I love to turkey hunt but almost every time I am in the woods during turkey season, I find myself deer hunting. Well, not actually, I am looking for rubs, scrapes, licking branches, and trails. It seems that the faint trails used by bucks that are difficult to find in the fall are so easy to find in the damp earth of spring. It doesn't matter if I am turkey hunting here in the Ozarks or on the open praries of Kansas, I am taking in all the wonders of nature, looking and listening for longbeards, but also keeping an eye out for the deer sign that is so easy to find in the spring. This does not take away from my turkey hunting experience but adds to my overall outdoor enjoyment and my deer hunting benefits as well.
It seems like I often see deer while turkey hunting and twice this year, I have witnessed an unusual deer behavior. I was easing down a long ridge which has a field near the end and the field drops off the ridge into a nearby creek bottom. It is a regular place to see deer and turkeys and I never approach this area without silently stalking to where I can see what may be in the field. I spotted a brown spot that, with a closer look with my binoculars, turned into a deer's back barely visible above the grass. I froze in my tracks and searched the sage grass and brush until I spotted another deer. Standing and glassing silently, I finally saw nine whitetails browsing in the distance. At the same time, I was very much interested in finding one of the long bearded gobblers that I had heard in the wooded creek bottom below. I took a mouth diaphram turkey call and sent a series of love sick hen yelps in the direction of the last gobble I had heard. Instantly, one of the deer's heads popped into view and I watched in amazement as the deer charged my direction. The old doe was joined by five other deer as then headed directly towards me on the run. I didn't know quite what to make of the situation, so I stepped behind a nearby tree to watch this scenario. The deer ran to within eighty yards and stopped to look everything over. They were intent on finding the source of the raspy turkey sounds that they had heard. This was all and well, I enjoyed watching the deer respond to my "Fang" turkey call, but when I heard a gobble in the distance, I was distracted from the deer for a moment. I turned towards the gobble in an attempt to get a good direction on the now interested bird and was immediately jolted to reality by the snort of a deer. The old doe and her group of followers erupted into a snorting, brush popping, tail wagging, noisy bunch of startled whitetails. So much for the turkey gobbling for a while. In all, there were fifteen deer that vacated the sage grass and scrub oak field. 
In the same place a few days later, I approached the same field from the same direction, in the same manner. I spotted a brown spot which eventually turned into a deer browsing. It took a few minutes but I saw several other deer and I was determined to not spook them again. The delima was that there was a gobbler somewhere on the other side of the feeding deer. Again, I let loose with a series of hen cutting and again, the deer responded immediately by racing in my direction to where they could see anything which may be in the upper end of the field. For many long minutes the patriarch doe and her faithful followers searched the area for the source of the turkey sounds. I stayed behind a small tree, occassionally sneaking a peak with my binoculars until the curious whitetails melted into the scrub oak brush to the east. I took a detour to the west to keep from spooking the deer, even though it took me a ways in the wrong direction.
It is the things like this that keeps me coming back to the spring turkey woods day after day, year after year. I bring a gobbler home from time to time and always feel fortunate to do so, but being outdoors this time of year is such a wonderful experience that I will always enjoy and I suggest that you do as well. Good Hunting!
reprinted by permission: Paxton Media Group
