If you could have just one back..... which hunt would it be?

Oct 1st 2007 I watch Mr. Mass for 30 mins that morning, right in front of one of my setups

 

Mine would be in the 1994 timeframe. There was a huge buck that we would always see in backyards prior to hunting season and he would vanish as soon as October rolled around. We had seen him for several years and this year he was a main frame 12 with at least 22" inside spread and tremendous height. I knew nothing about scoring deer at the time, but if I had to guess from memory he would be in the 170" range.

My buddy and I hunted the same woodlot and our trees were only about 100 yards apart and watched the same main trail, but my stand allowed me to hunt a cut up the hill coming from a gas line and his watched a draw below him. Our stands were on opposite sides of the trail. I knew he wouldn't be hunting that November afternoon so I decided to sit in his stand. After a short while a doe came through with a little one and she kept looking behind her. She was on the opposite side of the main trail and came down past my other tree. I had to watch helplessly as the buck of a lifetime walked past me at 50 yards following that doe. He walked within 20 yards of my usual tree and I would have had broadside and quartering away shots.

It's pretty obvious that I would have hunted my own stand that night if I could do it again.

 

Hhhmmmmm


I gotta go with the Ohio hunt a couple years back where I forgot my treestand strap and couldn't hunt over the scrape that the big buck ended up visiting that evening without me there to kill him. That was also the year that broke my 10 year streak of bucks with a bow

 

When Justin missed Dope Ear on film.

Wish we could have that one back.

 

Lets see, I would go back to my Illinois hunt and slow my shot down at the 140 I shot in the knuckle of the shoulder blade. I believe I would have made a better shot if I could have slowed everything down.

 

In 2006 I had this guy at 20 yards, broadside, walking slowly from right to left. For some reason I felt I had to grunt stop him when It wasn't necessary. When I grunted, I came off anchor, he stopped and looked right at me. By the time I got back on him and shot, he dropped and bolted as my arrow sailed over his back.

I should have just shot him.

 

Yes sir

 

December 2000. I was driving a small patch of CRP and timber to a friend and my dad on the last day of shotgun season. I was walking towards a fallen tree top and saw what looked to be a huge buck laying against the tree top. The closer I got, the more it looked like a buck.....at 30 yards I was able to tell that :
a) it was indeed a buck
b) the biggest I've ever seen alive
c) it had no idea I was around.

I couldn't take my eyes off the rack. I slowly pulled up my gun, aimed and fired. Watched him jump up and run off. I walked to the spot where I shot and found.....get this....... about 6 inches of tine! Dumbass me couldn't stop looking at the rack, so I shot it in the rack. That deer haunts my dreams. My friends still bust my balls about it, nearly 10 years later.

 

Speechless. I bet you were a happy camper that day

 

Greg I remember that big 4x4 what do you figured he grossed? hes a tank he reminds me of the buck I shot this year in iowa.

 

It was a hunt I pmed you and a few other guys about mid October a couple years back. It was my first (and only) opportunity at a true slammer. Every thing was perfect, the wind, my concealment etc... I coaxed him my way with calls, but he would not commit and disappeared off this bedding setup into a cornfield, I was 20 yards out of position. I never saw him again.

 

LOL ...What the hell???

 

Troy, I think he was tickling the 160 mark as an 8 pointer. He had the largest body of any deer I ever saw.

 

I got zillions of them

about 15 years ago I was hunting on a cruchy leaf morning and I was getting extremely annoyed by squirrels .. so I am looking forward right and I hear what I thought was a squirrel to my left ... I refused to look and give that sucker the satisfaction ...as the "squirrel" enters my peripheral sight ...it turns into what had to be a huge body and rack buck ... I would say 250lbs easy, and a 130 ish rack ..... he walked right under my stand and then away by the time I was able to pull up and lock on him ,,, he was in the thick stuff his back was as wdie as a 50 gallon drum ....

 

Mine would be my fourth or fifth whitetail hunt. I got in my stand nice and early and had a buck walk by my stand about 80 yards away. I used my doe call and had him coming in. He was coming in perfecty beside the fence in front of me across a 25 yard wide opening. When he got to around 50 yards away, he decided to cross the opening and come in behind me through the trees. He came behind me about 15 yards away. I drew back incase I saw a opening where I could shoot. He ended up stopping in a area where I could see the kill zone. I took the shot and thought that I had a good one, maybe a little high and back, but not bad. We than ended up tracking the deer for 4 hours when we spooked him up from where he was bedded down about 600 yards from where I shot him. As he ran away I could see a big blood spot on his back leg where my arrow went through him. I than came back 3 hours later and spent another 4 hours tracking him. We lost blood about 30 yards after I last saw him. After grid searching and following some well used trails we found one spot of blood about 400 yards from where I saw him last. The next day I was in the stand I looked through where I shot him, and noticed that there was no shooting lane there. It was early morning when I shot and the branches blended right into his body and I'm sure my tunnel vision didn't help. It was easily light enough that I could shoot, but when the deer was in the shadows it covered up alot of what I needed to see. I learned alot from that, and will never go into a stand without having checked all my shooting lanes and clearing out all branches and knowing exactly what all my options are. We never found the deer, and after wounding a deer on my first ever shot it took a while before I could convince myself to shoot again. The good thing was that about a month later on the last day of the season I saw him walking/trotting across the field by where I shot him. He had a little limp but seemed to be moving around okay. I just hope that he survives the Winter.

 

T, where does Mr. 7 rank on your list?

 

Well ... camera aside ...it's middle of the road

 

"trailcam buck" passed as a 2.5 10 point many times by my uncle and I. Nothing but pictures for 3 years at night. Finally a daytime sighting last year at less that 15 yards and my safety strap prevents me from swinging further. I turn around the tree and get on his body just as he walks into a thicket. I only get a wind to hunt this stand 3 or 4 times a year. My unlce saw him last night bedded with a doe in a subdivision near our area. I am so happy he finally got to see him again, and that he is still alive, but if I type anymore I will break down again. He haunts me, and I have decided to bring him to the forum when I get home. He has the single biggest body I have ever seen on a southern deer, alive or dead.

 

I've been extremely lucky.

I've seen exactly 6 mature bucks in all my trips afield.....and I've been lucky enough to take 3 of them. The other 3 were not in bow range at any time.....and I've only seen two of them more than once.

I honestly can't think of an "almost" I wish I could "do-over". I injured a buck my 2006 season on 9/12. I killed that buck the following year on 11/7. It worked out....though it started, badly.

 

Every one that I found something more important than hunting with my Dad. You will never even have the chance to get those back.