Well that didn’t go how I planned it!

When I was outfitting we mostly put the hunters in good vantage points or along known travel corridors. There were high spots my guides could ride up to where we could see broad swaths of the countryside, glass, and keep an eye or ear out for the hunters. Once I had three guys from NJ out. When they were all placed my guide rode up to such a location and settled in. Mid morning he sees a really nice bull poking along up a ridge straight toward the hunter. My guy watched as the elk slowly wandered past the hunter but the guy hardly moved and the bull walked away. When I met my guide and went over to gather these guys about dark we asked if he saw the bull. Oh ya he was huge! Why didn't you shoot?!? He was squatting taking care of business and the bull was just grazing as he slowly went along so the guy did the paperwork and looked up to discover the bull was gone and nowhere to be found. Grrrrrr!
 
brant89 said:
As a young hunter had a 140" whitetail buck along with 3-4 does come in during bow season here in Michigan. This would have been my biggest whitetail even to this day. The presentation was absolutely perfect, but I got so nervous that I couldn't pull the string back all the way. I got my bow back right to the wall about 6 different times. On the final draw attempt I was shaking so badly that I just gave up and sat back down and watched the biggest buck of my life hang out 20-30 yards away for several minutes with multiple broadside shot presentations. My stepdad shot the same buck a week later.

My most recent one was my bear hunt this fall. Trying to make sure I was fully prepared, I watched several bear hunting podcasts and they all recommended the same shot placement-middle of the middle. 30 minutes into our first morning hunting I pulled the trigger on my 300WM on an average size black bear at 480yd. 200gr ELDX landed a couple inches higher than planned, and rolled it. I chambered a new round just in time to watch it disappear into the willows. No blood, no hair, no tracks, no bear. My takeaway from this was to smash shoulders whenever possible.
Click to expand...
You are a poet,
and we didn't know it.
 
Tidus56 said:
Post em up, like you I choose not to do social media so I look forward to the next story just as much as y'all.
Click to expand...
Ok, I got time for one more today- Many years back I was muzzle loader hunting for elk near my home with my brother in law and father in law. I had grown up hunting this particular mountain and knew it well. We had my father in law drive us to the top and we split up to hunt down while my father in law drove down and around to pick us up in a few hours. Neither of us saw anything on the way down and my father in law was right on time and picked us up to take us back up for another hunt down, just a few ridges to the west. When we got to where we had begun that morning, I happened to notice a few sets of elk tracks crossing the road, heading the opposite direction than the way we had went in the morning. I knew that the very top of the mountain was real close and these tracks did not have any tire tracks over them so we had to be close! I sent my father in law and brother in law back down the road a couple of hundred yards to a little road that lead into a small clear cut, while I took up the tracks. There was no snow but I was able to follow the tracks through a patch of alder trees and was actually pretty **** pleased with my tracking prowess. I had almost gotten to the edge of the clear cut that I sent my inlaws toward and noticed movement in front of me. Sure enough there were two cows and a calf within 30-40 feet of me just feeding away with no clue about anything going on around them. I should have started this story with the fact that I had been a scoped rifle hunter for all my life prior to this and Washington does not allow the use of scopes on muzzle loaders,,, So, back to the 3 elk in front of me and it going to be a slam dunk since it was a Cow or 3-point or better area I was in. I raise my gun and slide the safety off at the same time, trip the trigger and try seeing through the smoke cloud, only to see the cow I shot at looking like she is ready to tip over, but I don't see any blood? All 3 elk were looking around trying to figure out what that noise was and why the alder trees were now filled with stinky ol' black powder! They all got their wits about them and proceeded to explode toward my inlaws. I tried to radio them to no avail. I reloaded and walked up to where the cow I sot at was standing. Nothing! No blood, no hair, no bone, nothing! In my head, there was 0% chance of a miss so I walked a little farther thinking maybe she was a little farther away. Still nothing. I then looked back in the direction I shot from, only to see a vine maple tree about an inch and a half in diameter, start to fall over about 3' up from the ground. That's right, in my sure fire kill scenario and being so used to hunting with a scope, I failed to "see the forest for the trees" and sent that 54 cal slug pert near through the center of a tree that I did not even see! I was so dumbfounded by this that I took my inlaws back to the exact spot to show them. Mistake- That was in November and my father in law went back up there before Christmas, cut that section of tree out and mounted it in a Beautiful barn board frame complete with an inset, wrapped it up and gave it to me as my present on Christmas day!! I still have it in on the wall in my man cave and it has been the topic of many, many discussions over the years!!! :)
 
I started tagging along deer hunting around age 7. It wasn't until I turned 12 (1982) that I could legally buy a deer license. Every MN deer opener I would have to frequent the bathroom at least once or twice before heading out the door early in the morning. The shear excitement turned me inside out. Even after using the bathroom there were occasions when my dad would have to pull over on the side of the country road to allow me to relieve myself again. I learned early on to always pack extra toilet paper!
Fast forward to about age 29. I had about a mile walk to my morning deer stand. As I started my predawn walk I had a slight cramp that told me maybe I should take care of business before getting too far into my hike. As I walked the cramp disapated. About 1/2 way into my walk the feeling came back but I figured it would quickly go away and it did….. until the feeling came back with a vengeance right below my deer stand as I was preparing to climb into my tree. Thankfully I didn't need a change of clothes and I had plenty of toilet paper!
I didn't know what to do…. Sit in my stand, walk back to another stand, find another spot… I opted to climb into the stand I just took a crap next to and I couldn't believe it when I shot a young buck 45 minutes later!
 
PartsJr. said:
I started tagging along deer hunting around age 7. It wasn't until I turned 12 (1982) that I could legally buy a deer license. Every MN deer opener I would have to frequent the bathroom at least once or twice before heading out the door early in the morning. The shear excitement turned me inside out. Even after using the bathroom there were occasions when my dad would have to pull over on the side of the country road to allow me to relieve myself again. I learned early on to always pack extra toilet paper!
Fast forward to about age 29. I had about a mile walk to my morning deer stand. As I started my predawn walk I had a slight cramp that told me maybe I should take care of business before getting too far into my hike. As I walked the cramp disapated. About 1/2 way into my walk the feeling came back but I figured it would quickly go away and it did….. until the feeling came back with a vengeance right below my deer stand as I was preparing to climb into my tree. Thankfully I didn't need a change of clothes and I had plenty of toilet paper!
I didn't know what to do…. Sit in my stand, walk back to another stand, find another spot… I opted to climb into the stand I just took a crap next to and I couldn't believe it when I shot a young buck 45 minutes later!
Click to expand...
It sucks when your in a stand and have to poo poo 😵‍💫
 
Last edited:
Frenchie1 said:
Ok, I got time for one more today- Many years back I was muzzle loader hunting for elk near my home with my brother in law and father in law. I had grown up hunting this particular mountain and knew it well. We had my father in law drive us to the top and we split up to hunt down while my father in law drove down and around to pick us up in a few hours. Neither of us saw anything on the way down and my father in law was right on time and picked us up to take us back up for another hunt down, just a few ridges to the west. When we got to where we had begun that morning, I happened to notice a few sets of elk tracks crossing the road, heading the opposite direction than the way we had went in the morning. I knew that the very top of the mountain was real close and these tracks did not have any tire tracks over them so we had to be close! I sent my father in law and brother in law back down the road a couple of hundred yards to a little road that lead into a small clear cut, while I took up the tracks. There was no snow but I was able to follow the tracks through a patch of alder trees and was actually pretty **** pleased with my tracking prowess. I had almost gotten to the edge of the clear cut that I sent my inlaws toward and noticed movement in front of me. Sure enough there were two cows and a calf within 30-40 feet of me just feeding away with no clue about anything going on around them. I should have started this story with the fact that I had been a scoped rifle hunter for all my life prior to this and Washington does not allow the use of scopes on muzzle loaders,,, So, back to the 3 elk in front of me and it going to be a slam dunk since it was a Cow or 3-point or better area I was in. I raise my gun and slide the safety off at the same time, trip the trigger and try seeing through the smoke cloud, only to see the cow I shot at looking like she is ready to tip over, but I don't see any blood? All 3 elk were looking around trying to figure out what that noise was and why the alder trees were now filled with stinky ol' black powder! They all got their wits about them and proceeded to explode toward my inlaws. I tried to radio them to no avail. I reloaded and walked up to where the cow I sot at was standing. Nothing! No blood, no hair, no bone, nothing! In my head, there was 0% chance of a miss so I walked a little farther thinking maybe she was a little farther away. Still nothing. I then looked back in the direction I shot from, only to see a vine maple tree about an inch and a half in diameter, start to fall over about 3' up from the ground. That's right, in my sure fire kill scenario and being so used to hunting with a scope, I failed to "see the forest for the trees" and sent that 54 cal slug pert near through the center of a tree that I did not even see! I was so dumbfounded by this that I took my inlaws back to the exact spot to show them. Mistake- That was in November and my father in law went back up there before Christmas, cut that section of tree out and mounted it in a Beautiful barn board frame complete with an inset, wrapped it up and gave it to me as my present on Christmas day!! I still have it in on the wall in my man cave and it has been the topic of many, many discussions over the years!!! :)
Click to expand...
That's awesome that he got the tree for you! Now you have a sweet trophy and a cool story lol.
 
I was in my early 20's going to college and worked part time at Scheels. As an employee I got a great buy on a top of the line PSE bow. For some reason I had the mentality that more poundage was better so I picked up a 65-80lb bow. I practiced all summer at 75lbs and was very proficient. Now season opened mid September. I had some opportunities on a few deer, but was holding out for something a little bigger. As the season progressed I got busy with school and work and as a result didn't practice shooting as often as I should have.
Rifle season opened early November so I ditched the bow for a few weeks until I decided to go out bow hunting again the day b4 Thanksgiving. It was a COLD November morning. I snuck in and got positioned in an old permanent deer stand that had a few creeks in it. I had to stay still to prevent it from making any noises. After about 2 hours of freezing in the cold I was about to get out of my stand when I saw a young doe gradually crest the hill. I didn't think much of it until I saw the rack that was following! My heart went into over drive. I new I had to remain still to keep the stand from creeking. The buck stopped, textbook perfect, broadside, vitals exposed, head behind a big tree where he couldn't see me….. I tried to draw my bow, but try as I might, 75 pounds was more than I could muster! It didn't take long and the jig was up. My window of opportunity slammed shut in an instant.
I had the strangest feelings… I felt like crying, laughing, throwing my bow, and cursing all at the same time. I'll never forget that deer, and I've never had my bow set that high again!
 

Similar threads

WildRose
Well the Deer hunt didn't go as planned but... .
2
Replies
25
Views
4K
chiefdog
C
4
Well since I can't go......
Replies
5
Views
1K
41mag
4
1
How well does it penitrate and expand?
Replies
3
Views
1K
10point
1
M
New and how to go about it ?
Replies
13
Views
2K
3fingervic
3
longgunshooter
Well well, it only took fourteen years ...
Replies
11
Views
2K
longgunshooter
longgunshooter

Recent Posts

Top