Deer Day 4 - Friday 10 OCT - Deer Spotted!

Alex and I went out tonight.  We hit the field about 4:30 pm.  The wind was much calmer than it had been, only pushing 9 mph versus the 35 mph we had been having.  Oddly though, it was blowing from the NE to the SW (opposite of prevailing).  It was 52F.

Alex walked N through the corn on Neal and sat in the W stand.  I walked NE across the open bean field and sat in the NE corner of Marshall, just inside the woods.  I anticipated that the deer would be coming out from the woods (directly to my E) and heading toward the field.  See photo 1 below.

Looking E toward the top of Marshall's.  Anticipated route of deer.
Please note, plenty of shooting lanes.

At 5:50 pm, I looked to the SW out in the beans, and there stood a large doe.  She had come out of the woods S of me and was cutting to the NW right across the beans.  Safety was off and red dot was on.  Thinking I would not have deer coming in downwind of me, I had put myself into a brier thicket to conceal my identity.   I moved to peek around the tree, and there were two more doe; another large one and a yearling.  All three were in the grass (see photo below) 20 yards to my SW.

Photo depicting where deer WERE in the green grass - through all this scrub.
No option for threading a crossbow bolt through there.
If you needed a hint, this was bad.

Recall the direction of the wind?  9 mph to the SW.  As soon as they got in line with my scent, they stopped.  They did not spook and bolt.  Just stopped, put their noses in the air and sniffed.  They milled around for 30 minutes trying to figure out what was going on.  When they left, the first large doe continued NW into the corn on Boyd (between Alex and me).  The other two returned from whence they came.

Now, did we spray down with scent killer?  Of course, but it does not work so well on Skoal at 20 yards, when you are hunting from the ground.  Oh well, guess I need to invest in the Ozone-ator or whatever they call that thing.  You know they run about $300!  Maybe they can donate one for me to try and then write it up on this here blog.  With my millions of followers, that ought to be worth something.

Other than the squirrels, I saw nothing in the woods the rest of the night.  I walked out at 7:30, getting to the truck at almost full dark.  I saw some shapes in the picked cornfield to our S and got my flashlight out - 3 doe out eating.  Poor Alex, he never saw a deer.

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