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By Rob Somerville
What deer do you consider to be the most difficult in the woods to harvest?
I'll give you a hint. It's not the 5 1/2-year-old buck that becomes totally nocturnal. He is disqualified because you can't harvest him if you can't see him, and the only time he appears during daylight is during the rut. And no animal is stupider than a love struck buck bent on procreation.
In my opinion, the biggest trophy in bow hunting is the alpha or dominant doe. Let me explain.
Here is a common scenario for any of you who spend as much time in a deer stand as I do, which is a lot. It's five minutes after first light, and you hear a twig snap in the distant woods in front of your stand.
There is a light wind hitting you smack-dab in the face. Everything seems perfect. Your shooting lanes were cut over a month ago, and your outline is broken up by the branches filled with oak leaves in the tree in which you are perched in your strap-on stand 25 feet above the ground.
Your chest tightens, and your breath quickens as you hear the rustling of brush down the main trail, which runs 15 yards in front of you, parallel to your stand. Now you see her -- a beautiful, mature whitetail doe that will dress out at 110 pounds or more.
She is filtering through the woods down your trail. Suddenly she stops 5 yards short of your shooting lane. Her cupped ears start to rotate like radar dishes, and her tail begins to twitch . She stomps her left foot and looks around nervously in all directions.
But you remain confident. You have your de-scented clothes on; you entered the area from the downwind side and climbed onto your perch a good hour before daylight.
She suddenly turns her head, and as if with a sixth sense, stares directly up at you. You are frozen in concealment, barely breathing, and looking at her through slitted eyes, peering out of your camo painted face.
Her head moves from side to side, and her ears are on full radar alert. All of a sudden she snorts a blowing whistle that would rival the intensity of an air raid siren, breaking the eerie stillness of the morning. This signal automatically sends panic-stricken deer with raised white flags scattering in all directions but yours.
An alpha doe is the territorial leader of her herd. She usually is the first in travel, and the most aggressive deer in the pack. If you've ever seen two different groups of does meet, you'll notice one from each group leading the approach.
These are the dominant, or alpha, does from each social group. What usually happens next is that one will immediately lower its head in a submissive gesture, acknowledging the dominance of the other. At times when neither wants to submit, both deer will rear up on their hind legs and strike at each other with their front hoofs.
These skirmishes are minor and last a very short time. Finally, one of them submits to the other and runs a short distance away. Once that pecking order is established they join together and peacefully feed and travel as a larger group.
Alpha does are high-strung and constantly alert. If you are glassing a group of does feeding in a field, there is one doe who might take a nibble of browse, then hurriedly raise her head and search in all directions for danger.
Her cupped ears will be constantly scanning the airwaves for the slightest sound that seems out of place. She'll be the one who every few seconds raises her amazing nose to scent check the area.
If you get the rare opportunity to harvest her, by all means take it, and consider it a well-deserved honor. By taking her out of the herd, you may salvage the chance at that big buck of your dreams without first being pegged.
I once matched wits with an alpha doe for over two and a half seasons. It seemed no matter what tactics I employed she busted my chops. I finally fooled her late one afternoon by using a Come-Alive Deer Rear.
This device is the back end of a deer, made out of high-density foam. You stake it in the ground facing a bush and it imitates a browsing deer. It has a quiet, motorized tail that wags every eight seconds.
My alpha nemesis approached this deer from a distance in the thick brush. She kept stomping her foot, trying to get my decoy to acknowledge her majesty. Her aggression finally did her in.
She could stand it no longer and with her hair raised on her back, she walked stiff-legged and aggressively into my trap. I slipped a three-bladed broad head into her vitals and the chess match was over.
I've killed several good bucks through the years. But if I were asked to name my proudest moment in bow hunting, it would be the harvest of this wily alpha doe.
I've even considered getting her mounted. But I'd be afraid as I sat in my recliner, looking at her and reminiscing about that hunt, that she would come to life with that evil distress snort, and once again haunt my life.
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