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Rut Action/Movement Reports

We had determined that the buck pictured, while not big racked, would be a good buck to take. Well he read the script this afternoon and walked right into my set up. I greeted him with an arrow and off he went at top speed.

I decided to leave and go after him tomorrow though.
 

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We had determined that the buck pictured, while not big racked, would be a good buck to take. Well he read the script this afternoon and walked right into my set up. I greeted him with an arrow and off he went at top speed.

I decided to leave and go after him tomorrow though.
In full the full story and pics….. gotta have pics! Good luck Daver
 
Had a 3 or 4 year old 8 pointer around me with a doe yesterday for 4+ hours. He scraped, rubbed, LONG grunted, and kept her contained. They bedded 21 and 27 yards away for over an hour, got up and milled around 50 yards away only to return to the same beds for another hour. Saw 4 other bucks alone so not all locked up. But some certainly are.
 
Had a 3 or 4 year old 8 pointer around me with a doe yesterday for 4+ hours. He scraped, rubbed, LONG grunted, and kept her contained. They bedded 21 and 27 yards away for over an hour, got up and milled around 50 yards away only to return to the same beds for another hour. Saw 4 other bucks alone so not all locked up. But some certainly are.
I agree there are plenty still not locked down. Had a really good mature deer running wild and cruising yesterday. Just have lost sight of several known mature deer in this area in the last 24-48 hrs. Hopefully by the weekend they are up and searching again.
 
Just got down and came to work. Pretty mild, a couple does not being bothered and my pet six pointer came to see me at daylight like always. Had a possible target buck work a scrape about 80 yards from me. I forgot my binos but he was solid for sure. Pretty slow morning on our farm all in all...
 
In full the full story and pics….. gotta have pics! Good luck Daver
Welp...the full story is that I screwed up. I can't remember the last time I wounded a buck and didn't recover it. But this one appears to have vanished. I took a frontal shot, which I don't recall ever attempting one of those before...and I will never try another one.

I think I set the stage for failure by not pointing the decoy more towards me. I really can't say why I didn't, as I have successfully decoyed many bucks with the nose of the decoy quartering towards me. Since he was so close, I thought I could get away with it that shot. Never again. He was approaching Geeky Dekey nose to nose, but he was able to stay pretty much straight on the whole time because I had messed up when I set the deke up. I dunno...I guess I figured he was so close that I had it in the bag.

I watched some YouTube videos last night and while I believe I could fairly easily blow through the scapula, should I hit it. I have done that at least once in the past few years, so that gave me some reason to think that I could do it again. I now think that is only really a thing if the deer is broadside...hitting the scapula on a frontal shot is a whole different animal...no matter the arrow set up, etc.

I think he dropped ever so slightly at the shot, but just enough that I think I hit the scapula and then the arrow went "up", more out the neck v. into the body cavity...where I do believe it would have been very fatal, very fast. But the margin of error is just too small for me to ever try it again.

I will archery hunt for does, but am not likely to shoot a buck...I had my chance. Sorry for the bummer story...but I thought the lesson might be valuable for others.
 
I took a frontal shot, which I don't recall ever attempting one of those before...and I will never try another one.
I only ever took a frontal shot on a big doe and a buck once Fortunately the doe plowed ahead and was dead quickly, the buck went down in short order as well and the shaft was in pieces inside his chest cavity. I agree that it is high risk and wouldn't do it again.
 
I only ever took a frontal shot on a big doe and a buck once Fortunately the doe plowed ahead and was dead quickly, the buck went down in short order as well and the shaft was in pieces inside his chest cavity. I agree that it is high risk and wouldn't do it again.
FWIW, I watched a The Hunting Public guys video last night where one of them drilled a buck with a frontal shot and it was dead in seconds. Close range, probably 10 yards

When executed it is deadly, but the margin of error is too big for me to try it again.
 
I had planned to hunt the 7-11th taking the week off. But, Im in the office as I type this. Unfortuenatly i could not get friday off and with todays warm mornning, high winds, and chances of rain/thunderstorms I decided to work today and save the vaca day for later on.

Sunday did an all day sit and had a good day seeing quite a bit of movement and bucks cruising. Had a shooter come in from downwind, 170s I would guess, but about 40 yards out he caught my scent.

Monday was awsome, same property with several bucks chasing does and deer moving good all the way until about 1100.....then comes mid-american with two big trucks, a skidloader, and a huge tank like machine with tracks. The property i was hunting has a highline powerline running through it. Earlier this fall they clearcut the path, I thought it was just to knock back the brush and trees that were growing in it as it was really getting over grown. Nope, they are also replacing 4 poles and this is the week they are going to do that. That sucks!!!

So Tuesday and Wednesday I hunted a different property and the movement was very slow. Well, Tuesday morning had some chasing and saw a couple nice bucks. Yesterday was dead, other than one mature buck that I nearly had a chance on about 1230. I really think even with the rut when it warms up they are mostly laying low and then cruising at night.
 
Just went out to the back shop here at work and scared a doe with a scrag horned 8 pointer glued to her out of the ditch along the railroad tracks. This is right behind Alpla in Iowa City if anyone knows where that is.
 
Had 4 deer under me the first 90 minutes of the day, two button bucks and two yearling bucks. Since then, nada.


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Was 10 yards, face to face with a nice buck at 5:30 on my walk out. I thought for a minute I was going to have to wrestle him. But since early morning action it’s been zilch. Hoping to stave off boredom and make it until dark.
 
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Locked down with a doe 30 yards off the road


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Go figure...my son has had two nice bucks wander by him this morning already. Singletons...no does spotted yet.

One is the 8+ year old buck that is #1 on our list. Aaarrgghh. The other a 4 year old beauty.
 
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