Just this past October, Roanoke based bass tournament pro and avid deer hunter Dennis Tietje shot a 177-pound 7-point buck that was just about as stupid as a worked-up teenager in the backseat of his parents’ car.
It’s common knowledge that rutting bucks throw caution to the wind, but this buck in particular reinforced what Tietje believed about hunting where the does are during the daytime throughout the rut.
“I got on the stand 45 minutes before daylight, and I heard a deer chasing just 15 minutes later,” Tietje recalled. “I heard horns hitting limbs and there was no doubt that it was a buck running a doe in circles around my stand.”
As it got daylight, the action completely died down. At 9 a.m., he heard the buck coming again and breaking limbs trying to cut off does. Tietje watched as the buck chased a doe right by his stand. He knew exactly which buck it was from some earlier trail-cam images, but he couldn’t get a shot.
“He came running back about 45 minutes later, and he stopped,” Tietje recalled. “And wouldn’t you know it, I missed.
“He took off, but the does came right back. Well, that stupid buck came right back to the spot where he had just been shot at only five minutes earlier. Only this time I didn’t miss. He wasn’t worried about me. He was only worried about where those does were going.”
Had this situation played out in a plot, Tietje thinks he might not have ever gotten that second chance. A love-struck buck can be stupid when it comes to does in a food plot, but put that same buck chasing does in the woods, and he becomes downright dim-witted.
