November 18, 2012.
As any typical morning hunt starts off we are faced with decisions. Where am I going to hunt, what tactics am I going to use. After my alarm went off, my wife said "I had a dream you got your deer!" Of course my response was "where at?" and "how big was he?" She wasn't much help in that department...
My typical morning drive to any of my deer hunting sites is about 30 minutes, just enough time to finalize my game plan for the hunt. I had been using my H.U.D whitetail buck and doe decoys in combinations, setting them up about 15-25 yards downwind of my tree stand. With rut in full affect and bucks more interested in breeding, rather than fighting, I wasn't having much success. So on this particular morning I decided to setup just my H.U.D. Whitetail doe decoy.
The location I was going to hunt was on a field edge, with a very strong line of active field edge scrapes. Before climbing into my tree stand I setup the decoy clipped to a barb wire fence downwind from my tree stand and the last active scrape in the line. As the sky was turning orange, I started glassing all around. Right there, about 150 yards south was the split G2 buck I was looking at pictures of the night before. I started bleating, only to see him chase the real thing.. Luckily that doe must not have been hot. I kept bleating, all of a sudden he turned and started coming in. I slowed down and softened the bleat call as he disappeared in the tree line. I kept glassing for him, as he emerged from the wooded background he instantly locked eyes with my H.U.D. doe decoy. 75 yards quickly closed to 30, where he made the fatal mistake to stop. My shot wasn't the best, but my setup was PERFECT!! This day was the shortest time I had ever sat in a tree stand. My split G2 buck was down in the dirt a few minutes before sunrise. Thanks Heads Up Decoy for making a great light weight decoy! I don't think he would of came closer than 75 yards without the decoy!!
This is Tony's first bow kill.
