Code Blue and a Trophy Buck

In the picture, notice the bottle of Code Blue Doe Estrous in my hand. That says it all! Bucks were running and grunting all over the woods that day. Twice I let a 7-pointer walk all around me in my bow stand. He was trolling just like everybody else for an estrous doe. I was on a steep hardwood ridge that fell abruptly to a river bottom. I call this place the Crescent Ridge because of the shape of the edge of the ridge before it falls down to the river. I was surrounded by old growth timber and white oak trees. The majority of acorns had fallen but deer were still feeding on them. I knew there was a big doe group in this area from all of my trail camera pictures. I also knew that a buck I named "SWEEPER" was there. Sweeper has a huge 11-point rack that reaches for the sky and sweeps back and forth across his head. It's 24 inches inside and he has a 300-lb body to match. I have no idea how old he is but he's old. I only get footage of him at night. This guy knows how to survive.
The third time I saw the 7-pointer, he came through a little different route. This time he cross checked the trail I entered the area through and, just like I hoped, he put his head down when he got there and then started smelling and looking around. I entered the area dragging two scent drags. I had buck urine on one and doe estrous on the other. The rut was heating up and I was trying to get Sweeper to show himself by tricking him into thinking an alien buck had stolen a doe from his area. Sweeper's scrapes were on top of the ridge where it flattened out and melded into scattered pines. The cedars he was tearing up were big! Some almost as big as my thigh. Bucks in the area had taken over three of my mock scapes and had opened two more existing scrapes from last year. The mock scrapes were doctored with doe estrous applied by the Drop Time scent dispensers.
The morning of my hunt, before daylight, I dragged my scent-laden drags down my entry trail and hung them up in a small tree over one of my mock scrapes. It was a 30-yard shot from my stand. As the little 7-pointer came through again he hit the trail and began smelling. He bolted his head up and looked in the direction I entered, snorted loudly and took off. For a moment, I thought someone had snuck onto my land and was following my trail to my stand. A couple of minutes later though I saw what spooked the little buck. It wasn't Sweeper but another buck that had an 11-point rack. He was definitely the biggest buck I'd seen so far.
I stood up and got ready. This buck had a mind of his own. He followed the scent trail, and then saw a doe and headed in her direction that took him too far away for a shot. He followed her into some thick stuff out of my sight. I pulled out my deer call and began to roar at him and finished off with a grunt-snort-wheeze. When I wheezed at him I saw something I'd never seen in the woods before. He started horning a sapling about 20 feet tall and began to make it whip back and forth like he was trying to break it over. I was amazed at this and couldn't believe the power he had to make that tree whip like that. While he was occupied, I blew the buck call again and once again wheezed at him. As soon as I did, the tree became still. I knew then he was coming.
He came out of the thicket and circled me wide. He was headed right for the scent trail and when he hit it he put his nose to the ground and began to follow it. He stopped right at the tree I had put the scent drags up in and started performing lip curl behavior, sniffing the rags over and over. I drew and settled my 30 yard pin behind his shoulder. Just as I released, he whipped his head around and down toward his back foot. The broadhead cut through his brow tine and it sent the arrow through his spine. The buck dropped in his tracks. I followed up with a lung shot and he was done.
I was in a great place that morning with a lot of deer movement, but what made everything come together was using my Code Blue scents that brought a great buck into my sights. I can't thank the makers of Code Blue scents enough for their great products like the EliminX scent control spray, Drop Time scent dispensers, and great deer scents for helping me bag this buck. I'm a believer in Code Blue products and will use them from now on.

Thanks to Code Blue for a great deer season!

Randy C.