I’ve mentioned this hunt before, but I think it’s perfect for this thread and the OP. About 5 or 6 years ago, I dropped in on some public one day not too far from my house, monster woods, the Adirondacks, a small parking lot with a well worn trail goes to a somewhat popular trout fishing stream, typical path that is littered with beer cans and empty worm containers, at the end of this trail I found some good rubs and a couple scrapes, it almost looked fake it was so easy to find, but hey you never know. This sign was right on the edge of one of the thickest, nastiest, spruce **** holes you can imagine, picture a Christmas tree farm but with the trees so close together only rabbits would be happy. So I started taking the edge of that spruce swamp following this stream as I went, a few hundred yards in I noticed a runway crossing that stream in a shallow part of the water, so I followed that runway into the edge of that spruce thicket, and then I found this rub.
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I knew I had something decent to hunt then, and my other sign which looked fake could be real, so I started really hunting, over the next few weeks I circled that spruce swamp multiple times, on snow and bare ground, I crossed that stream with waders, I did everything looking for that buck, he was nowhere to be found, I could not find that deer, not one time did I ever dive into the heart of that spruce swamp, I would guess all total maybe that thing is 20-40 acres, I’m not really sure maybe it’s more like a hundred, it’s an absolute jungle, I’m claustrophobic and being in there gets to me it’s so bad. So that was it… my buck went missing or so I thought, and season was over. Next year rolled around and my season started later than normal due to some health issues with a family member, so it must have been around Halloween when I first hunted that year, my first day, I wanted something close to home so I decided to drop back in on that local spot. Once again he was back, same fake looking scrapes and rubs by that well used fishing trail…. It was lightly raining out, I stood there thinking about what I should do next, I said screw this I’m going through every inch of that nasty thick swamp even if it takes all day, having had all winter to think about it, the only place I hadn’t thoroughly checked was that jungle, I know this mite seem obvious to most reading right now, but you have to understand this thing (swamp) for me isn’t big, and is located next to a small parking lot and somewhat active foot path, with thousands of other acres at this animals disposal I would have never imagined he was right there, a mature buck. So off I go, inch by inch, creeping through that mess, one step at a time, zig zagging, stopping, one step at a time, it was a one full can of Copenhagen used kind of hunt, monotonous, I told myself the day is already shot, I have nothing to lose, if it doesn’t work I will never do this again, ever. About 75% through that mess, somewhere in the middle I jumped a big deer, I was close, probably 30 yards, I seen it flag and that was it, a couple jumps and it was gone, like I said it’s unreal thick, I had no idea what it was. So right around lunch time I broke out of the backside into more normal woods, the fresh air was nice, I sat down and ate my lunch, while eating the rain stopped and the once quiet leaves were now drying out and going to be loud, I decided to follow the stream closer on the way back through that mess towards my truck, maybe the loud water would help cover any noise I mite make, so off I go, straight back through the same nasty hole, but on a little lower route. I would guess I was half way through it again when I caught some movement off my shoulder, all I could see was rack and it was coming right at me but off to my left, I swung my rifle and he blew and took one bound, I let out a big half assed mouth grunt and he stopped dead in his tracks, his head was on a swivel looking for me, I dumped him DRT, 20-30 yards away from me with my rifle, I knew immediately it was my buck, he had an inside spread of 21”, a nice 8 around 120”. After taking it all in for a few minutes I looked around some, not 80 yards away in the more friendly woods was that big maple tree from last season that started this whole journey, bucks in my area don’t usually rub trees that big, I knew he was probably wide. He was aged at 5.5.
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I have no idea why that picture is rotated, but anyways that buck was in there and had I not covered every inch of that mess I’m positive he mite have lived, in years since I’ve gone back to that spot and it’s always been dead, the lesson of this hunt is never overlook anything, he called that spot home and although many hunters, fisherman, and everything else routinely walked that path, drove to that parking lot, he held tight and didn’t move much.