Revenge killing......deer hunting??

[bswiv]

If you look REAL hard ( I had the camera on the wrong setting! ) in the first picture you can see one of the proposed recipients of the revenge......a turkey......at least his eye.

The second picture is the same view after he and his sorry buddies messed things up.

When the turkeys started talking in the trees at about sunrise Saturday morning my first thought was that it'd make the morning more interesting if they'd fly down in my direction and then feed through the creek bottom I was watching. About 15 minutes later that hope was answered as 4 or 5 of them came wandering along pecking and scratching.

I figured they'd wander on through in a few minutes.....but......being birds....they did not do as expected. Rather than move through and off they set about, over the course of the next 3 hours, working over the whole creek bottom seldom being where I could not see or hear them for more than 15-20 minutes at any time.

It was during one of these quiet moments that I realized that the movement I'd just seen was not a turkey but a deer leg. And then the sun glistened off something up above the leg......antlers! And not just legal antlers but big antlers...( for the NE FL area at least ).

He was in the thick stuff to the left of where my gun is pointing. Over the next 15-20 minutes I got a full view of his head once and then, after loosing him for a couple of minutes, a couple of seconds of full body as he walked between 2 trees. The whole time he was feeding on acorns and acting very calm, at least for a large buck.

As the wind was in my favor, and as he was feeding right where I had walked not 2 hours before I knew he could not smell me. Truth is that after the first 10 minutes or so I was sure that if I just stayed calm and ready I'd get a clear shot eventually. It's not like he was a long way off, maybe 30-50 yards most of the time.

In fact based on the general direction he seemed to have come from and the general direction he seemed to be moving I guessed that he was going to step across the creek in just a couple of minutes and then I'd have a clear shot.

And then I hear turkeys coming..........as did the deer.

He froze. I know this because I could see one leg.......not moving for over 5 minutes. As the turkeys got closer it became obvious that they were going to get right between me and the deer. Which they did.

Last thing I saw was his rear end a time or two as he slowly walked off back the way he had come.

This spring the turkeys in that area will get some special attention.

And yes......if I'd had the old Mossberg with 000 buck...oh well as usual...."IF".....

[bswiv]

Used the Photobucket tools to clean up the picture.....still not great but you can see one of the offenders.

[shortwave]

Feel sorry for those turkeys this Spring.

At least you'll get to eat the turkey bounty.

I, on the other hand, am not so lucky...

...for the last month, I've been watching a buck here on the property that if I'm fortunate enough to tag, will be my best in 45yrs of hunting.

He's at least a 15 point, very heavy rack and will go weight wise from 300-325lbs(hanging weight). Just a massive,beautiful, jaw-dropping specimen of a deer.

I've seen him twice in the last two weeks. First time about 70 yds out making a rub on a cedar tree thats about a foot around.

Second time was last Friday evening. He passed the cedar tree and started coming down a trail that passes no more than 25yds from my stand. I had the wind in my favor, he didn't know I existed and I just knew he was mine.

Well as he got to 45yds from me, he immediately came to an abrupt halt, turned off the trail and made a wide skirt, circling,ending up 30 yds below me never presenting a clean shot. I watched as he made his way out of sight, with me grunting, rattling, snorting, bleating, snort-wheezing and most of all...praying I could turn him back. Didn't happen.

Well, I just couldn't figure what made him turn. Did he wind me, nope, maybe he picked up the scent of a doe on a cross trail, nada.

Was glassing the trail he was on inch by inch and I found the problem....

....a flash of white through the bino's revealed a skunk.

Apparently deer that have experienced a skunks protective system, don't like them any more than people do.

Wander how skunk tastes?

[hagar]

Like funky chicken..

[Daryl]

It's all a part of hunting.

Learn to laugh at the failures, learn from them, and go try again.



Daryl

[warbirdlover]

Where I hunt there's a huge flock of turkeys living and they're walking all over the 120 acres we hunt and roosting in the trees. I've had 'em walk single file within 20 yards of me (15 and 6 were big toms). I could have shot any one of them with my rifle if I had a fall turkey tag. It was quiting time so I walked right toward them out of my blind and they didn't fly until I was within 5 yards! That's a rush having 15 turkeys 5 yards away all get up flying at the same time LOL. They don't bother the deer at all here though. The deer and turkeys will be together some times.

[buck460XVR]

I've never had a deer spook from turkeys unless the turkeys were spooked and alarm putting. More times than not, I've had turkeys attract deer and have actually had many deer come in to turkey calls. Seems in my experience, that deer know turkeys have better eyes than they do and if a flock of turkeys is relaxed, so are they.

[Shotgun693]

Some years back I hunted a live creek East of Laredo, Texas. The turkeys would actually run deer off of the feeders. I did wind up with an 8 point Buck and 2 Turkeys so it was all good.

[Deja vu]

I have seen young bucks in the rut chase turkeys away. Other than that they usually ignore each other unless the turkeys sound a warning alarm.