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Something natural spooking them is par for the course, I might have stayed in that stand if he responded to your rattling. It's not always possible and its happened to all of us but with a bow you gotta be ready to draw and hold sometimes when ya first get a glimpse. Looks like the clearing a path hasn't hurt ya but in lieu of that just walk much much slower. It's painful but all sorts of animals walk in the woods and are loud. As evidenced above. Crashing is another story.
-- It seems all of Greece knows what is the right thing to do, but it is only the Spartans that do anything about it. --
From my experience when a buck comes in after responding from a rattling sequence they are on alert... If there is no underbrush or heavy cover where you are rattling that buck can easily figure out there is no deer in the area sparing putting him on high alert...in Michigan if I rattle which I do very little I only do this is in really heavy cover.. Now out west NE, I’ve had them come across a wide open cut field and not think twice...crazy
That squirrel just put the nail in your quest to kill that buck at that moment...he looks nice, I’d slip in closer to that swamp edge and stick him....good luck
Thought I was a good trapper until I started trapping coyotes...... Thought I was a good bowhunter until I targeted mature bucks....
Do you have another stand? I'd move to the edge of that swamp but that's just me I love hunting thick edges of swamps with multiple game trails dumping out in one area..and it's easy for me to move, since I hunt out of this....
Thought I was a good trapper until I started trapping coyotes...... Thought I was a good bowhunter until I targeted mature bucks....
I can only get close if I stay on the ground and stalk, no more than three steps at a time (and no cadence to the stepping) and keep facing the wind. Stands are totally useless to me. But if you continue that dug trail past your camp and into the swamp I think all the critters will use it as highway, when I have opened new trails the deer were the first customers and fox next. Path of least resistance I think, curiosity maybe.
No action this evening. Should I give it a rest for a couple days?
Is it dark there yet? I dont even expect to see deer especially bucks till about an hour before dark until black dark, most of my deer have been killed a few minutes before dark. You should be in the stand right now
