It's the old idea that when everything goes wrong, your chances go up. Well this day didn't start out great. My alarm clock messed up when I used the wrong alarm, one set to just vibrate not ring, and got up over an hour later than I wanted. I had planned on going to the swamp property to chase RD yet again, as the weather was switching from high 60's the days prior to now freezing temps with drizzling sleet/snow mix in the morning. I hated to but I climbed back in bed knowing it wasn't smart to be walking into the swamp property less than an hour early and risk bumping RD or another big buck out of the woods they so rarely use (see a new post coming to the SAH blog/site on why that is). The plan was to head out there mid-morning and slip into a stand.
Specs of the hunt:
Where: Swamp Property
Stand/Location:Was going to use far West one and enter it from the South...however the bucks I spotted made me swing North and decide on a gut reaction to hunt the Poplar (center two-track) stand.
Time in:11:00am
Time out: 6:15pm down
Wind: W/SW
Well this hunt would confirm a suspicion I'd had for a long time. If you've noticed going into this hunt, and it still holds true, I've only seen does in the woods ONE time on ONE occasion....why you ask? Well I'd suspected EHD as a factor...but the rising one in my mind is DOGS. We have gotten on cam photos pictures of dogs almost every pull...meaning they're probably on the property every day almost chasing deer....if you were a doe would you want to deal with the darn things everyday and risk losing your fawns to them? Well the dogs potentially cost me RD...yup that's right the buck I'd been chasing for well over 100hours was there one minute and gone the next.
The hunt started with the spotting of two young bucks (little 6 and 7 it looked like) while walking the far Eastern two-track south. One of them popped out in front of me heading East from the food plot...he kept looking East across the two track before getting leary of me a mere 40 yards away and turned and headed SW out of sight. Knowing he had looked East and hearing something coming I quick drew in hopes of it being a 'shooter'. Sadly it was another yearling buck who just kept walking SW towards the other buck paying me no mind. I quickly decided to change up my approach and go N and then head S to the poplar stand on the middle two track.
I was set maybe an hour, texted my father the story of the bucks and gave the wife a UTS (up tree safely) text and decided to do a tickle of rattling and a few soft grunts. After that, I sat down...only to catch movement on the two-track heading into the food plot to my East....IT WAS ANTLERS AND THEY WERE BIG. I grunted and it turned it's head...grabbed my bow....grunted again and BAM! HE FLAT OUT TOOK OFF LIKE A BAT OUT OF **** HEADING SOUTH! Right on his heels was not just one neighbor's dog but two! All I could do was watch as the buck I suspected was RD tear off through the food plot and watch as the massive rack disappeared with dogs hot on his heels.
I would see nothing else the entire hunt....save the dogs come back through sniffing all around trying to "have fun" with another deer....needless to say I came very close to trying to shoot one...
I left my bow hanging and planned an all day sit for the next day, even though the dogs were hurting things the bucks proved to be moving for once and I wanted to see what could happen.
*A letter is planned and will be mailed out today or tomorrow to the owner of the dogs, with trail cam pics proving what they're dogs are doing, explanation of how it's illegal and a warning that they either need to chain or house the dogs. They also should be very thankful I did not shoot them.
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