Tom Haag knows plenty about hunting trophy bucks. In front of him is his 184-inch non-typical from Nov. 28, 2006. Photo by Ron Willmore.

Tom Haag took advantage of the pre-dawn darkness and light drizzle on Nov. 28, 2006, to approach the designated site for his tree stand.

After checking the wind direction, he slowly and quietly made his way to the tree, screwed in the steps and hung his old Lock-On Spirit about 25 feet off the ground. Haag had been waiting several days for an east or southeast breeze, and on this day, the wind was finally cooperating.

After securing himself with a safety harness, Haag settled down to await the slowly approaching daylight. He always tries to be set up in his tree stand at least 30 minutes before daylight, and on this cloudy morning with light rain, it seemed to take forever before he could see his sight pins on his Hoyt bow.

Just after daylight, Haag caught movement out of the corner of his eye. His heart rate increased as he reached for his bow, only to discover the animal sneaking through the thick brush nearby was a bobcat. He left his bow on the hook and continued to scan the brush. Haag did not see a deer for the first hour after daylight. At about 7:30 a.m., he heard a deer walking and immediately spotted a doe as she emerged from the thick cover into the small opening adjacent to his stand. One of the great things about bowhunting is you frequently get to observe deer acting “naturally.” As Haag watched the doe, her fawn came into view behind her.

“I have never seen this type of deer behavior before, even with all the years I have been hunting,” Haag said.

The doe repeatedly turned and tried to run the fawn off. While doing this, the doe was acting like she must have had a little too much caffeine that morning.

“She was very hyper and seemed nervous,” Haag said.

She finally managed to run the fawn off, and of course, the fawn moved downwind and went right past Haag’s tree through his shooting lane as it left. Fortunately, Haag had taken all possible precautions for scent control before getting into his tree stand, and the fawn did not have a clue that it could have been shot.

It was at about this time Haag heard brush breaking behind him in the general direction the doe had come from. Haag’s first thought was, That must be another hunter. It’s way too noisy to be a deer. While concentrating on the general direction of the noise, Haag suddenly figured out the source of the commotion. Coming toward him through some very thick brush was a giant buck. The noise was due to the extremely wide antlers getting caught in brush as the buck approached.

“The buck kept stopping and twisting his antlers to get rid of the brush that was getting caught in between his antlers,” Haag said. “I have never seen a buck with such wide antlers, and it only took one look to know this was a ‘shooter.’”

The doe watched the buck approach, standing her ground until the buck got fairly close, but she then moved away in a very “submissive” posture. It was obvious the doe was very close to being ready to breed, but was still playing games with the buck. Thinking the doe was going to take the buck in the direction where there wasn’t a shot opportunity, Haag did his best imitation of a fawn call with his mouth.

“The change in the doe, as soon as she heard the fawn call, was amazing,” Haag said. “She went immediately from a submissive posture to an aggressive posture and headed in the same direction the fawn had gone -- right under my tree and into my shooting lane. It was almost like the doe thought, I just got rid of that fawn, and now it’s back again, and I am going to have to run it off again.”