seasons are over, now 4 the not so good stories

[halfpipe88]

Called a really nice dark-horned 5x5 elk in for my day and he nailed a tree 15' in front of it.  It ran off and I called it back in to 45 yds and he gut shot it.  We tracked it for over 9 hrs. in two days.  It went over 1 mile on the GPS (as the crow flies) dropping good blood.  We never found a place it had bedded down.  We gave it a lot of time before tracking him so we didn't bump him.  Eventually the blood stopped and we were left with the 'shoulda coulda's.  Found out the next day at camp his sight got bumped and that's why he nailed the tree and took a bad hit.  Elk are amazingly strong!

[Lunatic Fringe]

I missed an opportunity on a nice wide 3X muley opening weekend of rifle season.  I was glassing a little honey hole on the second day of the season early in the morning.  I saw about 9 does and was waiting for the buck to come in.  He shows at about 300 yards out and coming fast.  I missjudged the speed that he was coming in as well as the track he might take.  I figured he'd follow the path the does took but no.  As I quickly moved forward about 15 yards to get a better view, he came right at me.  I stopped behind a sage brush bush and started glassing where I saw him last and he pops out 25 yards in front of me.  The biggest mistake I made was pulling up the binocs to make sure he was legal instead of using my scope.  When I lowered the binocs and started to bring the gun up, he bolts and I never got a shot.  In hind site I should have stayed put and got ready.  It would have been a 50 yard shot.  I just chalk it up to another incredible encounter and a good learning experience.  I was able to get my elk a month and a half later so I only had to eat one tag for the year.  Every encounter is a learning experience.

[undertoad]

I chased the elk for four days. Finally, I snuck up on a herd. There were six spikes in it, but not one with the 3-point minimum I needed to touch off the muzzleloader. So it goes . . .

[Sneaky]

Early archery hunt had bucks hanging up at 59, 65, 53, and 70 yards. all shots I'm not comfortable taking.

Rifle deer in montana, dad and I went oct 30th thru nov 8th because it was the only time we could both get off work. We missed the rut and had 70 degree weather. Filled two antlerless tags and this meat buck on the last day. Was really hoping to see some better deer, but only saw 3 bucks better than two point and all on private land.