As to why I thought it was an older buck….a lot of it was simply based on behavior and the vocalizations he was using. There were a couple or few bucks that would walk up the woodline and hang out there never coming any closer. They had a unique grunt that I never saw any of the young bucks use. It was almost eery when they did it because it sounded literally like a “monster”….not moster buck but scary in your nightmares monster…..It would be one long deep growl like grunt. They also reeked of rutty buck so bad I could smell them from 60-70 yards away.

It may have been the same buck but on another night I’m watching something like 12-13 does feeding in the clover and young bucks are oeriodically passing through and messing with them. Every so often I’d hear something off to the side that would snap some dog fennel over or sound like something maybe pawing the ground….or something that you thought was grunt but not sure of,,,,etc….Just over and over again it was something happening to make you think ….Damn, there’s got to be a deer over there in the corner. I had an old scope with me just for the purpose of being able to get a better look at ones that passed by along the edges and stuff. I was scanning real slow and bam I caught hin rubbing a tree and working a licking branch…He probably thought he was out of the light but he was just right on the very edge of where it faded out. He was standing there watching the doe he was currently tending and the noises I was hearing was him posturing toward the younger bucks. This one young buck came in doing that “Erp, erp, erp, erp, erp” grunt that they often do and for whatever reason it smooth pissed him off. As that young buck left I picked up on the old one taking off running toward the direction of the young one. He chased him around in a little circle for a moment and it sounded like a mule trying to stomp and kill a dog. He let out of sound that reminded me a little of a pissed off stud horse too..... The young buck ran off and he returned to his little corner.