Not many hunting days left this season

Hi,

We are still trying to get my father-in-law a deer.  A few days ago we tried again.  My husband took his dad to a location where we have seen deer every time we've been there.  He was standing right beside a thicket. We expected the deer to come up or down the small valley to his right.  Bruce left Jim and walked over to where he wanted to hunt. I went to the front woods hoping to kick up a few deer and have them run Jim's way.

Bruce on his walk to the tree stand did kick up several deer, which ran towards Jim, but no shots were fired by Jim. Bruce got up in the tree stand and settled in for the afternoon.  Around 4pm 3 yearlings and 4 big does came into Bruce's view.  The little ones played around while the big ones bedded down.  Bruce could just see the head of one of the bedded deer, the rest were out of sight.  So, he waited. This was the same location that Jim had hunted four times this year.

In the mean time, I jumped up one doe which ran to the fence on the property line.  It would have been about a 160 yd shot, which I could do, but I just knew the deer would run onto the neighbors property where I would not be allowed to retrieve it.  I watched as she turned away from me and trotted down the fence line out of sight.  I found a nice tree to stand by and surveyed a small valley and hill side about 100 yards inside the tree line of the woods.  Nice spot.  Now I just waited for the big one to come by.

Bruce's deer finally got up and started milling around, then walking diagonally right to left, away from Bruce.  While he was waiting for them to get up, he ranged the bedded deer.  They were about 130 yards away.  Bruce watched the first big doe walk through a clear spot.  The second doe walked into the clear spot.  It was a bit bigger.  Bruce shot and it went straight down. Nice shot!  Now for the surprise. The third doe walked right by the dead doe.  It did not look at the dead doe, it did not run from the sound of the shot, or have any reaction.  It was as if Bruce had not shot at all.  Then the three small deer came prancing by the downed doe, and they did not care that the doe was lying there.  Very odd.  The bunch of deer did not run until Bruce was down out of the tree stand and started walking over to the doe.  Of course they ran in Jim's direction.

Jim did not see any of those deer.

I talked to Bruce on the radio to find out what he shot.  Knowing he had a big doe down, let me feel okay about not shooting a doe today.  We are giving this deer to a friend.  About 10 minutes after talking to Bruce, I had three deer come by at about 80 yards. An okay size and two small does.  I put the binoculars on them to verify that they were or were not shooters today.  In my opinion they get to live another day.  I was surprised to even see them as they came from Jim's direction.  I thought he surely should have seen them and shot.  But, no, he did not see them.  Oh well.

Jim did see three does.  He watched them for over half an hour, just willing them to step on our hunting property.  They must has some sixth sense, because they would come close to the property line, then turn. They'd come back and turn again. He soooo wanted them to cross over the line.  What a frustrating day.  Reminds me of my last hunt were the deer just would not cross over the line.

We have one more hunting day this season.  I'll let you know if Jim get a deer this year.

Take care, good hunting and good shooting.
M.