Stories of deer that have eluded you.

[Arwin]

Ornery old doe or wary buck, whatever, I love the stories of the ones that got away. Please share!

I'll start with a buck I have named "Petey", because he has a bigger white circle around his eye, sort of like the dog from The Little Rascals.
   Two years ago I scouted out a new area on state land and placed a stand where I thought good movement would be. That season I had great encounters with a ton of doe and a few small bucks. It wasn't until the late bowhunt(Dec)that I first laid eyes on him. He was a big 6 point with long tines, a wide rack past his ears, and a slight dip in his back. I knew he was a mature deer. He came in broadside and I let the string slip. I thought the arrow was going right where I wanted it to, until a small twig sent it sailing off in a different direction. I sat down and put my head in my hands. Deer like that don't come by everyday in hard pressured state game areas.
   This year I hunted the same spot. It was during the first week of bow that "Petey" made his appearence. I was glad to see he made it.  Now he was an 8 point with the same big spread, long tines,more mass and a grayer face. The big white circle told me who it was. It was an evening hunt and I had just sat down in my stand. The squirrels were going crazy. After a while I stopped looking at every sound I heard. My mistake! I happened to glance over my shoulder and there he stood, feeding on acorns. I thought I could be sly enough to stand up and get a shot off. Thats when I learned if you can see any part of their eye, they can see you. He seen a bit of my movement and slowly trotted off. He didn't blow or anything so I was glad for that.
   Fast forward to the first week of Nov. I decided to try this spot in the morning. I had only been hunting it in the evening and wanted to see what was moving through. Just as first light broke over the trees, here he came. Straight at me this time. I started to get ready and thought for sure this would be the moment that I would get to lay my hands on him. "Petey" closed the distance to 15 yds and turned to my right. He walked behind thick brush and all I could see was his majestic antlers and part of his face. No shot at all! He casually kept walking and strolled out of my life. I never seen him again until a couple days ago. He has dropped one antler, which I hope to find! I'm praying he is there this year so we can "play the game". Gotta love it!

[Over&Under]

Arwin - you should write a book, I now feel like Petey has eluded me also.  

Most of the stories I have are all of single deer that once they ran off, all I saw were tails.  Mulies are a tough nut to crack.  Once last season I had hunted this small stand of Aspens and was I made my way back, here not 50 yds from my truck stood a nice 3 point feeding.  I started crawling towards him since the cover and wind were perfect.  I crawled through some thick low-lying brush, just knowing he was going to hear me, well at 30 yds he still had no idea, lucky break.  well I decided then to shed my pack, which I should have done from the start, live and learn I guess.  As I looked up ( his head was behind a bush last time I saw) he was looking my direction. how on earth I don't know.  Well I managed to close the gap to 25 yards as he was not spooked enough to bolt.  Sweet I thought, in my comfort zone, well apparently it was still out of my skill zone, ha ha.  I shot right over him, and could not close the gap again before it got too dark.  

Disappointed - yes
A kick in the pants - Heck Yes!!
That is waht it is all about.

Jake

[Benha]

Mine is too long to type here but it was published in Traditional Bowhunter Aug/Sep 03 if you have the issue. It is titled "My Dark Obsession."

[juneaulongbow]

After climbing for 2 hours through the Spruce and Hemlock, the Devil's Club and wet blueberry bushes I reached alpine.  I sat back to enjoy the view.  The famous Mendenhall Glacier lay several miles away across the channel but offered a stunning sight on this rare sunny day.  I slid out of my daypack and pulled out my binoculars.  

Not long after surveying the terrain I spotted a Sitka Blacktail buck feeding in the subalpine meadows a few hundred yards below me.  I watched him intently and soon he bed down for the afternoon.  With the wind in my favor, I put some landmarks in the memory bank and started the controlled fall down the steep slope.  Creeping through the brush once again I bumped a doe, who snorted and bounded away.

I assumed the buck heard her alarm and also left but I continued my slow, deliberate stalk through the brush as quiet as I could.  As I neared his bed I knocked an arrow and scanned the brush where I had spotted him.  My eyes led me to believe he was gone for I could not see him.

The natural ability of a deer to disappear before your eyes is a wonder.  Antlers appear as small branches and colors fade into the background.  I made one false step and revealed my hiding place.  In an instant the buck's ears and eyes came alive and he bounded away before a shot could be made.  A stillness returned to the surrounding woods.  I felt my heart beating.  I viewed my surroundings.  I was in his bedroom. I had stalked a bedded buck to 10 yards.  I was proud.

 

[Jerry Jeffer]

Several years ago I had a big buck hanging  around a wood lot I was hunting. I had watched him from a distance on several occasions. I finally had a shot at him and I blew it by just a few inches, but a miss non the less. After that, I tried sitting in different areas trying to keep him guessing. Each time he came in, then turned away only feet befor coming into an opening for a shot. This went on all season log. I probably had 15 close encounters after my missed shot. The last time I saw him was when I jumped him out of some heavy brush in the middle section of a power line. He was bedded with a doe only 10 yards from my parked car. That's hunting.

[wyatts daddy]

It was my first ever archery hunt. I started my walk at 3am more to get out there than knowing what I was doing. Sooner than i expected the light started to reveal eight different mule deer racks on the top of a small hill. I sat there and studied their movement, when all the sudden a small truck was making his way though the small trail I was walking down in the dark. I stopped him and showed him what I was looking at. We (a man I never met before in my life) came up with a plan to sort of run them towards me. He was going to back out of the area circle around the hill and start hiking up from the other side and push them right to me. Sounded good remember this was my first ever archery hunt. I waited 2 hours and not a sound not a deer! Tired of waiting I started up the hill now close to 8 am with most of the morning behind me and I was feeling it was such a waste so far, my body started to sweat from the climb. I stopped by a tree to catch my breath and stop the sweating. I have to go to dinner I will finish my story later.
Bill
Sorry Shadow hunter but I'm back now. Where was I? Oh yea there I was leaning against that tree and as I'm looking around I start to see sets of antlers in the brush not 30 yards in front of me! They are everywhere! As I'm counting the racks to account for them all a huge 4X5 at least 32" comes out of no-where and is walking straight at me. I'm standing there with a arrow in one hand bow in the other, my body frozen with fever!!! The big deer stops at a small tree and beds down broad side. All I could do was stand there, I was stuck! Too scared to move.   Ranging the distance in my mind, 45 yards was my guess. I have never shot at a target that far more than a few times now here I am in the middle of the woods with a deer of a life time 45 yards away just out of my range with his look out bachelor group all around him! one hour goes by, the deers head is down facing away and hasn't moved in more than 30 minutes, with my body exposed to all the deer but my outline protected from the tree I'm leaning on I took the chance and knocked my arrow lifted my rangefinder that was hanging around my neck and sure enough 47 yrds!!! TOO far!!! At least the arrow was knocked now. One more hour later the deer got up and started feeding off to my right. He was the only deer I could see now. My focus had been so hard on the big boy that I completely lost track of his buddies. What a dumb move that turned out to be! As the deer fead he was moving closer and closer!!! I was just about to die from a heart attack when the deer stopped and bedded down once again this time only twenty yrds away, with a slight facing away. THIS IS IT!!!!! Jumped into my mind this hunting with a bow crap was easy no problem! Here it's my first day every hunting and I'm standing here with a huge deer bedded down 20 yrds away not knowing I was there at all. What is soo hard about this? I came to full draw focussing on the spot! BE THE SPOT! BE THE SPOT! As I'm about to release I see movement to my left and a deer comes walking out of some cover 5 feet from me I turn my head just so slightly and the big boy I was stocking the whole time sees me move my head and jumps up in one move and the eight of them are white butts with tails high pogoing away from me at full draw with my mouth wide open watching them run! To make a long story short I never got a shot off on those deer for three years but I see them in the same area every year. WHAT IS SOO HARD ABOUT THIS BOW HUNTING THING? That was 11 years ago and I love it more everyday. Thx for this site! I just love getting home to read what is going on around this beautiful traditional hunting country of ours.
Bill

[Shadow Hunter]

Now that's just wrong.

[Onestringer]

Well, my story happened 12 years ago while I was in college.  I was hunting over Christmas break, and I hunted 7 days straight, every morning and every evening.  I hunted on this hill side where 13 does and fawns would come down every evening and come up every morning.  They were lead by this one big old doe.  Every morning at the bottom and every evening at the top the deer would stop and that old lead doe would bust me and take those deer out around be at about 50 yards.  I was hunting out of my climber and moving every time.  This happend 14 times. Every sitting I would see the same deer, and every time that lead doe would bust me.  I moved from tree to tree and she still busted me.  If she would have been a buck, it would have had 300 inches of antlers, because she was the smartest deer I have ever seen.

Scott

[mrfritz]

A picture is worth a thousand words..........witness one of the last unspoiled places in east PA - where you can still light a fire and get lost in more ways than one.......
 

[Deerhntr]

Nov,3 1997 4:30 in the evening. Cool with a light breeze and sunny. The fact that I remember all of this should tell you something.

I had been hunting this big Whitetail buck for 3 years. When I first saw him he was a big 10. Alot of people I know, me included, would see this buck off and on over the 3 years, but nobody ever saw him while they were hunting. Sound familiar. Anyway by 97 he was a big typical 12 point. Saw him from my truck with the bino's a few times that year so I knew about how big he was. I worked hard that year to get on this buck. I knew where he had been at times because of his tracks. They were bigger than any other in the area. One day while walking into my hunting area I found a fresh scrape line with his tracks all over the place.  I followed his tracks that led to a lightly used bushy trail. Found a good tree about 15 yards off the trail and up I went. I was ready to shoot by 2:30 and about 3:00 I started to hear someone in the distance hollering for their dog. Thought it was quail hunters. I turned toward the hollering hoping that may they would spook some deer toward me. By 4:00 the hollering had stoped so I turned around and much to my surprise there he was. He had just come into the cutover corn field and was heading for his scrapes about 75 yards from me. I put this buck at an easy 190+ P&Y. 300++ on the hoof. Biggest buck I've seen before or sense. Anyway he gets done working his scrapes, what a thrill that was to watch, and starts my way. I had calmed myself down by this time and was ready, BUT and it's a big BUT, just as this Buck was entering the trail about twenty yards from giving me a shot the hollering started again. This time it was closer. That Buck hunkered down and through his head toward the hollering and then took off in a dead run right past me. I was in shock it had happened so fast. I just about cried. The hollering was a neighbor of mine looking for his dog. I was hot but life go's on. That was the last time that I know of that anybody ever saw that buck. 100% true story.

[jonsimoneau]

I was gonna post a story, but it's pretty tough to beat that one about Petey.  Great story.

[wapiti792]

The Hatrack

I had watched this giant all summer, always able to catch him in glass at last light. He seemed to sense something was there and although the other 5 bucks he ran with fed unfazed in the clover field, he always seem leary and aloof. He had horns alright, 8 magical points with mass and length that made any of the large Illinois whitetails I had taken in the past look inferior.

He stayed a ghost for most of the early fall, but he gave me a glimpse of his spector-like shadow at last light the first week of November. I knew his levels were coming up, and that my chance would soon arrive. I had to stay true to the hunt, and that meant passing on all of the other good bucks using that farm.

It was a tough November with me passing on 2 nice 3 1/2 year old bucks, a 10 and an 8. I was beginning to have buyers remorse, and after taking 2 does with my recurve earlier in the year, I had the need to make more meat soon. The night before Thanksgiving everything was going wrong. Picked the wrong tree for my climber, the wind wouldn't stick to the gameplan, and I nocked off the first arrow I put on my Chek-Mate recurve, watching my "lucky" arrow fall harmlessly to the earth. "Not good", I thought as about that time I realized I was being eye-balled by 2 tom turkey that wigged out into a bedding area that the Hatrack liked to nap in.

With 10 minutes of light left my spirts were down: "I was not a hunter", "Maybe this trad thing is wrong for me", and "This stinks" dominated my thoughts as the giant tentatively stepped into the field 200 yeards away. Amazingly my spirits soared. He was here...With nothing to lose I picked up the string that held my rattling antlers at the bottom of the tree. I crashed them and threw them with reckless vigor for a brief spell. That got him looking, and the snort weez and grunt turned that grey ghost into a galloping racehorse. Coming, coming, in range, too close, busted. That quick he was facing me at the bottom of my tree, looking up the 17 feet at a well-camoflaged, very nervous stickbow hunter. No shot then, but as he left I got what I wanted: a quartering away 15 yarder. Full draw, pick-a-spot...crack. Shoulder high and virtually no penetration. Leaping into the thicket I watched him stand there peering into the maze in which he had ran. My arrow lay there at the spot where he stood, my deer limped out of my life, and I bowed my head, disgraced and saddened at the events of the last 30 seconds.

Oh I looked. I found blood and tracks, but the arrow and the sound told the tale. A branch I didn't see, a shot that was too easy, and a deer that had lived 6 or 7 years with a 6th sense. Grazing job. Healthy animal as of January 17th 2007. Got a look from my jeep through the spotting scope: a giant that had dropped one side of his rack, a slight limp on his Left front, and a real-life promise to this traditional bowhunter. It will happen next fall. Both he and I will be wiser and older, but I will give him the respect he deserves: on my wall as the king of the whitetails in the Davenport den.

[uncowboy]

WOW Talk about a post for me. See I went deerless last year and it has been a wile since that has happened.
 Two years back on opening day I was hunting a new stand in a new spot. It was an overgrown crambery patch that had dence huckelberries and pines growing in it . Tree selection was bad becuse there were not many big trees. Has a beautiful buck scrape line running through it and around it. Opening morning I see the budk busting  some small pines and freshing his scraps, HE WAS RUTTING HEAVY! Too far away for a shot I tried grunting him in. No luck He looked my was but didn't come in. 1 hour later he is behind me and busts me. Didn't see him again that year but I did shoot 3 other deer. This year I bought a tower stand to try and outfool him.Opening day The deer were crossing after dark and they busted me walking out of the woods. Mid season Out comes the buck. It was dense where I was hunting and I had does come through that I couldn't get an arrow through where they were so I pruned a bunch of pines and even removed some to make shooting lanes. The buck gave me a shot right down one of the lanes I opened up @ 30 yds (Later determined it to be 25Yds.) I pulled mack my Kodiack mag and let the 175 snuffer go to do my bidding and the 8 pointer jumped the string and the arrow missed cleanly at about 2" in front of him. The rest of the season every deer that came through there busted me before I could touch the weapon. I know the stand has to be moved but I didn't have the help to get it done. The GOOD part of this years hunt was that we put 3 kids in the woods on Youth Day and all three killed deer Mathew getting his first. That is what I rest my hat on this year. Next year I will get a bit more serious. J.Michael

[John Krause]

This past fall, last week of Oct in N Mo. The week before I was in a tree on the east side (west wind)of a perfect funnel. 13 deer went by on a trail further west of me including one decent 8 pt. The next weekend I decided to move across the trail to a tree closer to where the 13 deer went by the week before. For a west wind it would be good but the funnel would now be bad.

I looked left and a small 6pt was in the funnel about 7yds away. He got a whiff (but not a good one) and was on alert. He was really spooky but he finally walked closer to me and walked directly under my tree. Never thought about a shot as he was a 6 pt and I was in a 4 pt to a side zone. I watched him walk under me and past me.
 
When I looked left again there was a "Woody" type buck 7 yds away. It was kind of a blind trail and I never saw or heard either of them before I saw them. He was pretty typical (wide 10 pt) but had that Woody type rack with knobs and kinda wavy points all over. I'll bet he was 3/4 the size of Woody or better. He was a good one.

He got a whiff too but just stopped and he started looking around hard for me. He was 5 steps away from me by now. As his eyes would just barely go behind a tree I would raise my bow. Then he would ease back out, never moving his feet just his head. He did this three or four times, barely edging forward where his eyes were almost blocked by a tree. I was in position that if he put his head behind the tree I would draw but he never did. Twice the hide on his back quivered as he almost blew out but he didn't. He finally backed out in reverse and left never spooking. I spent probably fifty hours in that area the next 2 weeks and never saw him again. I have hunted that area for 8 ot 9 years and that is the first time I ever saw him. Maybe next year, huh?