drew and turned around it wasn't that they all got lucky
 
Well, could be worse. I grew up chasing whitetails in Wisco. The rut is freaking on right now for them. I went and got myself hooked up with a ranchers daughter in Northern Alberta. Sitting on 6600 acres. 1. Rut is not on. 2. Blowing 20 knot winds for a week. 3. Lady doesn’t want me to go hunt because it would make her sad. We have an 8 week old baby girl. So I live vicariously through y’all. Hang in there bud. Post a pic here in the next day or two when you get one! That’s why we call it hunting and not killing. If killing is all ya want to do, go to Africa.
I did get to go on my once in a life time Bison hunt here not too long ago. Every day, I would be excited to go. I would either see lots of cows or have a hunter drive up on me mid stalk. Something was always going wrong. Just stay the course and trust that one moment everything will align. Because it does. You just need to control the things that you can control! Good luck! 🍀
 
TopherDave said:
Well, could be worse. I grew up chasing whitetails in Wisco. The rut is freaking on right now for them. I went and got myself hooked up with a ranchers daughter in Northern Alberta. Sitting on 6600 acres. 1. Rut is not on. 2. Blowing 20 knot winds for a week. 3. Lady doesn’t want me to go hunt because it would make her sad. We have an 8 week old baby girl. So I live vicariously through y’all. Hang in there bud. Post a pic here in the next day or two when you get one! That’s why we call it hunting and not killing. If killing is all ya want to do, go to Africa.
I did get to go on my once in a life time Bison hunt here not too long ago. Every day, I would be excited to go. I would either see lots of cows or have a hunter drive up on me mid stalk. Something was always going wrong. Just stay the course and trust that one moment everything will align. Because it does. You just need to control the things that you can control! Good luck! 🍀
Click to expand...
Did you eventually get a bison?
 
sniper61 said:
If they didn't see you or smell you they heard something . If 4 in a row stopped when you drew and turned around it wasn't that they all got lucky
Click to expand...
To clarify, they didn’t see me move, but two of them still did see me and were suspicious. In the past I’ve had deer that see you and so long as you don’t move for long enough, they continue on with their day. That didn’t happen this time.
 
If they stopped where they crossed your incoming path, that may have alerted them.

Is the area where they stopped on the edge of an open area, they can see no deer in? Then a decoy to draw them out would help.
 
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