Once the deer snorts, your hunt is over.....

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AJMD429
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Once the deer snorts, your hunt is over.....

Post by AJMD429 »

.
....and other 'truisms'.... :roll:

I had just read this story a couple days ago...

Does a Snorting Deer Mean Your Hunt’s Over?

https://www.realtree.com/brow-tines-and ... unt-s-over


So I leave the house about 6:10 before sunrise, and head to my deer stand that is 400 yards behind my house. At around 200 yards I hear a light snort on my left (north) up the hill.

At that point I figured it would just spook whatever deer were out there more if I tried to be sneaky so I flipped my red headlamp to white and started singing and walking more noisily.

I wished I still had a spare kid at home with me to walk back the the stand making noise, wait for me to ascend, then noisily go back home. Deer can't count, and always seemed to net me a deer within 30 minutes or so.

Anyway, I get to the deer stand, and then take my place and try to be quiet. I hear the usual tentative footsteps off in the distance in different directions but not much going on. I sit in the dark and muse about guns, history, and next year's garden.

After about 30 more minutes I hear a loud snort to my right, southeast up the hill but I don't hear any running after that. A couple lighter snorts over there during the next half hour and then it's quiet. At one point I remember thinking that I should be hunting in a different place because of where the bedding area and so forth are, instead of this place down in the bottom of the ravine.

At about 7:30 it's light enough to shoot, and a smallish doe appears that I think had been loitering straight ahead of my deer stand on the north side of the valley I'm just up the south side of. It walks down to the stream then looks like it might follow the second snorter, but is in brush 100 yards away. I sight on it because it's just light enough to shoot but it's a hundred yards away and behind some brush and is a pretty small deer anyway. I figure I'll wait and see if it comes closer for a better shot, and to check and see if it is decent size.

It disappears behind the brush so I can't really see it for a while. About then, more snorting from the place on my right, only this time it's repeated and the deer starts bolting up the hill further. I almost wonder if it's that doe but I never got to see the doe move so I think it's still in the thicket. Another few minutes goes by and without any particular reason I see my suspicion is correct, because that doe snorts and takes off east up the valley then veers up the north side.

So at this point I figure I'm screwed and my cover is blown so I just sit there and listen to the squirrels and start looking around and not even trying to be sneaky. I stand up in the deer stand to stretch preparatory to climbing down, and turn around and draw a bead on a squirrel that's been behind me making an annoying racket, just for the hell of it, even though I don't plan to shoot it. I sit back down and unhook my harness, figuring I may as well leave now since the deer are spooked. I get out a little hook I was going to fasten to the deer stand to hang my rifle on (I use low enough stands that I can hang the rifle within reach from the ground) and start fiddling with that and trying to attach it to the stand. I get that done and decide to remove the detachable magazine and unload my Ruger 96/44 levergun, put the un-used cartridge back in the magazine and slip the magazine back in the unchambered gun, making a bunch of noise. Then I hang the gun on the hook, waving it around and muttering about how the hook isn't in a good place. Then I start to get out of the stand, and as I’m turning to step on the ladder I hear that obnoxious squirrel that was behind me again, only I realize it's down in the valley to my stand’s left now. I look in that direction (to my right as I’m starting to climb out of the stand) and sure enough it's a scrawny little doe.

It's young and dumb enough that I figure I might be able turn back around, retrieve my rifle, rechamber it and take a shot if the doe looks to have enough meat on it to be worthwhile. I almost didn't bother, since the doe was so tiny looking, but we do need the meat, so I figured I'd check it out through the scope. It's only 7:45 now and although I've only been out about an hour and a half, it feels like I've spooked every deer in the county so may as well go home.

It's behind a tulip tree for a minute so I go ahead and sit back down, bring my rifle up again, and look through the scope but at about 40-50 yards I decide it's really not a deer I want to take because the deer is so small. I let her walk up the valley and I'm kind of impatient figuring as soon as she passes I'll go ahead and go home. Then I hear another deer behind her and think it must be another silly young doe dumb enough to wander in front of me when I've been moving and making all this racket.

I see movement and it's behind a tree momentarily as well so I figure I'll check it out through my scope.

This one evidently was checking out the doe just like I was, only with different aspirations, and a different decision.

Did you ever notice that when males are seeking sex, they do really STUPID things...?????
IMG_20221122_074911739.jpg
After a prayer of thanks for letting me in the food chain, I realized and remembered the reason I put my deer stand down in the little ravine behind our house. If I shoot a deer, it seldom makes it more than 20 yards, but even if it does it's going to be running uphill, which means it won't probably go as far, and if it falls or tumbles, it will be coming back down into the valley. All my dragging will be either downhill or level. 8) This one weighed 170 lb after field dressing, and I was hunting by myself, so I was very glad that I could bring the tractor within about a hundred yards if where the deer fell.
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Last edited by AJMD429 on Thu Nov 24, 2022 8:57 pm, edited 5 times in total.
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JimT
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Re: Once the deer snorts, your hunt is over.....

Post by JimT »

Good on ya! Nice making meat like that. And a good looking buck. All your skill went into getting him to think you were not paying attention and didn't know he was there ... AND IT WORKED! :lol:
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Re: Once the deer snorts, your hunt is over.....

Post by gamekeeper »

Congratulations Doc...........I would probably have shot the squirrel and have nothing for the freezer... :oops:
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Re: Once the deer snorts, your hunt is over.....

Post by Nath »

Top drawer story doc. Good for friend.
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Re: Once the deer snorts, your hunt is over.....

Post by piller »

Nice looking deer.
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Re: Once the deer snorts, your hunt is over.....

Post by Walt »

Good story, nice deer......congratulations!
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Griff
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Re: Once the deer snorts, your hunt is over.....

Post by Griff »

Congrats Doc!
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marlinman93
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Re: Once the deer snorts, your hunt is over.....

Post by marlinman93 »

Hunting during the rut definitely puts the hunter at a distinct advantage. Congratulations on a good buck!
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Re: Once the deer snorts, your hunt is over.....

Post by Sixgun »

Nice buck Doc..nice Ruger 44 too.........in my experience it depends on what the deer snorts...if it's coke or meth you won't see the deer as it will run with the wind....if the deer snorts H it will get lazy and lie down so you will see that one again.....in fact you will be able to walk right up on it while it's nodding out or reading a magazine....

Hope that helps.---006
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.45colt
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Re: Once the deer snorts, your hunt is over.....

Post by .45colt »

Crazy things can happen during the rut. one rainy misty day at the peak of the rut I got out of work early ,got home changed into My camo and was trying to sneak to My ground blind over looking a big scrape. I got busted by a small buck before I got there and He took off making all kinds of noise. nothing to loose I started blowing trying to sound like a deer , kneeling behind a tree. about a minute later I hear Him and He is now trying to find Me!
He kept coming and at 17 yards I sent a wooden arrow from My longbow right thru His chest. not a big Deer by Ohio standards but a Trophy in My memory. congrats on that Nice Buck Doc. :D .
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Re: Once the deer snorts, your hunt is over.....

Post by Woodsloafer2 »

Nice one!!!!
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Blaine
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Re: Once the deer snorts, your hunt is over.....

Post by Blaine »

IME, a tenth of a second after the snort, they are busting butt at 40 mph in the opposite direction.
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horsesoldier03
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Re: Once the deer snorts, your hunt is over.....

Post by horsesoldier03 »

Always buy a doe tag! If you ever have a mature doe that knows her stuff, she will ruin a good hunt quick. YMMV.
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