Pondering opportunities

[Mudd]

As I sat in the ground blind last evening I starting thinking about the opportunities, shots taken(near misses and some not so near) I of course then got to studying on what about others?
I had taken 3 shots from that blind alone. Two were near misses(1 sq and 1 deer) and 1 wasn't so much of a miss as my intended target wasn't any where near where my arrow went..lol On one other occassion I had that window open and close before I had time to think. Had I any clue the deer was coming I think I would have had a chance but as my reaction time is... well slow would be a gross understatement.
I've taken 2 other shots this season, another sq and another deer both fairly close misses. I've been sneaked up on from behind a few times this year by both turkey and deer. I can't seem to control my desire to see what's making the noise behind me and get busted of course.
To my amazement there's no frustration in me. In fact I've had a hoot so far. I think I've got the turkey flocks number so I'm gonna try to set up on them today and see what happens.
How bout you? We see a lot of the success stories, is that what makes up the majority of your "in the field" memories?
God bless,Mudd

[Dustin Waters]

My best memory of this past season isnt the buck I shot, its the one night this whole bow season my dad got the chance to hunt with me.  He drove over the 1.5 hours and I hung a stand for him the day before.  We ended up seeing a ton of deer.  I think I counted 22 we saw that night, we ran into a bruiser that we both had on the edge of bow range for a while, several does, a year and a half old 7 and a 6 lock up in the corn stubble in front of him, and lots of chasing going on.  Thats my best memory of the season.  Seeing his smile through the head lamp when we met up at dark was awesome.  Who needs to shoot something when things like that happen.

[buckeye_hunter]

Most of my memories are made up of close encounters without having taken the deer.  Sometimes, I think it might just be more fun because there is no clean up involved!

-Charlie

[shawn]

I had a couple of memorable events during my Nebraska hunt this fall. While walking back to my vehicle after dark, I usually do not use a flashlight. The visability is pretty good. On this particular night, I was using a pen light to guide home. While walking through one of the clearings, I spotted a black box with 2 amber LED's. I was thinking to myself, what would the landowner put out here that could be high tech? (he is definitely a low tech kind of guy) All of the sudden the 2 LED's moved and I spotted the white stripe. The next part is a little embarrasing, but it is funny. You have to understand that I was out in the middle of this clearing alll by myself. So I take a step back and yell "SKUNK" to noone in particular. The skunk and I parted ways with no further issue. If I did not have that light, my path would have put me right on top of him.

The other special memory for me was seeing my first bobcat. I was heading back to the car after a slow morning when I decided to check out a woodpile for rabbits. It turned out someone else had the same idea. As i started my approach, I caught some movement. it looked like a housecat at first glance. As I got closer, I identified it as a bobcat. It started to walk off, but I managed to stop it a couple of times before it made it to the safety of the cedars. I never had a chance at a shot, but I sure wish I would have thought quick enough to get the camera out and take a picture. Maybe next time.

It is definitely not about the kill for me. If it was, I would have quit hunting years ago. I can honestly say that almost all of my favorite hunts had nothing to do with the kill. Hollywood has nothing on nature.

Shawn