Played hookie, went hunting this am. Went in blind, in the dark, to spot I've been looking at on sat map. Maybe not the best idea, had to hack through transition from short pines to hardwoods, jump a small, fast moving creek with climber and back pack to get to other side. The risk of going in blind is that it sometimes isn't exactly what you expect. Thought I was going to find mucho oak trees and didn't, just that scrubby low growing, thick stuff. Pushed on through up into the edge of the pines. Sorta aggravated at this point because it's now after 7:00 and I still haven't found what I'm looking for. Come to a really small clearing, and when I say clearing I mean less thick and said the heck with this I gotta get up a tree so I climb a pine to about 18'. I'm unhappy about where I'm at because I don't think there is an acorn for several hundred yards so I think to myself "the only way I'm going to see a deer here is if I get one to come to me" so I hit the grunt tube and about 15 minutes later I slap some rattling antlers around lightly. Over the next 30 min or so I repeat. I'm impatient and unhappy thinking I've wasted my morning, thinking of getting down and going somewhere else. Right at 8:30 I hear a branch crack, I start watching that direction and about 3 minutes later there he is. Nothing spectacular but a nice 8 pt., coming down the hill broadside at 20 yds with absolutely no possibility of a shot. I first see him at my 2:00 and I need him to get to my 10:00, turn left and come about 5 yds to have a shot. Wind is coming from my 7:00 to my 1:00. He gets to my 10:00 and alerts in the direction of down the hill, turns and retreats at a quick step about 10 yds the way he came stopping at my 12:00. He hangs for just a minute and then disappears into the scrub. Never blew, never stomped but something tweaked him and he just decided that discretion was the better part of valor. My first thought was that he winded me and that may be what happened but the more I thought about it I wasn't so sure. I've found that deer don't seem to smell me the way I would expect when they get in my downwind but when they do it's always a much more dramatic reaction from what this deer did. It was a light but steady breeze and he walked all the way through my scent cone and never even twitched. When he alerted he had passed all the way through my scent cone, did not look in my direction and when he retreated he stopped dead center of my scent cone and stood there for a just a minute but never seemed to get any more bent out of shape.

Here are my questions: Did I call this deer in (he didn't seem like he was looking for anything in particular) with the grunt and/or antlers or did I just happen to pick a tree that was close to where he would have been going anyway? Do you think he winded me or did something else make him change his mind?

Had he cooperated I most certainly would have killed him but on the other hand I'm almost kinda glad he didn't because I have no idea how long it would have taken me to get him out of there or really how I would have been able to do it. And since he was pretty average, I won't lose sleep over him. His behavior was a little odd though and if anybody has any insights I'd love to try and learn something from this.

He smelled you. The wind isn't always doing on the ground as it's doing 20' up a tree. Thermals and all. It'll get you.

Your scent cone isnt always where you think it is. Especially if there is any terrain that could cause swirls. I say he caught a sniff of you and backed out.

He may have smelled you. But, could have been somethin else.
Funny that he didnt take off quickly.
Had same thing happen to me in a natural ground blind, thought the deer smelled me but couple minutes later...he comes 2 coyotes.

Did he stop when he crossed the path that you walked in? I've been busted several times that way and they always acted the way you describe

He prolly smelled you either by nose wind or crossin your track. Orrrr he got to feelin froggy an jumped, they do that somethimes..make you think you did somethin wrong when in realitt he just dont like bein there but he more than likely smelled you. Daddy always told me" you gottah watch how they act an read that body language comin and goin" it will tell alot about a deer and eventually youll be able to read a into a situation and learn an important lesson.. When to take a shot and how much longer do i have to wait on the deer, and how low to hold that pin. Remember what he did today so you can killeem tomorrow( my daddys words)

I'm not certain but I don't think I walked that far, maybe, but I don't think so. If I did, that could be it. Also, the creek I jumped really wasn't a creek. It was fed by an 6" discharge pipe and had a distinct sulfur smell. I may have stepped in the edge of it, can't remember, if so that was dumb. Still, the "creek" was about 30 or 40 yds from where we were. I could periodically get a whiff sitting in my tree. Seems like he'd be used to that?

Calls can be great to get a buck to come in, but you better shoot him pretty quick when he does. If a buck is responding to a call, especially before the rut, his nose, eyes, and ears are all going to be on full alert and focused on you since you have already given away your location.

Yeah, I pretty much boogered up the whole sit. It's tough going into stuff that thick blind. Everything always looks different from up in a tree but if you've never climbed that tree or sat that area there's really no way to assess what's going on. After I got down I could see the trail he came in on and the tree that I could have killed him from had I chosen that one but that's only with the benefit of hindsight. I don't think, even if I knew he was in the area that I could have possibly known which direction he would come from so I chose the tree on the edge of the "clearing" closest to the direction I came from. Live and learn. On the bright side, now I know the area that an average looking buck is hanging if I decide to go back in there. Gonna try my luck elsewhere for awhile. The thought of dragging him out of there is not very appealing.

You need to look at a topo map and always consider terrain in your stand placement. Wind has a tendency to swirl in any uneven terrain and thermals are much less predictable. It’s also not always a dramatic reaction. I’ve seen deer move into my scent and just back out. I’ve also had a big buck break off and blow 7 or 8 times. He smelled you for sure, you just need to figure out why. Consider time of day, wind speed/direction, and topography of where you hunted. A good rule of thumb on thermals vs wind is anything less than say, 10 mph, your scent is going to fall or rise to the lowest or highest point around you.

You smelled worse than sulfer, so he got out of there!

He smelled you. That's the way most of them react when they do. Most of the time, you don't get to see how they react because they smell you or pick you out long before you see them and they just stop, check things out and turn around and go another way.

When they get real bad bent out of shape and go all crazy on you is when they think they are about to get shot.

Well, your name is Smells. There you go.

a lot of things have to go right to bow kill a deer

You lost me with all the different times