What a crazy day on public land yesterday.
Sat from 9:30-1:00 in one area. Nothing going on so I decided to move to where I had action the week before. When I get to the parking lot there is a guy from out of state there. He asks where I'm going and I tell him and he says he's waiting for his 2 buddies to go scouting and it sounds like he wants to go to the same area. He makes a big deal about not wanting to screw up my hunt so I show him exactly on the map where I'm going. Everyone heads off into the woods. I get to my tree and I'm halfway up and I look up the ridge and see them coming right through where they bed. I give a little shout and they move off. I figure that spot is burned for the day so I come up with plan B to hunt a pinch point off another bedding area. I jump a 250+ pound bear from it's bed 15 yards from me as I'm sneaking over there which is always exciting to have a close encounter with a bear lol. I get to the spot, pick a tree, get halfway up this one and 2 does come at mach 2 from the bedding area 10 yards by my tree. I haul my bow up as quick as possible as I'm looking for the buck. Nothing so I start to climb again and hear a crack from that direction and look up to see the guy coming right through this bedding area. I watched him walk around me and get up where the bear went and then I hear all sorts of yelling lol... At this point I'm thinking I'll just get out of this area because they've been walking through all the bedding areas. As I'm hiking out I look at the clock and I really don't have enough time to make it back to the truck and move so I had a pinch point I had been considering hunting on my walk out so I set up there and figured hey you never know. I saw one deer going away about 150 yards and then 20 minutes before dark I heard the deepest, longest grunt I've ever heard. Initially I'm wondering if its one of those guys but I gotta play the game so I hit the can call a few times and then gave some short tending grunts. I hear the grunt again so I give it another couple grunts and put it away. I grabbed the bow and turned to that area and wouldn't you know it a few minutes later I see a deer step out. He got to about 50 yards and worked a tree over a little bit. At that point he stopped and stared off in my direction for a couple minutes, then he turned around and went back where he came from and I lost sight of him. I figured he didn't see any of the action he heard so he wasn't coming over. After dark I got down and as I'm walking out in that direction I see a set of eyeballs looking at me which eventually take off. I'm sure it was him because I could smell him. Interesting side note, I've had a couple bucks do that before where they won't come in and then will hang around to check it out after dark. I remember one time on this huge buck, for sure one of the top 5 I've ever seen in the woods, I stayed in the tree after dark because I knew he was close and didn't want to spook him. After it got good and dark he walked right over the base of my tree and just stood there. At the time I didn't want to spook him but I wish I hit him with the flashlight to get a better look at him in hindsight.
All in all it ended up being a cray afternoon with an exciting sight but there was some frustration to get there lol. Its public land and I said that to the guy... but he was so concerned with not screwing up my hunt. Normally I would chalk it up to public land but I showed him right where I was going.... if I knew he was still going to walk circles around me I would have just bailed at he parking lot and gone to another spot. Anyways, heading back out to a tree in a few....