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Share your bowhunting heartbreakers...I'll start.

DannyBoy

DannyBoy

Well-Known Member
I think it's fair to say that most of us have a heartbreaking experience had while bowhunting. In my case, there are several. Trying not to make this too long, so I won't even include all of them. I have four that stand out in my mind above all others. I'll share my first one, and if enough people share along with me, I'll share the others.

It was late November in 2003, my first season bowhunting. I was hunting family land in Clayton County, NE Iowa. It was a FREEZING COLD, WINDY DAY, but there was a lot of movement so I hung in there along with my younger cousin. We were both underdressed and over-motivated to bring something home to show the family for Thanksgiving. After several hours of non-stop action it slowed for awhile so I whipped out my Kansas sheds and started to rattle. After one sequence and a series of rookie grunts I noticed movement ahead of me. I grabbed my ancient Hoyt Raider and anxiously awaited the arrival of what I now knew was a dandy 150 class typical 10pt. He slowly made a beeline right to my tree, 7 yards to be exact. I was shaking and sweating profusely, but somehow was unnoticed by the Iowa dandy. He stopped and alertedly browsed on some remaining acorns behind a small conifer of some kind, perfectly broadside. Instinct told me to draw, so I did as soon as his head was down. I was successful in drawing unnoticed, now all he had to do was take a step or two. Unfortunately for me and my heavy, overweight bow with little to no let-off, he liked what he found to eat an didn't budge for quite some time. My shaking got worse, and so did my sweating. I couldn't endure full-draw any longer, so I eased my string forward as best I could....UNNOTICED! HOLY SMOKES I WAS STILL IN THE GAME!!!! He didn't move for another five minutes, during which time I was able to somehow compose myself for one last hoorah. FINALLY, he took two steps and provided me with a perfect broadside shot. I drew back, but....you've got to be kidding me! My left forefinger, which I always lightly wrapped around my arrow to keep it from falling off my two prong rest, was evidently a little bit strong that day, because I'd wrapped it so hard around my arrow that the arrow didn't move with my string. It came un-nocked as I drew and in slow motion fell backwards, landing straight up and down on the metal stand. TINK!!! Buck runs off....

Heartbreaker #1 was and is now in my long-term memory forever. To that side of my family I may always be the kid that dropped his arrow. Due to my great memory and explanation of the bucks antler characteristics they now knew of him. They had some encounters with him over the next couple years but never did seal the deal.
 
My first year bowhunting I had a big buck walk right up to my tree. I drew undetected, but he saw me just as he was getting ready to walk under my tree. I was at full draw as the two us us just sat there looking at each other. I held as long as I could, then let it fly hitting him right underneath the chin. Hoping that I cut his windpipe, or a major artery, I let him sit an hour before starting to track. I found the arrow covered in blood not far from where I shot him, but never did find that deer. Not sure how that arrow made it through the near middle of that deer's neck without hitting something major, but it did. That buck still and always will haunt my dreams.
 
Many years ago I was hunting a fenceline bordering Lake Red Rock in some premier big buck country. Saw a buck at 300 yards and decided to rattle. It was Oct 27. He ignored me for the first two series and on the third, he looked straight over and several seconds later took off parallel to me toward the fenceline I was on. He then proceeded to move undetected 300 yards up the fence toward me and seemed to show up out of nowhere about 10 minutes later. He finally stopped 10 yards from my tree and was in my estimation a true 150 class 8 point!! I've been impressed ever since at how they can hone in on the exact location of sound even from hundreds of yards away. It was getting close to dusk and I didn't notice the one, and I do mean ONE small branch in my shooting window. It was probably 1/8" in diameter but it seemed like a tree trunk when my arrow hit it and deflected downward and just under the deer's belly.

I learned a huge lesson from this event. Ever since that day, when I first get into a stand and also when I know deer are coming near a stand, I'm constantly surveying my shooting lanes and possible scenarios for the animal's path of travel and when I might draw in each case, rather than focusing on the incoming animal or worse yet, antlers. I think this failure was necessary to forever impact my style of hunting in a positive way.
 
I passed a buck that I knew was big. Instead of shooting him, I filmed him for 5 minutes with my camcorder. I thought he was a young buck that was probably 170" BUT would turn into a 200" deer in a year. My neighbor shot him a month later and called me to come over and look at him- sure enough, same deer I had on camcorder (I later showed him the camcorder footage). He was 196" and 19 points. Oh well :)
 
My second year bowhunting I was out in mid Oct. found a sweet little opening. As I was standing there gazing around at the deer sign a doe and fawn passed within feet of me and had no idea I was there. It was just one of the spots the you wanna scream becuase it looks so good. Next day I was there hung a stand but couldnt hunt for a week due to school and work. A week later I was in the stand mid afternoon. In the first 3hours I had seen 7 bucks all under 8points. Pretty awesome for my area. 30min before dark I glance over my shoulder into the brush; 100yds out a nice 9point and a doe feeding towards me. They were moving slow and I was worried about the daylight. I hit my cheapy grunt tube once. They took a few steps went back to feeding. Again, same result. One more time and here they come. The next min. or so was a blurr, the only real memory was that he was coming and I was unable to stand at first, then a calm hit me. The pair closed the hunderd yards in a few min, and came down to about 5yards. I remeber thinking a thousand thoughts a secound. Stood, drew, relaxed, released, watched my arrow miss drive into the dirt. Buck jumped bolted 40yards stopped and looked back, then trotted off.

Thats my sob story. By far one of my most memorable hunts.
 
Not really a heartbreaker, just a memory maker. Nov. 07, first year bowhunting. It was Remembrance Day (Veteran's Day) and I had spent a pretty dead 3 hours set up on the ground on the edge of an alfalfa field amidst brutal temps, hard driving winds and nearly blinding snowfall. A doe stepped from the spruce timber about 15 yards from my location and was unaware of my presence. Suddenly as mslall 10 pt appeared on the scene and started towards the doe. The sound of grunting from where the doe had came from as well as breaking branches had me draw my bow in anticipation and a stud 9pt that I had hunted for over 2 months burst onto the scene. Try as a I might I could not stop him as he ran the small buck off and pushed the doe about 75 yards out into the field before stopping. I never saw him again.
 
Thanks for sharing guys! Here's yet another one of mine.

Late November 06. I'd been hunting a new spot all year and knew it was good. I mean I KNEW, but had yet to see a good buck. It was an evening hunt, mild temps, mild wind, and the rut was noticably winding down. A mature doe steps out with her two female yearlings about an hour before dark. BINGO!! I believe to this day that one or both of them came into estrus, because the woods started shaking and bucks started showing up from everywhere. First to arrive on the scene was a young 10 with true potential. He chased the yearlings everywhere, payed no attention to mama. A few baskets arrived shortly after and joined the chase, followed by some light sparring. I was enjoying the show, not paying much attention to my surroundings. GRUUNT, GRUUUNT! I nearly pissed myself. El Giganto somehow made it to within ten yards of me before I caught on to him, but facing me in some very thick saplings, absolutely no chance for a shot. He was BIG and had no idea of my presence. He too enjoyed the show for quite some time, around 25 minutes worth of it anyways. I surveyed and surveyed him, ran numbers, the whole ball of wax. To my best judging ability he would barely be a net typical booner as a mainframe 5x5 with a few stickers and kickers.

Soon the smaller 10 had chased all he could for the night, and decided to make his walk of shame back to where he came from, but El Giganto was in his way. He tried to walk by him but it didn't work out so well. What erupted was truly the biggest A$$ whooping I've ever seen. Big boy charged and gored little guy in the side and was all over him. Little guy couldn't even got on his feet to run. Finally big boy let up, ran around the ever curious yearlings, scent checked them, said heck with it, and was on his way. Just so happens his route took him right by me, 20 yards broadside. I'd been drawn for some time, so when he stepped into my hole I stopped him, and calmly squeezed the trigger. Boy did that arrow dance in slow motion in that short twenty yards. It had NEVER happened to me before, even practice shooting in my hunting clothes, but my string slapped my forearm so hard that it tore my coat, and obviously jacked up my shot. He jumped the string as well, and my arrow hit and barely penatrated him mid-way back and very high. I knew it was not a lethal shot but I looked for several hours over two days, only finding my arrow and some hair nearly half a mile from my stand. Heartbreaker number two was in the books.

I saw him a year later and a year bigger, and was glad to know he had indeed lived.
 
It was early in my serious bowhunting pursuits on a November morning around 1994 I jumped in an old wooden stand about 8 foot off the ground someone had long abandoned in the back corner of a field. As the morning unfolded I watched a doe jump the fence at the road coming my way I then looked up and seen a large river bottom buck lumber his way across the field in pursuit and I readied for a shot. He stopped right under the stand likike 10 foot off the end of my arrow. Somehow I managed to draw back and let one rip and cut hairs on his back and the arrow stuck in the dirt. At this point I knew he was big but not untill they ran in the timber and got busy did I get the time to look with binoculars he was a large non typical with junk everywhere easily a 200 inch buck. As I sat there and replayed the events a young 8 pointer emerged and came over to the arrow and licked it. I remember it like it was yesterday.
 
Well, here we go, bringin back the memories, this is a long one...Late October in 2006 I was sitting a stand that I'd shot good bucks out of the previous 2 years. It was the first night in the stand for this year and I could hear a buck up the valley tickling his antlers in some oak brush. I hit the grunt call and snort wheezed. The "tickling" turned into thrashing, but he stayed up the valley from me. I did some more grunting, snort wheezing, and hit the rattle bag a bit. After 20+ mins of listening to him thrash the brush he started making his way towards me. It sounded like he was thrashing every tree on his way and you could tell by the sounds that he was a good one. He finally appeared on a trail that runs about 25 yds from my stand. I had ranged a couple trees in that area earlier in case one came down through there. I knew he was big when he was coming but didn't get a real good look at him as he was coming through the brush. As he was getting to my opening I drew and as he stepped into it I bleated at him....nothing. He was angling away and I bleated again. This time he froze. In my panic, I judged him at 35yds and held up on him a bit (I use one pin and I needed to hold about 8" high at 35yds). Well, I released and hit him right where I was aiming...right under the spine. The lumenock told the whole story....bad hit, I almost threw up. I ranged the spot he stood...under 25yds. In all the excitement I just really misjudged things. I looked for any sign of him the next day but knew in my mind that it wasn't a killing shot. The next night I met my dad at the truck after another night in the stand and he asked if I wanted to know how big that buck was. Apparently it walked past him at 100yds. He said it had a blood spot right below his spine and behind the front shoulder but otherwise looked fine. He said he counted 14pts but knew that it had more in stickers coming off it and was about 2' wide. Said he shook like a leaf the rest of the night after it had walked by. He saw it again the next night but the buck was keeping his distance from any trees now. We headed back to the area in late season and ran into one of the locals who asked if one of us had hit a big buck with a bow. He said a guy from out of the area shot a monster 19pt with a 24" spread in the gun season....200+" buck. That really made me feel sick. I still get an adrenaline rush everytime I think of this buck and would have loved to gotten a picture of it but nobody knew the guy. After a long time of agonizing over this one I now just feel blessed to have had such an experience with him and I relive that night everytime I sit that stand.
 
I was pretty new to bow hunting at the time and was on a morning hunt in Winneshiek County. I had just finished a lengthy rattling sequence when I heard something tearing through the leaves. It was a solid 140-class eight point and he was coming directly down the trail that would lead him through my shooting lanes. He stopped perfectly and I released ... only to hit an unforseen branch, which deflected the arrow just under his vitals. Thankfully it was a clean miss. He trotted off to the north unaware of what had just happened.

Now, that might not seem too heartbreaking since most of us have done this. However, about an hour later I noticed a doe coming from the direction he had gone. Sure enough, just behind her was the buck I'd missed. I was so completely rattled from the first miss that I got way too worked up over the thought of a second opportunity. She came right down the trail behind my tree and he was in hot pursuit. I missed him clean at 15 yards, shooting about a foot in front of him. I was shaking SO BAD! I'll never be able to explain what came over me that morning other than a serious case of buck fever! It was a morning I'll never forget.
 
Thanksgiving morning - 1997/98 ??

Only my second or third year of bowhunting. Was hunting a property I had gun hunted for a couple seasons with my father-in-law. Saw a left side of antlers and immediately knew it was a good buck. Eventually he circled me at about 20-25 yards over the course of about 5 minutes while tending a hot doe. Finally he approached a shooting lane and was about 2 steps from an easy 20 yarder. He caught a sliver of wind and reversed his trail all while I was at full draw. I stopped him at about 25 yards and did not get a great look at the shooting lane but let it go anyway. At the shot I heard a LOUD SMACK and the buck ran off hard and low ducking branches as he ran. I was convinced I had hit a limb that I had not seen.

Got down to locate the arrow and no arrow ?? Got back in the tree and shot an arrow to locate the point of impact and again got down to look for the arrow but again could not locate the first arrow shot at the deer??

Eventually started following the trail and found minimal blood after about 100 yards and the arrow with only about 3 inches of penetration. Concluded it was a shoulder hit and never did locate him. Probably about a 145-150 class ten but at the time by far the largest deer I had ever seen on the hoof let alone within range.

Probably the lesson I learned most from that day was the fact that the big boys do not quit on Nov. 15th. If anything, that day has helped me stick with it deeper into Nov. when those last does are coming in and the big boys are still on their feet looking for the last hot does.
 
It was Nov. 13th and the last day of my hunting vacation (it was actually on a Friday). I was in my third season hunting here in Iowa with my recurve bow. I had seen a few really good bucks over the past week, but had been unable to close the deal. I was hunting my favorite funnel stand and the wind was perfect for my setup (very light breeze out of the north). It was mid morning and movement had been slow. I suddenly caught movement and a doe materialized out of the thicket north of my stand heading straight toward me. I pulled up my binoculars and noticed she was panting hard with her tongue hanging out. I grabbed my bow and before I knew it a beautiful brute of a 5x5 pushing mid 170's was slowly following approx. 20 yards behind her. He had obviously been following her for a while because every time she would stop he would just lag 20 yards behind her, not wasting his energy trying to bull rush her.

She eventually ended up walking and stopping right at the base of my tree not 2 feet away. After she stood there for what seemed like an eternity (probably 30 sec.) she moved on behind me and I could hear her walking in the dry leaves. The Booner makes his way inside of 20 yards and for some reason stops and takes a couple steps down the hill sniffing the ground broadside and lets out a low deep grunt. At this point I am in the 'Zone' I am mentally drilling a hole right through the center of his lungs and there is no doubt in my mind I am only a few seconds from harvesting the buck of my dreams..... that is when everything came apart. Just as I was about half way from hitting my anchor point the doe bolts back past my stand and he takes off chasing her in the direction they came. I sat there in total disbelief..... I needed only 1 second more to get that shot off. The doe had apparently smelled me as she had gotten downwind of my stand.

Total heartbreaker!
 
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On the evening of November 10, 2002 I had a doe with triplet button buck fawns walk by. I had never seen this before in the wild, and let them get by before lowering my equipment out of the tree to leave for the evening. The next morning I was back in the same stand before daylight. It was cold - about 18 degrees or so. As I was getting things situated, my left insulated glove fell to the ground at the base of my tree. I knew my hand would be cold without it, so I climbed back down the tree and retrieved it. At about 8:30 am, I spotted some movement to my left; it was the same three button buck fawns I had seen the night before. About 40 yards behind them was their mom - and right behind her was one of the biggest nontypicals I've seen while bowhunting. If she kept coming, it would put her and the buck following within twelve yards for an easy shot. But she veered off at the last second directly away from me, taking the buck with her in the thick brush. It was the buck of a lifetime - 20 plus points, probably 220" or so. I usually field-judge low, so it's hard to say how big he really was. Multiple brow points everywhere, and amazing flat, palmated beam tips about 4" across very similar to Shovelbuck's sheds. He was walking out of my life as fast as he came into it and I had to do something. I grunted, did a very short rattling sequence, and then hit my can call twice. He did what I never thought he'd do - he proceeded to leave the doe and walk behind a brush pile, he was going to come out into the wide open to check out the commotion. I drew when he was behind the brush, and he came out broadside at 31 steps with nothing between us but air. I settled the pin and the Parker Ultra Lite 31 settled in. I shot and watched in horror as the arrow went 4 inches in front of his neck!!! The worst miss I've ever made on a buck!! The deer lumbered off, never to be seen again. As it turns out, the bulky glove combined with an over-tightened bow sling caused me to torque the shot. Had I not picked up that glove in the pre-dawn darkness, and had I actually practiced with the sling/glove combo (which I didn't, totally my fault) the story might actually have had a different ending. The buck fever didn't help either. I literally cried in my treestand after that deer ran off. It still haunts me to this day, and I think about it all the time.
 
Two season's ago I had the largest deer in 20 years of bowhunting in chip shot range of my tree. He was bird dogging back and forth under me and I was unpatiently waiting for a good shot. It never came, and I knew he was leaving for a doe standing down the hill, so I figured now or never.
As he was parting at a fast walk I had to torque my body around to the back side of the tree. Had to force my bow arm tight against the tree for the shot, but I figured.....5 yards no biggy. Wellllllll......a puff of hair off the bottom of his chest is all I went home with. I was nauseated for about a good week.:)
 
Mine was a buck that I pursued for several years that I named Mr. T. He was a upper 160's to 170 framed 10 pt with kickers litterally going everywhere. On January 10th one year I walked out, well after shooting light, and saw him clearly sillouetted on the hillside above me less that 100 yards away. As I looked through the scope of my muzzeloader I realized that there are people who would have probably pulled the trigger. I walked out dejected.

The next year I pursued him with my bow but had no success. I talked to a guy whos group had permission to shotgun hunt the property who described a huge buck with kickers everywhere. He said that one of the guys in the group took a 100 yard running shot but gut shot him. He said they chased him for more than a mile and jumped him several times but never found him.

I never saw him again.:(
 
Well, i dont like to talk about it but oh well....

Ive been hunting turkeys 4 years in a row... NEVER been successful. Until this year. I cant remember the exact date but while sitting in the double bull, grew extremely bored throughout the evening. I would call every once in a while and get absolutely no response. but about 40 min b4 shooting light was over, I heard running through the leaves. Look to my right and see a turkey running going to come right in front of me. I put down the window and draw back, still all good. He comes into an opening and its the turkey i have been wanting to shoot. Huge body and beard! I let the arrow fly and nail him PERFECTLY where you want to on the broadside shot at 13 yards.. he starts lightly clucking and runs away.. i watch him walk up the hill and fall. His head even bounced off the leaves. I, in the blind, am FREAKING OUT because all my time put forth in this turkey hunting with a bow has paid off. I let him lay for 30 min. after that was up, i walked over to my arrow.. complete pass through and blood alllll over. (it loooked like i was on a deer blood trail) thinkin to myself, oh yeah he is for sure dead. I get closer to the crick... i see him layin there... i do a little dance... then, i jump the crick with a running start. As soon as i land, i look in awe, take my first step and the damn thing rose from the dead. HE got up, jumped, ran and started to fly. I took off after him using my bow as a bat, but was unsuccessful at getting him. I followed where he was and he flew accross the river. I saw him laying in the field.... But here comes the farmer turning his field under.... CRUSH... there went my turkey.... I want to give up... but i dont think i will! :(


Thats this years heart breaker for me....
 
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