Post by: rougheye on July 04, 2008, 03:52:25 PM
Post by: boneaddict on July 04, 2008, 04:15:02 PM
Post by: boneaddict on July 04, 2008, 06:07:51 PM
Post by: rougheye on July 04, 2008, 06:27:01 PM
Post by: boneaddict on July 04, 2008, 06:29:09 PM
Post by: rougheye on July 04, 2008, 06:39:17 PM
Post by: wastickslinger on July 04, 2008, 07:22:24 PM
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 :puke: 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.
Post by: DOUBLELUNG on July 04, 2008, 08:05:03 PM
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.
Post by: DeKuma on July 04, 2008, 08:20:39 PM
Post by: rougheye on July 04, 2008, 09:26:24 PM
Post by: wastickslinger on July 04, 2008, 09:46:31 PM
Post by: Gobble on July 05, 2008, 11:50:13 AM
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 :bash:. 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.
Post by: huntnphool on July 05, 2008, 12:29:15 PM
Post by: wastickslinger on July 05, 2008, 03:57:00 PM
That is a very respectible buck there phool!!!!
Post by: hunterofelk on July 05, 2008, 04:07:32 PM
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.
Post by: WildBear on July 05, 2008, 04:56:12 PM
Hunting mullies as well in the 245 unit. Been up an old logging road for hours when I decided I better meet dad back at the truck for plan B.... Hauling fast down the road thinking nothing about deer. I came close to a tree bent over 90. It was just getting thrashed! First thought was a bear till I saw just the deers head and rack. Nice 4 point with obvious eye guards. Was about 30yds away, so figured I better take my shot... Placed it through a pile of brush about where I thought the body was... :bdid: Thing disappeared. I took off down the road where we about ran each other over. :o I could've touched it... Fired another shot from the hip :dunno: and one more at his rear end as it disappeared into the woods... Dad could hear the last shot tumbling through the trees over him so he headed up to help. Hours and hours and no blood...
We call the road Big buck road now.. and that's the "HUGE BUCK" that I missed...
Post by: MuleySniper on July 05, 2008, 05:36:48 PM
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 :puke: 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.
Didn't you mention something about giving me a crack at that buck this year?? :chuckle: Maybe one of us will draw the tag and grease him out of his bed.
MS
Post by: ICEMAN on July 05, 2008, 07:17:46 PM
Post by: Gobble on July 05, 2008, 08:10:23 PM
The sad thing is I was hunting with 2 guys from work that I had never hunted with before, they probably thought I was a total dweeb missing that many times. I was sooooo emabarrased that I never told anybody about the miss on the 5 X 5 until the next year.
Like I said it was a dream weekend that I will probably never see again
Post by: alecvg on July 05, 2008, 09:54:55 PM
Post by: Armadillo on July 06, 2008, 09:42:25 AM
NO stories to go along, but i know someone who missed a 38-40 inch buck this year, and missed a 5x7 a few years back, and many more bucks, as well as some other VERY big animals.... (BIG goat)
[/quote
Sounds like my uncle hahaha. He claims to have missed more big deer then most people have ever seen (not true though). He has an ugly tendency to lots of fling rounds off without hitting meat.
Post by: huntnphool on July 06, 2008, 11:02:15 AM
Its funny unless you are the one holding the weapon.
That is a very respectible buck there phool!!!!
Its all good Wastick, I new I could find him several more good bucks to take a crack at and I was right. He ended up nailing this nice buck, me holding it in the pic though. Here is another pic of the one he missed too. This was right before the first arrow.
Post by: BC CHASER on July 06, 2008, 11:07:43 AM
My other horror story came two years later an with sights this time. My buddy and I had seen a couple of GIANTS in an area and he was going to push them to me. So I set up and about 30 minutes later I heard them coming. The first to come through was the 5x5 and he would have gone about 145. I held off knowing the next one was going to be the 6x6 who would go in the mid 150s. He stepped out at 20 yrds and I whistled and he stopped broadside. I watched my arrow go all the way through him and he was gone. I was pumped! so we waited an hour and the track was on. We recovered the arrow and got on some blood. The blood was not good and I was kind of worried. Finally an hour later we were on our hands and knees looking for blood but could find nothing. I was sick! we looked for 5 days and never found him. We even would sit in the area at night and listen for coyotes but they never talked. Two weeks later we were driving up the road when my buddy spotted a couple deer bedded in an opening. Still sick from two weeks before I did not want to check them out. He stopped and we started looking and I just about soiled my shorts. There was the buck and he was alive! My arrow had missed his vitals and his spine. We saw him the next year too and he was very healthy. We never could get another shot on him but I guess it was meant to be? So sorry to bore you guys but this stuff I dont talk about much.
Post by: rougheye on July 06, 2008, 11:21:33 AM
Post by: wastickslinger on July 06, 2008, 12:07:10 PM
Post by: huntnphool on July 06, 2008, 12:21:24 PM
Post by: Buschingc on July 12, 2008, 07:38:01 AM
Post by: DeKuma on July 12, 2008, 08:01:48 AM
Post by: Alchase on July 12, 2008, 04:51:37 PM
LOL, just kidding, some great stories and pics here.
Mine is nowhere near the bucks you guys are talking about, but a few years ago above Winthrop, I had hiked up before first light. I was glassing across a draw and up a bare hill with nothing but buckbrush when I caught a flash about 3/4 the way up the hill. I looked closer, and there was a beautiful thick bodied 4x4 that was bedded down out in plain site. I guesstimated him to be about 900-1000 yards away as a bird flys with a huge draw then nothing but uphill and buckbrush between us. I realized that to get above him I would have to hike around the head of the huge draw and through the jack fir, then cross hill towards him. It took me 45 minutes to get around and on the same hill he was on, I figured he would be long gone. Then I saw he was still bedded down and looking down away from me. I was still about 800 yards away but now I was working to a shot. I got down and crawled on my hands and knees,. Every few yards I would look up and gage the distance. I worked my way to within about 300 yards but I could only see his head and rack above the buckbrush. I was second guessing myself if I should get closer. I got as flat as I could and continued forward afraid to look up and see him gone. When I put my head up I had crawled into a little depression and could not see where he was. As I crawled out the far side of the depression, There he was, about 150 yards out. I could see him from the shoulders up. I brought my rifle up to the prone position, and put the crosshairs on him. I did not have a good shot, but I was in a good position for when he stood up. After a few minutes his head swiveled around looking uphill away from my direction and his ears went forward. He shot out of his bed straight away from where I was laying. He moved so fast all I saw was a flash of his butt and I did not have a any kind of shot. By the time I got up, he was down the draw and long gone. I was thinking maybe he caught wind of me but the wind was perfect? Then I hear two voices, over on the opposite ridge (exactly where the buck had been looking) two Blaze orange vests were walking down a road, talking not realizing everything within 1/2 a mile could hear them. The sun was reflecting off the their blaze orange like a beacon. They no clue they just spooked a nice buck better part of 1000 yards away from them. I was so frustrated, and physically worn out after that.
I did learn one thing though, I realized that deer might not see blaze orange like we do, but they definitely see the big patch of bright (whatever color it appears to them) unbroken call it grey. So now I use nothing but the blaze orange the is broken up with black or camo pattern, not the solid orange.