doublerack
Active Member
With the season coming up, I thought it would be interesting to see how many people have shot at and missed a B&C class buck and if they had a story to go with it?.
How many people have missed a Booner?
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Monsterbuck1
New Member
I had my bow tied to the rope hanging down from my stand and was just getting ready to climb up in it about 1:30 in the afternoon when I saw movement about 50 yards away. I was hunting in Illinois and a huge 10 pointer (my best guess is he would have scored in the 180's) was walking straight at me with his head down scent checking for does. I had just enough time to un-tie my bow and crouch down next to the tree. He stopped and stared at me for about 20 seconds at 15 yards with absolutely nothing between him and me. I thought my heart was going to jump out of my chest it was beating so hard. He couldn't figure out what I was, but he turned around and walked straight away from me. I never even got to pull the bow back. I guess it doesn't qualify as a missed booner, but definitely a missed opportunity. Had I gotten there 10 minutes sooner there may have been a different ending to my story.
MB1
MB1
THA4
A Few Steps Ahead Of You
i have seen a couple deer that would classify as booners or near booners, however, i have not shot at a buck like that,
but,
while i was in high school, i shot at and missed a giant 8 pointer that would definately score in the high 160's, i shot high (about a foot)
he was very massive and had palamated beams.....at least 13 inch 2's.....
ugg, it pains me to relive that day....
i named that deer "The King" cause when i saw him, it was like being in the presence of Majesty!
i still have dreams about missing that hawg.....
but,
while i was in high school, i shot at and missed a giant 8 pointer that would definately score in the high 160's, i shot high (about a foot)
he was very massive and had palamated beams.....at least 13 inch 2's.....
ugg, it pains me to relive that day....
i named that deer "The King" cause when i saw him, it was like being in the presence of Majesty!
i still have dreams about missing that hawg.....
moosehunter
PMA Member
Missed with a bow and ML 2 years ago. Let one walk 3 years ago (missing a side).
turtlshell
PMA Member
Missed a buck when I was 13 years old during the shotgun season...serious buck FEVER
The deer was later poached and scored in the low 190s.
I replay that event every year before and during shotgun season. It wouldn't have been right to have that as a first deer kill anyway, would it?
The deer was later poached and scored in the low 190s.
I replay that event every year before and during shotgun season. It wouldn't have been right to have that as a first deer kill anyway, would it?
JNRBRONC
Well-Known Member
A passage lifted from my bow hunting journal (dates and places omitted to protect the innocent
):
I get to the hunting property and the wind is swirling. I can’t make up my mind for stand placement. I headed to place it in a “corner” but get there and think the wind is all wrong. I decide to go to a scrape I saw getting some heavy action last weekend. I get over there and can’t decide on a tree. This ones too big around, this one is not in the right spot, okay, let’s try this one. I can only use three LW steps and thus my stand is low. I’m in a valley, so I feel really LOW! I sit there for 20 minutes during which a doe leads two decent bucks past the valley, up on the ridge. They go under the tree I originally wanted to put the stand in. BUMMER! One of the bucks, I would have shot. So I say move, it’s just past 2 pm, the deer are moving, plenty of time. I get the LW tore down and I’m bent over bundling it up when I hear movement and look up to see a doe staring at me from 10 feet. She was a young inexperienced deer, just runs off to 10 yards and stands there looking at me. I just continued packing up for the move and she moves off. I get to the tree I should had ORIGNALLY intended to set up in and get all situated. It doesn’t take long and I have deer moving under me, does and fawns. From this tree, with 4 LW steps, I can see over the trees in the creek bed and watch the deer feed in the harvested corn field on the other side. Constant deer flowing across the corn field. Some of the deer that have been going under me have been picking me off. The sun is setting and I think I’m most likely glowing like a freak tumor on this tree. Just after the sun drops below the horizon, I breathe a sigh of relief. A few more does move by, nothing close though. The turkeys are flying up to roost and making a terrible racket. A coyote, who sounds a lot what I would expect a wolf to sound like, starts howling. I sense movement to my left and glance over to see a buck coming my way, 50 yards and closing fast. I’ve been going on “gut instinct” all season: if the first look says shooter, I’m snapping the release on. The first look SCREAMED shooter and I was scrambling to get ready. No time to stand, he’s at least coming from the left. As I draw he is already through the 20 yard lane, closing in on the 10 yard lane, which is a fence. I want to stop him at the fence, rather than having him jump it. If he gets across the fence he will be in brush so thick a shot is not possible. At full draw, I let out a bleat. He freaks, does a drop/spin and runs back to forty yards and stops. He is quartering hard away, looking my direction. I put the 40 yard pin behind his right rear rib and hit the release. It was a clean low miss (thankfully). I should have hit him on the walk at 10. Things happened so fast that it took a minute to sink in that I had just missed the largest whitetail I have EVER had a shot at, gun, muzzle, bow, EVER. My first glance told me very tall, very wide, very typical 10 point. Tall, I’m guessing G2 somewhere around 14 inches. Maybe B&C, I think pushing it, but who knows? Bummed, no, not really. I’m thankful that I had a chance at such an animal. Will I hunt him the rest of the season? Well, I’ll be spending some time hunting the area, but I won’t be waiting for a second chance on him. If a decent 2.5-3.5 yr old with a rack I like happens by first, he might be in trouble. That is if I can hit him!
That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
I get to the hunting property and the wind is swirling. I can’t make up my mind for stand placement. I headed to place it in a “corner” but get there and think the wind is all wrong. I decide to go to a scrape I saw getting some heavy action last weekend. I get over there and can’t decide on a tree. This ones too big around, this one is not in the right spot, okay, let’s try this one. I can only use three LW steps and thus my stand is low. I’m in a valley, so I feel really LOW! I sit there for 20 minutes during which a doe leads two decent bucks past the valley, up on the ridge. They go under the tree I originally wanted to put the stand in. BUMMER! One of the bucks, I would have shot. So I say move, it’s just past 2 pm, the deer are moving, plenty of time. I get the LW tore down and I’m bent over bundling it up when I hear movement and look up to see a doe staring at me from 10 feet. She was a young inexperienced deer, just runs off to 10 yards and stands there looking at me. I just continued packing up for the move and she moves off. I get to the tree I should had ORIGNALLY intended to set up in and get all situated. It doesn’t take long and I have deer moving under me, does and fawns. From this tree, with 4 LW steps, I can see over the trees in the creek bed and watch the deer feed in the harvested corn field on the other side. Constant deer flowing across the corn field. Some of the deer that have been going under me have been picking me off. The sun is setting and I think I’m most likely glowing like a freak tumor on this tree. Just after the sun drops below the horizon, I breathe a sigh of relief. A few more does move by, nothing close though. The turkeys are flying up to roost and making a terrible racket. A coyote, who sounds a lot what I would expect a wolf to sound like, starts howling. I sense movement to my left and glance over to see a buck coming my way, 50 yards and closing fast. I’ve been going on “gut instinct” all season: if the first look says shooter, I’m snapping the release on. The first look SCREAMED shooter and I was scrambling to get ready. No time to stand, he’s at least coming from the left. As I draw he is already through the 20 yard lane, closing in on the 10 yard lane, which is a fence. I want to stop him at the fence, rather than having him jump it. If he gets across the fence he will be in brush so thick a shot is not possible. At full draw, I let out a bleat. He freaks, does a drop/spin and runs back to forty yards and stops. He is quartering hard away, looking my direction. I put the 40 yard pin behind his right rear rib and hit the release. It was a clean low miss (thankfully). I should have hit him on the walk at 10. Things happened so fast that it took a minute to sink in that I had just missed the largest whitetail I have EVER had a shot at, gun, muzzle, bow, EVER. My first glance told me very tall, very wide, very typical 10 point. Tall, I’m guessing G2 somewhere around 14 inches. Maybe B&C, I think pushing it, but who knows? Bummed, no, not really. I’m thankful that I had a chance at such an animal. Will I hunt him the rest of the season? Well, I’ll be spending some time hunting the area, but I won’t be waiting for a second chance on him. If a decent 2.5-3.5 yr old with a rack I like happens by first, he might be in trouble. That is if I can hit him!
That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
Limb Chicken
Active Member
November 4th, 2001, 23 yards, chip shot and I sailed it. He turned, jumped the fence and spent the next hour in the cornfield. I came pretty close to puking.
nacho2770
New Member
Back in 1999 when I was 19 years old I went out in the morning of our opening day of Rifle season. Our first day doesn't open until noon, so I was just doing a little scouting. I parked my truck up on a hill just before sunrise and watched.
I saw a few does come out below me and then a monster buck, but I couldn't see it through my binoculars because they fogged up. It was only 150 yards away and I could tell it was huge.
At noon my dad and I tried to walk the area to see if we could kick him up, but we had walked almost everything and were starting to think he got away when I was walking the bottom and he was on the top of a draw. I kicked the buck out at about 150 yards and it looped around the brush and started to run at my dad. It saw him and it ran back through the draw the other way. I fired two off balance shots at it running full bore and my dad fired 4 shots at it running straight away.
"We spent the rest of the day walking the CRP because he swore there was no way he missed it. I told him he put all 4 right between the antlers. That buck was a 12 pointer that had to have a 24 inch inside spread. My dad got another crack at him a week later, but that buck didn't get that big being dumb and he lived to spread on his genes.
We never saw that buck again after that year. I have never seen my dad get worked up over a deer before, but still to this day if you ask him about it he gets pretty worked up.
He shot a buck the next year, but hasn't shot one since then. I think seeing that big one has kind of ruined it for him. I doubt he will shoot another one unless it is a monster.
It was no doubt a booner, and still to this day the biggest buck I have seen in the wild. Everytime I think if that encounter I feel sick inside.
I have had a lot more missed chances since I started bow hunting, but none as big as that buck.
I saw a few does come out below me and then a monster buck, but I couldn't see it through my binoculars because they fogged up. It was only 150 yards away and I could tell it was huge.
At noon my dad and I tried to walk the area to see if we could kick him up, but we had walked almost everything and were starting to think he got away when I was walking the bottom and he was on the top of a draw. I kicked the buck out at about 150 yards and it looped around the brush and started to run at my dad. It saw him and it ran back through the draw the other way. I fired two off balance shots at it running full bore and my dad fired 4 shots at it running straight away.
"We spent the rest of the day walking the CRP because he swore there was no way he missed it. I told him he put all 4 right between the antlers. That buck was a 12 pointer that had to have a 24 inch inside spread. My dad got another crack at him a week later, but that buck didn't get that big being dumb and he lived to spread on his genes.
We never saw that buck again after that year. I have never seen my dad get worked up over a deer before, but still to this day if you ask him about it he gets pretty worked up.
It was no doubt a booner, and still to this day the biggest buck I have seen in the wild. Everytime I think if that encounter I feel sick inside.
I have had a lot more missed chances since I started bow hunting, but none as big as that buck.
wegner36
New Member
the first year i had my t/c encore i took it alond for slug season. on our last push of the second day of first season i was set up next to a crick behind a down limb which created a perfect rest for my muzz. after about ten minutes into the push the guys pushed a monster ten in my direction, it was warm and most of the snow we had was melting and there was mud everywhere, i vividly remember him loping at about 60 yards and i whistled and he literally slid to a stop, i put the cross hairs right at the point of his shoulder and squeezed. he stumbled and took of running, i grabbed my 20 gauge for back up shots but i knew i had hit him, not a doubt in my mind, no blood, no hair and sure as hell no deer.
after i had replayed the events in my head several times i realized had i not whistled there was about a 90 percent chance he would have loped within 30 yards of me. he was a solid 160-170 inch buck. what i would give to do it again.
after i had replayed the events in my head several times i realized had i not whistled there was about a 90 percent chance he would have loped within 30 yards of me. he was a solid 160-170 inch buck. what i would give to do it again.
Nebraska_hunter
New Member
in 2005 my dad just set a new stand where i wanted it. It was the first day of rifle season and i didnt really see much. But about 100 yards i saw some deer moving on a burm. I saw horns and knew the buck was big. I saw him threw the scope and decided to take him. Well i dont know what happend
but i shot high. I saw the tree behind him shake from the bullet. Never saw that buck again.
KSQ2
PMA Member
I shared this on a similar thread on the Kansas site a couple weeks back...
I've made many mistakes, but biggest blunder that comes to mind happened the fall of '99. I had the priviledge, and mean that in the fullest sense, of hunting in Comanche county about five miles north and west of Protection. In front of me was the prettiest little spring-fed stream you've ever seen in a cedar-choked draw. Behind me was acres of rolling prairie coming to a wheat field. I was perched in a cottonwood with the wind perfect. The morning was perfect in every sense. About five minutes after sunrise a little eight appeared from the south following a doe, who wasn't much interested in him, they came on by heading north and finally disappeared in a fold in the prairie. About ten minutes later a buck appeared from that same fold a little of over a quarter-mile away. I didn't pay much attention, figuring it was the little guy coming back. A couple minutes later I looked back again, and before me about a hundreds yards closer this time was the same buck, the biggest fella I'd ever laid eyes on from a stand. To this day I couldn't tell you if he was a twelve or a fourteen, all I know is he was absolutely perfectly symmetrical and huge. Long story short, he took forever coming in and I shot under him at 12 yards! I was a complete wreck by the time I took the shot. Funny thing is, to this day I can describe in detail the picture when I took the shot of everything from the frost on his back to the steam coming out his nose, but I can't tell you much about his rack. Since I made such a mess of the shot sequence, I kind of wish I'd had a camera instead so I'd have at least something to show of the encounter. That's why they call it hunting I guess. I'll never forget that morning.
I've made many mistakes, but biggest blunder that comes to mind happened the fall of '99. I had the priviledge, and mean that in the fullest sense, of hunting in Comanche county about five miles north and west of Protection. In front of me was the prettiest little spring-fed stream you've ever seen in a cedar-choked draw. Behind me was acres of rolling prairie coming to a wheat field. I was perched in a cottonwood with the wind perfect. The morning was perfect in every sense. About five minutes after sunrise a little eight appeared from the south following a doe, who wasn't much interested in him, they came on by heading north and finally disappeared in a fold in the prairie. About ten minutes later a buck appeared from that same fold a little of over a quarter-mile away. I didn't pay much attention, figuring it was the little guy coming back. A couple minutes later I looked back again, and before me about a hundreds yards closer this time was the same buck, the biggest fella I'd ever laid eyes on from a stand. To this day I couldn't tell you if he was a twelve or a fourteen, all I know is he was absolutely perfectly symmetrical and huge. Long story short, he took forever coming in and I shot under him at 12 yards! I was a complete wreck by the time I took the shot. Funny thing is, to this day I can describe in detail the picture when I took the shot of everything from the frost on his back to the steam coming out his nose, but I can't tell you much about his rack. Since I made such a mess of the shot sequence, I kind of wish I'd had a camera instead so I'd have at least something to show of the encounter. That's why they call it hunting I guess. I'll never forget that morning.
vballhuntr
PMA Member
Last year--drawn back-- 15yds--no shot!!! Sat there for 4 more hours trying to figure out what I could have done different. Oh well, probably just saved me from blowing it and being pissed for the rest of my life!!!! Still a great experience being that close to a true booner!!
Shedhuntermd
PMA Member
I have missed one, then my buddy killed it the next year. The story is in the PMA section 2 years ago under Maryland Monster.