A few years ago I was hunting a food plot on an early winter morning. There was a set of woods at my back that had a long finger that stuck out and separated my field from the next one. That finger often times served as a funnel that would allow deer to walk along and look at both fields before deciding which one they wanted to hit before moving off the far end into a bedding area.
Around 0830 I heard the tell tale sign of movement in the woods. Not long after, a pair of doe popped out about halfway down the funnel on my left. I watched as they soaked up the morning rays and meandered about eating their breakfast. After perhaps 20 minutes they moved off the far side of the field into a thick bedding area.
Maybe 30 minutes after that, a buck popped out of the funnel from roughly the same area. It was a nice six point, nothing I was interested in shooting, but fun to watch. He'd been eating and milling about for maybe 5 minutes, when the smaller doe from earlier came bombing out of the thicket at the far end of the field. She ran right over to him (maybe 125 yards), turned, walked a few steps up wind, and raised her tail so he could get a good long whiff.
He stared at her for a moment, and then went right back to eating. No matter what she tried, she could not get his interest. That was the first and only time I've seen a doe try to initiate the mating ritual, and she was shot down. Who knows, maybe he was still recovering from a long night of chasing tail.
Around 0830 I heard the tell tale sign of movement in the woods. Not long after, a pair of doe popped out about halfway down the funnel on my left. I watched as they soaked up the morning rays and meandered about eating their breakfast. After perhaps 20 minutes they moved off the far side of the field into a thick bedding area.
Maybe 30 minutes after that, a buck popped out of the funnel from roughly the same area. It was a nice six point, nothing I was interested in shooting, but fun to watch. He'd been eating and milling about for maybe 5 minutes, when the smaller doe from earlier came bombing out of the thicket at the far end of the field. She ran right over to him (maybe 125 yards), turned, walked a few steps up wind, and raised her tail so he could get a good long whiff.
He stared at her for a moment, and then went right back to eating. No matter what she tried, she could not get his interest. That was the first and only time I've seen a doe try to initiate the mating ritual, and she was shot down. Who knows, maybe he was still recovering from a long night of chasing tail.