The One That GOT AWAY!!!???

[WAPITIHUNTER]

Well now that I removed my story about the elk that got away I guess I need a story about a deer that got away.

Ah yes here we go. Many years ago my dad and two brothers and I head over to Cle elum to go deer hunting. I believe it was the second weekend and we drove up to CleElum ridge and found a good looking spot where we could lookout over this selectively logged area. We could watch out to about 3-400 yards. Real steep hill directly below us. My little brother was about 10 at the time and he had his pellet gun along and was shooting at everything.

We spread out along this hill top to glass this nice area and we are there for only about 5 minutes and Ross shoots his pellet gun down in the brush at the bottom of the hill. Then.....Boom......Boom....Dad yells out "Jason there it is, it's huge it's going up the hill." I hear Jason with a frantic voice say where I don't see it. I am freaking out because I don't know where it is either. So I take off an go running up the ridge right behind my brother and there standing only 80 yards or so down the hill is the biggest bodied and antlered buck I have ever seen. We were above the deer and he never saw us so he didn't really know where to run to escape. The panic had already set in hard. I threw up my rifle and I was doing circles all the way around the buck. As I came across his body I fired, he flinched and started trotting up the hill but slowly because he still didn't know where the shots were coming from. I shoot again and miss.....My brother is in sheer panic because he has still not seen the buck. He was looking out past the deer when it was right below us. It trots up the hill about 200 yards and then Jason finally sees it and the bar start roaring and I am firing leading him and holding over. Meanwhile dad has jumped into the Blazer and goes roaring up the road and my little brother Ross looks out the window and says " dad there he is" dad slams on the breaks jumps out and throw two more rounds of hot lead his way.  Nada. Nope. Zilch. Zippo..........We ended up firing 14 rounds at that giant buck and never even grazed him. Buck fever had struck and it spread through us all. All dad had to do was take his time get down, take a rest and dump the sucker but he was so afraid of us seeing it first that he just threw up and took two snap shots at it. And the sound in his voice when he said "there it is It's huge". It was a huge buck. Probably conservatively 24" spread perfectly symmetrical 4x4 with deep evenly matched forks all around and heavy like bananas. Body wise it literally looked like a Elk standing there and it's tracks even looked like a small elk tracks. That was the most dejected sorry truck load of hunters you could have ever ridden with. The ride all the way back to Puyallup was very quiet. That was a one day hunt and it was the worst I have ever felt about the one that got away.

[TeacherMan]

I was 14, I was using my dads 30/30 lever action, I was walking down a trail behind 49 degree N resort and a monster whitetail buck crossed the road in front of me, I hurried up to the location and I couldn't believe it he was only 25 yards off of the road in the brush I pushed the safety off and squeezed the trigger, nothing, I kept squeezing and nothing would happen I felt helpless. Buck fever at its finest, I forgot to pull the hammer back. I was use to hunting with a bolt action rifle.  Never even fired the gun.

[archery288]

My first out of state hunt, I was bow hunting elk in Idaho. I was so jacked up to be bow hunting out of state!!! Very first afternoon me and my partner called in a 340 6X6 and I dropped the ball I shot over his back at 18 yds. Wide open shot broadside. That bull had me shaking and so flustered I completely lost it. Punched the trigger and flinched so bad I never touched him. That is the ONE I think about more then any other ONE THAT GOT AWAY.

I remember that story like it was yesterday...    "Hold your 30 pin on the target at 18 yards and see how high it is..." 

[huntnphool]

M-Rays got a ghost that visits him in his dreams at night too Did I really bring that up again

[wastickslinger]

The only one that really haunts me was two years ago. Long story short (cause I dont wan to throw up any more thinking about it, cause sometimes I do). Archery early season, missed over the back of a 180 class buck. Nuf said.

The worst part is that I have over 30 minutes ove video and hundreds of photos from presason scouting him. He will never leave my mind.

[kramman]

the biggest one ive seen get away wasnt even mine even though ive missed a few.it was my brothers in WY in 2003.i will try and keep it short:my dad and i had already tagged out on a week long hunt to n.e WY that left my brother with the only tag.well on the last morning of the hunt my bro. and i hike in and would just pop up on a hill and  glass after a couple of gullies and hills we look down into this gully and it is litterally filled with deer 70+ i honestly could not believe it.now this gully is probably a half mile wide by almost a mile long with a pond in the lower end.anyways we are spottin bucks all over the place at least 10 but one really stands out hes tall wide and a perfect 4by4 and hes sniffin buts chasing off lesser bucks just rutting like crazy.my brother gets ready and waits because this deer is surrounded bydoes its about a 300 yd shot but very doable.im watching this whole thing thruogh the binos.well the deer finally seperates itself enough and my bro. says hes going to take the shot.as im watching the buck waiting for the shot a deer stands up behind the buck and i say holdit one just popped up behind him then i get a look at the deer  that stood up and i quote my self OH MY GOD ITS A F- IN  ELK.this buck was laying in the sage and we hadnt seen it .it put all other bucks ive ever seen to shame he was huge actually beyond belief i couldnt even begin to score him with dark thick horns and a few stickers the buck we all hunt for. this buck takes a couple of steps sniffs a butt then lays back down.my bro looks through his binos to get a good look at this deer and realizes this is the one we came for.we decide the next time he stands up my brother will shot him.after about 10 long minutes he stands back up my brother takes the shot BAM! and i watch the bullet hit the dirt over the top of him because its a down hill shot itell him you shot over him then BAM! another shot by this time the deer are scattering everywhere except this buck just stands there broadside 300yds itell him you shot over him again.my bro. is panicking thinking the buck will run off so he shots again BAM same spot over the top of him this all happened in the course of seconds.well he only had 3 shells in his gun so he goes to grab more but the d-ass forgot to pack more bullets.he wears shells on his belt and he had takin them off because they bother him while he rides in the truck and he left them sitting on the backseat.after a lot of cussing and frantic searching  through his backpack we realize we are *censored* out luck.this whole time this monster of a buck just stood there watching the other deer run off.hes the only one left in this draw we stand up he looks at us back at his where his does have gone then back at us to say you F&%$#%N a holes and walks off.that was the quietest longest 2 mile walk back to the truck ive ever experienced i refer to it as the walk of shame.ive hunted for 25 years and never had seen a buck that big and i could probably live and hunt another 100 and not see a deer like that.ive been back to that draw 3 times and i keep hoping to see another deer like him but i probably never will.  oh and we always make sure we all have extra shells before we leave the truck its a running joke that my brother cant hardly stand because it reminds him of that morning.     Kram       

[BC CHASER]

 

[Roger]

Here's one from a couple of years ago in the Missouri breaks in Mt.  The rut was going and was holding out for big buck. This one morning on my hike I come up and look over into a canyon and a 4 point jumps out from below me. Quick look and he's one a saw a few days ago and pass on him the the big buck comes into view with a doe right behind him as they are ready to go over the hill out of sight. That's what they do, can't take the shot at the buck with the doe right behind him. Sitting there and within a minute they were going out the bottom of the canyon a half mile away. Watch they and see them go up the other side and and bed down about a mile away.

Got the plan together and go off after him. I'm going to go to the bottom and come up the gully just before the one they are in and will have a good shot even have cover for the final approach. As I get in the bottom I jump a couple of other does   Continue on after kicking myself and get the the spot for the shot. Guess what the doe was still there but the buck was gone.

[RPM]

it hurts to much

[Dmanmastertracker]

 I missed on the two biggest muleys I've ever seen in the same week about 8 years ago in NE Wa. Day one, hiked into a spot I had scouted prior to the opener, about 3 miles back in. As soon as I crested the ridge at first light, I busted at least 14 bedded deer on top, with a couple spikes and two's. Not long after that group trailed out of there, I crossed to the opposite hillside, that looked good along the back side, like a good place to see deer in the AM come out to feed from the treeline. I started very slowly edging along the treeline and thought I had glassed the open area above me really good -I hadn't. I hear this pounding of hooves coming right at me from very close, starting at about 30-40 yards and heading right for me. I was so stunned to see the massive Clydesdale looking buck coming at me that it took me a few seconds longer to read the rack, which was difficult anyway. Only when we was blowing by me into the trees could I finally count individual points -too many to count with mass and trash all over. To this day was also easily the biggest bodied buck I've ever seen, I later figured he was a nontypical, about 24-26" with at least 6 countable points on each side and a main beam as big as my wrist. His track leading away was enormous, straight down into the thick crap. Day three of the same hunt, about three miles from where I has seen that buck, I was hiking another ridge first thing in the AM where I had found nice rubs in Sept.. I almost immediately busted another group of deer on a little flat, 1/2 way up. Could not identify them, so I circled below them and popped up closer than I had planned and they scattered in shale, a two point ran right by me, then I hear, again, that Clydesdale thump, thump, thump going left to right at 40 yards through the trees, I get on a rock to get above the brush for a shot, the buck was headed for an opening right in front of me, he was a 5x5, at least 3-4" past his ears and also big bodied. He stopped behind a small 8' pine right before going through the opening, I stood at ready for what seemed forever, holding my crosshairs on the opening, knowing he had only one way to go at this point. after nearly 2 minutes, I saw him turn behind the tree to dart through the opening and snapped off a shot, clean miss right over his back, I tried to follow him throgh the thickest crap and kicked him out again, but never did get another shot. I was so disappointed after missing those two bucks that trip I packed up and went home early, I'll never forget it.

[Dmanmastertracker]

 I missed some good ones in Montana also.

 First day hunting my uncles spot, a ridge about 4 miles long, I was headed along an old fenceline along reprod and jumped a whitetail doe. She was only 30 yards and I tried to put antlers on another deer around her, but saw nothing else. After waiting about 6-8 minutes, I started walking along the fenceline again, she started and 25 yards away the biggest 5x5 whitetail I've ever seen jumps up off the ground and follows her .

 On the 2nd to last day I harvested a decent 3 point. On the last day of the hunt, while my uncles were out spotting deer for my other cousin, I was driving the BLM road that I had hunted along 2-3 days that trip and out jumps a nice tall, walnut racked 4 point whitetail buck, about 20" wide . He stood there broadside long enough for me to get a picture and cuss myself out for not holding out longer. I will try to post a pic of him later.

[Dmanmastertracker]

 Here's a fairly poor, scanned pic of the whitetail who showed up a day too late in MT.

[Pathfinder101]

WHen I was abou 15 my stepdad and I were hunting the late buck season.  We had one of those freak occurances where it gets frigid for a couple of days, then warms up just enough to snow like hell, then a chinook blew through.  Threw the bucks into some kind of super-rut.  It was crazy.  Got soaken wet in a tree-stand all morning, deer running everywhere, but nothing I could get a bead on.  My dad picks me up about 10:00am and we are heading out of the woods to dry off.  We come around this corner and here's this whitetail buck, a BIG buck RAMMING his head (no, not rubbing, ramming) against a wrist-sized tree not 50 yards from the road.  He didn't even pay any attention to us, just kept ramming.  I am trying to pull my wet clothes on and my dad jumps out of the truck, loads his 300 Wthby Mag and drops him.  He jumps up a second later and runs off.  Turns out the bullet hit him straight on, glanced off his shoulder blade and tore the meat off his left shoulder.  Lots of blood, but all capillary.  No way he was going to lay down and bleed out, so we followed him.  The snow made the tracking pretty easy, but we just couldn't catch up.  Followed him for three hours, jumped him twice, but couldn't get a shot.  Finally, we came to a frozen, brush-choked swamp.  My dad stopped and looked down into the draw and said "he's bedded in there.  I am going to get a steady rest, and you walk in there and jump him.  He'll run straight away from you and I will have a clear shot when he crests the next ridge."
THe plan worked just like he said.  I jumped the buck, he ran up the side of the hill to crest the ridge and my dad dumped him for good this time at about 300 yards.  Biggest whitetail buck I have ever actually seen killed (both antlers and body).
Now, like I said, we had been following this buck for three hours, so we were miles from the pickup and were looking at boning him out and packing him out in chunks.  My dad looks around and says to me; "We passed a creek about a half mile back.  Go back there and follow it down.  If you come to a skid trail, come back and tell me.  We may be able to get him to a road.  Leave your rifle and go fast" (you guys probably already see where this is going).

So, with my rifle safely back with my dad gutting the deer, I am running down this deer trail looking for a skid trail when I spot movement out of the corner of my eye.  I stop, and bedded not 30 yards to my left is one of the biggest bucks I had ever seen.  He was so rutted up that his eyes were almost swollen shut.  I just stood there for a minute, staring.  He moved his head around like he was having trouble seeing me through his swollen face.  Then it occurred to me that he wasn't going to move, so I turned around and started to quietly sneak back up the trail.  I guess that was enough for him (probably because at that point I finally started acting like a predator), I heard a noise, and the last time I saw him he was trotting off through the snow into the brush.  I will never forget that sight.  He didn't even have the common decency to flag me, just tucked his tail and trotted off.  His rack was almost orange-colored, thick, tall browtines and almost made a full circle, nearly touching at the top.  I won't try to score him off a 20 year old memory, but he was big. 
WHen I got back to my dad, I didn't even have to say anything.  He took one look at me and said "you saw one, didn't you?".

The memory of that big buck, face swollen shut, neck like a brahma bull, antler tips almost touching, still haunts me today.   

[Ghost1941]

I was born and raised in Michigan and white tails aren't exactly that big in our part of the country.  My first year I shot a "normal deer" for the area, a 2x3 from about 50 meters.  The next year I was 15, second year rifle hunting...  was sitting at the top of a hill looking down a road and to the left of me was a rye field 100 meters long. 

Now, everybody gets those sneaky feelings they're being watched now and then.  Well, let me tell ya... I had one of those.  So i turned around 180 degrees and there it was, the biggest damn deer I've seen in person.  He saw me and in the time it took for him to whirl around and run I had rotated all the way around and brought my hand me down .300 savage around to "introduce the two".  Long story short... he broke left, my shot missed and I caught a few more glimpses of that white flag as it bounded off into the woods towards another individuals private property.

Not even 5 minutes went by and I heard a resounding *Crack*.  Well, I got to set my eyes on it again later that day.  In the back of the neighbors truck!  6x7 with a base as big as a damn golf ball.... a deer of a lifetime for a mitten guy.  And... that's the one that got away. 

[M_ray]

M-Rays got a ghost that visits him in his dreams at night too Did I really bring that up again

Thank you for that I wont sleep a wink again tonite!!!