What could I have done differently??

[curlyfry09]

Hey guys, so Im new to region 3 and finally found myself a nice little area to call my own. There are no other people coming into it. So after a crinkly walk in on frozen leaves this morning I am sitting in my treestand for about an hour when I decide to let off a couple doe bleats. About 5 minutes later I hear this buck coming in from the cut block I'm sitting against. Now this is an old cut, the trees are about 10-12 feet high but you can still see through them alright and there's a ton of sign heading into it. Anyways, this guy is making all sorts of noise on his way in, stomping kicking grunting until he gets to about 40 yards and he stops advancing. So I give another bleat and he starts going ape shit just inside the treeline, I can pick up the odd movement through the gaps, he's thrashing around jumping in circles and what seems to be figure eights. Then he calms down and I see his tail waving as he trots down the hill further into the cut, so I bleat again and he comes tearing back to the same spot and beats the shit out of it again. This goes on 3 times bit he never sticks his head out where I can see it, I saw his tail a bunch of times but that's all. After the third time I assume he's gonna go back down the hill but I see him run flat out in the other direction, at first I thought he was chasing away another seer because he obviously had a purpose. A few minutes later however I see a coyote heading up the hill away from me and he was coming from exactly where that deer ran off to. I thought about popping him to make it easier on the population but was still hopeful to get that deer back, never happened.

So my question is, is there anything I could have done to get him to take those last few steps out? In 30 minutes I probably belated 6 or 7 times to him and even the in a couple grunts, but I don't think he liked them. The wind was light for the most part but it did drift in his direction off and on, even with the scent killer I had applied I wasn't totally convinced I'd tricked him.

Any input would be great, I'm heading back out tomorrow for another try, hopefully with some snow.

[Sofa King]

dount count on scent killer.
only having the wind to your advantage truly is safe.
I'd say he was getting some of your scent.

[bubbakeg]

too bad you couldn't close the deal on him but sounds like a pretty exciting day nonetheless! good luck tomorrow!

[tinhorse]

Try some shed scraping on bushes. I've had bucks run away with a group of does and come right back out into the open after thrashing the bushes with a shed a bit a giving a buck grunt

[Jagermeister]

Probably had CWD.

[curlyfry09]

Is it too late to rattle? I'm wondering if they are more interested in an f word that isn't fighting.....

[M.Dean]

You could try rattling for sure, and about the only thing I can think of to try would be once you do see parts of it, try to get into a different position? Even if your down on all 4's, why not, I've done it. And if your in MU 3-27 this morning, wear your snow camo! The wind and hail woke me up around 3:30 this morning, and right now where getting snow and ice pellets, so watch out driving on the high ways! This road was just paved, and it's deadly with snow and ice, like we found out a week ago! Well, I'm just putt'in a few WT steaks into the fry'in pan, with onion, garlic and diced peppers, I'm browning the Sour Dough bun's in the pan once there done, add a few slices of great cheddar, and we've got our "Hunt'in Lunch" for this morning's outting! There's a B&C Buck somewhere's, so if any of you guys see it, feel free to give me a call and tell me where in the hell it is! Good Luck today, and no matter where you are at 11:00 this morning, stop and remember all the people that gave there lives so you and I can enjoy this freedom!!! Lest We Forget!

[hunter1947]

My thoughts are is that you did everything right the WT bucks are not into the rut that heavy right now there getting into the rut somewhat right now if I was you I would go back latter and do exactly what you did before when they the WT bucks get into the rut deeper the buck will not be as clever as time gets latter into the rut try a little light rattling as well..

[caddisguy]

Scent killer is a gimmick, 100%. I do believe scent "cover" can potentially help, albeit not much and probably not at all in your scenario.

For scent cover, I think of scent like sound. You can hear someone whisper in a quiet room but crank up the music and it drowns it out. For the human nose, you can certainly drown out scent. Like an air freshener in car, it doesn't take away any sort of smell, it just distracts the senses. I figure if you stink like a pine tree it might buy you a few extra seconds before a deer busts you. If I was hunting from a stand, I'd throw my clothes in a bag with pine overnight. It's free anyway and might buy a few seconds which could mean a difference between shot and no shot.

[Big Lew]

Scent covers, including washing your clothes in the specialty soaps, and as "caddisguy"
suggested, putting them in a bag with pine tree scent (boughs) does help, but if you're
sitting in one spot for a long time, your human odour still can be detected by animals.
All that scent camo can't mask your breath, it's best to set up with the breeze in your
favour. It's utterly amazing how little scent or noise an animal can detect.

[Red_Mist]

How high is your tree stand? There's definitely a possibility he scented you but if your high enough it shouldn't matter as much. Your odour from getting into stand off the ground should have dispersed within 30 minutes or so. I like scents placed around stand in case the wind swirls.... I've had deer surprise me from off angles and they sorta just hangout as they are confused by the cover scent and try to figure out what they actually smell. The other thing is your silhouette in the tree stand. No the deer aren't looking up but if your super obvious outline just sitting in the treeline he may have spotted movement or heard you moving around. And honestly things don't go perfect out there sometimes these things just happen.

[ACB]

GRUNT TUBE,GRUNT TUBE,GRUNT TUBE. They work unreal this time of the year ands yes Mule deer grunt, the grunt tube is not only for White tails. I'v seen Mule deer do it! A buddy of mine shot one of his best mulie bucks ever while the buck was grunting. We were on a trip to region 4 and I had bought a grunt call for WT or so I thought, and I had showed it to him and how it worked.He had basically said ow just another gimmick. Well this one foggy morning we split up he went up one side of this valley and I went up the other. Part way up this slash road he comes to a Y in the road and he takes the upper road and gets about 25-30 yards up it when he hears something so he stops and listens, and he hears a grunt. He's thinking that A- hloe is over hear trying to screw me around, it's a good thing that he had his glasses on to stop his eye's from popping out of his head. Around a corner of the lower part of the Y come's a 4pt mulie buck, it would grunt while it was walking then stop and listen then take 5 or 6 more steps grunting while he was going. He had to wait till the buck cleared some small under brush before he shot so he got to see it grunting quite a bit. That thing was so close it almost had powder burns on it, it didn't take him long and he had a grunt tube call. Don't leave home with out it this time of the year.

[RadHimself]

right place, right time, wind in your favor, patience