Going to throw a scanario out there that has been happening to me on the regular this year.
I have the priveledge of hunting about 1000 acres in SW Arkansas. The place is a treasure and holds lots of big bucks. Over the last 3 years I’ve been hearing what I assume is 1 buck (probably isn’t but I’ve never placed eyes on him). Anyway, “he” likes to grunt long, guttural grunts in succession (think anywhere from 5-20 times every 10 or so seconds).
This guy is NOT bashful about letting his presence be known. He almost has a “here I am, come get some” attitude. I will say he can’t be heard when others are on the 4 wheelers. But primarily I walk in unless it’s to the far reaches of the property.
I’ve had him as close as 65 yards and can hear him as far as roughly 300-400 yards away. He’s been upwind, he’s been down wind. Sometimes cruising sometimes stationary. But he always stays just out of sight.
I’ve thrown everything at him from aggressive grunts, submissive grunting, doe bleats, heavy rattling, light sparring, even scraping trees together to simulate rubbing. I can’t seem to close him.
I have a suspicion of what deer it may been. But I’m falling into the trap of chasing one deer. I think you probably get the picture.
My question to you all is.... what would you do?!
Looking forward to everyone’s response.
Another thing to consider is, you may have seen him several times, just not when he is being vocal.
As for me, if I were in that situation, I would try to piece the puzzle together, and try to kill him, (or at least be close enough to think I could), but not at the expense of passing up any other deer that suited my fancy. Good luck in whatever you decide and keep us posted, I would like to know how it goes.
Oddly enough I wasn’t please wish my 2 grunt calls and have been doing research on a new option. Low and behold a few weeks ago, right as I arrived to the area I wanted to hunt I find a grunt call in 2 pieces on the ground. The call portion and lanyard and the tube laying a couple feet from each other.
It was not a hunting partners so I believe it may have been a trespassers since I was within a couple hundred yards of a major river.
The reason I bring this up is because this call is EXACTLY what I was hoping to find in the stores. With my old calls one sounded great but I couldn’t push it or it would squeal. The other was loud but dull. This one I can almost mimic the buck I’ve been hunting exactly!!
So last Friday (feb 1) I took off to hunt because I am honing in on him. Anyway after a few hours in 1 location I decided to move to the area I’ve had the recent encounters following doe trails from the south because the wind was changing to favor my entrance and hunt.
I bumped a few doe before deciding on the tree I wanted to hunt overlooking 2 worn doe trails leading to the main food source on the property. I had to clear some large vines and small saplings to open a few shooting lanes before climbing up. This was around 1pm and things had been slow. I decided to eat my lunch in the tree. Knowing I had a few hrs before this deer typically made his presence know. Our neighbors have a few rogue cows on the property and about 130 they rolled through on a gator with 5 bails of hay. They made the drop back by the river and back tracked out of the property. Unfortunately they passed within 75 yards of my location. Not really worried about it because it was so early I was very surprised when about a half hour after they had left out, big boy sounded off some 100 yards back over my left shoulder. He was close. My setup was facing east with my back to the setting sun although it was probably 2pm at this time. The sun was high and it was about the only 20-30 minutes that I was in the sun. This would prove to be a fatal flaw in my setup.
So ghost deer let’s loose several times before I responded with my “new” grunt call. I didn’t want to over call this time as I had felt like I had in the past. So I matched 3 or his grunts then backed off in frequency and length of the grunt to a more submissive type grunt. He continued in typical fashion calling out as loud as possible probably 20 times in total. But on his last grunt I could tell he had moved and was now directly behind me (due west of me).
I knew he was on the move and was going to make an approach to see what was in his territory. When I heard him originally I got my bow in hand and turned to my left as he was originally over my left should. I remained in this position (facing n/nw) even though I knew he was on the move because I thought that’s where he would make his approach from. I was down wind so he was at a disadvantage there. But instead, he moved due south and circled basically behind me to the south west. What I didn’t know is there is a slight draw there that gave him the ability to basically slip down and get a view UP at my location. I remember thinking “I’ve got to assume he’s behind me at this point” as I looked down at my full profile in a shadow on the ground. No more did I turn my head a few inches to my right in the attempt to view over my right should did I hear him explode through the woods.
I believe this is the first time he may have actually seen me. My wind wouldn’t have been close and he hadn’t crossed my travel path. I’m a little worried I may have broken the camels back as he’s been moving further and further back in the property as I’ve closed in on him. Hoping he doesn’t make the jump to the neighbors. I’ll be back out there Saturday and intend to pull another full day hunt.
The hours spent after this deer to not even have layed eyes on him is stacking up. It’s been a tremendous learned opportunity and I do hope to get AT LEAST a look at this guy just so I know what I’m dealing with. Time is running out and I’m afraid he’s gonna drop horns soon. But regardless the things I’ve learned this year chasing this deer will be carried on many many years. It’s made me look at things so differently as I’ve slowly gotten into his head becoming familiar with his behavior, travel paths, etc etc.
I suspect he is a very old deer. I would feel safe saying 6+ years. I wish somehow I could capture this animal grunting and share it with everyone. It’s simply unbelievable, it’s the kind of thing that makes the hair on your neck stand up. One listen and you know without a shadow of s doubt you’re in the presence of s fully mature, and what I believe is the dominant buck of the area.
Good luck!
I feel like I can say with A LOT of certainty it’s not a human being. If it was, that person has been in my back pocket a lot over the past 3 years. There are just to many close encounters...
Anyway, it’s hard to explain. I do hunt a property that holds A LOT of mature deer (river bottom bucks) from about now through December, before sightings start to dwindle... hard for me to say without ever actually seeing anything, but my gut says it’s a wylie old buck...
I will say this year I am not going to focus on him as much unless I actually lay eyes on him and confirm he’s some giant. I’m going to stay focused on patterning travel routes and take what comes my way. I Cost myself by just chasing ghost buck last year...
Murphy’s law strikes... Ever set your alarm wrong on the opening day of deer season? I have....
But no to be deterred I hit the door about 6 am headed out anyway.
I entered the woods an hour or so later with the temp about 8 degrees higher than the old weatherman forecast, at a balmy 78.
Luckily for me I had chosen a spot that would not require a long walk in.
Swatting mosquitos and sweating bullets I began to get frustrated as I could not find a suitable tree to climb. Sign was good and I know I’m close to a early season buck bedding area. I push on as my original excitement has now turned to pure frustration with a touch of anger!
As the thought of turning around and heading back home crosses my mind, I decide to make the most of it and head to a tower stand over looking a large field for an observation sit.
I shucked the stand and some other gear at the tree line and slowly crept out into the field towards the stand soaking up every ounce of the predicted 10 mph south wind.
Think of this field shape like a crescent moon or “smile”. And if it were a smile I would be located just below the nose at the top lip.... Anyway, on the north end of the field is a cabin the south end is an old barn and stable area. The field is about 600 yards long and 200 yards wide.
As I settle into the stand I almost immediately notice a doe running around near the barn. As she runs to and fro I realize she thinks she’s trapped in the stable although there are 2 large openings... I kind of laugh as she looks more like an untamed bronco than a deer bucking and running around.
After a few laps around the stable she must have found an opening and freed herself as I didn’t see her again.
Then it happened... about 8:00 “Ghost buck” welcomes in the deer season from across the field from the far tree line with several loud bellows. In typical fashion, his guttural notes overpower nature’s sounds and carry straight to my ears.
6 or 8 times he grunts and I can tell he’s moving slightly to the north although I cannot seeing anything through cedars that he seems to be in.
I suspect that is he is bedding there today. He is right on the edge of the field with thick cover to his south. With the wind at his back he can see the whole field and maybe more importantly the cabin... From this vantage point he can see our main entry trail that cuts the field and goes to the cabin.
He’s watching us... He’s smart. BUT, He’s back! He’s alive! He has survived another year and I will once again have an opportunity at him!
Quite honestly I was shocked, surprised and maybe just a little mad. I know that sounds funny but I don’t want to get caught up hunting this one deer again....
I promised myself patience this year. Hunting the right wind, avoiding over-persuit and NO hunting 1 single deer.
I’m literally writing this from the tower stand but I’m about to slip down, gather my things and creep back through the woods in an effort to stay undetected.
Ghost buck: 1 - Tony: 0
I’ve got to say though, That was music to my ears!
As I drove down the little 2 lane highway towards the property I spotted several deer in the beans including 2 really nice bucks. All the deer were headed toward the hunting grounds so I hurried on in and parked the truck.
Excited for what I had just seen I got my gear and headed towards my hunting area. It was about 5:30 and Cutting across the field I spotted 3 more deer’s eyes about half way to my hunting location. So I’m not even set up yet and I’ve seen 10 deer total including 2 really nice bucks. so I push in to the area which I had heard “Ghost buck” last weekend. It’s a field edge with tall native grasses and scattered thick stands of cedar trees.
I had previously scouted this area just a few weeks ago and found a really good tree for climbing on several presumed doe trails. This was really close to where ghost buck sounded off last weekend and I felt like I might have a chance but would be cutting the wind really close. Everything had gone really smoothly until I realized I had forgotten to put my safety harness on... Yikes! I needed to be especially careful on this hunt.
Slowly getting set up I finally settled in safely to my stand just before first lite. After the sweat stopped pouring down the back of my neck I began to get excited. After all this was the first “real hunt” of the year. And was a beautiful morning.
Slowly light began to gather and my area came into focus. I was perched in a cotton wood, the only of its kind in a row of cedars. While I climbed the face of the tree once at the height I wanted to be i quartered into the cedars and felt very hidden. The area is small, with three wide shooting lanes in the shape of a chickens foot. This area is literally a perfect morning bow setup with shots out to about 30 yards. The cedars would be to my right (east) shielding me from the morning sun in their shadows.
About 7am three does came in from behind me very cautiously. They slowly made their way right behind me and disappeared as quick as they appeared. Never once did they look my direction even though I was swatting mosquitos when they approached. They were only 15 feet behind me when I first heard their foot steps in the grass.
Last week, ghost buck made his presence known around 8 a.m. so I was anxiously awaiting the 8 o’clock hour. Not so much to my suprise did he sound off about 7:30 a meer 65 yards to the north of me
As usual he was in some really thick cover and held up there for a few minutes grunting 6 times.
All of a sudden I see moment just to the left of where I heard him last. My brain tells me it’s him, and I remember thinking “he’s huge” as I turn to put my hands on my bow hanging just to me left. I grab the bow of its rest, I can hear rustling in the grass and it sounds like it’s getting closer. But I stay focused on the bow and pull it to me and knock an arrow. Already my heart is beating HARD. I get my release locked on and I turned back towards the location I saw the movement. And there before me stands.... one big ass cow!!
Wtf!! The neighbor once again has some cows on the property.
So seven cows move right underneath me and slowly grazing they move south.
I was a bit surprised to hear ghost buck again still in the cover but he had moved to the north and slowly continued that direction grunting occasionally.
I wonder if he would have stepped out had those cows not been there being this was the first sit and all. Man, if it wasn’t for bad luck I don’t think I’d have any at all.
