Stuck in the Rut

I’m just in from my Midwest test-run with my new Ultimate Whitetail Decoy and the results were, well, take a look and see for yourself…  What a weapon, and what a fun way to hunt whitetails!

I began my trip the first week of November in Illinois and used Don the decoy with his antlers installed.  On that portion of the trip I was a bit crippled by the fact that all of the corn was still in the fields and there just weren’t any areas to place the decoy so that deer could see if from a distance.  I did manage to get him in front of a nice two-and-a-half-year-old 8-point and several year-and-a-half-old bucks, and all of them reacted favorably, especially the 8-point.  I thought he was going to charge in and attack until he wandered downwind of me and crossed my scent stream.  Still, he didn’t bolt.  He was obviously confused by the fact that the decoy didn’t seem to be alarmed.  He hung out for several more minutes before finally meandering off.

I spent a week there in Illinois, but just didn’t see any bucks I wanted to take so I packed up and headed to Iowa.  When I arrived, I met up with my hunting buddy, Bill Pellegrino.  My idea for building this decoy was spawned from the custom decoy Bill had made for himself last year. The day before I arrived, Bill had killed another dandy buck over his decoy.  He explained that the bucks he had been seeing were really searching for does and that he was having better luck with his decoy by leaving the antlers off.

I used Donna without the antlers for the next three days and the action was incredible.  What a show!  Does and bucks alike fell in love with Donna, and does typically hate decoys. I passed on multiple opportunities before taking the buck you see in the video. 

On that afternoon I set Donna out in a field that was shaped much like a golf club. I positioned her right at the base of where the handle would meet the club so she could be seen from both the long narrow end and the circular end of the field. The golf club field separates two major bedding areas and I was confident that bucks would be crossing it as they checked each area for hot does.

As you see in the video, it worked out just as I had planned. First a young buck came charging down the narrow handle end of the field toward Donna. Just as he started to get comfortable with her, I heard several loud grunts coming from the direction where the little buck had just come. When the youngster bolted, I knew there was a good chance that the bully coming in would be a shooter. When he appeared, every hair on his back was standing at full attention. He looked as if he was half gorilla.  All the anger and testosterone was just more than I could take.  I drew my bow at the first opportunity and delivered a Lumenok tipped arrow through the big buck’s lungs. 

I owe a huge thanks to Don Fager from Don’s Taxidermy in Peyton, Colorado.  Don did a fantastic job on my custom decoy and I’m sure that this will be the first of many great hunts I have with it. As I described in previous posts, Don mounted a doe cape over a Carry-Lite deer decoy, rather than using a standard taxidermy form. The Carry-Lite has a very realistic shape and has proven time and time again that it is durable enough to take punishment from angry bucks. Don’s finished custom decoy is light enough to be easily hauled and durable enough to take abuse.  If you are interested in having Don build you a custom decoy of your own, you can contact him at (719) 495-3868, or visit him on the web at www.donstaxidermy.net.  Thanks again Don!

Danny & Donna's 2009 Iowa Whitetail