I got the chance to bowhunt some unbelievable land near New Ulm the last few days. Holy Hanna! after seeing some trail cam pics and seeing what he’s got on the wall, it was a no brainer. Although I didn’t score, it was one of the best hunts I’ve been on. With the temps and the wind the last few days, conditions couldn’t have been much worse, but it didn’t seem to effect the deer movement at all.
The land we were on is amazing, rolling corn and bean fields, with interspersed woodlots bordering a river, beautiful stuff. 
To say the least, I was pumped and ready to rock n roll. He, along with his neighbors, manage the land fairly intensively for big bucks, so there was a mature 8pt minimum rule on the property. He set me up in a stand about 40 yards from the back bean field, with the river just to my right, on a well worn deer trail. I had deer within easy range within an hour into my hunt, along with a really big 6pt that walked directly under my stand that I probably would have pulled the trigger on elsewhere. He was an old, big deer with a heavy and wide unique rack. Fast forward to last night, and I was set up in the same stand about 3pm. Again, I had 5 or 6 does and fawns under me by 4pm. All milling around for awhile before entering the bean field, classic funnel area from bedding to food source.Then at about 6pm, a flock of turkeys wandered up from the draw and made enough noise to wake the dead! 
The deer I had around had enough of the turkeys and entered the beans earlier than normal. With the turkeys under me, I glassed the field to see if anything had entered from the otherside when all I see is horns sticking up from the middle of the field. A beauty of a buck was bedded right in the middle of the beans, must have walked right past him when I entered the stand! 
So at about 645, I had enough and had to at least try to sneak to the edge of the field, and maybe with luck he’d get up and start feeding towards me. I quietly got down and tip toed to the edge, with the big buck ranged at 57 yards from me, just laying there! I had made it without spooking him and was hidden behind some brush, this just might work! I glassed him again, and he was a beautiful typical 11 pointer, with a bunch of junk around his brow tines. All of a sudden, he gets up and stares right in my direction, 2 seconds later, I can hear another deer coming from right behind me, oh crap! Don’t turn around or I’m screwed. With my nerves rattled, the deer behind me is gonna run me over if he keeps coming the way he did. Now the cool part. Unfortunatley the big boy slowly started walking away from me and he wasn’t coming back. 
That’s when the deer behind me snuck out to the field about 10 feet to my left, unreal how close this deer was to me! He was a little 3 pointer that had no idea I was even there, he stood right next to me for a few minutes before he trotted out to the field to feed! Super cool, awesome hunt!
I know this subject has been debated before, but I have to revisit it again. Maybe it was all luck, or the the fact that the wind was swirling and gusting, but I never once got winded, even with all the deer around me. Whether it be all hype, or a number of factors, my ScentBlocker clothing worked! I always try to ne anal about scent control, but even that isn’t fool proof always. I had a deer literally 10 feet from me on the ground with a pretty significant wind in his face and he didn’t have a clue. Anyways, thanks for reading, it was a fantastic hunt. I’ll be back for sure! 
September 26, 2008 at 11:27 pm
#196736
I too, had a close encounter with a mature buck one night, I was sitting in a brush line with him about 4 feet in front of me…. way too cool and scary at the same time 
You made the most of it and got within 57 yards of a mature bedded buck – a feat you should be proud of! 
Never heard of it. 