It was a little after 7 this morning and everything was quiet. I took a glance down at my watch to double check the time and when I looked back up there was a doe standing in my target area - 14 yds out - just staring at me. I couldn't figure out how she even saw me behind the bushes. Heck, my eyeballs were barely showing through, but we played eyeball tag for almost 20 minutes.
She stayed quartered towards me the whole time so I didn't even think about shooting, even though I had decided I would take a doe because they need to be thinned out in that area. As she finally started walking away to my right I almost let one fly but didn't have a clean shot. She proceeded to circle around me and grunting on and off. She finally left for about 15 minutes but showed up in the bushes about 40 yds away - twice.
It wasn't until my partner showed up an hour later that I found out a fawn had been playing around by him and apparently the doe had been looking for it. I was glad then that I didn't get a clean shot. I would have felt pretty bad leaving a fawn on it's own.
Then we headed downstream about 1/2 mile and played more eyeball tag with a nice buck as he was bedding down. He ended up only having 4 points, but the size of his rack indicated that he'll be nicer next year. And yes, he outsmarted us as we attempted to position ourselves around him.
It's been a couple of years since I had hunted deer, but I'm hooked again.
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