Irrelevant
Well-known member
Well that sux man. Hope you find that buck today
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Do overs 2021 while hunting..
- Thread starter The Hedgehog
- Start date
EYJONAS!
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- Joined
- Mar 17, 2017
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- 6,714
Glass is still half full. You'll get it done
Southern Elk
Well-known member
My rifle misfired on a nice antelope this year. Never had that happen and now I’ve totally lost confidence in my favorite rifle.
MarvB
Well-known member
1-Not doing more “real world” PT after my knee replacement, gyms are fine but….
2-Being too indecisive about my hunt planning once boots hit the ground (it worked out but I was frustrating myself)
3-Not going for spring bear in Idaho even though I’d bought my license for elk already (was worried about surgery timing and screwing up elk season)
All no biggies but still second guesses
2-Being too indecisive about my hunt planning once boots hit the ground (it worked out but I was frustrating myself)
3-Not going for spring bear in Idaho even though I’d bought my license for elk already (was worried about surgery timing and screwing up elk season)
All no biggies but still second guesses
Getting schooled by the same 2 year old bull elk on three separate days. Had him at 50 yards, 30 and 15 and never could make a shot happen. Also a big 5 point bull I walked up on broadside in a trail that I fully wasn’t ready for, super fun when you’re evening hunt is basically done in the first 20 minutes
Shangobango
Well-known member
Really just getting started here.
For now, not scouting enough during October due to work has put me behind the 8 ball on public. I logged 4.3 miles yesterday with a weighted pack looking for deer sign that made me want to climb into a tree. Never unpacked the tree saddle.
In the same vein, not pre-scouting for my Arkansas bear hunt. In fairness it is a 5.5 hour drive. Luckily my bear hunt served as a great deer scouting opportunity for my Arkansas backpack deer hunt coming up the week before Thanksgiving. I have high hopes for that based on what I found.
I am sure I will have some good ones as my season progresses.
For now, not scouting enough during October due to work has put me behind the 8 ball on public. I logged 4.3 miles yesterday with a weighted pack looking for deer sign that made me want to climb into a tree. Never unpacked the tree saddle.
In the same vein, not pre-scouting for my Arkansas bear hunt. In fairness it is a 5.5 hour drive. Luckily my bear hunt served as a great deer scouting opportunity for my Arkansas backpack deer hunt coming up the week before Thanksgiving. I have high hopes for that based on what I found.
I am sure I will have some good ones as my season progresses.
Little Big Man MT Chris
Well-known member
My Blacktail season came up dry. Hunted 17 days and my one opportunity I messed up.
Monday evening November 1st , Park my truck start glassing off the landing down along the tree line. I see a doe by herself. I start glassing for a buck. Nothing. Then from the darkness of the timber , I say to myself is that the face of a deer in the shadows and out of the shadows and into the clear-cut walks a GIANT Fork Horned Blacktail!
Buck fever hit and I lost my a ability to think properly, I go to the first dump I see put around in range the buck 232 , put the scope on him in I shoot , miss , bucks just standing there shoot another one he’s just still standing there I’m going what the heck is going on I’m so confused another round in I’m like shoot lower you must be going over the top so I dropped my crosshairs shoot , the buck jumps straight up in the air turns left trucks right into the timber I’m like oh no that’s not good.
I go down there no hair no blood but in my mind when I saw the buck jump I was convinced I hate it so after five minutes of searching around I decide to walk into the timber where I saw that buck go in I go in about 10 yards and I hear a deer crash after my left I’m like oh maybe he’s hit worse than I thought and then I think well how do you know that wasn’t the doe and then I left because it was almost dark.
Came back in the morning with one of my hunting buddies we’re gonna onX grid the whole drainage behind where that buck went in, And of course there’s a freaking heard Roosevelt right there in the morning and they feed right into the timber where the buck was and write down the whole drainage. We sneak into the timber and all you can hear is L talking to each other and you can hear him rip and leaves off the branches they’re so close and feeding and we’re kind of grading and talk in and they’re making so much noise they can’t hear us and then we’re like well how the hell are we supposed to know if we jump a buck because the dam elk are making so much noise. They were mewing and Cow calling and it sounded like full on estrus rut talk they were so loud talking it was crazy we had fun listening to it while we were looking and gridding. After three hours we have no hair no blood no sign of a bedded deer anywhere we go back to the truck and cam’s like I wanna see where you shot from.
Cam pulls up the range finder, you said 232 right, I go yeah , he goes I got 250, And after we stood there and talked about it I’m 100% convinced that I never did hit the deer with my shots and the last one went right underneath him because when he jumped in the air and came down he never hunched there was no pause and when he went into the timber and I watched him through my scope he moved completely fluid with no laboring it all.
And all I was left with the thoughts of what were you thinking I had the Highground on a deer that had no idea was there I had 25 minutes of shooting light left give or take I was in tall grass I could’ve slid 30 yards down the hill to a closer stump in the grass watching the deer and took my time went through my scenarios re-range but I just lost all my common senses in the moment went all rookie and just blew my wad and wiffed in less than 60 seconds.
the thing with these blacktails is they’re so nocturnal and elusive and when you’ve been hunting them for two weeks and are like 45 plus hours into your season or more invested in time when you finally do see one the emotions and shock of you actually found one hit ya hard. Or at least it did me. Ive forgiven myself because we are human we make mistakes were imperfect even though it was the biggest Blacktail in terms of height and width I’ve seen hunting . Of course it is easier to forgive yourself when the first three really big mature Blacktails you saw hunting you connected on and are hanging in your house. Ha ha ha , had that been the first big mature Blacktail I’ve ever had a chance at I’d probably still be crying right now.
I am 99.9 % positive that the big wide forked on the right is the one I missed on Monday this picture was taken July 5 of 2020 around 475 yds on the opposite side of the timber patch i shot from. And he hadn’t changed he’s just a year bigger taller and wider.
And the funny thing is I had completely forgotten about that buck and I wasn’t even thinking of him when I went up there because before I took a picture of these two from
last summer , on the patch at timber that I shot from but from last summer there was a small fork horn out there there of average size that had a 5 to 6 inch kicker growing off his left side of his base and I was still dreaming of finding that thing and making a euro out of him. And then it wasn’t until Tuesday that I realize that oh crap I think I got a picture of that but I missed from last summer and went and re-looked it up and like sure enough that’s got to be him.
The other thing about this year is that’s the first deer tag I’ve never filled , I started hunting deer in 2013 and had punched eight straight tags which had given me a little bit of overinflated confidence , as I ate some humble pie this year as I had to relive how I just got all jelly legged and went all rookie in the moment.
And now I got a Roosevelt hunt that starts next Saturday so with this failure/learning experience fresh in my mind, hopefully it will help me keep it together when I find a Roosevelt bull next weekend .
Side note : I forgot to add to my story that I went out and the next day put up a target at 100 yards and shot my rifle to make sure everything was on point and Yep inch and a half , 2 inches high directly above the bull’s-eye at 100 yards dead on, it was all me
Monday evening November 1st , Park my truck start glassing off the landing down along the tree line. I see a doe by herself. I start glassing for a buck. Nothing. Then from the darkness of the timber , I say to myself is that the face of a deer in the shadows and out of the shadows and into the clear-cut walks a GIANT Fork Horned Blacktail!
Buck fever hit and I lost my a ability to think properly, I go to the first dump I see put around in range the buck 232 , put the scope on him in I shoot , miss , bucks just standing there shoot another one he’s just still standing there I’m going what the heck is going on I’m so confused another round in I’m like shoot lower you must be going over the top so I dropped my crosshairs shoot , the buck jumps straight up in the air turns left trucks right into the timber I’m like oh no that’s not good.
I go down there no hair no blood but in my mind when I saw the buck jump I was convinced I hate it so after five minutes of searching around I decide to walk into the timber where I saw that buck go in I go in about 10 yards and I hear a deer crash after my left I’m like oh maybe he’s hit worse than I thought and then I think well how do you know that wasn’t the doe and then I left because it was almost dark.
Came back in the morning with one of my hunting buddies we’re gonna onX grid the whole drainage behind where that buck went in, And of course there’s a freaking heard Roosevelt right there in the morning and they feed right into the timber where the buck was and write down the whole drainage. We sneak into the timber and all you can hear is L talking to each other and you can hear him rip and leaves off the branches they’re so close and feeding and we’re kind of grading and talk in and they’re making so much noise they can’t hear us and then we’re like well how the hell are we supposed to know if we jump a buck because the dam elk are making so much noise. They were mewing and Cow calling and it sounded like full on estrus rut talk they were so loud talking it was crazy we had fun listening to it while we were looking and gridding. After three hours we have no hair no blood no sign of a bedded deer anywhere we go back to the truck and cam’s like I wanna see where you shot from.
Cam pulls up the range finder, you said 232 right, I go yeah , he goes I got 250, And after we stood there and talked about it I’m 100% convinced that I never did hit the deer with my shots and the last one went right underneath him because when he jumped in the air and came down he never hunched there was no pause and when he went into the timber and I watched him through my scope he moved completely fluid with no laboring it all.
And all I was left with the thoughts of what were you thinking I had the Highground on a deer that had no idea was there I had 25 minutes of shooting light left give or take I was in tall grass I could’ve slid 30 yards down the hill to a closer stump in the grass watching the deer and took my time went through my scenarios re-range but I just lost all my common senses in the moment went all rookie and just blew my wad and wiffed in less than 60 seconds.
the thing with these blacktails is they’re so nocturnal and elusive and when you’ve been hunting them for two weeks and are like 45 plus hours into your season or more invested in time when you finally do see one the emotions and shock of you actually found one hit ya hard. Or at least it did me. Ive forgiven myself because we are human we make mistakes were imperfect even though it was the biggest Blacktail in terms of height and width I’ve seen hunting . Of course it is easier to forgive yourself when the first three really big mature Blacktails you saw hunting you connected on and are hanging in your house. Ha ha ha , had that been the first big mature Blacktail I’ve ever had a chance at I’d probably still be crying right now.
I am 99.9 % positive that the big wide forked on the right is the one I missed on Monday this picture was taken July 5 of 2020 around 475 yds on the opposite side of the timber patch i shot from. And he hadn’t changed he’s just a year bigger taller and wider.
And the funny thing is I had completely forgotten about that buck and I wasn’t even thinking of him when I went up there because before I took a picture of these two from
last summer , on the patch at timber that I shot from but from last summer there was a small fork horn out there there of average size that had a 5 to 6 inch kicker growing off his left side of his base and I was still dreaming of finding that thing and making a euro out of him. And then it wasn’t until Tuesday that I realize that oh crap I think I got a picture of that but I missed from last summer and went and re-looked it up and like sure enough that’s got to be him.
The other thing about this year is that’s the first deer tag I’ve never filled , I started hunting deer in 2013 and had punched eight straight tags which had given me a little bit of overinflated confidence , as I ate some humble pie this year as I had to relive how I just got all jelly legged and went all rookie in the moment.
And now I got a Roosevelt hunt that starts next Saturday so with this failure/learning experience fresh in my mind, hopefully it will help me keep it together when I find a Roosevelt bull next weekend .
Side note : I forgot to add to my story that I went out and the next day put up a target at 100 yards and shot my rifle to make sure everything was on point and Yep inch and a half , 2 inches high directly above the bull’s-eye at 100 yards dead on, it was all me
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Schaaf
Well-known member
jryoung
Well-known member
Rolled into town expecting to find Rainier at the mercantile and they had none. We had to run back to Butte to stock up.
I mentioned this in my moose thread, but after shooting it and walking the half mile back to the boat, the one I was after was standing next to the boat. Anytime a person shoots a moose, they should shoot it as close to a boat as they can if shooting it near a boat is an option.
Carnage2011
Well-known member
Ooo, that man knows what a giant antelope is.I didn't follow Eli more closely when he drove past me while I was hunting antelope in WY.
Very painful...especially the second one. Hopefully the beer is helping and good things happen on your last two days.
I don't have any for 2021...which is a little scary bc if history is an indicator, it's coming...
Carl 9.3x62
Well-known member
I got lucky and was able to drive my truck right up to my moose this year. The only thing I kind of regret though was not taking up the rancher's offer of using his tractor to help skin and load it.
Talking my wife’s uncle in to killing the 1st bull I called in with his Nebraska rifle tag. Bugled in the dark 4-5 bulls responded back. We literally walk 300 yards and set up behind a brush pile. 2 cow calls later a 5x5 and a busted up raghorn are 40 yards. He kills the 5x5. We walk back to the truck, a bull bugles in a corn field by us, I call once. A huge 7x7 bull charges in and stands broadside at 100 yards. 100 yards off the road. He was happy with his bull but I wish we would have hunted more than 15 minutes. Pretty selfish of me I guess. 
corndog1
Well-known member
I passed an antelope I shouldn't have on opening day. I'm still in anguish over a ram two years ago.
Eventually
New member
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- Nov 6, 2021
- Messages
- 15
Took a 45 yard archery shot at a doe and missed by about 2 feet. Wind was ripping and rain was coming down hard. So glad it was a clean miss but I shouldn't have taken the shot.
Khunter
Well-known member
I am not grasping how 232 vs 250 yards is a difference maker?
Little Big Man MT Chris
Well-known member
I thought I was shooting over the buck so I intentionally dropped my crosshairs on my last shot, My bullets are 8.4 inches drop at 300 yards and I intentionally held low, either way you slice it , I rushed , I missed, and blew it. And we’re still guessing on the exact location of the deer the day after .
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SaskHunter
Well-known member
The biggest one this year, so far, was not getting a proper range during archery. Took a 60 yard shot at a 50 yard deer. Watched that perfect shot fly right over a 180 inch 4x4 mule deer. Even after shooting a very nice buck, I'm kicking myself for rushing getting a range to take a shot and missing that deer.
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