Tell me about the one who haunts you.

[Ulysseys]

Thanks killdeer - the woods will write crazy cool stories if you keep your eyes open.

[twitchstick]

OK! There is a big plot against me! I just wrote this long story about an stinky long necked saddle back old cow elk that haunts me year after year and she did it again! My server crashed and I lost the whole story,she wins again I guess!          

[lt-m-grow]

Certain threads you poke in on surprise you regarding just how great they are...this one is one of them.  Great stories.

[PeteA]

This is a wheelie story but stick with me, it's good. Year 1987ish. Was hunting in southern zone NY. A bow only suburb 50 minutes north of NYC. We where weekend hunters and had permission on some good private property. The deer in this are were know to get big. A few years earlier I shot an 8pt that dressed our at 195. Anyway... Was hunting a small saddle 75 yards away from a thick cedar swamp. I'm up in a huge oak looking into the swamp with the saddle to my left. I catch movement and sound in the swamp. A huge buck appears moving directly toward the saddle. He's making a ton of noise as he is quarting toward me.
As he closes the distance I can see he is a huge bodied 12pt. Huge. His left back leg is completely dead. Only attached to his body by his fur and skin. All bones and muscle are not attached inside the skin. He is basically dragging this dead leg... thus the racket. He keep walking toward me an closing distance heading right or the saddle. Closing 30 yard... Closing 20 yards. At 15 yards he turn and now is going to walk directly in front of my stand @15 yards broadside. I let him get a little passed me, draw, hold, sight pin on and release. As the arrow passes the sight window he jumps, rolls onto his back away from me. Rolls over 360 degrees! When he gets back up he has a rack full of leaves. It looked like the Matrix! Where's my arrow. In one motion he rolled and turned so the side facing me is the opposite side. He lopes away the best he can with 3 good legs, back to the swamp. Still don't see my arrow. The arrow went under him as he rolled away. Stuck in the ground. Biggest deer I have ever seen in the woods 12pt over 250 pounds easy i bet the spread was well over 22-24". 15 yard broadside shot. Still haunts me to this day some 25 years later.

[Blackstick]

Sorry, my hunting haunt is not bow related, so I can't tell it here.  

[Wudstix]

Hunted one Indiana "beast" we nicknamed "Moose'.  Hunted him for six years before he just disappeared from the face of the earth.  Never found any of his sheds, as he frequented a swamp and the creek bottom that flooded every spring.  His home was the swamp, but he came out ocassionally to cruise the creek bottom.  First saw him as a five by five, probably 2 1/2 yr old.  Saw him three times during hunting season. Once at 12 yards in a thicket that a muzzle loader would not have been able to push a ball through to him.  Once in year 4 at what I though was 35 yards from the wood line out across an open bean field.  My Damon Howatt 65# recurve shot right under his belly behind the front leg and I watched him run for about a mile without stopping to see what happened.  Stepped it of at 42 yards.  Last time I saw him was 24 Oct 1989 and he was eight by eight.  Them he was taken of the planet.  One other hunter knew about him and we guessimated he would go 210+ inches.  Nice IN buck.