The one that got away?

[BearFoot]

Our first evening in, on a two week hunt. Wind was blowing good, about an hour before sundown. We were a mile down from camp.
That's my excuse for letting him walk.
We called and scraped, the sat under a spruce tree. Commenced cracking open and eating pistachios. After awhile, I look over and and see this guy! Making a wallow, pawing and pissing.




We bull grunted and scraped. He circled us 180 degrees at less than 80 yards. He is 2 x 2 brow tine in a three or better area. Clearly 50" +. It was awesome!




Should have took him, but got a much nicer bull a week later. pistachios are key!

 

[dcopas78]

I don't have a pic but I totally blew it on the biggest whitetail buck I ever had a chance to draw on about 7-8 years ago. Saw him the day before, crossing the road in front of me and heading in to my hunting area. I left work early next afternoon and was in the stand at 1pm for the evening hunt. I grunted a few times, not really expecting much but wanting to cover the sound of getting in my stand and maybe convince a deer it was just another deer making the noise. I looked up less than a minute later and the buck was running full bore, hair on the back of his neck up toward me. He crossed a 300 yard field in what seemed like 10 seconds and was 20 yards broadside in front of me. I didn't even have the release on the string yet. Drew back, guessed 25, held high with the 20 yard pin and let it fly. Arrow glanced off his back, knocked some fur out. He ran out about 50 yards and just looked back at me. I never could get another shot as he just walked off. I'll never forget him....about a 170-175" main frame 10 pt with tons of kickers and stickers, and extra brows...and a corkscrew like drop tine about 8" long on his right beam just past his ear. I think he would have went in the 190s non-typical with all of the extras he had. Still tears me up to this day. I was literally sick for a few days.

 

[mdhunter]

This guy left a memory mark. Hopefully he will still be around next year.

 

[isu22andy]

He broke his drop tine and whole side of his rack off October 1st .. never saw him in the stand. .

 

[np307]

Last year I shot this buck in the shoulder blade with my bow. Would've been my first bow kill and first buck. By far the best deer I've seen on public land here (though my hunting career is fairly short). That's the only story with a picture attached.

I still think about the antelope I missed this fall. That's a painful one.

 

[0uTkAsT]

I thought this was going to be about good looking women.

I'll go back to my cave in the desert now.

 

[timmy]

Wow -what was wrong with you? Ouch that looks like a monster. Did you take one?

Shot one with my rifle a few weeks later. In hindsight would have been a lot cooler to get one with my bow. I was not great at judging those things.

 

[Dinkshooter]

Hey @Dinkshooter, want me to send you some pictures to post?

1000's of comedians out of work.......................

I'd post up pics myself but I have to get to my therapy session, they help a little.

 

[Oak]

1000's of comedians out of work.......................

I'd post up pics myself but I have to get to my therapy session, they help a little.

I'm pretty sure this is part of a 12-step process.

 

[Mallardsx2]

WIsh I had a picture of the ones that got away. Just a mental picture....burned in my brain....

 

[HSi-ESi]

No pics, just a story on this one.

When I was 17 and a Senior in HS, I found what I thought was a buck-of-a-lifetime on a place I had sole-permission. The first day I saw him he was with a group of does and I watched him crest over the skyline earlier in the morning. Of course from the back-angle he looked even bigger than he was, but I quickly became obsessed.

This group of does spent all their time in one section of the property - and it was bordered by 2 different land-owners. One let folks hunt, the other was a hard No to everyone. Pressure wise the deer didn't hit the property that allowed hunting, so I was feeling pretty good that I'd get this deer if I played my cards right.

There was some water on my side, with some good feed nearby. The deer like to hit that at night and then work-up into the hills at dawn. So I planned a hunt, giving the deer enough rest to settle down from my last incursion - and pick a day when I didn't have any Football games or practices.

I worked up to the top of the "hills" in the dark, making sure I would be at my spot with time to spare. I remember it being chilly, but there wasn't any snow on the ground. As light permitted - I was looking through my Tasco 10X25's (high-tech for me back then). I spotted the deer below me, 4-500 yards out. But they began working my way. In front of them was a coyote - and he worked up the trail ahead of them. He passed by at under 10 yards, then spooked when he got down-wind. I was so confident that this deer would be hanging on my wall (or at least the skull cap mount would be).

When the deer were under 300 yards, I was getting a shell loaded and planning on when I would take him. Then a shot rang out, followed by several more. I looked around and finally spotted 2 guys, across the fence on the neighbor that allowed access. Luckily, they didn't hit "my" deer. But they seriously altered the deer's trajectory - and I never got a shot that day, or saw the buck again.

I did chat with the family that let me hunt and let them know what happened. I figured if the "shooters" were willing to take shots across fences, then they probably wouldn't have hesitated to cross the fence.

The funny part as I type this out, I doubt that deer broke 150, kinda like my girlfriend at the time.

 

[NR_Hunter]

So this buck here isn’t a giant, but would have easily been my biggest (and first) buck with a bow.

So it all started when I needed to take a dump in the woods, and decided to walk over to an abandoned farmhouse/yard. These are always great places for a woods dump because there is usually a good place to go, and there are ample amounts of items laying around to cover it up. Covering it up is important because nothing turns a landowner off to hunting more than finding a steaming pile human excrement and tp on their land.

So anyways, I put my bow down, get my baby wipes out of my pack, and go around the corner of the house and a doe and one of the biggest bucks I’ve ever seen bust out some brush, almost right against this house. This was depressing.

After I do my business I walk back to where the buck and doe jumped up from to see exactly where they had been bedded. At this point, I have my bow in my left hand with an arrow knocked, and I take my phone out to text a buddy how terrible of a deer hunter I am.

As I’m doing this, I look up to see a smaller but respectable buck walking straight towards me, likely smelling for the doe that just exited the area 10 minutes prior. The buck doesn’t notice me standing against the house and is walking up to me like a tame deer expecting a handful of food from a petting zoo.

Because I’m standing on concrete, I can’t just drop my phone without making a loud thud, so just stayed perfectly still hoping he’d angle away at some point and I could sneak my phone in my pocket, but at about 8 yards he noticed me and and short staring contest for about 10 seconds. He then bolted and stopped at about 20 yards I quick clipped my release into my bow and drew back but there was a branch in the way and I don’t really like shooting at such an alert animal either.

Possibly the most deflating series of events I’ve ever had hunting. Atleast I got a few good pics since I had my phone out. The lesson learned here is to always stay in the game no matter what misfortune just happened.

 

[geetar]

I got this one on a trail camera and my dad walked into a stand he had been hunting for years a few days later and climbed up and before he could get sat down and chamber a round and be ready for a deer to walk in this buck in the picture jumped up and ran off from 15-20 yards away and he couldn’t get off an ethical shot.

 

[Schaaf]

I sat 45 yards away from this guy for 2 hours while he was bedded down. Watched him the entire time through an opening in a Juniper bush. He stood up, I put an arrow l through his chest and then he slowly walked a couple hundred yards. I would have bet every cent in my pocket he was done. Spent the next 5 days looking for him and finally found him still chasing cows 10 days later. That guy lives rent free in my head.

 

[antlerradar]

I have had my share of missed opportunities over the years. Over estimating the range on a deep forked mule deer with long in lines and kickers back in 86 and under estimating the range on one of the biggest whitetails I have ever seen in 95 are hunting memories I can't seem to forget. As tough as those are they are nothing compared to the elk in 2018. I hunted this bull for five years, found his sheds on one of those year and for the most part never got that close to him. That changed with 15 minutes left in the 2018 archery season.

Winter of 2015


Fall of 2016
/



Fall of 2017
/

Sheds form 2017
/

Fall of 2018
/

With fifteen minutes of shooting light left in the 2018 season I was thinking that I was going to have to wait another year and then there he was 35 yard away. I got a bad case of elk fever quickly. I am not sure why I missed, it was an easy shot that I get to keep playing over and over. The more I think about it I have come to the belief that it is likely in my hast I used the 20 yard pin. The arrow went under his chest and into the dirt. I never saw him again.

 

[EYJONAS!]

@antlerradar I would've literally shit my self and probably done the same thing if I had a history of a bull like that and he came out at 35 yards outta the blue on the last day.

 

[antlerradar]

@antlerradar I would've literally shit my self and probably done the same thing if I had a history of a bull like that and he came out at 35 yards outta the blue on the last day.

It wasn't quite out of the blue. I knew he was bedded in the thick timber to my south. I was just hoping when he moved he would go through the saddle I was setting.

 

[Redside]

I've posted pics of this guy before, but the first time I knew of this bull was mid Sept 2017. My buddy and packed in the night before, walked down the trail a little ways from the tent the next morning and let out a bugle, he responded dang near at the tent and came our way. We figured he wouldn't come through the open meadow so went downhill and downwind in the trees. But of course he walked right through the open meadow and no shot for me or my friend. I shot a bull later that morning. I haven't seen him since, but I did get trail cam pics in 2018, nothing this year. I've never had "history" with an animal before, but it'd be cool to run into him again.

 

[fishing4sanity]

This buck is from several years back, spent the season getting glimpses of him and a couple of 'if only' moments. Just after the season ended I was back in the area and had my camera, I could almost hear him tauntingly asking, "Oh, is deer season over?"

 

[antlerradar]

A few years back my son had a good limited entry bull tag. He was off in collage and would only have Thanksgiving vacation to hunt. I had seen this bull in previous years and was number one on the list of bulls to find. I spent least 20+ days of looking and never found him. I was starting to wonder if he was still alive. On Thanksgiving my son shot the best bull I was able to find. Then a few days after Christmas I find him where I spent most of the season looking for him.