re: What’s your worst blown moment hunting?

I was on doe patrol bow hunting in MS. I had a mature doe come in the plot at 30 yards. When I went to draw my bow my finger slipped and squeezed my release a hair. The arrow fell out of my rest directly below the climber.

Needless to say, the doe blew at me and the rest is history.

Was hunting on a power line next to a recently clear cut 500 acre swath. While facing forward, I heard some noise behind me in the clear cut to the right. I turn and see two does trotting and a large 8 point chasing not too far behind.

Given the relatively small space and the design of the box stand, I have to slowly turn and try to shoot while holding the rifle with the opposite arm. I put the cross hairs dead on the 8 point and pull the trigger, but didn't brace as hard as I should have with my left arm. I pulled the shot and simultaneously scoped myself around my left eye. Left the stand that day with a black eye and no buck. It was also the last day of the season...

I came upon a big hog sound asleep. Like 20 yards away. I missed.

The only time I shot at a deer with a bow.

13 years old, PSE Jr bow. I practiced a shite ton. I even had a 40 yard pin that I sighted in on flat ground in my yard. 40 yards with a junior bow had some good arch to it

Well the time finally comes, 2 does come out in a food plot my dad wanted me to hunt. It's a wooden ladder stand which was basically just a piece of plywood 15 foot up in a tree.

Well the edge of the food plot was already 25-30 yards from the stand. The doe was another 20 yards into the food plot. After watching her arse for an hour I decide to take a chance. Flight time of the arrow was so long it heard the shot, ducked, then stood back up. Went right under her. She proceeds to keep grazing.

After another 15 minutes of watching her I get pissed and try again....and again....I shot every arrow in the quiver at this bitch. Defeated I sit there until my dad comes walking in early to get me. Scares the doe, who runs to about 15 yards in front of my stand, sits their broadside for about a minute before taking off. I had no more arrows left.

The shite my dad gave me as he picked up 6 arrows in the food plot

Most recent was last year public hunting out west. Had 5 greenheads on the strap and was looking for my kicker.

5 cinnamon teal fly over head at 20 yds…click. Forgot to reload after taking a piss.

Filled the limit with a spoonie a few mins later.

(I always unload with an unattended gun because of the dog)

I was 12 years old sitting in a ladder stand in Missouri on opening day with my new (to me) Eddystone M1917 30-06. It had a cut-down sporterized stock, see-through rings, and a cheap scope. But it was accurate.

It was freezing cold and there was frost on the tall grass in the overgrown pasture I was facing. The sun had just begun peeking over the wooded ridge at my back. My brother was across the pasture about 200 yards away in the woods in another ladder stand that was on a small creek.

The biggest, most mature buck I've ever seen in my life walked out into the waist high grass in that pasture. He had a thick, almost white rack and was at least 8 points if not 10, gray, grizzled, with a swayed belly, but still majestic. He had a roman nose. He came out of the woods just on the north side of my brother, who was sleeping as I discovered later when I went to collect him.

That beautiful creature walked between me and my brother slowly, smelling the air and the ground. I was frozen as I watched him. As he walked, he left a slight trail through the field where the frost was knocked off the grass. He got to a point near the end of the pasture where I could take a safe shot at him and he stopped briefly to smell the air. He was about 150 yards away. I tightened my grip on my rifle and raised it up, and as I did, I was shaking so violently I knew there was no way I'd cleanly kill that deer, and maybe not even hit him. I put my rifle down on my lap, still shaking, and watched that deer walk into the woods.

I can still see that deer walking through the grass in my mind like it was yesterday. I was so embarrassed about that moment in my life that I have never told anyone about it until now.

I had the yips one time, and missed 4 bucks in 3 days…

But the worst, was hunting in an open field with a 444 handi rifle with no range finder. Literally in a 10 ft tripod on a food plot in the middle of crp that had just been planted. No references to know distance or anything. I apparently had no concept of distance that day. Missed a 160+ perfect 10 point 8 times… I was just lost and was over estimating distance. He was as lost as I was because he apparently didn’t know what direction the shots were coming from.

October 3, 2010
Gallatin County, Illinois.
I had trial cam pictures of one buck on the far side of a food plot. I couldn’t tell much other than he was a big, mature deer.

With the wind out of the south, I felt comfortable I could not only get into the stand, but would be downwind from the direction I expected the deer to come from.

I had just crawled into the stand, mid afternoon and was attaching my safety belt around the cottonwood when I glanced out into the woods and caught movement. I quickly fastened up and glassed the deer.

It was a him and he was a monster. Tall, heavy and my initial guess was the deer would be in the 70’s. The buck was around 200 yards and walking steadily towards the plot.

My first problem was that my bow was on the ground. I slowly reeled it up and set it on my hanger. The buck was not only coming to the plot, he was coming directly at my stand.

I put my release on, grabbed an arrow and pulled my rangefinder from my pocket just in time to see the buck walk up onto a levee bordering the plot and the woods. He was at 60 yards.

Once on the levee he stopped and surveyed the plot. I felt like this deer was staring a hole right through me as I pressed myself into the tree. I was scared to blink. Over the years I had seen several bucks of this caliber through the viewfinder of a video camera, but never had I seen a B&C deer with a weapon in my hands.

After what seemed like an eternity, the buck slowly came off the levee, slowly walking straight to me. At 30 yards he dropped his head and began to feed, offering a small window of opportunity. I decided to wait. I didn’t want to make a bad shot on this deer.

Seconds turned to minutes and when the buck threw his head up and looked to the East, I drew. In the distance I began to hear something, the sound getting louder by the second. My finger was on the release and my plan was to shoot him as he turned to move back to the woods. Now I could plainly hear the sound of an approaching combine.

I wouldn’t get the chance. When the deer left, he did so in one quick motion. From zero to 60 in the blink of an eye. He was gone.

To this day I still see it happening in my mind. I learned a valuable lesson that day. Take the first shot they give you, especially mature deer.

Several years ago, there was a stud of a deer in the area. Several neighbors had seen it, and we all knew it was the same deer because it had a distinct whiter than normal rack.

A few cousins and I were down hunting some family land. I was in a box blind during rifle season in a field between a tree line and a small river. The field was pretty well grown up about shoulder height and we had mowed some lanes into it.

After a while I see a white rack walking into the field over the brush. I was going to shoot it and it would be the biggest buck I’ve ever killed.

So, of course, I sent a smart arse text to my cousins first rather than getting the scope on it. Looked up, never saw the deer again. Figure he put his head down or something.