Deerbuster.com

With five minutes of light left in the season, I saw the familiar sight of a muscular brown torso silently lumbering my way. This particular "deer part" was that of an adult doe, 70 yards away and coming straight for me. In my mind I thanked whomever makes the decisions up there for one more chance, one more episode of excitement, one more chance to wait for hours for the opportunity to screw up!

Three days before I had taken a ground stand nearby (about fifty yards north) and had deer spot me and become suspicious, just out of range. My brother, who came along on this particular stint in my New Canaan hot spot, was in the tree stand, which is why I was on the ground. But this time, on December 31, I was on the ground by choice. I hoped to take a doe eye to eye.

I was slumped along side a large multiple trunk maple with my Mathews Ultralight in front and ready to draw. At twenty yards the deer was able to spot my audacious form. Because of the diving temperature, I wore my Konifer overalls, not the best ground cover in the snow. The lead adult doe had another behind her, and the second one looked a little bigger. I was in no position to choose, however. Once she became suspicious, I knew I'd be lucky to get the string drawn back and not be standing in the woods alone afterwards.

As has happened before and will no doubt happen again, the doe began to circle me. She was suspicious, but I had yet to be positively identified. Could this curiosity be her last mistake? As she walked behind a small tree at 20 yards, I began to draw. She bolted as a result and took doe number two back into the hardwoods in tow.

Five minutes later she was back, still uncertain of what I was. A thirty yard shot at an alarmed deer looking directly at me is something I chose not to do. I'm not saying I'd not have done it in the past, but not today. She never relaxed enough for me to try for her. End of game.

But how many times in the past have I had a doe exhibit similar curiosity and then fall to my arrow? More than a couple. And I shot them. Not because I am doe hungry or will kill about anything if I get the chance. The reason is one that is a accolade to the intelligence of the female of the Whitetail species. I know they won't forget me.

When I'm "busted" by an alpha doe, I'll sometimes try to harvest that animal purely because she'll screw up future hunts if I let her live. Some of my hunting areas are so small that there are precious few locations where I can ambush a passing animal. If I have to move every time a wary old matriarch spots or smells me or evidence of my passage, I'd have to quit hunting there for the season! Plus, the DEP encourages the harvest of doe deer.

Most bucks ( young ones ), are too dumb to be curious. They just don't notice. They aren't particularly "on the lookout" the way an alpha doe is. I think that an old buck is never curious, and an old doe is sometimes, shall we say, investigative. But why? Is it curiosity or her perceived "duty" to lead the deer she undoubtably has in tow. I think it's the latter.

If an old doe is alone she is just as GONE at the first sign of menace as a mature buck. When I see an archer that has killed a mature doe, I say "nice deer". Because it is.