# Caught Off Guard



## island troller (Nov 14, 2007)

I had 3 dogs come onto the property I was hunting tonight. They were barking and tracking squirrels about 70 yards in front of me. I sat there bumming thinking my night was now screwed for seeing any deer. There barking was drowning out any other noises in the woods. After about 15 minutes of watching this going on I looked behind me and could not believe my eyes. There was a 8 pt and a 10 pt sneeking through the woods about 25 yards behind me. By the time I reacted I did not have a shot, I was in shock. They were both large awesome racks. They definitely out smarted me tonight.


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## BassSlayerChris (Aug 9, 2010)

I have had problems like this before. However if a dog is on my property while im hunting they become target practice for me.


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## kprice (May 23, 2009)

BassSlayerChris said:


> I have had problems like this before. However if a dog is on my property while im hunting they become target practice for me.


You are so cool (in my sarcastic voice). You know this is illegal unless it is a coyote? I really hope you are hunting your own land because I can't imagine a land owner being ok with some crazy person killing any animal that crosses through his hunting area.


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## saugeyesam (Apr 20, 2004)

island troller said:


> I had 3 dogs come onto the property I was hunting tonight. They were barking and tracking squirrels about 70 yards in front of me. I sat there bumming thinking my night was now screwed for seeing any deer. There barking was drowning out any other noises in the woods. After about 15 minutes of watching this going on I looked behind me and could not believe my eyes. There was a 8 pt and a 10 pt sneeking through the woods about 25 yards behind me. By the time I reacted I did not have a shot, I was in shock. They were both large awesome racks. They definitely out smarted me tonight.


I have had this happen to me before and work to my advantage. A few years back a farm I had permission to hunt butted up against another private farm, they owned and bred yellow labs. Their dogs would get away from time to time and work through my stand areas. The first time it happened to me I did the same thing as you, I thought hell there goes my evening hunt. So I sat there for about ten minutes watching these two young dogs run at will through the woods. I stood up to climb down and there 15 yards behind me was a nice 8 point buck I reached for my bow but before I could draw he had stepped into a large green brier thicket and disappeared out of sight. I though it was a fluke. But then my sister who was about 100 yards down the hillside from me said she heard the dogs down my way and about 5 minutes later that buck came sneaking along the ridge opposite her dropped into the bottom in front of us and crossed heading in behind where I was at. Out of range of her the whole time. About a week later we were hunting the same stands and those dogs come in again about ten minutes after they come through I heard crashing and thrashing down in the bottom between me and my sister. Not to long after I heard the ruckus Angie come sneaking along the ridge to tell me she had a deer down in the bottom. So I climbed down to help her that's when she told me those dogs moved through along the opposite ridge and pushed a doe out of a hawthorn thicket she snuck down into the bottom an right over into bow range of my sister. Two days later those dogs pushed a smaller fork horn out of the same hawthorn patch right into bow range of Angie again but she passed on the little guy. Sometimes it can work to your advantage. We never did see those dogs the rest of the year but the following year we seen them 2 or three times during bow season again and seen deer every time. I ended up killing the nice 8 point they run past me that first day. I got him opening day of gun week that year, not my best deer but he was a good one none the less.


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## island troller (Nov 14, 2007)

Saugeyesam, very good example, thats exactly my point. If I would not have sat there all depressed but stayed alert I would have had a chance at the biggest buck ever. The next time I have dogs in the woods I will be at high alert.


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## saugeyesam (Apr 20, 2004)

island troller said:


> Saugeyesam, very good example, thats exactly my point. If I would not have sat there all depressed but stayed alert I would have had a chance at the biggest buck ever. The next time I have dogs in the woods I will be at high alert.


Yeah it's best to just wait and see what happens. The same holds true with other hunters. I used to get all worked up when I'd see other hunter moving through an area I was set up on stand in. But on more than one occasion I benefited from the intrusion. Sometimes an intrusion will get a deer moving and a lot of times the deer will move just far enough ahead of the perceived danger to create enough space to circle back around. In the instances I described that is exactly what each and every one of those deer were doing. We actually put this to use when the deer just don't seem to be moving during gun week. We hunt in a small group 3 to 4 hunters so we don't have the numbers to do a big push so we post one or two hunters on key travel routes then the remaining one or two hunters will slowly work through the designated drive area. Sometimes it takes a good hour to do a drive it would normally take a larger group 20 minutes to do. The idea is to get the deer moving not running but moving. This style of deer push has been extremely successful for us. So when you have an unexpected intrusion into your hunting area it's best to play the odds and see how things shake out. You never know what may just happen to walk into range.


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## saugeyesam (Apr 20, 2004)

One other thing I want to mention. I live on ten acres just outside of Canton South. My little lot is a major funnel between two larger wood lots and some reclaimed strip mines. There is a farm that buts up against the back corner of my property and those folks have a couple hounds in a kennel. Almost every evening that I have bow hunted behind the house I listen for those hounds to start howling. The kennel is right along the treeline behind there barn with a run that goes into the barn so the dogs can go in the barn when it's cold. Now just inside the woods there is a major deer trail that follows the treeline into my woods where it branches off one leg of the path runs through the middle of my property and the other leg follows the fence line at the back of my alfalfa field then turns into the back part of my property where it continues on into the next farm. Now back to the neighbors hounds, almost every time I hear them hounds I see deer. So I listen for them hounds because usually within 10 minutes of them opening up those deer are within sight. I have passed up numerous shots on deer on my 10 puny acres. I usually take a doe then after that let them walk in hopes of sticking a Buck. Which I have pics of some nice ones. I've yet to kill a buck in the three years I have been here but I've taken a doe a year since we moved in.


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