Most unusual way you ended up getting a deer?

We were playing some cards around 10am Thursday of the gun hunt about 8 years ago. Ended up up losing early and had a nap on the couch. I wake up an hour later to my uncle snoring in my ear as he had passed out as well. Everyone had gone down for a snooze and the snoring was taking the paint off the walls from how loud. F this! I went out to my stand for some peace and quiet. Rattled a little bit for fun and tossed a few grunts out. An hour later this bigger buck comes in all bristled up, stomping, ears back, ready to fight. 70 yards. I couldn’t believe it. I gave the “ merp “. BOOM! Damn I think I missed! Cycle another round. And right before he runs off I drop him in his tracks! My biggest buck to date. I couldn’t believe I got a big one because I opted to go out and hunt then give my uncle shaken baby syndrome lol. He calls me his lucky charm, I call my patience his haha.

What’s your unusual unique story?

6 pt buck in my backyard. 25 yards from my deck. Middle of the day. Went out the front door and retrieved my bow from the truck.

Back into the house and gently removed the screen and opened the window. Let the arrow loose from inside the house and threaded it between the gaps in the deck railing to take hin broadside.

Species...that’s pretty damn awesome!

One day on a late december hunt, snow on the ground, temperature was around zero and we had a little rain as the day progressed.
My buddy had shot a buck earlier in the morning, so I went to his stand to help him recover it once my morning hunt was over.
When i got there he informed me that he was sure that he hit a sapling and the arrow deflected to the front end of the deer, not really knowing exactly where it hit.
We waited for our 3rd friend to come out and then started to track right way as the shot had been about an hour or more old.
After discovering his first bed, it was apparent by the witness marks in the snow that his hit was right on the front leg.
As the tracking progressed throughout the remainder of the morning, we realized that the more time we gave it between bumping, the less bleeding would occur. We made a decision to try and push this deer hard, in an attempt to increase bleeding and make it weaker.
That technique worked well as we were getting closer and closer and started to see the deer jump from its beds.
As we got to a creek bed, I heard the deer splashing as he ran up the creek. I quickly ran to the water with my one friend in toe and crossed to the other side. The deer had just made it around the bend and out of sight. We moved up to the bend to see the deer standing broadside 35 yards away in the middle of the creek.
With my buddy standing behind me, I knocked an arrow. As I drew the bow to full draw and set my pin on his vitals, the deer deliberately laid down under the water keeping only the top portion of his head out of the water. It was one of those WTF did I just see moments. I began to yell and whistle at it, I couldn't believe what I was watching. Eventually he stood up soaking wet, I put the sight behind his shoulder and fired an arrow through his heart and pinned his leg on the far side, locking him right up, down he went.
As we stood there waiting a minute for him to expire, his body bobbed downstream towards us, the creek was flowing pure red water past our boots. It was a sight I'll never forget.
We pulled the deer from creek and looked for the original hit. The wound was just above the right hoof, at the front of the knee, no more than the size of a paper cut.

No way! Such brilliant animals

I'm glad I had a friend to witness it with me. It was over 20 years ago and can still see it like it happened yesterday.

Just out of curiosity...how come you didn’t pass the bow over to the original shooter to finish him off? Wasn’t a big deal type thing?

The shooter decided to stay and sneak up the side of the creek along a cedar belt and never ended up seeing him standing in the creek before i shot him. We were pretty exhausted as well as we'd been chasing him hard for 4 or 5 hours. That deer was getting the first arrow we could get into him. LOL

Nice story one less arrow.So-who kept the deer eventually?
Just asking......

Ya that’s fair. Let’s just get it done type of thing. Original shooter would claim it. He’s the one who initiated a tracking job. As a team u do what u gotta do. At least how I look at it.

Although the experience we shared that day far exceeded the reward of meat, we still shared it 3 ways. It was a small basket 8 point. The original shooter kept the rack.

2 years ago I'm shotgun hunting one end of 100 acres in the hardwoods, my buddy is on the other end over looking the edge of the pines where it opens up to the beans.

I hear two shots and within a minute my phone rings..hes like "Yup....just shot a doe about 20 yards away" hes explaining how it went down and hes not a quiet talker in the slightest so hes practically yelling....then he pauses for a second...." huge buck walking right towards me same path as the doe did, let me put the phone down and shoot it"

I hear bang bang! He picks the phone up, Yup got him, hes laying right beside the doe.

Lucky bugger I wish I was recording as I could hear the shots threw the phone and in the open about half second later. Big 10 point buck too, I shot my 10 pointer two days before so I wasn't hunting too hard.

Good year, we got 4 big buckshttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...e7c0b0c1f1.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...b360d38060.jpg

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That is a tank of a buck! Goes to show when they are looking for love they don’t give two s about anything else!

Out in Saskatchewan just south of Moose Jaw. Hunting with a buddy and he shoots a little spiker buck. Throw it in the truck and start heading in for the day. Come up to the edge of town and there’s a big ten point buck about 60 yards in from the grid road. He’s pawing the ground all puffed up and grunting. Next thing we know he’s racking his antlers through the long grass. This goes on for 5-10 mins.

Now I had a tag in my pocket and gun in the back but figured first door open this deer is gone. Eventually sneak out and trying to figure out what’s happening. My buddy gets out and glasses the area and says there’s another deer laying down at the bucks feet.

Just then a car pulls up and starts honking, I assume to scare the deer away as we where well of the road. That buck did not even look up. Just kept stomping the doe and racking it with its antlers.

Anyways grabbed my rifle walked in 30 yards (30 yards from the deer) and shot it.

Ran 10 yards and piled up. Rankest deer I ever smelled honest to god would not shoot him again if I had it to do over.

That doe never even stood up as we gutted the buck and dragged him out.

When love is in the air!


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Sitting on a fence line one evening I could hear the deer making all kinds of noise in the dry leaves but they were in a small gully, so I had to wait for them to come up the hill when BOOM, a shot rang from my left about 100yds. Couple minutes later the neighbor comes out from a treestand to see if he hit it. He didn't see me until I stood up to walk over to him. He ended up missing the buck saying he should have brought a bigger rifle for the longer shot. If he missed with the 243 he was gonna miss regardless. I was civil as I wasn't sure he didn't have permission to hunt there but asked the landowner as I was driving out to find out he didn't. Then I was a little more miffed.

The next evening I went back and this time I could see the orange in the stand. I guess he thought if he was there early I might just leave. Instead I plunked my chair down directly overlooking the gully in the middle of the field. I knew I wouldn't see anything but I was determined he wasn't going to either. Later on I glanced down in his direction at the far end of the field to see a doe and 2 fawns out in front of him. I thought great, I pushed the deer to him. He didn't take a shot at them which turned out good for me as the next time I glanced to my left at the deer I caught a buck with his head down walking straight to me from behind. But as I turned he looked up and tried to run past me to the bush as I was jumping up out of my chair and trying to get him in the scope. Got him at around 40yds and the only thing I could hear as I walked up to the 8pt buck was my heart pounding in my ears. Normally I stay pretty calm but later that night back at camp I couldn't help wonder what the other guy was thinking as he watched the whole thing unfold in front of him. Needless to say he didn't come over to see if I needed a hand.:)

You didn't tell him to F off? The nerve that he would come back again.

The group I hunt with hunts the first 4 days of the rifle season and on the Friday we have a butchering bee to process the deer we have shot. This if followed by a BBQ of fresh venison burgers. A good friend of mine still had a tag and I invited him to come on the Sat, last day of the rifle season, to try his luck. Saturday morning comes and we’re having a blizzard! My buddy decides to come to hunt and the usual 45 minute drive takes an hour and a half. He gets to my place around 11 am and after some discussion, he heads out. I get a call from him at 12:00 and he tells me he just shot a nice doe. He is not really sure of his location and I get him to tell me where he walked. I get the tractor and drive to the area where he might be , get off the tractor and follow his tracks in the snow. 5 minutes later I find him. He had sat in my tree stand for about half an hour and then decided to walk to an area where I told him the deer bed down. He said that was the fastest hunt he has ever had. Our group shot a nice 8 point buck earlier in the week within 25 yards of where he shot his doe.

I think my best stories are of bucks I didn’t get,I could probably fill a book with “close calls and ones that got away” stories,lol
One particular buck that did not get away,i shot at point blank,zero linear yards away,straight down between the shoulders from 18’ up in a spruce tree.
I had this stand in some pretty thick spruce bush,but a bit of mixed open hardwoods in front of me,about an acre that I could see for a clear rifle shot,originally hung the stand as a bow stand,as there was always lots of scrapes there year after year.
So bow season came and went,had a couple close calls in that stand earlier in season,but now I’m packin the rifle,30-06 Remi pump.
I’d been stillhunting/stalking around the general area all day with a few rattling sets thrown in at a few locations,decided to finish the day in the bow stand where I’d be overlooking 5-6 fresh scrapes.
Climbed up about 4pm with a little more then an hour of legal light remaining,let things settle down for 15min,then commenced with my first rattling sequence and a few long tending grunts thrown in for good measure.
15 min of daylight remaining,I hear a deer approaching from the heavy thick cover directly behind me.....he is close....REALLY CLOSE....but I can’t see him,it’s really thick,and twist and contort as I might,can’t see him at all,but I’m guessing he’s less then 30 yards judging by crunching footsteps in the frozen leaves.
So he’s right there froze up for 5-10 minutes,he knows something is going on with the rattling and grunting,but he’s really cautious,daylight is fading fast,maybe 5 minutes of legal light left,so I figger it’s now or never,give a couple more soft grunts,and he can’t stand it anymore and comes in directly behind my stand,and stops directly under my left foot at the base of the tree and just stands there.Thought for sure he’s gonna wind me and bust outta there with his tail on fire,so rather then wait for him to walk away for a better angle,I leaned over and aimed straight down through his spine between the shoulders and touched er off...WOMP!,
Absolutely flattened him right into the ground,like he’d been struck by the Hammer of Thor,he never took a step.I lowered my rifle down on my haul cord and it landed on top of him,lol
Weird deformed rack too,pretty unique 4x3 buck with a normal 4pt left antler and a twisted 3 pt right side that curled down and forward like a cowhorn.

A couple of hunts come to mind, and I apologize in advance for rambling on. Back in the 1980’s, commercial tree stands were not readily available or used and were considered to be a fad by many hunters. A friend and I came to realize the benefits of hunting from high so would look for trees that we could climb and sit on branches. One place we used to hunt was an old field that nature was starting to reclaim. The soil was very moist, which made it tough to farm. Anyway the field consisted of tall reed grass and clumps of willow brush, The field was surrounded by a deep ditch with low-lying mixed wood brush and evergreen on the other side. I found a large lighting-killed tamarack tree with large branches next to the ditch. I climbed up and sat on a large limb which gave me a great view of the old field. During the morning of my second sit, behind me, I heard a deer running around in a zigzag pattern and snorting profusely. My original thought that it was being chased by a coyote or wolf, but then I heard grunting and realized that a buck was courting a doe. In those days most hunters never knew that bucks grunted, and commercial grunt calls were very hard to find. I had just learned about grunting and had purchased a mail-order call directly from Primos. Anyway, I took my call out and grunted back. In retrospect, this was not the right thing to do as the buck just herded the doe away from me and everything went quiet. As I sat there discouraged and wondering what to to next, I looked across the ditch in front of me and noticed a buck fawn starring up at me - about 30 feet away. Once our eyes locked, he turned and ran back into the tall grass and disappeared. Not long afterwards, I glanced down the ditch line and noticed a doe walk out about 75 yards away. On her heels was a mature buck. As the doe stood still, the buck gave her a few licks and proceeded to mount her. After a few thrusts, the buck finished his business and slid off. If the buck had a cigarette, I’m sure he would have lit up at that moment! I was in a state of disbelief of all of the events that I had witnessed that morning, but I snapped out of it long enough to get my gun up and shoot at the buck. At the sound of the shot, the buck’s legs folded and he crashed to the ground. Meanwhile, the doe took a hop, turned and looked at the buck as if to say “thanks for a good time” and then casually walked off. The buck was a 3.5 year-old 7-pointer. It was all surreal.

The story doesn’t end there though. The next morning, my friend sat in the same tree while I sat in a wooden tree stand about 1/2 mile away. The plan that morning was for my friend to walk through some cedars towards me at 0:930. There was no sign of him by 10:00, so I got down from my stand and followed the ditch line to meet up with him. Eventually, we met at the ditch corners and he told me that he had been watching a big buck that was bedded about 200 yards away in the tall reed grass in front of the tree that he was in.

As I had a good understanding where the buck was bedded, we formulated a plan where my friend would go back and sit in the tree and would direct me to the buck with hand signals. Remember, this happened long before cell phones and before walkie/talkies were used. What was supposed to happen was I was supposed to jump the buck out of its bed, then it would run by my buddy who would shoot it. Unfortunately for my buddy, that’s not how things played out. The hand-signals worked like a charm as he was able to direct me to the buck’s bed. The thing was that there was a doe bedded too and she ran off in the opposite direction. The buck stood up only 20 feet from me and watched the doe run off. To me, the situation was a no-brainer, so I shot the buck where he stood as it was unlikely that I would have been able it to push it towards my buddy. Needless to say that my buddy was not impressed with the outcome but understood that my decision was logical. The buck was 8.5 years old, sported an 8 point rack, and it was missing an eye. One of my more memorable bucks to date .

Holy crap! One eye. He must of ran the show around there for some time. That’s an awesome story.

Lots of great stories, Keep em coming!

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I shot my first cross-bow deer with my climber on my back as I was walking to my climber tree. I don't know how he didn't see or hear me but I walked up to him and he presented a good shot opportunity so I took it & that was the end of my season! :)

A number of years ago during our controlled hunt, the fellow closest to me had shot a nice 8 pointer at the inside edge of the bush, I went over to help him out.
As we were both bent over gutting that buck, I looked up and saw another eight pointer looking at us about 50 yards away.
I don't think he recognized us for what we were, being bent over and the wind was in our favour.
My .54 cal Hawken was still loaded and within arms reach, I slowly reached for it while crouching , cocked the hammer , aimed and fired.
He stumbled, fell , got up and fell again for the last time, upon examination, the heart was blown apart and part of a lung, game over and another added to to groups total.

Love it! So cool. Keep them coming!

6 years back. It was the weekend after the November rifle hunt. Myself and a couple of the younger guys that are part of the crew we t up for a bow hunt. The rut was in full swing that week up in my area and it was an ideal time to be in the bush. It was 430pm and I was sitting in my dads stand in this hardwood bush the deer travel through it to head to a field to my west to eat for the evening. So it was getting to that time and I was just passing time trying to get my spit to go through the foot holes of my metal ladder stand. Well I look up and out of absolute nowhere there is a doe standing 10 yards from me! I catch something in my perefrials a second doe, third, fourth and then 5th! I’m like holy crap here we go. As I get ready to shoot the closest one I again catch movement. I see this little 7 pointer come into the picture so naturally my game plan changes to try and get him. He’s about 30/40 yards and seems to be sticking to that distance. I found a spot I was gunna shoot him at. I had to get it between two tree but that was the shot. He walks into that window and I pull the trigger on the Excalibur. I saw the arrow going friggen wide left. But for some reason the deer gods were on my side and I hit the tree and it deflects it right across the bucks throat. The broadhead literally slit his throat off of this deflection!! And guys I was WIDE left, just an aweful shot. The buck turns and jets for the field. I met up with the boys and went over the story before taking up the blood trail. About 30 minutes later we took up the trail and wouldn’t you believe it he was 100 yards from where I shot him. I couldn’t believe what I witnessed or that I got him. Like the saying goes, sometimes it’s better to be lucky then good and this deer proved that in the biggest way!

2010 deer hunt and I drew the worst watch in camp. Zero visibility in the poplar slash. While I was feeling sorry for myself and making no effort to stay still or quiet, I hear the hounds light up and something running towards me in the dry leaves. It was just a rabbit. Dang!

While I'm chuckling to myself about how I almost got excited at this crappy watch, I see something bigger coming fast through the thick stuff and I'm 99% sure its a deer but 1% thinks it could be the tall hound, so I let it go by. It was a doe. Dang again!

Now I'm cursing to myself when all of a sudden I'm swarmed by deer! 2 or 3 zip by and next thing I know a forkhorn is coming straight at me! I shoot and the forky falls into my legs nearly knocking me over. I barely get my balance back when a bigger buck comes running full out right to left. I fire and he does a front somersault. All the while a few more deer go by in my peripheral vision.

I'd never seen so many deer, never worked my 760 so fast, never shot a deer so close and never got a double on bucks before or since.

I always remind myself of that hunt whenever I doubt the spot I'm in.

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Interesting stories so far. I love reading this stuff, so I hope we get more. :D

My story is similar to the one that ninepointer just shared, but not as good, but funny that I land HERE with my story just after his!

November 17, 2018 was a very cold day and we had a lot of snow on the ground where we hunt.
Just two guys at camp and we head out before sunrise with him going to his ground blind and myself continuing to the end of the path where we have a large self-made tree stand.

Other than the single moose track crossing at the base of my stand there were no other animal tracks of any kind, plus I have personally never seen a deer over there while hunting. So I am thinking this is going to be another one of those "sit and freeze for a few hours for no particular reason" events.

So, to keep myself warm and amused I take out the two grunt calls that I have with me and start calling like an idiot. Yep, 35 years of deer hunting hasn't changed the boy in me a bit. I figure, I have zero chance here on this day anyway, so let's just compare these two calls and have fun practicing the art of tube grunting for deer. Maybe a curious buck will show up to investigate the madness!

Well, wouldn't you know it, a young buck cautiously comes out in the open and I put the old scope on him as he walks in front of me at roughly 65 yards.
I had just bought this old Midland 30-06 and had fired a few shots to sight it in. On November 17, 2018 it did a Bang-Flop job.

Later that evening my friend harvested another young buck, thus making history for us, since we had never gotten multiple animals in any SEASON, let alone the same DAY!!!
So, as mentioned above... never doubt the spot you're in.

Several moons ago.
Controlled deer hunt,me sitting in my favorite tree stand,full of hopes,on the opening day.Public land-pay for use.Many hunters around.
Sitting facing west,east the raising sun is to my back.Few shots rang early in the morning,around me.Then nothing.After a while a doe moves thru the bush,about 80 yards away.Slow,but steady.I would not see her if light conditions would not be in my favor.Having a doe/buck tag,and not seeing a deer until then,decided to take a shot.Remington 12 gage pump,rifled barreled, scoped gun.
Nice shooter too..albeit kicks like a mule.
So i fire-got a scope kiss(almost-just knocked my glasses skewed).I hit the deer- since it starts to run in a big circle,after the shot,to my right.So i fire two more,and ran empty.
Behind me is a pathway, lo and behold-a hunter walks down,towards me.Maybe 80 yards between me and the hunter.
The doe runs between me and the hunter.Running FAAAST.

So i holler-Would You shoot the deer .......?

And he goes-BOOOM.The deer shows signs of a hit, runs away,but stumbling and "dipping"down.Crashes within earshot.
I get down,thank to the guy,offer him my ammo for his-but i am sabot and he is smooth bore slug.
So ,he walks away being a new friend(super nice guy).Would not recognize him though ,even if my life depends on it(shame on me).
Anyhow,after finding the deer,i recognize few things-the deer was a button buck,and i shot of his right front leg.The hunter did the rest of the business-mid liver/lung area hit on a running deer.Good shooter for sure.Put the young buck down.
So i tag it,take photos with my buddy ,who walked over.Then he leaves for his SUV ,to haul the deer home for me.
I am sitting there,marveling on the nice animal,flipping it and looking at it all over.
Nice.

All of a sudden two hunters walk up,and they are asking me-if this deer is wounded ?
I said-no,never seen anything on it.They say-early morning one of them shot a doe,with a buckshot,and they are searching for it,because they think the deer was hit.
So,we flip the deer-and lo and behold,there is a SINGLE buckshot small hole in the lung area of the deer.I am shooting 12 gage sabot slug-the nice hunter was shooting 12 gage slugs.
This is THEIR deer!!!
So we talk,and i said-sorry,never seen the small hole.Never knew about the wounded deer..........What do You guys want to do?
They say-never mind,we already have one hanging from the morning.You keep it.
Another set of nice guys........


So the 3 time shot deer came home with me.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by gbk

Several moons ago.
Controlled deer hunt,me sitting in my favorite tree stand,full of hopes,on the opening day.Public land-pay for use.Many hunters around.
Sitting facing west,east the raising sun is to my back.Few shots rang early in the morning,around me.Then nothing.After a while a doe moves thru the bush,about 80 yards away.Slow,but steady.I would not see her if light conditions would not be in my favor.Having a doe/buck tag,and not seeing a deer until then,decided to take a shot.Remington 12 gage pump,rifled barreled, scoped gun.
Nice shooter too..albeit kicks like a mule.
So i fire-got a scope kiss(almost-just knocked my glasses skewed).I hit the deer- since it starts to run in a big circle,after the shot,to my right.So i fire two more,and ran empty.
Behind me is a pathway, lo and behold-a hunter walks down,towards me.Maybe 80 yards between me and the hunter.
The doe runs between me and the hunter.Running FAAAST.

So i holler-Would You shoot the deer .......?

And he goes-BOOOM.The deer shows signs of a hit, runs away,but stumbling and "dipping"down.Crashes within earshot.
I get down,thank to the guy,offer him my ammo for his-but i am sabot and he is smooth bore slug.
So ,he walks away being a new friend(super nice guy).Would not recognize him though ,even if my life depends on it(shame on me).
Anyhow,after finding the deer,i recognize few things-the deer was a button buck,and i shot of his right front leg.The hunter did the rest of the business-mid liver/lung area hit on a running deer.Good shooter for sure.Put the young buck down.
So i tag it,take photos with my buddy ,who walked over.Then he leaves for his SUV ,to haul the deer home for me.
I am sitting there,marveling on the nice animal,flipping it and looking at it all over.
Nice.

All of a sudden two hunters walk up,and they are asking me-if this deer is wounded ?
I said-no,never seen anything on it.They say-early morning one of them shot a doe,with a buckshot,and they are searching for it,because they think the deer was hit.
So,we flip the deer-and lo and behold,there is a SINGLE buckshot small hole in the lung area of the deer.I am shooting 12 gage sabot slug-the nice hunter was shooting 12 gage slugs.
This is THEIR deer!!!
So we talk,and i said-sorry,never seen the small hole.Never knew about the wounded deer..........What do You guys want to do?
They say-never mind,we already have one hanging from the morning.You keep it.
Another set of nice guys........


So the 3 time shot deer came home with me.

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Nice to see gentlemen hunters in the woods.

We never used to deer hunt. My grandfather ate too much venison after the war I guess and gave it up by the time he built the camp. As a result nobody in the family became deer hunters. I remember as a kid sitting on a watch with my dad once and my uncle bringing a rifle to camp.. but I think it was just something to try for a weekend. There have always been deer in the area but it is bush, and they are not numerous or seen often.
Anyway, one fall about 10 years ago the duck hunting sucked. It had been a nice fall but there was nothing around. I'm sitting in a blind one morning and a buck swims across the mouth of the bay I'm hunting and it was like a light went off in my head. I booked a couple days off work the 2nd week of the rifle hunt and bought a tag. Totally spur of the moment. My dad finds out my plans and gives his advice on where to sit. I am totally new and have a couple spots in mind but there are no clearings to hunt or stands to sit in. I go to camp solo on a wednesday after work and have time to sight in a couple guns and check where my dad figures is the spot to sit. I try the duck gun with slugs and my grandfathers old .30-30 with open sights. I'm more accurate with the .30-30 so that's what I'll shoot. Check the suggested spot and it's choked full of brush. Good spot to see a deer.. maybe. Good spot to get a shot? No way in hell. I go back to camp dejected and sleep in the next morning with no game plan and nowhere to sit.
I head out the next afternoon and pick a spot. It's a funnelling point where a beaver pond meets a creek. Best course of action I figure is to park the boat back down the shoreline. This involves walking the creek up to the funneling point but the route again, is thick as hell. I spend the afternoon clearing a spot to shoot and making a blind with a machete, getting my scent all over the place and changing the surroundings. I finish with about half an hour of daylight left and sit in the blind until dusk... just for giggles. I like the spot. The blind is new but blends in to the ridge behind it and I'm sure the area permeates of stupid rookie hunter scent but it should frost over night and kinda maybe give the ground a clean slate. Maybe. The wind is good for the blind and should carry my scent down the creek and out, not into the woods. I think I hear something up over the ridge on the other side of the creek before I leave.. and then I proceed to spend an hour getting sweaty and making a racket hacking a path back to the boat in the dark. I finish and have a nice trail to go quitely in the morning but I think to myself whatever was on the other side sure got an earful.

I get out kinda late the next morning. It's cold and still and I'm slow after the day before. I grab the rifle and load the clip with Winchester soft points. The box had been around forever.. since my grandfathers last deer hunt. There had been one round missing from the box, used to take a rabbit on that last hunt when they didn't see any deer. My grandfather is long gone but I can still hear him tell the story. By the time I get to the spot it's shooting light. I load up and still hunt the trail to the blind. I get about halfway and something is coming my way in a hurry on top of the ridge. My heartbeat picks up and I grip the gun tight and it's a... family of otters. I make it up to the blind and set a Tinks air activated scent pad at the edge of the pond. I'm hoping it's up far enough that the scent carries across the creek to the other ridge, or at least gives a buck crossing reason to slow up for a shot. I very quitely sit down in the blind. The morning is still and clear. I get a chill just sitting but tough it out. I remember reading Field and Stream articles about bucks being active mid-day, so I figure I'll give it a solid go. I'm about 3 hours in when I break down and have a smoke. On and off I have been hearing something up on the other side make a bit of a ruccus. I want to say it's a deer. A buck making rubs. But I tell myself I'm green at this and it could be anything. Beleiving it's a deer makes the chill go away so I sit. By the time I have the smoke the bush has been quiet for a while. I put it out on the granite and tuck the butt under a piece of moss. A short while later I hear a twig snap. Then something coming from the other side. I see a patch of shoulder through the pines, it's a deer. Next gap in the crossing I see antlers, holy $#!× it's a buck! It stops, nose to the ground as soon as it hits the little clearing in front of the blind. I'm already ready with the rifle and put one through it's front shoulder as soon as it stops. 10 yards. It bucks and runs right in front of the blind.. 5 yards. I rack another round and fire again as it passes point blank. It passes and crashes through stumps and brush as I am desperately trying to rack a 3rd round, but the gun jams. I hear it crash. The next bullet caught the lip of the chamber. I trashed the soft point trying to force the bolt forward and had I been able to, would have put a 3rd round into that deer from whatever angle I had. I stand a bit, my heart racing. I replay everything over in my head. From start to finish It's all over in 3 Mississippi's. It was a shooter, but from the glimpse I had I figured maybe a small 6? I get out of the blind. Deer didn't make it far. It's 11:30, Friday November the 13th. My deer hunting career is about a day old and I have a big 8pt on the ground. My 2nd round, fired half standing half sitting offhand with the buck at a dead run point blank went through the neck.
I didn't see another deer from a blind for about 7 years, but that deer started a tradition at camp. My dad gets more pumped about deer hunting than anything else these days. We have taken one doe, the rest bucks and average about a deer a year. The last two we got iced out early and didn't get much of a hunt in. My dad hunted the spot he tried to get me to sit at relentlessly for 2 or 3 years and went deerless. Finally I went in and did some work. Cut shooting lanes through the likely route of travel. He shot 2 that year. It's now known as "the honey hole". Got a story about that one for later ;)

That was an awesome story. As I read all of them I put the picture together in my mind like a movie of all your events and it helps to feel the excitement you all must have gone through. Feel like I was there. Just awesome!

Keep them all coming!!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by onelessarrow

As I drew the bow to full draw and set my pin on his vitals, the deer deliberately laid down under the water keeping only the top portion of his head out of the water. It was one of those WTF did I just see moments. I began to yell and whistle at it, I couldn't believe what I was watching. Eventually he stood up soaking wet, I put the sight behind his shoulder and fired an arrow through his heart and pinned his leg on the far side, locking him right up, down he went.
As we stood there waiting a minute for him to expire, his body bobbed downstream towards us, the creek was flowing pure red water past our boots. It was a sight I'll never forget.
.

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pure instinct! survivor mode for real set in with that deer , crazzyy story, crazy animals. thanks for the story :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by gbk

Several moons ago.
Controlled deer hunt,me sitting in my favorite tree stand,full of hopes,on the opening day.Public land-pay for use.Many hunters around.
Sitting facing west,east the raising sun is to my back.Few shots rang early in the morning,around me.Then nothing.After a while a doe moves thru the bush,about 80 yards away.Slow,but steady.I would not see her if light conditions would not be in my favor.Having a doe/buck tag,and not seeing a deer until then,decided to take a shot.Remington 12 gage pump,rifled barreled, scoped gun.
Nice shooter too..albeit kicks like a mule.
So i fire-got a scope kiss(almost-just knocked my glasses skewed).I hit the deer- since it starts to run in a big circle,after the shot,to my right.So i fire two more,and ran empty.
Behind me is a pathway, lo and behold-a hunter walks down,towards me.Maybe 80 yards between me and the hunter.
The doe runs between me and the hunter.Running FAAAST.

So i holler-Would You shoot the deer .......?

And he goes-BOOOM.The deer shows signs of a hit, runs away,but stumbling and "dipping"down.Crashes within earshot.
I get down,thank to the guy,offer him my ammo for his-but i am sabot and he is smooth bore slug.
So ,he walks away being a new friend(super nice guy).Would not recognize him though ,even if my life depends on it(shame on me).
Anyhow,after finding the deer,i recognize few things-the deer was a button buck,and i shot of his right front leg.The hunter did the rest of the business-mid liver/lung area hit on a running deer.Good shooter for sure.Put the young buck down.
So i tag it,take photos with my buddy ,who walked over.Then he leaves for his SUV ,to haul the deer home for me.
I am sitting there,marveling on the nice animal,flipping it and looking at it all over.
Nice.

All of a sudden two hunters walk up,and they are asking me-if this deer is wounded ?
I said-no,never seen anything on it.They say-early morning one of them shot a doe,with a buckshot,and they are searching for it,because they think the deer was hit.
So,we flip the deer-and lo and behold,there is a SINGLE buckshot small hole in the lung area of the deer.I am shooting 12 gage sabot slug-the nice hunter was shooting 12 gage slugs.
This is THEIR deer!!!
So we talk,and i said-sorry,never seen the small hole.Never knew about the wounded deer..........What do You guys want to do?
They say-never mind,we already have one hanging from the morning.You keep it.
Another set of nice guys........


So the 3 time shot deer came home with me.

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awesome story, i remember my dads friend was trying to set his scope on this running deer with a rifle before he got into the patch of bush, he just got a new scope on his rifle, he fires and lets just say instead of him coming back with a deer he came back with broken sunglasses and a bloody nose.

talk about a scope kiss

that'll teach him to rush a shot hahah.

The most unusual way has happened 3 times so far. Walk out to my stand on crunching leaves, climb in the stand and under 3 minutes big buck is less than 20yds looking for who the heck was making all the noise.

[COLOR=#000000]talk about a scope kiss



I sold the 12 gage,to keep my eyesight ,and downsized to 20.Never issue anymore.And i learned the 20 has better ballistics with same effectiveness.

Northunter-a really awesome job and a memorable story. Thank You for it.

So this was a couple years ago, opening day of the rifle hunt. The Monday afternoon I headed out to a spot I had scouted in September where I incidentally spooked a couple deer. Unfortunately it was a balmy 22 degrees and I was drenched in sweat when I got there but there was no way I was walking anymore. I figured I’d hunt the same spot throughout the week so I put down my pack and laid some scent around, made some fake scrapes and clean a spot for myself leaning on a log. I did all this very loudly. I sit down and ten minutes later a hear something to my right coming out of the swamp behind me. Look over and I’m face to face with a wolf. It takes off running back to the swamp. Cool to see, but my hunts busted. I light up a smoke and start texting the group about the wolf sighting. Look up from my phone and there’s a massive buck 10 yards in front of me. Crosshairs on the vitals and bang! He takes off like a rocket, I’m lining up my second shot and
Boom! He runs head first into a tree. I give it a minute finish my smoke and walk up to him. I had a good shot on him but he broke his own neck on the tree to finish it off. He was a 10 pointer... well 9 because one snapped off and was imbedded in the tree.

It was more like the OP's situation: a surprise hunt.
Sept 17th was the "first date anniversary" for my wife and me. Alberta deer season had opened a couple days prior.
My wife asked if I was going hunting that evening, and I said I thought maybe we could go out to dinner for the anniversary.
To my surprise, she said, "I think you should go hunting. I have a good feeling about tonight......"
So off I went. I was in the tree stand about 45 minutes when a lovely little fork horn crossed the clearing about 50 yards away, and my .280 dropped him in his tracks.
So that was my shortest deer season ever, but luckily it coincided with a high-cycle year for snowshoe hares.....

None of mine have been particularly "unusual" except for a double buck day, which for someone who has traditionally been a solo hunter, is not "usual", so here goes:

It was 1995, a few miles outside Algonquin Provincial Park. This is thick forest, big woods hunting. The road into the lake had been much improved over the years from the two-rut goat track it was in the early years. My youngest brother accompanied me this year. When I say "accompanied", I mean we generally go in together in the pre-dawn and meet near the end of the day to go out together but usually don't see each other during the day. However, this opening day, we had decided on dropping him ashore in one bay of the lake while I paddled around the peninsula and entered the next bay. At first light, he was to still hunt the ridge towards the top of the peninsula where I disembarked, while I would still hunt up the spillway to the top and meet him there around 9AM.

While still-hunting my way up to the top, I crested an undulation in time to see a buck working his way down the spillway 30-40 yards ahead. He was moving steady and there were a lot of trees & saplings, but one shot from my Weatherby 30-06 put him down. I walked over to him and quickly looked at his 4x3 modest-sized rack, but since there was only about 15 minutes to the agreed meeting time, I left the buck there to go to meet my brother. The kid showed up on time and we went back to the buck. I gutted it and dragged it down the spillway back to the canoe (boy, deer slide good going downhill), while my brother took a stand where the spillway topped out at the ridge.

Upon meeting up again with the kid, I decided to follow the scrape line that this buck had been moving along, while the brother decided to continue along the ridge. The scrape line was fairly decent with several small scrapes and was leading back towards a beaver dam that I knew of over the backside of the ridge. Upon reaching the beaver dam, I sat on an elevated rock face overlooking the dam and ate my lunch.
Finishing my lunch, I started to follow the drainage creek downstream. I paused for a couple of minutes at an elevated position overlooking a sapling-filled area that the drainage creek flowed through. Moving on, my elevation advantage started to dwindle, which I did not like, so I turned around and went back to the spot overlooking the saplings. I noticed movement down in the saplings, a deer head bobbing up and down like they do when trying to test the air for scent. I brought the scope up and saw good antlers (turned out to be a 10 point typical). The Weatherby cracked and he went down. The time was just past 2PM, so I knew I didn't have time to gut him and drag him back up over the ridge before dark, so I just gutted him and put a scent perimeter around him (tinkle, tinkle) to hopefully keep critters off him overnight.

We left both deer in the bush and, when arising the next morning, found that a fair amount of snow had fallen overnight . We left the guns in the cabin and went in after sun-up to retrieve both deer. Rather than try to drag the 10 point up and over the ridge, we opted to canoe and portage around to the backside of the ridge to the beaver dam. Once the deer and both of us were in the canoe, there was very little gunnel left above the water, so I paddled back with the deer while the kid hoofed it through the bush. I dropped off the large deer at the launch point, went back and retrieved the 7 point, then went back to pick up the kid at the peninsula.

I stayed with the deer while my brother went out to bring his pickup truck in to the lake from the hydro cut. I started to drag the deer a bit further from the lake when, after a while, I heard an ATV coming. My brother had met this local guy on the hydro cut and offered him $20 (my $20) to go in and help get the deer out rather than risk his pickup on the snow-covered rocky trail. This fellow and I tied the 10 point on the front rack of his ATV and put the 7 point in the canoe and tied the canoe to the back of the ATV. I held onto a rope on the trailing end of the canoe so it wouldn't ram into the ATV if he slowed down quickly. I told the guy to go slow as I had to trot behind, but one guys 'slow' is a trotters 'too bloody fast'! I was completely wacked when we got to the hydro lines 1 1/4 miles out, but I guess it was better than risking the truck on the rocks.
Attachment 38721

OK, last one from me I think, just to balance things out so I don't have too many more entries in "the one that got away" thread than in this 'got one' thread, lol.

I don't recall what year it was, but my brother and I were once again hunting our usual area a few miles outside of Algonquin Provincial Park. We had gone our separate ways on opening morning but neither had any sightings. However, I had chosen to paddle down the lake in the pre-dawn to my favorite peninsula and heard deer grunts as I paddled across the bay, coming from the North shore shortly after starting off from the launch site. I had never before heard grunts, so this was the only thing "unusual" about this episode.

The next day I chose to end the day sitting about 3/4 of the way up on an oak ridge where there were a few lateral trails below. This ridge runs parallel to the Northern shore of the lake where I suspect the deer go at night to feed on shoreline greenery that remains green longer than shrubbery higher up. Just at last light, I noticed a buck working his way down and across the slope to the West of me, too far away for a shot through the fairly dense trees given the waning light. Our plan for the next morning was to flank this route. The kid would sit roughly where I had the previous evening, while I would sit on top of a 15 foot high ravine wall I knew of a bit further West. We had seen a large scrape in the bush between these two locations before, so suspected the buck worked his way to the lake and back through this patch we were flanking.

We got in position as first light was starting to crack the horizon. While I sat on the ravine wall, after the sun had begun rising above the horizon, I started hearing a deer grunting. The buck appeared to my right on the far side of the ravine floor, working his way towards the more gently sloped far side of the ravine. He was alone but kept grunting every 10 seconds or so. He angled his way through the trees, went up the far slope, then walked along the top about 80 yards across the ravine from my side. I shot with my 30-06 and he made a high donkey kick. He only moved forward a short distance after that shot then stopped, so I shot again. He made a short dash down into a grove of small pines on the ravine floor just to my left. My brother and I had agreed to try and contact the other via walkie-talkie after any shots so the other guy knew what transpired, but I couldn't start yapping with the deer still so close until I was sure the deer was dead as I didn't want it running off. I waited and heard a crash and the small pine tree tops shake and even spotted a patch of deer hair through the lower branches. I kept my eye on that patch for signs of movement for a decent amount of time before sliding down the ravine wall and entering the pine grove. He was a decently wide 8 point but tine length wasn't especially long. I gutted and dragged him near to the ATV-only access road.

I couldn't contact my brother on the walkie-talkie which isn't unusual in thick forest, so took my gear back to the truck so it wouldn't add to the difficulty in the upcoming drag to the main road since we didn't have an ATV. On my way back to the truck, I met a guy on an ATV accompanied by a small beagle. The dog went a bit nuts when he got close and the guy apologized, not understanding why the dog was acting up, but I understood why, what with the deer scent all over me.

I remember hunting with my two younger brothers one year when they used to shotgun hunt the home farm with my dad.

Dad told me to take the youngest brother to the edge of the swamp and let him take the open spot and for me to go back to the hardwoods and they would go across the road to the other big bush for the day. M youngest brother doesn't hunt much but he knows how to shoot and hes pretty good.

Day light breaks and I hear my younger brother start shooting. Hear 3 quick shots...then 2 more....then 2 more...then one last one.

I talk to him on the radio and hes like I just shot 3 deer, not sure what they are but one was coming right towards me after I shot the other two. I said ok dont shoot any more as we only have 3 more tags.

I'm cursing to myself wondering what my brother shot, wounded, missed and was wondering if I was going to have to spend all day in the swamp looking for deer now.

Walk up towards him and I see 3 deer stacked up in the long grass, doe and two button bucks. He said he shot the doe at about 40 yards, then was shooting at both bucks after but they were so close he was shooting over their backs.

He said he shot the last one at about 10 feet!

We all had a laugh and pulled the deer out and kept telling him how lucky of a hunter he is.

Couple months later in the winter the lady down the road that buys hay from us asks us if we seen a doe with twin buck fawns this fall.....Nooooo I said

She said she was feeding them all summer and the fawns would almost eat out of her hand....

Guessing that's why my brother was able to get so close to these deer....

Quote:

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Originally Posted by SongDog

I remember hunting with my two younger brothers one year when they used to shotgun hunt the home farm with my dad.

Dad told me to take the youngest brother to the edge of the swamp and let him take the open spot and for me to go back to the hardwoods and they would go across the road to the other big bush for the day. M youngest brother doesn't hunt much but he knows how to shoot and hes pretty good.

Day light breaks and I hear my younger brother start shooting. Hear 3 quick shots...then 2 more....then 2 more...then one last one.

I talk to him on the radio and hes like I just shot 3 deer, not sure what they are but one was coming right towards me after I shot the other two. I said ok dont shoot any more as we only have 3 more tags.

I'm cursing to myself wondering what my brother shot, wounded, missed and was wondering if I was going to have to spend all day in the swamp looking for deer now.

Walk up towards him and I see 3 deer stacked up in the long grass, doe and two button bucks. He said he shot the doe at about 40 yards, then was shooting at both bucks after but they were so close he was shooting over their backs.

He said he shot the last one at about 10 feet!

We all had a laugh and pulled the deer out and kept telling him how lucky of a hunter he is.

Couple months later in the winter the lady down the road that buys hay from us asks us if we seen a doe with twin buck fawns this fall.....Nooooo I said

She said she was feeding them all summer and the fawns would almost eat out of her hand....

Guessing that's why my brother was able to get so close to these deer....

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Opps...:)

About ten years back I was hunting hard and spending lots of time in the bush at my stand. I could sense there was a big buck around but could never see him... at least that's what I told the guys at camp anyway lol.

After a week hunting hard I took it easy on the Saturday night, had a few drinks and played some cards. After a few beers too many I declared to the camp I had to go to bed as I had made an appointment with the big buck for 11:00 sharp the next morning. Well the next morning rolls around and I ain't feeling so hot, and the guys start ribbing me about missing my appointment as the time ticks closer and closer to 11:00. Finally I decide it has got to be more peaceful sitting in my stand rather than at camp so I get dressed and head out.

Once in the stand it was a windy day, and I am no good with heights to begin with, it takes a lot for me just to be able to get up there, let alone with the wind moving the tree and the stand around. After about an hour the wind had picked up so much that I actually stood up three times planning to leave the stand as I had had enough of it, just to have the wind die right back down. A couple coyotes came in down the road, hung around for a few minutes and continued on their way. Ten minutes later the wind picks right up again and I say that's it I'm outta here ! Put my gloved on, stand up to get ready to get out of my stand and there he comes ! The biggest buck I have ever harvested at the time, a nice big 10 pointer. I sit back down, take my gloves off, sight him in my scope right on the vitals and BUCK FEVER !!! Pull the trigger and he drops. Straight down. Like a sack of potatoes.

I keep looking at him in my scope trying to find where I hit him. I'm convinced he's expired but cannot see any signs of a wound anywhere. I gave him about 30 minutes just to be on the safe side but no movement. No flickering of the eyes, no chest going up and down with breaths... nothing. Finally get out of my stand and carefully walk over to him. As I got right up close I could see the wound, about one inch below the base of the antler right in the head. My BUCK FEVER had been so strong the i had been aiming at the vitals but ended up with a head shot.

Same area as previous post, but several years after. By this time my dad and uncles are coming to camp annually to hunt deer. Not my story, but I went down to help with the deer...

My dada and uncle were hunting the 1st week. I had my time booked the 2nd week and was at home/in town working. They had hunted 2 or 3 days and not seen anything. It was warm and slow. One day was a particularly warm, bluebird day. They figured it was better to be out in the blinds than sit back at camp so they head out. My uncle commented he didn't know if they should be heading out hunting or for a picnic.. it was just a summer-like afternoon. My dad dropped my uncle off at the earlier mentioned "honey hole" and goes to where I shot the 8 pointer. They're sitting a while and my uncle has a deer come up beside him, but it's close at the base of the rock the blind sits on and in the thick stuff. The buck knows something is up, but because of the nature of the spot and the shooting lane my uncles scope is on like 4x. He puts up his gun and can't get a good visual through the scope. He has a feeling the buck is gonna catch on and bolt so he "eyeballs" a shot at the vitals and pulls the trigger. The buck bolts out of the thick stuff and across the base of the shooting lane. A couple more shots. My dad hears the shooting but 3 quick shots and then nothing on the radio so he figures it's someone after ducks in the marsh near where my uncle is sitting. My uncle gets out of the blind and takes a good long look around and in the bush where the buck headed, but doesn’t see the deer or any sign of him connecting so he brushes it off as a miss and blown opportunity. There's still about 40mins of shooting light left so he goes back to the blind and sits. About 20 minutes later a buck walks into the shooting lane from where he was just in the bush looking, and he thinks what are the chances.. the damn deer came back! He lines up a shot and takes it (through the scope this time) and the buck bolts back into the bush from where it came from. He radios my dad and goes "Uh, I think I got one" so they pick up, rendevous and go find the buck with the last bit of daylight. They are in the process of gutting the deer and my dad decides to try and find the trail back to the boat to drag it out when he sees a patch of white on the ground. He looks closer and it's another downed buck! Maybe 30yds from the 1st. He says to my uncle "You radio me and say you think you have one and I come over here and you have two!" to which my uncle relays the story and they piece it together. I got a phone call shortly after to see if I could come down and help.

I don't recall with cerainty which deer was first, but I do believe the first buck was an 8. The shot that was "eyeballed" was true to the vitals, one of the running shots hit a leg. The buck that came in afterward was a massive 10.

About 4 years ago I was hunting during the controlled hunt and I see a buck coming through the golden rod. I waited until he was in the open and knocked him down with a slug. So my wife and I walk up and started to position the buck to field dress him.
As we're moving him l realize that something is wrong with his front leg, as matter of fact he's missing half of it. After a bit of examining, we realize that he lost his lower leg at the knee and he's been like this for a long time. The stump was healed over. Don't know what had happened to him, caught it in a fence, clipped by a car, coyote, who knows, but he's been surviving like that for possible most of his life.
I wish that I had noticed and seen him walk or even jump a fence.
Another interesting thing is that the opposite side of his rack was non typical while the other side was a regular 6 point. Apparently that's a thing when a deer is injured, they will develop an odd rack on the opposite side.
Of course I got a lot of grief from other guys for shooting a handicapped deer. "Maybe you'll get a full deer next year", etc, etc.
Not my best deer, but most interesting.

Was new to hunting. 4pm. I moved out of the blind as rain had stopped. Heard rustling coming from bush below. Positioned myself. Out pops a 6-pointer 100 yards away and heads straight for me. Pulled trigger and click. 60 yards and again click. Panic as deer is 30 yards away now. Click. Deer is now 10 yards away and sticks his head into my blind To sniff around. Couldn’t believe it. Tried one final time and bang.

Lesson learned...lever action rifle must be squeezed when pulling trigger.

I took my climbing stand up a tree I'd never been in before. When I got to my desired height there was a big limb in my way that I tried to ignore but it was driving me crazy. So I proceeded to cut it with my folding saw, taking great care to only cut during wind gusts to mask the sound. I cut half way through limb when it broke with a loud "CRACK!!!", smashed into multiple branches on the way down and crashed onto the dry leaves of the forest floor. Angry at myself for making so much noise and ruining my hunt, I was debating whether to go home, when a mature doe came trotting right into the sound like a dog to sniff the big limb that made all the commotion. So i put an arrow through the deer and she dropped in sight. The quickest hunt I've ever had.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Hunter1983

Was new to hunting. 4pm. I moved out of the blind as rain had stopped. Heard rustling coming from bush below. Positioned myself. Out pops a 6-pointer 100 yards away and heads straight for me. Pulled trigger and click. 60 yards and again click. Panic as deer is 30 yards away now. Click. Deer is now 10 yards away and sticks his head into my blind To sniff around. Couldn’t believe it. Tried one final time and bang.

Lesson learned...lever action rifle must be squeezed when pulling trigger.

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You win!!! :D

Great stories guys!

Didn't have to think too hard on this one.

Was standing on a watch during a quiet push when the pusher got himself lost, after 3 hours sitting there I had to "go". I made a quick dash up the hill to deliver the goods then returned to my watch. During my travels a nice 12 point somehow got by us but found his escape route blocked by a fresh steamer, this confuses the buck and for whatever reason he stood stationary about 100 yards out and grunted at my pile alerting me to his whereabouts. 180 grain core lokt put it in the history books as the "poop luck buck"https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...2f80c93c6d.jpg

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Awesome stories-keep them coming

Opening day of the muzzleloader hunt a couple of years ago. First light comes and a doe walks by at 60-70 yards. It's early, it's the first day, she didn't stop, the shot will scare the rest of the deer away, etc. I tell myself a lot of excuses to let her go.

Half an hour later a nice buck is coming up the field edge. I see him 200 yards away working a scrape. Up on 2 legs for the licking branch, takes a leak, and comes right in. He's a little far when he passes through my one shooting lane, so I decide to let him get to the other lane. He stops between the two lanes, then turns and walks briskly through the first shooting lane again. Thinking he's onto me, I decide not to stop him and just shoot him on the move. As the smoke clears, I see him run into the edge of the bush, but I don't see him. Did he disappear? Did he stop? Is he dead? There wasn't a crash.

I grab a quick load and pour the powder down the barrel. Carefully pack the bullet down on top, trying not to clang the ramrod and make as little noise as possible packing the bullet down. I replace my ramrod and cap the nipple. Sure enough, here he comes through the bush in behind me. He had stopped just inside the bush to reassess his situation. He was hunched and sore. The sight line wasn't good but he is already hit so I fire on him again and anchor him. This time when I fire, my ramrod comes out of the gun and clangs down to the forest floor. He is down but kicking.

Unable to reload, I sit tight to wait for him to expire. To my surprise, a small 8-point appears. He's watching the older buck expire. I've never gotten a double with the muzzleloader and being opening morning my party has plenty of tags. I can't reload without my ramrod! I grab a quickload and pour the powder down the barrel. I have no idea why I did that. I'm up a tree and my ramrod is on the ground. I can't reload.

The small buck wanders off. The big buck is still. I carefully climb down my ladder stand, holding my gun upright so the powder doesn't come out of the barrel (stupid move not to lower it on a rope but I'm pumped up and not thinking clearly). I find my ramrod and again carefully pack down the bullet making as little noise as possible.

The young buck returns. He is dead downwind, in the same spot, again checking on the big buck who is now expired. BOOM. As the smoke clears, I see him scrambling down a path. I mark the spot and carefully reload.

I sneak over to the big buck. The first shot was a liver shot but the second shot was on the mark. Always shoot forward if you're firing on a moving deer. I slowly check out the blood trail back to where I fired on him, then decide to go after the small buck. I go to where I had marked him and there's a good blood trail. Slowly stalking down the blood trail, a deer gets up and runs. Was it him?? No, a doe. He is piled up 50 yards away with a clean shot.

Astounded with my luck, and the fact that a buck stuck around after 2 muzzleloader shots (have you heard one of these go off in the still bush?? Or smelled it with Goex FFG??), and a doe stuck around after 3 shots, I return to the field edge to get ponder my luck. A young 6-point is feeding in the field, 70 yards down. I put him in the crosshairs.

Recalling that I had heard a friend shoot at some point in the morning, I realize that I shouldn't get too greedy on tags. I let the 6 walk. Getting on the phone, I find that another member had indeed dropped a deer. We had 3 deer down in the first couple of hours, and 2 tags left. If I'd have gotten greedy on the doe and the 6, maybe we would have tagged out in 2 hours. I'm glad I let those deer go so that we could keep hunting for the week!

My most unusual deer shot was the shot gun hunt in 87d back in 2002. I hunted hard the Monday and Tuesday. Saw a couple does, no bucks. Weather was crap. It was you usual cold wet and windy November weather. On the Tuesday night I tied one on and got completely tered. I was late getting to the stand on the Wednesday morning. I think it was around 9:45am when I got there. Scent control was out the window. I made a ton of noise walking to the stand. Sat for about 15 minutes and had a big body 6pt walk in at 15 yards. Made a good shot. Sat for 30 minutes and then headed the direction the deer went and realized the wind was in a horrible direction for that stand. I was completely up wind from the buck. Can’t believe he never smelt me. Or if he did the Alberta Premium was drinking the night before was a great cover scent.