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I was just cruising along still stuck in my summer stride and stopped underneath my climbing sticks set in an old hickory nut tree loaded with a mast crop of nuts. I set this stand and trimmed my lanes in early August. As soon as I stopped I heard some leaves rustle to my left and thought instantly squirrel. WRONG!! Instead it was the same long tined 8 pt. I played peek-a boo with all last year. He stood up at 10 yards and trotted over this grassy knoll to the other side. I stood motionless for 5 minutes or so looking in his direction and decided to climb up. I tied my bow on, took one step, and the old wise Buck had circled 60 yards to my left and heard my loud crunchy feet and again ran to the other side of the knoll.
This stand is placed in a thin tree line that connects two big pieces of timber. The tree line itself has two over grown grass fields on either side and corn about 250 yards past the grass on the south side. The stand is placed in the only draw on the tree line making it an excellent transition zone from bedding to feeding. Unfortunately this buck decided to bed under my stand on an 86 degree afternoon. After climbing into my tree and sitting for about 20 min. to my surprise the long tined 8 pointer had again snuck up behind me on an old un mowed farm road that runs through the tree line and cuts past my stand at 20 yards which told me he had not seen or smelled me and only heard me and was curious to what made the noise.
Within an hour this buck had worked and I mean worked two circles at 50 yards around my stand thrashing three Russian olive trees on his way and left happy and content that there was no intrusion. I had taken every precaution to remain as scent free as possible and that was evident with the buck raising his nose only once after spending 20 minutes down wind and leaving down wind unalarmed. Wow all I can say is hello October and come on November.
Happy hunting,
Buck Killer James
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