Rut? What rut? After sitting high on a ridge top up in the oaks both Wednesday and Thursday mornings, and never seeing a deer, I decided to mix things up a little and give an afternoon sit on Friday a shot. I set up a ground blind in amongst the tall grass and brush over looking a rye and clover green field at a dairy farm that has produced for me in years past.
The afternoon passed by quickly and the wildlife seemed to be active, I saw several flocks of geese flying to feed in the cut corn fields and a small group of turkeys came out at the far end of the field some 400 yards away.
Shortly after 4:00 I saw movement and a doe soon materialized in the edge of the brush, and after carefully studying her surroundings she stepped out. She had a suiter, and a buck soon joined her. He had a big body, but appeared to be a small beamed 6 pointer or perhaps a small 8 pointer. I ranged them at 210 yds, and decided to hold my fire and see what else came out. My decision to wait turned out to be a good one.
Not 5 minutes later a group of 5 does enters the field almost directly below my blind, at 100 yards. The 2 mature does in the group immediately had laser vision on me, and knew that my blind was new and didn't belong there. I was amazed as always by the keen senses of a mature doe.The stood there at full attention and were rivoted on my position. Tense moments ticked by, and finally the stare down ended with the does casually moving off to my left across the field.
I had passed the test.
Suddenly, from the same trail the does came out on, a buck appears. Obviously, he had been watching the reactions of his harem from the safety of the thick cedar security cover, but now he felt reassured that the coast was clear.
I brought up my trusty old Savage Model 99 lever action chambered in 308 caliber, and rested it onto the window of the blind, since in my rush to get out the door,I had forgotten my hickory shooting stick in my other blind bag.
The crosshairs nervously danced on his shoulder as I confirmed that he was a mature buck. He looked like a clean 8 pointer to me. I steadied my rest, took a deep breath and began to squeeze the trigger as I exhaled. My crosshairs were right on the point of his shoulder and he was relaxed with his head down as I tightened the trigger.
The shot was perfect and it planted him on the spot and he never twitched.
The 5 does cleared the field and never offered me the chance at a double. That was just fine anyways.
I walked up to the buck and gave him thanks and respectfully laid my hand on his heart. He was a nice deer. Fat and thick across the chest, and his tarsal glands were very ripe, stinky and wet from his rut fest activities.
I walked up to my truck and ttold the farmer that I had a buck down. He was thrilled which was nice to see. He offered to give me a hand and we loaded him onto the mule so I didn't even need to drag him out. That made it really nice!
I'm very thankful to have him, they just never come easy. It showed me, that if what you're doing isn't working, don't be afraid to try something different. This time it paid off.
Here he is, a symetrical 8 pointer and I would say around 170lbs.
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you do........ 
Very nice detailed post as well!! 
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