dstubb

This morning i hunted this new spot down in a dried up creek bed with trails intersecting everywhere. I made more noise going in there this morning than i wanted too, i figured that i may have ruined my chances for the rest of the morning. Well low and behold after about 4 hours of seeing nothing i am startled by the sound of 7 does standing up and exiting a big pile of brush about 40 yards from me. I did not expect for anything to be bedded in this area at all but apparently they had no idea about me even being there. They slowly make there way down one of the intersecting trails in front of me, i take aim on the biggest one and let the arrow fly. As soon as i let it sail she ducks and the arrow goes right over her back. So now i am sitting there with 7 does staring up into the treetops trying to see what made that sound. My quiver is hanging on the side of my tree behind me, so i very slowly start inching closer and closer to the quiver until finally i get an arrow free without being detected. I go to nock it and it makes an ever so quiet click and then one of the does lets out a loud alert call and they all high tail it out of there.

My question is do you think they will be back to bed in that brush pile and how long should i give it before i hunt that stand again?

Thanks for any info!

ChesapeakeHunter

I would figure they'd bed back there tonight, it doesn't sound like they saw you but got nervous. thats probably not enough to alter their bedding area. you could hunt it in a day or so

dstubb

What if they did see me?

ChesapeakeHunter

I'll give you an example, this morning I was sitting on the ground on a tree line. I was too close to the crossing that a doe was using. When she hit the field, she spotted "me" at fifty yards. She wasn't sure what i was but knew something was up. she kept coming until she got to about 25 yds when her instincts got the best of her and she bounded back the way she came. I sat down, and 20 minutes later the same doe came back out attempting to cross,only to repeat the same process as if she hadn't just been there 20 mins prior. She had seen me2x but really didn't remember, her instincts told her to run.unless you do something to disturb the bedding area they will reuse it(most likely soon) because they view that as a safe area. I have to imagine they run across danger in some form everyday, and you were just one for the day.