So we talk alot about all the great things about bowhunting and the great days we have, but we also know that there are some rough days. My worst day in the field is probably pretty mild compared to most stories. Last year (my first year bowhunting) I blew an easy shot on a doe at 25 yards. I changed my pin set-up mid season and forgot once the shot presented itself- I grazed her back. I was disappointed after that but also was relieved that I didn't make a bad hit on her. That was compounded later on in the hunt by dropping my range finder from 23' up. After I got down and started walking in the rain, I went to climb the last fence, a gust of wind blew me a little bit and made the fence wobble- I lost my balance as I was swinging my leg over, caught my foot, and ripped my $200 coveralls wide open from knee to mid-thigh. I was a little mad when I finally got back to the Jeep that day. So what's your guys' and gals' stories? Ever been lost? Fallen? Blew a shot at a monster? Let's hear it!
I honestly can't say there's been one particular day where everything was going wrong. Probably one of the worst luck-wise was last season on the last week of the Pa archery season. I've been struggling to finally get another archery buck (I've been on quite a drought), and I had plenty of 1.5yr old dinks near me all season, when finally a NICE 115"+ 8 point came charging into a fresh cut corn field just as daylight was fading. When he finally stopped, he was facing head on. All I needed was for him to turn, but he stood in that position as light faded past legal shooting time leaving my 20yds from getting a shot at my biggest archery buck yet.
my worst day was this past december... 30ish mph winds, sub-freezing temps, not quite dressed warm enough cuz I thought it would warm during the day a little... put in 6 of the coldest hours I ever have in my life and didn't even so much as SEE a deer, or a turkey, or even the sun.... GOD it sucked... but I'd do it all over again tomorrow if the season was open.... :D
I had been seeing a huge 10 point throughout the season but never had a shot within range. Finally that day came on a night that we had a mix of rain and sleet. It was a very uncomfortable sit to say the least. Just as I was about to call it quits I spotted antlers in an overgrown strip of power lines. I knew it was him and stood up and grabbed my bow. He was coming and coming fast. He walked up close to my treestand, I stopped him, hit the release and BAM. The tall ten point ran off untouched wondering what that loud noise was. After gathering my bearings I checked my bow over. Thats when I noticed I had hit my cam on my treestand when I released. Oh and there has also been the times I have dropped gloves on them cold days, dropped calls and waterbottles, but they dont compare to that day.
Missed a doe at 30 yards on the AM hunt, and wounded a buck on video from the same blind in the PM hunt and never recovered him. I learned alot that day...and the spot wasnt worth a damn after that.
My second bowhunting sit ever(2007 season), It was a pretty good morning and at first light i missed a doe at 25 yards, the doe not realizing what just happened it circled back and gave me a broadside shot at 15 yards when i realized that my quiver was sitting on the ground 20 feet under me. not exactly when i fell but i was not a happy camper that day, in the end i never harvested a deer with my bow that season.
Even though I've had my disappointing moments where I have blown stalks, shot high, shot low, dropped my bow out of a tree while preparing to draw back on a good buck, etc.,etc. I wouldn't call them bad days. If it was too easy what would be the point? Heck those are good days as well in their own right. However, I do have one bad day that sticks out. The day I lost a Muley in the mountains due to my own impatience. I had stalked this 4x4 (nothing spectacular but respectable) for a couple of hours as I watched him bed down in scrub brush above treeline from about a 3/4 to a mile away. I got within 40 yards, he stood and I made what I think to this day was a perfect broadside shot. He leaves a good blood trail and bounds off in area that I can't see from my vantage point, but I feel good about the shot. I wait thirty minutes and started down the trail. I don't go very far and I jump him. He is hurt bad and goes down the mountain (still above tree line) about 100-150 yards and beds back down. I still feel comfortable I made a lethal shot, but it now obvious it wasn't a double lunger and probably a one lunger and maybe the liver. I KNEW the thing to do (it was midmorning) was to wait at least 4 hours if not 6 or to even wait until the following morning but it was a long way back to camp and I didn't relish going all the way back and then turn around and having to come back and having to pack the thing out in the dark. So I decided to wait two hours and take the trail back up slowly. When I did, I found the deer exactly where I saw him go down, but as I approached him from behind it was obvious he was still alive but barely. His head was up but he was breathing heavily. Again, I could have backed out and given him more time but instead I quickly positioned myself for a sharp quartering away angle and let the second arrow fly hitting exactly where I wanted. On hindsight, maybe I should have opted for a more broadside shot, but I was afraid he was going to get up at any moment and didn't want to waste time getting in the position that shot would have required. When the second arrow hit him, he gets up and runs across the alpine tundra towards treeline which was over 1/4 of a mile away as though he had never even been hit. I just knew he would go down any second but instead he kept running and running and running all the way to the treeline and out of sight. UNBELIEVABLE I spent the rest of that day and the next day looking for him and never found a sign of him whatsoever although I am 100% confident that both shots had to be lethal. I lost a deer due to laziness and impatience on my part. Yep that was a bad day.
The day I learned my 19 yr old niece had died. Rest in Peace Brooke. Worst hunt of my life. Remember guys, hunting is great, and success is wonderful, but life is way more precious always.
My first year bowhunting..........I missed 5 does...........In under 20 minutes. No kidding. It's too stupid to make up, and I'm not that clever. I really did. Missed 5 times. Holy cow did I suck. Since then? I've killed........well, quite a few. Sadly, I've wounded 1 but......I have not missed since. D'OH! Check that......I did miss once......stupid black oak that grew out of the ground just as I hit the release.......Never saw that tree, till my arrow stuck it.
Lets see, the day I forgot my bow at home would have to rank pretty high on the list. Watched some quail hunters come across the field, stop and stare at me while I was in my tree, then watched as their dog pissed at the base of my tree. Not a good day, either.
Last season I was hunting for a particular buck HARD! 1st week in Nov he showed up in the AM 30 yards out. There was some brush(I thought) between him and me and it was just a little to dark and I didn't want to take a chance of screwing it up or wounding him.Well when I had the light to shoot all I got to do is watch him walk away. When I looked over where he was standing all that time earlier it was clear as a whistle. I never seen him again and ended up eating tag soup. To me that was worse then the time I fell out of a tree.
First and only deer I didn't recover. I was a rookie bonehead and started tracking him about the time my arrow hit him. Then procceeded to find where he bedded down and continued pushing him to the next county. Never found him. Just plain stupid and a mistake I've never made since and never will again.
Oh yeah there was that one time when I walked about a mile to my stand, climbed up and realized I forgot to bring my quiver with my arrows in them.... . I sat and enjoyed the scenery for awhile and headed home.
Shooting a 125 class buck that ran onto a neighboring property. This neighbor did not get a long with the owner of the property I was hunting on. I did not know this at the time, but I quickly found out when I asked to have permission to retreive the deer. He said no and I found out later the owner's son retreived it later that night.
I shot a cow elk last year with a 300 weatherby mag, I know it was with a rifle, and never found her. I shot her at 30 yards and there was a fresh 2 inch snow on the ground and still never found her. She was down in a little depression and after I shot a whole herd of elk went in every direction. I found three drops of blood and tracks went every where. Looked all day and into the next day following different set of tracks to no prevail. Also, the time I got halfway to my farm(roughly 30 miles) forgot my bow. Went back to get it got in the tree and forgot my release! That day was very frustrating. Didn't even see a squirrel let alone a deer that day!
My worst day was when I arrowed monster 8 pointer in the shoulder blade. He was chasing a doe and I shot him while he was moving fast. The thing that kept torturing me was thinking that if I would have just waited a fraction of a second more before I hit the release he would be mine. Just think, the only thing seperating me and him is a fraction of a sec. That sucks! The only good thing about it is I'm sure he survived. I found my arrow intact so I'm sure he would be fine.
I have a lot of days that seem miserable at the time whether its due to weather conditions, forgetting stuff, uncontrolled interruptions, etc. I hate overly windy days and ones where I severely underdress & freeze.
