I blew my chance

[SpurHunter]

I am NOT a trophy hunter, I hunt for fun and meat. Three years ago I started passing a few small bucks after my hunting buddy had seen a couple real giants on our place. Lat year paid off and I killed my biggest buck ever, but not a giant to trophy guys on here. I was still happy. I have passed a bunch of 4 & 6 points this year, and one wide 8 pt that was very, very young. I killed the does he was following instead.

Fast forward to Saturday:

I too suffered in the blowing damp wind Saturday morning. I opted for a shooting house, it not wind proof at all, but offered a tad of wind block which was something right?

Wind direction was perfect for this stand though. About 9 I finally see a flicker of white, binos revealed a doe feeding down in the hardwoods to my left. I watched her for about 15 minutes, then saw her take off. Binos up in time to see a big fork-horn start chasing her. At least I saw something to call the trip a success I thought. 10 minutes later, 200 yards straight up wind, in the atv trail I see movement, pull up the binos and it was the buck of a lifetime. I get my gun up to realize I still had the objective adjusted for close 50 yard shots. I get focused, crank to 16 power and I am STUNNED at what I am looking at. The deer has crossed into my thicket out of the hardwoods and I can see head and antlers, lots of antlers. Hes a WIDE 10pt with 12-14" g2's and 3's. He is turning his head in circles trying to wind a doe. I hit the bleat call and he steps back out into the trail, but doesn't stop. Hes about to go over the ridge so I take the shot I had. I stayed into the scope and see him run straight away a few steps then dive over the ridge. From his reaction, I knew I had nailed him. 200 yards with a 300 WSM is a pot shot, no worry about distance being an issue.

Richard texted, and I replied I had just shot a monster, he wants to come help track but I said I was going to give him time, no rush.

While waiting, I hear a deer behind me and its that same fork-horn trotting along in search of a doe again, I could have flattened him at 50 yards, but obviously wasn't after a small buck today.

20 minutes was all I could stand and went to impact spot. Nothing, I'm not worried. I retraced his path, I could see fresh disturbed leaves easily giving away a running deer. I went about 50 yards and after not finding sign, call Richard to come help.
The neighbor just north of me heard the shot and asked if I needed any help tracking, showing up with his buddy. The four of us poured over the hardwoods for an hour, never finding the first sign of a hit. No hair, no blood, nothing.

I have decided that I missed. I have seen deer hit that don't leave sign for a few yards, but we checked 300 yards of obvious area, its all pretty wide open, so its not an issue of "hes laying 10' from your search area".

I'm beyond sick over it, I replay the scenario over and over. hindsight being 20/20, I would have waited and kept the bleats up, but once he went over the edge, I may have never seen him again. One thing is for sure, I cant take back what happened, maybe he will show his face again, maybe the neighbor will kill him, maybe he will live out his days and be eaten by a coyote as he goes down hill. At least I got to see the kind of deer Ive been after for 20 years. I blew it.

 

[Jmax]

Don't feel bad, if you hunt long enough you will have that happen no matter how good you are. We have all had that happen. To this day I am haunted by a huge 10 point that came right in on me while bow hunting. I had a tree in front of me about 30 yards that was torn to heck, he went straight to that tree and proceeded to tear it up some more. His rack on the tree was so load I could have made all kinds of racket and he would have never heard me. To this day I do not even remember aiming. What I do remember is releasing an arrow that went straight at and into the tree he was tearing up. emoBang That broad head is still in that tree, buried so deep there was no way to get it out.

Those are also the times that keep you going back. emoSmile Jmax

 

[churly]

If you have been after a deer like that for 20years, you are a trophy hunter! Lol!

I have been there before. My biggest bow kill and black powder kill( they both left blood trails) were never recovered...the key is, dont let the experience ruin you, learn from it and remember how many hours we spent in the stand not seeing anything. I bet if you put your time in you will have another chance. If you would have shot the fork horn at first sight, you would have never seen the biggun....

 

[reliable]

Been there, Done that, got the t shirt and cried into it.

Still think about blowing my chance at one I was hunting for 3 yrs straight. It was 11 months, 23 days ago, not that I'm still tore up about it...

 

[jimwarden]

There's a reason those big bucks get that way. They somehow learn to make all the right moves. Great story and you did everything right, it just wasn't meant to be for you or him that day. Just think how much more exciting it's going to be to hunt that same tree stand in the future. Every twig snap will bring up images of him in your mind. You'll end up hunting longer each trip and enjoying it more, and he will get to pass on his superior DNA a little longer. It's a win-win.

 

[rsimms]

I have never blown the chance at "the deer of a lifetime," but only because I have yet to ever see "the deer of a lifetime," at least not one that was anywhere close to presenting a shot.

I felt your pain and I to am VERY comfortable that had that deer been touched by a bullet, we poured over the terrain well enough that we would have known it. I'm convinced we found its "get the hell out of dodge" path, with nary a sign of injury. Take some solace in that.

As for me, it seems I vaguely remember you offering me the chance to go hunt that stand, and I declined. Once again, proof positive that I'm a lousy deer hunter. emoBang

 

[Kirk]

That is one sick feeling. I have had it before. Long Story! That feeling will go away after a few years and thousands of dollars of therapy.

 

[SpurHunter]

rsimms - 11/25/2013 1:15 PM

As for me, it seems I vaguely remember you offering me the chance to go hunt that stand, and I declined. Once again, proof positive that I'm a lousy deer hunter. emoBang

As we stood at the junction of the two trails, I did remember saying, it was your choice. I almost wished you had taken the stand I was in! LOL

 

[elwestb]

... as Forrest Gump would say, "It happens"! Sorry Spur, and been there, done that too!

 

[Yfz45011]

It happens. Maybe hell show back up again. I've seen a couple big deer but the biggest ones were like ghost. U see em one sec then pull up a scope or just blink to see they're gone, flat disappeared. The biggest deer I've seen I never had a shot at. But good to kno u looked and tracked him that hard.

 

[wiggles]

jimwarden - 11/25/2013 11:58 AM

There's a reason those big bucks get that way. They somehow learn to make all the right moves. Great story and you did everything right, it just wasn't meant to be for you or him that day. Just think how much more exciting it's going to be to hunt that same tree stand in the future. Every twig snap will bring up images of him in your mind. You'll end up hunting longer each trip and enjoying it more, and he will get to pass on his superior DNA a little longer. It's a win-win.

Very well put jw! It sucks hard spur.
The first deer I ever pulled the trigger on was a heavy eight. Thought I had missed the deer until my dad spotted him laying in a creek gut shot. He called me over to look, I stepped to the edge of the creek to see a live buck 10' from my big toe. My dad said shoot him again. As I lifted my rifle this buck made one hop and cleared a 15' bank then ran 200 yrd up hill onto the next property. We searched for hours and hours...spur this happened 21 years ago and I can tell you every detail like it was yesterday. I have and you will see and kill bigger deer

 

[lentrn]

All you can do is get back out there! You'll see that buck in your sleep for a long time! I hope that you will get another change. Good luck! I got to kill a good 9 pt at 7:10 Saturday morning. It happen so fast, I couldn't believe it. He's at least 8 years old. Score in high 140s and was 180 lbs. I don't know how to post pics.

 

[churly]

Id love to see pics of an 8 year old!

 

[wiggles]

churly - 11/25/2013 5:09 PM

Id love to see pics of an 8 year old!

He meant 5 churly....

 

[lentrn]

Churly pm me and I'll text you the pic. I don't know how to put them on here.

 

[the maddog]

Tuff Stuff Spur !! I too am in the 'been there' club of missed big bucks. Was in Sherwood 20 yrs ago...muzzleloader with those no.11 primer caps misfired at a HUGE 10PT crabclaw monster at 30 yards while he standing broadside...emoDoh emoBadLanguage emoBawlStill lay awake some nights with that vision in my head.

 

[Liveliner]

To Erik and to all the posters in this thread. Thanks for sharing you very realistic story of life in a tree-stand.. Thanks to all who commented with your adventures as well. This was an interesting read for sitting here on this rainy day...

 

[Yfz45011]

Liveliner has giving me an idea, how bout a thread or sticky with nothing but hunting stories like what has been told by several here. This thread has certainly got me thinkin of all the big bucks aka ghost I've seen and missed or never given the chance.

 

[fish4thepeck]

I was bow hunting Illinois a few years back setting about 30 yards back out of a cut corn field in a finger of woods with a fenced pasture to my back. It was about 4 in the eve. and I look down the fence row and here comes two bucks a small 8 and a shooter 10. The 8 walks right under me and the the shooter stops about 30 yards up the fence row then decides to jump the fence. He started walking across the Pasture and I was fixing to have about a twenty yard shot. All of a suden he throws his head up and looks across the pasture and yall wouldn't believe what was walking straight for him all postured up. It was a giant and I do mean giant non- typical and he was fixing to tangle with the 10 pt. The big giant was probably 50 yards from me when the 8 pointer that walked under me got down wind and snorted. I thought game over but instead the 10 pt just veered away and the big boy got even more pissed and walked straight for me looking for the buck that snorted. I had him 15 yards but I had to turn around and had a limb that I was having to lean down and shoot under. I was pretty sure I made a good hit then the buck ran up the fence row and tried to jump the fence and couldn't then he went down in a little swag and I thought I saw him go down. I'm setting up there thinking I just killed my first Booner and called the guy who had the land we were hunting to come help me. When he got there we crossed the the fence into the Pasture and walked about a 100 yards to the ditch and seen where he had crawled under the fence into some cutover which was the border to our hunting property. There was posted signs every where so My buddy said he would call the land owner and get permission. Well to make a long story short they had hunters hunting that property and we didn't get to look for the deer. I have been sick ever since. If I had it to do over with knowing that A property owner wouldn't let someone recover a wounded deer I would have never made that phone call to my buddy. To give you an idea how big that deer was for yall that know me his neck looked about the size of my waist.