I've been honestly signalled to

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Rayleigh_Scattering

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I had a surreal conversation yesterday with a mule deer buck.

I had hiked up(hill) a game trail looking for sit-and-wait sites with good visibility, and was resting my middle-aged-guy-with-a-desk-job butt under a pine tree, listening to the wonderfully beautiful nothingness. It's great how the mind slips out of gear so easily there.

Gradually the random-bush sounds upslope assembled themselves into a pattern of movement towards me, and from up slope comes walking a big, healthy looking buck. He keeps walking toward me, until he's close enough that I can clearly see the pattern of hair around his nose. He's obviously a mule deer, and I've got a white tail tag in my pocket, so I stop trying to fumble a slug into the 12Ga.

Now this fellow looks like he should be posing for a Heroes of Labour statue in the old Cervi-ed Union. Plump with fat, muscles bulging on his legs, glossy fur, antlers like the Iron Throne.

Maybe 10m away from me he sees me and stops. I'm standing there looking at him, he's looking at me.

He snuffs a couple of times, and I greet him. Tell him that he's a beautiful animal, and thank him for meeting with me today.

After what seems like minutes (but was probably only a few seconds) he half way turns around, whips up his skinny little tail, and does one or two high-arcing mouse hops uphill. Then stops, looking back at me.

This repeats twice, with a pause to see what I'm doing, before he nonchalantly strolls away back up the hill to where he came from.

The cojones on this guy! The confidence!

He was telling me, in laughably obvious language that he wasn't the slightest bit concerned about me.

"I can do a standing high jump of 4', uphill. How about you, monkey?"

Beautiful! I've just been sneered at, and I am in awe and envy of this animal.

And I realize that there's no way I'd ever do something as low and cowardly as to shoot him. I’d have to kill him with my bare hands in some epic battle.*

What a lovely weekend.

*Don’t trigger on this. You can feel free to shoot/trap/run-over/wrestle-to-the-ground any animal you like. To each their own.
 
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If o had a tag in my pocket I would have shot him without hesitation. Magnificent creature made out of meat. And I am carnivore.
 
I’d likely have done the same, I’ve let game walk for less because I felt like it. Sometimes it’s nice to be able to just enjoy the weird moment as it’s likely not going to happen very often.
 
I have only ever shot 1 Mule Deer buck in late November and I will never, ever, do it again. It was not edible. It was absolutely rank!! If I had known, I never would have pulled the trigger.
Have taken several in early September. Best deer meat I have ever had.
Good on the OP for letting this one walk.
 
Yes it is cool when a fawn come right up and sniffs your toe.. He had nubs.
I was sitting on an atv. Thankfully the 2X2 buck was 20 minutes behind.
 
Brno8x57 said:
I have only ever shot 1 Mule Deer buck in late November and I will never, ever, do it again. It was not edible. It was absolutely rank!! If I had known, I never would have pulled the trigger.
Have taken several in early September. Best deer meat I have ever had.
Good on the OP for letting this one walk.
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Odd, last year mid November I shot a big rutted up wt buck. I could smell him before I found him in the scrub, he tasted great. No different than any other deer I’ve taken in early oct.
 
Rayleigh_Scattering said:
I had a surreal conversation yesterday with a mule deer buck.

I had hiked up(hill) a game trail looking for sit-and-wait sites with good visibility, and was resting my middle-aged-guy-with-a-desk-job butt under a pine tree, listening to the wonderfully beautiful nothingness. It's great how the mind slips out of gear so easily there.

Gradually the random-bush sounds upslope assembled themselves into a pattern of movement towards me, and from up slope comes walking a big, healthy looking buck. He keeps walking toward me, until he's close enough that I can clearly see the pattern of hair around his nose. He's obviously a mule deer, and I've got a white tail tag in my pocket, so I stop trying to fumble a slug into the 12Ga.

Now this fellow looks like he should be posing for a Heroes of Labour statue in the old Cervi-ed Union. Plump with fat, muscles bulging on his legs, glossy fur, antlers like the Iron Throne.

Maybe 10m away from me he sees me and stops. I'm standing there looking at him, he's looking at me.

He snuffs a couple of times, and I greet him. Tell him that he's a beautiful animal, and thank him for meeting with me today.

After what seems like minutes (but was probably only a few seconds) he half way turns around, whips up his skinny little tail, and does one or two high-arcing mouse hops uphill. Then stops, looking back at me.

This repeats twice, with a pause to see what I'm doing, before he nonchalantly strolls away back up the hill to where he came from.

The cojones on this guy! The confidence!

He was telling me, in laughably obvious language that he wasn't the slightest bit concerned about me.

"I can do a standing high jump of 4', uphill. How about you, monkey?"

Beautiful! I've just been sneered at, and I am in awe and envy of this animal.

And I realize that there's no way I'd ever do something as low and cowardly as to shoot him. I’d have to kill him with my bare hands in some epic battle.*

What a lovely weekend.

*Don’t trigger on this. You can feel free to shoot/trap/run-over/wrestle-to-the-ground any animal you like. To each their own.
Click to expand...

Close to a buck in the rut and watching him walk away, it's an almost religious experience IMO
 
Rayleigh_Scattering said:
I had a surreal conversation yesterday with a mule deer buck.

I had hiked up(hill) a game trail looking for sit-and-wait sites with good visibility, and was resting my middle-aged-guy-with-a-desk-job butt under a pine tree, listening to the wonderfully beautiful nothingness. It's great how the mind slips out of gear so easily there.

Gradually the random-bush sounds upslope assembled themselves into a pattern of movement towards me, and from up slope comes walking a big, healthy looking buck. He keeps walking toward me, until he's close enough that I can clearly see the pattern of hair around his nose. He's obviously a mule deer, and I've got a white tail tag in my pocket, so I stop trying to fumble a slug into the 12Ga.

Now this fellow looks like he should be posing for a Heroes of Labour statue in the old Cervi-ed Union. Plump with fat, muscles bulging on his legs, glossy fur, antlers like the Iron Throne.

Maybe 10m away from me he sees me and stops. I'm standing there looking at him, he's looking at me.

He snuffs a couple of times, and I greet him. Tell him that he's a beautiful animal, and thank him for meeting with me today.

After what seems like minutes (but was probably only a few seconds) he half way turns around, whips up his skinny little tail, and does one or two high-arcing mouse hops uphill. Then stops, looking back at me.

This repeats twice, with a pause to see what I'm doing, before he nonchalantly strolls away back up the hill to where he came from.

The cojones on this guy! The confidence!

He was telling me, in laughably obvious language that he wasn't the slightest bit concerned about me.

"I can do a standing high jump of 4', uphill. How about you, monkey?"

Beautiful! I've just been sneered at, and I am in awe and envy of this animal.

And I realize that there's no way I'd ever do something as low and cowardly as to shoot him. I’d have to kill him with my bare hands in some epic battle.*

What a lovely weekend.

*Don’t trigger on this. You can feel free to shoot/trap/run-over/wrestle-to-the-ground any animal you like. To each their own.
Click to expand...

Err...Umchorn? Is that you?

No, I guess not...if it were him, he would have grabbed that buck and just managed the crap out of him...:)
 
Hollow Point said:
Maybe its a middle age thing. I get more enjoyment out of just being in the woods. the kills aren't that important any more. Or maybe i'm just getting lazy and am too well Fed.
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It seems, the older I get, the more reasons there are for not shooting them.

Even passed on a few socalled "meat" bucks this fall.

There's something about being in a blind and having twenty animals come out of the heavy timber to feed or just soak up some warmth in the sun, watch them bed down about 20 minutes after sunup, right out in the open.

Drives my JR crazy, but she just sits beside me, watching intensely, sometimes shaking and qrowling at an almost unhearable level, which is easy because I'm deaf as a post.

OP, good on you. We don't have to kill every legal buck we see. Sometimes, just knowing you can and enjoying the moment makes the hunt far more successful.
 
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