missed a huge buck

[rougheye]

Okay, I dont know about you guys but i have missed some pretty nice bucks in my days , Of course if you missed they had to be huge right!!!  So lets hear some stories , Ill start it off with the closest miss of any one , Ill bet .   It was about 10 years ago and i was hunting an area with no trees justwheat and sage and a few rocks . At about noon I glassed up a niice 5-6 mulie laying in the shade under a huge rock. He was bigger than anything i had ever shot (prolly 150 class). It took me about an hour to circle around and when i got to the rock i got up on top and peaked over and to my surprise there was antler tips 5 feet in front of me . There was no way to come around the rock without spooking him so i decided to wait him out . I only lasted about an hour because of the heat. Finally when i couldnt take it any more i got ready and started throwing little rocks to make him stand up. It was to windy for him to hear the rocks but i think he saw my shadow moving . icould tell he was starting to get up so i drew back. He stood up slowly , stretched and looked up at me . I dont even remember what happened i just shot , the arrow was stuck in his bed and he bolted. I wanted to throw my bow as far as i could, (cause it was the bows fault ). I was so frustrated after such a perfect stalk . He was about 5-6 feet away sraight down . Can anyone beat that ?

[boneaddict]

I've got three that will haunt me for life.   More with a camera, but three with a gun.  I'm at work so it will be afew.   Nice thread topic!

[boneaddict]

I was hunting up by Beaver Creek all of which has changed now, so have no problem telling you where.  Idabooner had already tagged his buck so he was out for a nature walk so I could be on the mountian.   It was the first year that I had laid down the 30-30 and had started using the 25-06 Remingtong 700.  I was hunting along the mountain when I came across a giant deer track.  I was still a newbie hunter but knew a good deal when I seen something like that in the fresh snow.  I followed it a ways and the buck picked up a doe, I tracked it for a ways and found where he ran into another buck.  Some more and found where he bred the doe.   Then he went off across the mountain again.  He crossed my boundary that I had as a young hunter (the road), but I wasn't going to give up.  I slipped and fell and kicked him up.  I then got to follow him further.  I was getting tired when I spotted him.  He was laying down facing the other way kind of quartering to me.  He was over 30 wide and I counted 6 on each side.  I was in some lodgepole, so leaned up against one.   So far the deer hadn't moved.  He was at about 50 yards.  I FLIPPED the safety off and it CLICKED.  He launched from his bed right over a 15 foot cliff and disappeared.  There were deer running everywhere criss crossing more bucks.  I figured thirty deer there.  I went to track him again but he was gone and there were so many tracks.  I headed up the mountain back tracking where I had came from.  There was Idabooner in the road waiting for me.  He had also picked up the big track and followed it, then my big track and followed us both.   That was one of the top three biggest deer in my life and it could have been my first buck.  The next day I shot a spike.  LESSONS LEARNED.   If I would have had the 30-30, he would have been dead in his bed.

[rougheye]

Funny how we remember those so well . My miss sure taught me alot about the mental aspects of hunting and i ve never missed one that close since 

[boneaddict]

Mine taught me to slip the safety off and that deer don't respond too well to unnatural noises.  I've spent the rest of my life looking for a deer that big.

[rougheye]

I dont know if ive even seen one that big . Maybe i have but 30" is so freakin big . I see some of these monsters on TV and im not so sure

[wastickslinger]

You just had to bring it up. It has been almost a year and I just got to the point where I could sleep at night with out waking up in cold sweats because of the buck I missed last year. It was the toughest on me of my few misses. Probably because of the countless days of watching this buck right up until the opener. He was in a place that I knew I would have one shot and he would hole up until January. And that he did. In fact we did not see him until Mid January after i missed him.

I had pattered this buck and i knew exactly where he crossed and and what time. Problem was, I could not hunt him where he bedded all day long. I had to wait till he crossed on to legal ground. In the 15-20 times I saw him in July and August, he waited right until dark or even after to cross. Well, I had my shot the first week of September. Sucker crossed 15 yards in front of me, saw me draw, I dont know how, and that was it. He was at full speed in a blink and I released when he was about 30 yards. I know I will probaly catch crap for shooting at a buck on the run with a bow, big no no I know. First time I have ever done it and I know why now it is not a shot that is reasonable to make. To top it off he stopped at 100 yards and looked back at me like, "nice try, you wont be seing me before dark again". And I never did. One smart buck.

I felt like     for weeks. I can actually say that is the closest to crying while hunting i have ever come.

Oh well, the great buck lives on. Like I said we saw him twice in December while yote hunting. 

[DOUBLELUNG]

How about one lost by hitting exactly where I was aiming?  Let me preface by stating the first archery buck I ever killed was was a 1x2 yearling staring at me, less than 20 yards, broadside.  I held behind his shoulder and released; in that interval, he lunged forward and spun away, my arrow took him through the rumen and liver, exiting very fortunately through his femoral artery.  A good two feet of forward movement.

So, with one archery kill under my belt, I had been hunting all day a couple of years later, and was leaving the field early to get to a party (yes, the misplaced priorities of youth!).  I was hoofing it back to the truck, when about 70 yards away I noticed BIG antlers sticking up above a small patch of sagebrush.  My priorities weren't THAT misplaced, I circled downwind, took off my boots and snuck right up to the shrub I had picked as 20 yards from the antlers.  Kneeling, I nocked an arrow and waited for him to stand, I was sure he had heard me and would be moving shortly. 

After a few minutes of admiring the 7x8 nontypical, about 25" wide, I watched the antlers waggle back and forth as he shook off flies, and realized he had no clue I was there.  I came to full draw, and began making soft kissing noises.  He stood up slowly in his bed, eyes bulging wide and nostrils big enough to stuff tennis balls inside (still a vivid mental visual I will carry all my life).  Every muscle and tendon in his body was rock-hard taut.  Being absolutely confident he would jump the shot, I held on the very front, top of his shoulder, on the crease between the scapular muscles. 

He never even twitched as the arrow hit exactly where I was holding!  With a loud crack, the broadhead hit square on his scapular ridge, penetrating all the way to the back of the blade!  He took off like he'd been hit by a freight train, the arrow falling out on his second jump, about 30 feet away.  I was able to watch him run 400 yards uphill, on a dead sprint, and he never even hesitated sailing over the 48" top wire on that pasture fence.  Never saw him again.

Picked up the arrow, totally clean except for a couple of fat-adhered hairs and a streak of blood on the broadhead; the chisel point of the Thunderhead was mashed.

[DeKuma]

You guys are giving me nightmares.........

[rougheye]

I just got done crying myself stickslinger. That thing is a hog!!!!

[wastickslinger]

Thanks to you I will not sleep tonight.      

[Gobble]

Two years ago I was hunting on some private land that we hunt every year in Brewster and I missed 5 legal bucks openeing weekend, two 4 points, 2 3 points and a HUGE 5 x 5 that probably weighte dwell over 2 hundred llb.
 
I have been using the same 700 Remington 30-06 topped with a 3 x 9 Leupold. I set the gun up in 1988 and have not had to mess with it at all. I can hold a quarter size 3 shot pattern at 150 yrds. Afew years ago I switched to Federal High Energy 180 gr. Nosler bullets. Been shooting them f
without any problems. With you not familar with these rounds it basically makes your 30-06 into a 300 win mag. The balistics are exactly the same so it definately has some smack to it.  I never miss a animal when I'm using a bench rest and its 200 yrds or less. 3 of the shots I took were free hand and 2 were bench rested. The last shot I took at the 5 point I was bench rested on a fence post and the shot was only 125 yrds out. I damn nearly wrapped my gun around the fence post when I missed that one. When I got home after missing 5 bucks I checked the scope and found out that it had come loose, talk about *censored* luck, it was one of those dream weekends that a hunter only imagines and it was ruined from a loose scope  . The only thing I could think of that made it loose was the extra shock from the new bullets had loosed up the old locktite that I had used in 1988. I re-loctited the scope and mounts last year and drilled my 5 x 5 whitie at 200 yrds.

[huntnphool]

I am still haunted by a couple toads I missed opportunities on. Here is a nice buck one of my partners missed twice last year, shot right under the chest both times while I took pics and laughed

[wastickslinger]

Its funny unless you are the one holding the weapon. My buddy thought it was funny that I almost cried. I told him I had some sage in my eye.

That is a very respectible buck there phool!!!!

[hunterofelk]

It was 1979 and I was 18 years old.  I used to hunt some private land south of Livingston, Mt and it has since been gobbled up by residential development and private hunting clubs.  Around 10 o'clock I had a small herd of deer, does and one four point buck, crossing the ridge below me.  I fired two rounds at the moving buck and missed clean both times.  I had a Remington 742, .308 win. with a 3X9 Tasco scope.  Sometimes I shot too fast since it was a semi-automatic.  I didn't think too bad about those misses, because the animal was moving and it was a difficult shot anyway.
I moved down the ridge to a timbered pocket and started walking around the outer edges.  I saw the most perfect set of brown antlers glide around the base of a big fir.  A full-grown mule deer was attached to that perfect 5x5 set and he was intent on getting some action from a couple of does.  I watched and waited carefully this time, didn't want to blow this one by being impatient.  I never did get a decent shot and the wind finally gave me away.  The does crashed down from the pocket and went to the canyon below.  The buck was gone too.
I walked out of the pocket and to a bench formation that ran the length of the ridge.  Nothing was going on so I sat at the base of a big fir and ate an apple.  Since it was a cold November day I was able to see some puffs of steamy breathing off to my left.  About twenty yards away was the buck.  I could only see the bottom of his neck, his face and the eyeguards of his antlers.  He was looking directly at me.  I eased my rifle around and shot left-handed.  The buck just turned his body and I shot again.  I couldn't see him anymore, so I assumed he was laying dead just over there.
I thought I had the best buck of all my peers that year when I walked over to the spot I last saw him.  I didn't understand how I could have missed him because he wasn't where he was supposed to be.  Hair covered the snow where he had been standing, but no blood.  I had my full attention on the tracks in the snow.  I followed the tracks through the trees till I came to an opening, which was actually a saddle between the bench and a point jutting out from the bench.  I looked up from the snow and saw the buck standing on the other side of the saddle.  As soon as I saw him he took off with the big bounces.  I will say I threw a shot, because that best describes how I aimed.
I followed tracks again, but they mixed in with other tracks and then a well packed trail and so I didn't know where he ended up.  No blood that I could see, but I knew from reading that bullets don't always open up at close range, so I might not have any bleeding.
I felt pretty bad about losing this buck and it was getting dark.  I went down a steep draw that I named 'Slip and Slide'.  When I got to the bottom I was wet from falling numerous times and getting a little irritated at my hunting skills.  My usual prey, a fork-horned buck, bounced up from the sage and started walking very slow.  When he stopped I let loose a round.  The snow exploded about two feet above him.  I aimed lower and shot my second time and went right over his back.  My third shot broke his neck.  I slid my buck out that evening and was pretty tired and frustrated with hunting and Tasco scopes when I hung him up in the garage.  Another two-point I thought.
I would like to say I never repeated those mistakes, but I still made some bad decisions on later hunts.  I did mature in my attitude about hunting though.  I like to think I would search for the buck and make sure I didn't wound him, and if I did, finish the job.
The next year I was walking out the creek with someone I had just met up there and before we got to the main trail he said 'hey, look in the there' , ran over to the creek bank and pulled out a bleached rack and skull.  It was a 5x5, but I am not sure the same one I shot at the year before.  If you believe in Karma, I didn't get a deer that year, so maybe.