Caught off guard, What?

[Sexcrazedbuck]

Time to hear some could have should have hunts. My third year of bowhunting whitetails at the age of 16 I had a most memorable should have hunt. That is, should have been ready. Oct. 15 (opening morning in NY) I had been on stand for an hour in a favorite funnel leading to a daytime bedding area. Having not seen a deer yet I hung my bow up for a min. to get out a piece of candy. Just as I went to grab for my bow I noticed movement to my left only 15 yds from the base of my tree. A doe, then a five pt., then a good buck all wandered into my shooting lane. The dandy 8pt. remained in my shooting lane for a short time while the other two deer funneled through. Had I been ready the 8pt. would have been at a severe disadvantage. Observing his body language I sensed he was about to head out. With one quick motion I stood up grabbed my weapon and came to full draw. This unfamiliar tree goon was no match for that weary whitetail. One glance up told this buck to trott off leaving no possile shot for me. As always, once again I learned from my mistakes. Since that hunt, I have not taken any candy afield again, let alone hang my bow up. When I think back all I can say is, "my dentist told me, eating candy will cost me bucks down the line". Was he ever right, OOPS!

 

[Tomo]

Caught a nasty cold right in the middle of the rut. Stood up to get a tissue to blow my nose when a doe brought in a hawg 18 yards from my stand. They won the 20 minute (no kidding) stare down.

Tomo

 

[moosehunter]

A few years back I was sitting in my morning stand during early season muzzleloader, when after an hour or so my tummy started the gurgling and growling thing. Knowing from past experience's I would never make it another 2 or 3 hours I climbed down and scrurried about 40 yards to the best and closest squating tree I could see. So now is the time a dandy 12 decides to wander through and I'm no where near my gun of course and I don't even have a door to close.

All I can do is curse and laugh at myself. No real lesson hear except...............If ya gotta go..............bring your gun....

 

[JNRBRONC]

I went up to northern, and I mean Northern Minnesota in the late 80's for rifle season. I was up in tree stand on my friend's property. It was bone numbing cold. I was starting to chatter, and for some reason I don't recall now, I had a glove off. Of course, I dropped it. I sat there a while longer, but then couldn't take it anymore. I figured I'd climb down, do a few jumping jacks to get the blood pumping to my frozen toes, and scurry back up with the glove. About the time my feet touched the ground, I see movement about 75 yards out (the only movement I had seen all day), as the deer went crashing away from me. Less than a minute, I hear some shots, and one of the guys that was in our group shot a nice 10 point that had run his way. OOPS!

 

[djhunter]

Sitting down on the ground and waiting for the sun to come up last year for special late season. Heard the crashing of what I thought was another in our hunting party moving from his spot facing out into the field, to the interwoods spots we had picked out. I raise(dumb me)my gun hand shooter finger to my lips to make the international sign for "shut the hell up you are making more noise than a deer tromping thru the woods"...when a deer came tromping thru the woods. I sat and watched this nice sized doe run by me about 20 or so yards away...and my gun in my lap/finger at lips.

Hunting buddy said later I should have leveled the gun at the noise weather it was him or not...he wasn't serious, but he felt bad we missed a chance at some really good jerky for that season.

 

[horst]

2 years ago I screwed up on what was probably the biggest buck Ive ever had within 10 yrds of me.I was hunting a lone tree in the middle of a section where 3 cornfields come together into a little low spot they cant farm.It was almost dark and I promised my wife id be back early for some reason so I decided to climb down about 15 minutes early.I just tied my bow to the rope to lower it when I seen a buck coming down the fenceline.It was a little 6 pointer that was in there every night.I was watching him hoping he would duck back into the corn when I heard something beside me.The biggest 10 pointer Ive ever seen stepped outta the corn 10 yrds away into my smallest shooting lane.He was probably 150 class deer and my bow was tied securely to a rope.To make matters worse he got behind me, met the 6 pointer and they began feeding about 60 yrds away in the open making it impossible for me to shoot or get down.It was way late before I got down and home and my wife was very upset with me LOL.

Never did see that buck again

 

[HUSKERBUCK]

Mine happened this past season. One morning after about four hours on the stand and only seeing a single doe I decided to call it quits at about 10 AM. I stood up and took of my mask. By standing up I could see a dink buck about 70-80 yards away. I thought I would see if I could get his attention before I got down. I grabbed my "can" from my pocket and hit it about 3 times. No response from him, "too far away to hear it" I thought to myself. All of a sudden some cedar trees about 15 yards to my left EXPLODE!! A very nice 5X4 was on a dead run to find the hot doe that he had heard. He stopped directly behind me. I could look around one shoulder and see his rear end. I could look around the other shoulder and see his antlers. There I was with what would be the best buck that I had in bow range all season at only about 3 yards. And what did I have in my hand? Oh no, not my bow but there I stood with my can in my hand!!