In SW Ohio I have a chain-on stand about 16 feet up in a strip of tall white pines mixed in with mature honeysuckle. There is a pond 25 yards to the west and a north/south fenceline 25 yards to the east. Across the fence on the neighbor’s property is a fallow field with weeds and brush that is very thick and head high. The field is roughly 2 acres and rises slightly as it goes to the far fenceline. Around 5:30 I caught a glimpse of movement on the far left corner of the field. My first thought was that I just saw what appeared to be a deer jumping the fence leaving the field. I was asking myself how did I miss the deer moving through the grown-over field. Could it have been bedded in the weeds and it just got up?
As I scanned the field suddenly I noticed a white rack slipping through the tall weeds angling from left to right. I then realized that what I saw was a buck jumping the fence “into” the field, not out. He slowly eased along in the field and was heading to the south and was soon to go out of sight. I then picked up my grunt tube and let out a few loud grunts to see if I could get his attention, and after I did he stopped and stared my way.
He stood there for 30 seconds or so then put his head down and started walking away again. I blew on the grunt tube a few more times and he stopped and looked again. He stood there looking for another long minute then started to walk away again. I hit the grunt tube again but this time I made a few doe bleats with ‘The Can” call, he stopped and looked again for a few seconds, grunted, and turned in my direction, and headed to the grown-over fenceline.
I could hear him busting brush as he approached the fence. I could not see him but it sounded like he was moving along the fence trying to find a spot to jump over. He soon plowed his way through the thick stuff and jumped the fence about 50 yards away, When he landed in the knee-high grassy field he stopped and looked my way, trying to find the buck and doe that he thought were in the field. When he started to walk to the west I hit the grunt tube, he stopped again and looked my way. He was now standing broadside at 40 yards, too far for a shot at a deer on full alert. Seconds later he started moving again and disappeared from view behind the line of pines where I was positioned.
I rolled “The Can” again and made a few more bleats in desperation. It worked! I could hear him coming around the pines and walking into the area between me and the pond. I stood up and turned around in my stand and looked for an opening through the trees behind me. Seconds later he walked into a clear lane and I took the shot.
I saw the lighted nock disappear into the boiler room and lodge in the ground behind him. He ran off and stopped not 20 yards from the point of impact. He stood there for 30 seconds or so and then started to wobble and tip over. I knew then that he was dead on his feet. He soon staggered to his left, hit the ground, and then rolled into the pond. My shortest recovery ever!
