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DIR Return to: FISHING & HUNTING (BASS KING)
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#Post#: 1277--------------------------------------------------
Missed him
By: Genetic Freak Date: October 29, 2022, 5:07 am
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I missed the chance at the buck of a lifetime last night. For
the first time I had set up a couple trail cameras in the
national forest to see what was walking around in areas I have
seen and killed bucks before. I set one camera up over a scrape
where I killed a buck last year. I started getting daytime
pictures of several bucks, but there was a 5+ year old battle
scarred 10 point that caught my attention. Every day time
picture I had of him showed him coming from the south to the
scrape, but I wasn't sure the route he took to get there. There
are a ton of deer trails and this is big wood country. I just
knew that N wind was completely out of the question to hunt this
spot.
Yesterday weather predictions put the wind coming from the NE
most of the day and switching to an ENE wind mid-afternoon. I
said to myself, he dies today. I have hunted this spot several
times and have different trees for different winds for different
parts of the day. I knew the tree I needed to get up in before I
got there, but it is a forked tree. I climbed up the fork in the
back, which is the NW fork, but didn't like that I had a big
branch block some of my shots on the front fork, so I climbed
down and went up the front fork.
I got set up in the tree, ranged all my reference points and
drew 360 degrees (saddle) around my tree to make sure where I
could shoot and where I couldn't. About half hour goes by and
three young bucks come running right by my tree like they are
being chased, but there are no predators following and they are
not blowing. I know there is a bedding area young bucks and some
does use about 100-150 yards NW of my position, so I assume they
were there and something spooked them out. Maybe a big buck came
in and kicked some ass.
I sat for another three hours listening to squirrels and
occasionally hitting the grunt tube. With about 10 minutes left
of shooting light, when you really cannot see much in the big
woods I hear something coming from the NW. A squirrel in that
direction has been killing me all day, so I was little
desensitized to the noise and my reaction was slow. I looked
down and my target buck was around 18 yards away and closing. I
quickly grabbed my bow and came to full draw. He walked in, but
was slightly covered with some branches. He was really skiddish,
probably picking up some ground scent I left. He turned like he
was going to leave, but then came to my right and was broadside
and looking the other direction. I settled my pin, thumb on the
release, leaned into the shot and my foot slipped slightly. Not
even enough for the pin to move off the vitals, but enough to
make a noise, which was enough to make him jump. I was 1/4
second too late, as the arrow launched at absolutely nothing.
He only went a few yards then walked off. I tried to get another
arrow ready and back on him, but he was to the NW of me with the
other damn fork of tree in my direct line of sight. This
probably all happened in 10-15 seconds. I didn't even get the
adrenaline pump until it was all over and I realized what had
just happened. Devastated.
Hindsight is 20/20 and think that if I was on the back fork of
the tree I would have had a better chance at him. Also, when I
left to go, I almost grabbed the crossbow instead of my
compound, because I thought there might be a chance of some
really tight shooting. Either of those choices might have
changed that scenario.
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