The one that got away

There was a thread short whole ago about the most unusual way of getting a deer.
Lets do one for "any"big game...........the one which was a "GIMME"- yet got away.

Here is one of mine stories(yeah,have them more then care to count).

Moose hunt,up above Thunder Bay!
First time at the area,first time at the spot. Rather newbies in moose hunting business too.Clear cut valley with a ridge overlooking it,valley in bowl shape.Across the valley remnants of the old growth girting a nice wide river. Access to the valley from the other side is walking up from a river across a small ridge,with some 5-7 feet tall evergreens,then descending down to the valley.

My buddy and I picked spots and sat the first ever afternoon there.
He is to my right,closer to the logging road and to the river.I am more "away"from the river.
I am hauling my 30-06 rifle ,no scope(for a while i was under belief i do not need one :whacked:).

Between us is about 180 y.We are both looking down on to the clear cut.
I may called,may not-unsure and does not matter.I think i did though........

Halfway in the sit a great wide and beautifully dark brown set of antlers walk up from the river,sitting on a head of a great moose.......me noticing them while the bull was walking down from the ridge-towards the middle of the valley.Great(not a monster-but a very significant set of antlers).
The bull was coming down 45 degree to my left,its body somewhat visible among the new growth.
But the antlers were...ohhh!

After waking up from my amazement and disbelief,i called faintly,and started to smash a tree stump pretending i am a pissed off bull.
The bull turned FULL broadside,stood there like a monument,head turned towards me ,ears splayed,and probably was thinking-what the heck is going on ,up on the ridge?

Now-my buddy saw NOTHING!
He had no clue what is going on,was just staring at me from the distance- what the heck am i doing?

Now comes the lesson for life: Judging from his position at his stand ,and my position where i was to the bull ,i figured he is halfway to the animal,lot closer then i am.
He had scope too!!!!

So, i waved him down and pointed to the bull.

The rest is history-i am pounding the stump,the bull is staring at me...and my buddy is raising his rifle ,aiming,then lowering it -then raising it -aiming -then lowering it.Now i am away a bit,so can not talk ,can not see clearly what he sees...........and he keeps raising the gun,then aiming,then, lowering it.
For 3 minutes- or 5 ? Who knows!Who cares.........
Then the bull gets bored,may figured out something is not quite right....turned 45 degree to his left,and walked back thru the ridge - and out from my life(and my buddies too:shy:).

So-my buddy said,he was so excited ,could not pull the trigger.............:scream:.I could if i wanted too-but did not wanted( the bull is way further for me,no scope- why taking chances....my buddy will take it easy-peasy,after all it was a"gimme" shot.)
He did not take it:madman::madman::madman:

But he gulped down a huge amount of Scotch that night:sad:

I was so "empty"could say and think nothing.

Went home empty handed too!


Next year i installed a scope,bought a rangefinder,and the first thing was ,when we went back for that years hunt-measure the distance from me to the bull vs distance from my buddy to the bull.
He was exactly 30 yards:silly: closer to the moose then I was.

I was like 200 yards from the bull,and was capable to take shots that far with open sights.

We(me-the bull-my buddy) were in a triangle,with almost equal sides.

No regrets-but I am still crying inside when thinking about it

Nice story... don't regret ... the lost chance ...
You can make ... up this year...
It will be better story than last ... year...

About 12 years ago I was late season bow hunting behind my dad's farm as there was a few deer hanging around the standing corn. I'd have 1.5hours to hunt every night after work so if get home, grab my crossbow and seat and make the 30 min walk threw deep snow to the back tree line by the edge of the corn. I passed on about 4 small bucks threw October, Didnt see a Buck all of November or December since the snow came. I was about to give up, Although seeing fresh deer tracks everyday made me keep hunting as I knew it was a matter of time.

Well one night I'm sitting on my seat the base of the tree right before dark. Cold dull day and very light winds and the snow made walking silent so I wouldn't hear anything if it approached. I remember kinda day dreaming and waiting for dark when I caught movement to my right......

I slowly turn my head to the right and there's a giant buck standing at the edge of the corn looking at me. I'm talking massive buck about 150" 10 point about 40 yards away trying to figure me out. I didnt move a muscle for at least 5 minutes and he must have settled down as he started to look around then slowly walked out to the edge of the corn. Now hes 25 yards and crossbow is still on my lap. Hes going to walk right in front of me down the trail. Now hes 15 yards and he must have got a whiff of me as hes on full alert with one leg in the air and nose up.

I cant move so I'm wondering if I should just try to raise the bow quick and shoot before or wait til he walks past then try to raise the bow and stop him for a shot. Well no time to decide as hes now on a quick trot at 7 yards right in front of me. I make a little "baaa" sound as I'm shouldering the bow to get him to stop. Soon as I make a sound he jumps right up in the air and jumps into the corn. Turns around and goes back the way he came. I got to watch that huge basket rack bounce all the way for about 50 yards back into the hardwoods. I was pretty bummed as I should have just raised the bow and shot when he was 7 yards away. He was too close for me to make a sound to stop him, It just spooked him. He likely would have stopped and looked if I just tried to shoot.

Will never forget that night or that buck, I didnt get a deer that year. I could have shot a smaller 4 point the next night in same spot. He walked same spot and I practised and got the bow up about 3 times to shoot but i was still thinking about the big one and let him walk. O well

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While hunting solo, I began still-hunting up my favoured peninsula towards the ridge at the top just after first light. I heard a snort from higher up then a deer crashing it's way towards me. It stopped a couple of times to snort again before crashing down further. One more advancement and I figured it would show itself. It's possible morning thermals did me in, but the deer thought the better of it and turned and climbed back up the slope, sight unseen but sure riled up. If I had of had a grunt call or snort/wheeze call, it might have made the difference in luring him closer. I have those calls now, lol.

On another occasion one year, my brother and I decided to canoe up to the far end of the lake before dawn, to hunt deer the farthest away from any access points. All went well until we were half way up and passed through a narrows only to see the big open bay ahead of us locked in with heavy fog. Undaunted, we continued with him providing the forward motion while looking out for rocks while I manned the helm with the compass, map & flashlight on the floor of the canoe in front of me. Reaching the far shore, we approached our spot to disembark and had to sit there in the darkness while a buck we could only hear, not see, walked by and paused to rub his antlers on a tree before continuing on up the hill.

My first year moose hunting in Thunder Bay district our group of 6 had 2 bull tags and 1 cow tag.
We scouted the first day after setting up the bush camp and I found really good sign that evening in spotting a big bull.
the next morning we were set up before dawn and i started making my calls at daybreak and shortly after could hear the bull grunts.
It took about an hour for the bull to show up and give us a good shot and one of the guys was able to drop the bull.
The next day after sitting all morning in a different spot with no sightings we had lunch and 2 of us went scouting again.
As we drove around a bend in the logging road my buddy said stop the truck I think I see a moose on top of the hill in the birches.
We stop the truck get our bino's out and start glassing the hill top and I said to my buddy all I see is birch stumps he swears up and down that those are moose legs.
This goes on for about 10 minutes when all of a sudden the birch stumps start moving and we now see a cow and 2 calfs walking away over the hill top never to be seen again.
At that time neither one of us had taken a moose and we said if it ever happens again which it never did one gets the binos and gets the gun just in case.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by alfoldivandor

Nice story... don't regret ... the lost chance ...
You can make ... up this year...
It will be better story than last ... year...

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Thanx Alfoldivandor,last year was another story for itself....hope for better year this year.

Thanx guys ,nice stories!Hunting is just like these stories: challenging,educational,and sometimes successful.
Lot of fun though...........

Around 10 years ago I was set up in a built platform stand in a narrow funnel of bush between two fields and two larger plots of bush on either end. It was a great evening spot. I had just recently bought my Excalibur Exocet and still had the factory open sights on it, no scope.

About half an hour before dusk I could hear deer approaching from behind me. Two does came around from behind left of me and made their way out into the corner of the field about 40 yards to my right front. I only had a buck tag so couldn't shoot the does. A minute later I heard another one coming, then a grunt. I barely had time to look over my shoulder and then he was standing at the base of the tree I was sitting in, but behind it where I couldn't get a shot. Looking down at him, he had a big heavy rack that almost touched together at the front. I could see his head swaying trying to get a look at the does in the field. He was close enough that I could hear him breathing and he even took a pee at the base of the tree.

Finally he started moving towards the does but then he was on my bad side (right). When I slid a bit to get in position for a shot he must have heard or sensed my movement and took a few big leaps out to the field.

He then just stood there in the field with the does, broadside, at about 40 yards in the dying light looking back my way. There were too many twigs and branches between he and I to attempt a shot. A scope would have helped but after his reaction to my movement I'm not sure that I would have tried a shot that far until his attention returned to the does.

At that point I pulled out my grunt tube and let a few go to see if he might come back to challenge the intruder. Wouldn't you know it, but in from the bush comes a little 6 point buck charging to the calls and he put on the brakes when he saw the big fella out in the field. I was in a serious pickle. I had a slam dunk 6 pointer at 20 yards to my left and the buck of a lifetime on my right just out of range for a good shot. I stood there hoping that the big guy would come back in to drive the little guy away. The standoff went on until about the end of legal light and ended with the big guy heading off across the field with the does and the little guy going back into the bush.

I went home empty handed but it was an experience I would never forget.

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First day hunting of the season. 6:30 am, just legal light. Getting my stuff out of the trunk of my car. Unloaded gun leaning against the bumper. Big buck steps out onto the road 30 yards ahead of my car. Stands broadside in middle of the road. Crosses and disappears in the bush. I tried to head him off, but no luck.

I am still waiting for a story about Fushimi road trip ...? As it happend...!
And this year will be better on Moose hunt ...
Going to be Interior hunting camp... and hunting from spike camp .... for some ...

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Originally Posted by gbk

Thanx Alfoldivandor,last year was another story for itself....hope for better year this year.

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Muzzleloader season 4 years ago. Just finished the night sit, not a thing, freezing miserable weather. I get in my truck and head back to camp. Go to pull in my driveway and I hit the breaks to allow 7 deer to literally walk in front of the truck. Literally rubbing their sides on the front of my truck. Each time I tried to enter my driveway another one or two would cross from my neighbours in front of the truck. I was just in awe.

Nice stories,keep them coming....please

Okay, I'll share one...
I had been bowhunting religiously since 1984 without success. Always solo, with no hunting friends, or any shared knowledge from anyone other than what I read in the Ontario Out of Doors magazines.
I had built a small tree stand by myself in the valley down from the farmer's field. I stood there many days for many hours with a home-made harness holding me to the tree and no seat to sit on.

It must have been around 1987 or 88 when one morning, there was SUDDENLY a monster buck standing directly below my tree, behind me, and slightly to the right. I had not heard the buck at all, and had never seen such a magnificent animal so close to me before!
It was an unbelievable shock for this very green big game hunter.

My only chance - I decided - was to drop my body forward, relying completely on the rope around my chest to hold my weight, then pull my bow as I leaned left and wrapped myself around the tree to shoot down at the deer.

You know how they say "the deer never look up" ?

Well, this deer was heading away from me, but he had his neck twisted 180 degrees, looking BACK and UP at my twisted swinging body!
So he jumped just before I released the string, but didn't go too far though. I could still see his head and neck standing in tall grass and angrily huffing at me. I managed to send another arrow his way while barely keeping myself attached to the tree stand on the tip of my toes. Clean miss.

I still tell that story any chance I get.

I hope you’ve been able to get one since then hawkman?

Not my story my cousins but......a good one.

Was out for my first year with a cross bow. Hunted lots with a rifle and was hunting my favourite rifle stand. Always lots of action. Second night out couple does wander by and then a big 8 pointer.

The buck has no idea I’m there and I have the crossbow up and in position. I have shot 4 deer in the exact spot I’m holding on now, with my rifle.

Well I lean forward and the deer walks into my scope. Squeeze the trigger and find myself flat on the floor of the tree stand.

WTF. Stand up and the deers looking at me. Swear to god it laughs and runs away. What I had not taken into account and what I could not see in the scope was the two trees on either side I was aiming through. The arms of the crossbow hit the trees and the force shoved the crossbow back into my face and knocked me on my Azz.

Still not sure why my cousin told us that story one rainy day but glad he did. Still chuckle when I think of it.


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Saskfly....exact same thing happens to my brother ironically...he smoked the tree and bounced him backwards. I was able to c this happen from a stand I was in. I heard him go “ merp “ and saw him bounce back lol lesson learned im sure.

Good Lord,where to even begin,lol.
I mentioned in the other thread that I could fill a book with “close calls and ones that got away” stories,and sadly,I was only half joking,I’ve got enough material I’m sure for a big book of short stories.
I guess I’ll start at the beginning......
The very first deer I ever tried to shoot got away.
I was 14yo and checking my line of coyote snares and beaver traps on a snowy November Saturday morning.I began trapping muskrats when I was 9,and by the time I was 14 was running 100+ snares and another 100+ traps and had caught pretty much anything and everything that walks,runs,or swims in NB by then....rats,mink,coons,beaver,otter,fisher bobcat,fox.....anyhow,I had a couple dozen snares along this old faded/grown in trail that ran in a sorta loop for 2 miles or so and swung by a couple beaver ponds where I had a few sets for beaver and other water critters.
So I’m carrying my Dad’s old Lakefield Mossberg .22LR to pop bunnies and grouse and maybe dispatch a yotie or even better,a $300 cat(early 1980s).....there’s a lite but steady snow coming down,a fresh 2” of powder,and one of those kinda days that’s whisper quiet in the woods....so I’m walking about half way through my 2 mike loop and I catch some movement up ahead,and it’s 3 deer walking straight towards me,a big lead doe with 2 yearlings in tow.So first I just stopped and froze as they closed in from 50 yards...and they kept coming and coming,seemingly oblivious to my presence.
Now deer season was still open,but at that time you had to be 18 to buy a deer licence in NB.....and truth be to,d 16 to hunt alone,14 with an adult....but I’d been sneaking the .22 out since I was 10 or 11,and by 14 Dad let me hunt alone close to home wth either the .22 or 12ga even though technically supposed to be with an adult.....meh,wutever.So these deer are getting closer and at some point I decided that I should shoot one,get Mom to tag it,and I’m gonna have a nice gut pile to hopefully snare a few coyotes off of for the next cpl days.
So these deer are at about 20y now walking straight towards me and finally the lead doe sees me and freezes......I already had the gun up.....leveled the x-hairs right between her eyes.....had a few second thoughts......should I/shouldn’t I...YEP I. Doing it,gonna kill me a deer before my best friend Jim does,lol...squeezed the trigger...CLICK!
Those 3 deer wheeled around and bounced away unscathed.
Ya see Dad’s old Mossberg semi .22 had the Safety right on the bolt,the kind that ya pull out for fire,and push in to lock the bolt back for safe.
Now normal function,you really should just need to pull out on the safety,and the bolt slides forward into battery on its own,but Dads had a lil quirk and a bad habit of sticking just a wee bit if you didn’t pull out on the safety AND push it forward 1/16 of an inch into battery......it would still “fire” but the bolt and pin and weren’t engaging the round,so the firing pin would fall short of striking the rim and primer.....more or less a dry fire?
So I was underaged and illegal as F,and the poaching Gods were against me,and even though I’d already fired hundreds maybe a couple thousand rounds in this .22,it didn’t stick all the time or even all that often,but I forgot to make sure this time,and the first deer I ever put crosshairs on and squeezed the trigger ran away without a hair on her head harmed instead of getting a 3rd eye and frontal lobotomy.

Soooo many things wrong with that story grinr!! That may have been one that you just keep to yourself.

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Originally Posted by marky.mark

I hope you’ve been able to get one since then hawkman?

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LOL, most people on these forums have heard my stories many times already!
After 17 years of trying religiously with my compound bow, I finally got my fist deer in 2001 - with a .307 Winchester Model 94AE.
My first (and only) archery deer happened in 2013 and it was my Excalibur Vortex that got me my largest buck ever.

Quite a few years back I was sitting in a tree stand overlooking a bean field. Out of the far end of the field I see a big deer making its way across the field away from my permission farm. I grab my grunt call and give it a loud burp/grunt sound. I do this again as loud as I can as the deer is moving and about 300yds away... the loud burp/grunt sound gets his attention, he stops. I grunt loudly once again and this time he starts running toward me like a race horse as he was a really big deer, the biggest deer I have come across... My first drop tine buck makes it way, runs right up to me and stops at what I think is about 40yds... I am in disbelief and excited as heck as this is the biggest deer I have ever seen and it made its way from well over 300 yds to me within seconds... Now it's standing broadside at what appears to be 40 yds to me... I put the excalibur on him and pull the trigger only to see my bolt fly over his back....
the buck, takes a couple jump back and just looks at me trying to figure me out and what the heck just happened..... He stuck around for another minute or two before he trotted off in search of new pastures.... It turns out he was only 30yds away but me being so excited made a mistake on the distance.... It was one of the coolest hunts I didn't get a deer. :)

Great stories guys...........appreciate them...keep them coming.

My next few that got away that I can remember ,I was maybe 15 or 16(?),still underage to buy a NB deer tag but maybe I was 16(?) and old enough to hunt unaccompanied .....anyway,the deer bug had bit me hard and I was carrying the old Mossberg 185 12ga bolt for last few years,but now I’m really trying to get a deer and got a pocket full of slugs and SSG along with a bunch of 7.5s for grouse.
So I’m hunting out the same area,about 2 miles from home back in the hardwoods off this sled trail,and I’m stalking along with a slug in the tube and an SSG and another slug in in the DM....and I flushed a couple grouse up in front of me.So one of them looked like it landed 100 yards up the hill,so I swapped out the slug for a 7.5 and took after him.I get up near the top of this steep hardwood ridge looking for the grouse,and I look up the hill and this beautiful giant 8 pointer stood up out of his hilltop bed and was looking right at me less then 15 yards away.
Now truth be told,looking back,he was a 2.5year old basket rack 115” 8pt,but I’m 16 and trying desperately to kill a deer....and this is the biggest buck I’ve ever seen up close,he was a monster in my books,lol....anyway,he’s just staring at me head on about 15yards uphill pretty steep angle,so I looked down and away trying not to make eye contact,slow and deliberate silent as I could I worked that bolt open and lifted out the 7.5...and he’s still there...I jack in the SSG and get the bolt closed...and he’s still there!!....so now I’m just raising the gun to my shoulder trying not to look right at him,and WHEEEEEEZ.....he blows da F outta there wheels around and gone in 1 hop.
Looking back on it afterwards,he was so close I probly coulda/shoulda/woulda blasted him right in the face with that 7.5 and I’d a put him down,if not killed him right away at least he’d been plenty messed up I coulda got a slug into him next...but I was a green kid and thought I needed a slug or buckshot.
So now I take off after this buck and the general southerly direction that he’s heading,I know there’s this E-W survey line about 500 yards ahead,so I work my way over to the line eventually and head east thinking he might cross it up ahead of me eventually,and I barely walked 100 yards over this little knoll and there’s a big doe standing broadside about 50y ahead just on the edge of this line through the big hardwood stand.....so I see her and she sees me,but this time I’m ready got a slug in the tube and as I was shouldering the gun she wheels left to bolt away,but I figger I’m a pretty good wing shot by now huntin ducks and grouse for a few years so I rip a shot off at her as she’s wheeling around....turns out I missed her clean...but DAMN is this ever exciting,first deer I actually got a shot off at not counting my dry fire 22 deer,lol......and I’ll be damned,as soon as that shotgun barked this truly enormous buck that I hadn’t seen come busting out onto the survey line about 80 yards ahead running straight away,and I mean HUGE buck,still to this day 35 years and thousands of hunts later one of the biggest bucks I’ve ever seen Im sure....I’m talking a big wide tall 14-16pt non-typ with junk everywhere and a big huge wide and wide big shoulders with muscles that rippled as he ran away uphill and felt like the ground was shaking from his pounding hooves kinda deer!!
So he breaks off to the left in this big mature hardwood stand and I’m hustling to get to where I might see him bouncing down the hill and the original 8pt that I coulda blasted with birdshot an hour ago takes off running about 50 -60 downhill to my left,and I’m tracking him with the bead,but I’ve got one round of SSG in the tube and nothing in the mag and he’s putting ground in between us fast,and I’m on him but he’s out 80+ yards now just too far for SSG and I didn’t shoot hoping he was gonna curl my way up the hill but nope,watched his white flag disappear for the second time in an hour,,,,,and that was one helluva fun day for a 16year old kid,and was probably the day that would shape the rest of my life cuz I was absolutely addicted to the rush and excitement of stillhunting and chasing big bucks in the big hardwoods ever since,I remember that November day in ‘84 as vividly as if it was November 2018.

I am pretty fanatical about scent control, which means I drive to the spot in one set of clothes, with the gear in the back, and dress from scivies out when I get there. So one morning, I pulled into this one spot, edge of a hay field, and there is a road behind me, and another hay field on the other side. Dark as Dark can be, and I get down to my scivies, no light, and behind me a deer lets out a grunt so loud that it pretty much scared the crap out of me! He did it three more times before moving off...I like to think it was the big 10 that I was waiting for turning the tables on me!

I had hunted this area for five previous years, solo except for the first year. Most "seasons" only lasted a few days before heading home to a young family.

The first years group comprised myself, my friend and my youngest brother. We camped in a tent, and with our youthful ineptness, a camping trip was all it ended up being, although our Sunday scouting before Mondays opener had my brother claim to have seen a couple of Does.

For the next few solo years hunting this area, I slept in the bed of my pickup, equipped with a cab-height cap and parked under the hydro lines so no radio reception, no heat, no place to stand up and stretch, just sleep. Learning the "lay of the land" over these years was the primary achievement. Ontario had the Doe tag process in effect, assigned through a draw, and I did start seeing deer, however, it seemed they were all Does in years when I did not have a Doe tag. For the last couple of years I had stayed in a very basic cabin just outside town for a bit more comfort.

My modus operendi was, on the Sunday before the opener, to drive to the power line cut, carry my canoe 1 1/4 miles on a two-rut goat track to a lake and leave it there. Each morning I would drive to the power line, park and walk to the lake in the dark and paddle across the lake to hunt without running into any other hunters. I had identified a couple of peninsulas in the lake that spilled down from high ridges that showed activity.

Such as it was on opening day in 1981 that I pitched in just before dawn, and when light came up, I worked my way up to the ridge and slowly still-hunted along it to the next spillway. I sat and ate lunch, then decided to proceed to a knoll down on the peninsula where I had jumped a Doe the previous year. The knoll was still quite a ways away so I was just walking down the spillway when I saw the tip of an antler tine and slammed to a halt. Trees blocked the chest, all I could see was the tip of his nose, parts of the rack (I estimate he was an 8 point) and his back half as well as the upper half of his neck through a gap in the branches. I had been snookered by shifting breezes the previous year, so didn't have patience to wait for things to develop further and decided on the neck shot. At the crack of the Marlin .444, the buck took off leaving me numb. No blood anywhere, I surmised I had shot high, fearing hitting the branch. I got back to the cabin that evening, completely demoralized at missing the first deer I had ever shot at. I flopped on the bed and flaked out.

Next morning, I ascended the same peninsula, slowly still-hunting my way up. Half way up, a spike Buck came bounding over a rise and stopped about 20 yards in front of me. I already had the rifle up and remember looking over the sights at the "rack", thinking to myself "Do I really want to shoot this young spike Buck?". I quickly reasoned that it would be a first successful step for me, so lined up his chest and shot. I was shocked when he didn't drop, instead he jumped behind a small sparse evergreen. I had already racked another round and shot again. He took off, bounding up and intending on going back over the rise he originally came over. A third shot, aiming just over his back for a neck shot ended up going up the hoop when his hind end bounded up. I found him just over the rise.

I have his "rack" on my wall to this day, along with several others taken from the same general area, the better ones being a 10 point typical and a 12 point typical scoring 156 5/8 (avatar above). That first deer may not be impressive in the least, but he is still a trophy to me and I continue to hunt that area.

2 er 3 years after the birdshot bucks that got away.....I spose I was 19 or 20 er so(?).......I had a few deer kills under my belt by now....couple does and a forkie,but still hadn’t kilt a good branched antler buck despite numerous opportunities and close calls....I was toting my new 30-06 that I had bought prior to my first legal deer season when I was 18...so it woulda been a couple years after that I spose?Anyway,I was hunting the edge of a 500 acre hayfield close to home.Where the field gave way to typical mixed NB forest on the east side,it was around 200y down a steep hill to a nice trout stream where I had grown up fishing/trapping/bird hunting since I was 9yo and knew every bend and deep hole in the brook,and every game trail in the creek bottom.
The side hill was criss-crossed with a few well worn deer trails where the deer staged prior to entering the field in the evening.
One particular part of the hillside which I called “blowdown alley” was a swath of blown down spruce trees 50-100 yards wide which afforded the best views and shooting lanes on the hillside.
I figgered if I planted my butt in the middle of the hill,I couldn’t quite see 100y up to the the field edge,nor the entire 100y down to the brook,but I’d have a good 75 yard view both up and down,covering 3/4 of the hillside for any deer that strolled by on one of 2 or three good sidehill trails.
So I’m standing mid-hillside in blowdown alley,looking for the perfect stump with the best shooting lanes to settle in for the evening sit,when I look down to my left and see this big deer butt sticking out from behind a big spruce only 30y away!
I’m determined that my next deer is gonna be a good buck,and I can only see the hind quarters and a bit of this deer’s belly,the vitals and head are blocked by the tree trunk and heavy spruce boughs.So I’m leaning and twisting backwards trying desperately to see any antlers......I’ve leaned back far enough that I can see the last couple ribs....and then I seen it..ANTLERS!!
This was indeed a buck,knowing what I know now,probably a good solid 2.5yo or kinda weak 3.5yo 8pt(?)....but a damn nice deer for a kid’s first real buck!
So again I’m leaning backwards and off balance,and can really only see it’s guts and a rib or two,so I decide to take one step left where I should be able to see more of the chest,and as I’m stepping left and shouldering my 30-06 Remi pump,he bolts!!
He takes off along the sidehill 30 yards below me broadside,I give him a bit of lead and the ol 06 barks.....still running,but now with even more enthusiasm,he picks it up a gear...again I’m tracking him bouncing through the blowdowns now 50y quartering away,and just as he’s leaping over a blowdown I fired again
He folded when he hit the ground on the far side of the blowdown with a huge crash!
YES!! Smoked him! Can’t believe it,I just shot my first nice buck!
So he’s lying there less then 50y away,thrashing and kicking on the ground,but I don’t have a clear shot or even a good view of him behind the tangle of blowdowns....but he’s down...then settles down,and I can just see some white flashes twitching through the brush.I could blast another shot through the brush,but I couldn’t tell what part of the buck I was aiming at and didn’t want to blow up the tenderloins or a hind quarter...besides,he’s down and ain’t going anywhere....RIGHT!!
I jacked another round into the pump,put it on safe,and started to make the proud stroll over there to lay my hands on my first buck....I was probably more like floating over there,lol....anyhow,I only took about 3 steps when BOING!!! He sprung outta there like a jack in the box,back on his feet and going like his butt was on fire,3 or 4 hops and he was gone,crashing and blowing through the trees until I couldn’t hear him anymore!!
WTF JUST HAPPENED!!
I just fired 2 rounds of 30-06 at close range at a buck,and he laid down less then 50yards away,then over a minute later ran off as if nothing was wrong with him.
There was a light skiff of patchy snow on the ground....so I collected myself,and went over to where he had fallen....not a drop of blood to be found!
I tracked him through the woods for the next hour,until I finally lost him in an alder swale amongst a maze of other deer tracks and trails,over 500y and never found a single drop of blood on the entire trail.
Only thing I can figger is I musta hit him in the antlers and stunned him pretty good?I returned to the scene next day with my antler theory and searched really hard but couldn’t find any sign of broken antler,but it’s the only explanation I’ve got?
As luck would have it,this would not be the last “dead buck” that I would witness running away over the next 30+ years of deer hunting to follow......

A big shout-out to the OP for starting this thread. These stories show that we are mere mortals and prone to mistakes. I have a moose and a deer hunting story to share.
Moose Hunt
Back in 1982, 2 hunters had to seal a moose, but you could shoot any moose in any wildlife management unit that had an open season. I had moved to NW Ontario earlier in the spring and spent the summer getting to know the bush – including the road networks and cutovers. Come fall, a childhood friend from Ottawa and I made plans to hunt moose together. We each bought high powered rifles and were itching to go. I had a Winchester model 70 chambered in 300 mag, while my buddy had a Remington pump chambered in 30.06. Both of our rifles had iron sights – which would come into play later.
Opening came and we set off in my Datsun hatchback in search of moose. We drove 80 kms to one spot and sat for a couple of hours without seeing anything. So around 9:30 we jumped back in the car and drove 80 kms in the opposite direction to another spot that I knew about. As we approached the second area, we were driving down an incline and I saw a moose way out in the cutover off to my left. Using binoculars, we could see that it was a good-sized bull and it was just browsing about half a mile away. I stopped the car and we got out. Before we could go after the moose, we had to put on our rain gear as it was raining a bit. As we were getting outfitted, my buddy leaned his rifle against the car and it slid off and hit the ground - hard. Since it had iron sights, we thought that it was ok. Anyway, off we went across the cut to bag our moose. Every now and then we would check to see what the bull was up to… all good!
We managed to sneak up within 60 yards of the moose within 60 and, in retrospect, could have shot it about 100 times by then. As we got closer to the moose, I split off from my buddy and found myself in a bit of dip and behind a deadfall. I couldn’t see the moose without standing up, and when I looked over at my buddy, he was already leaning over a fallen log and getting ready to shoot. Before I knew it, he shot and I didn’t want to miss out of the action. Up I went to take a shot at the running moose, but my rear sight was folded down. After sorting that out, I realized that my safety was on. GRRRR! By the time I fired, the bull was running into a block of poplars. I don’t know what possessed me, but I took off running after the moose. I had the binoculars around my neck and they kept swinging up and hitting me in the face… ouch! I unknowingly chased the bull back out to my buddy who took another, broad-side, shot at if from a rest. By the time I came back out of the timber, the moose was nowhere to be seen. After the second shot, the moose ran uphill into a block of spruce and we never saw it again. We looked all over and may have had better luck had we been more experienced. We went back for several days afterwards and tried to find it. In the course of looking for the moose, my buddy lost his binoculars too.
It turns out that the front sight on my buddy’s rifle had broken when it hit the ground at the car earlier, so he had been shooting high. We still talk about this hunt every time we get together.

Deer Hunt
In 1984, I broke my collarbone a week before a deer hunting trip to the Rainy River. Although I was lame, I still made plans to go. We left Dryden on a Friday morning and it was a beautiful Indian summer day. There were 3 of us in the truck, and I was closest to the passenger door. The fellow in the middle held a rifle (unloaded) between his knees in case we saw a calf or deer along the way. As we travelled down the highway between Dryden and Fort Frances, we found ourselves behind a logging truck. As my buddy pulled out to pass, we got a glimpse of a deer crossing the road up ahead. Once we got to where the deer was, we pulled over. When we came to a stop, I looked out the window and saw a huge buck standing in the ditch behind a shrub less than 10 yards away. The buck was a least a 10-pointer with antler bases larger than my wrist. I’ve seen a lot big deer since then and he still ranks as one of the largest! In a dyslexic moment I told the guys it was a doe. That prompted the guy in the middle to want to get out as he had a doe tag. I quickly came to my senses and corrected myself and told them that it was a big buck. The driver then grabbed the rifle and ran around to my side of the truck and stood by my window and asked where the buck was. The funny thing was that he ran right by the buck to get to my window. I pointed in one direction and he looked in the other. By the time he turned around and noticed the buck, it was bounding into the 2 year-old clearcut without offering a shot. In the meantime, the other guy managed to get his rifle out and ran up a tote road, only to have the buck run behind him. The end result was we missed a huge buck without firing a shot. Had I not had a broken collarbone, I may have been able to shoot it myself. I have vivid memories of that episode!

Thanx guys!

Nine,nice,nice stories.
Thanks Sam ,for the good words too!

Next story(or should I say the FIRST one).A deer.
Way back,me and my buddy became hunters.I did just simply, because of him.He had some family history of hunting,i had some love for outdoors.I went into it with him-i will try ,and if i do not like it-will just drop it.If he would not wanted to do the course-i would never become a hunter! Nothing to loose,bought some cheap stuff,used guns( a la dirt cheap)and went off hunting.

In it ever since!!!

Anyhow ,first year we went rabbit hunting in a nearby public (free access)bush.We were small gamer,that what we brought with us as "hunt"from back home.Big game hunt is different ,difficult and somewhat expensive for the average Joe back home. Thru the hunt i stumbled into a nice deer,standing broad side in the bush,20 yards away,and figuring me out!Whoa....The deer looked,then looked ,then bounded .Took another 2 with her.It was a nice sized doe.Running out from the forest,jumping over the fence, watching them all along,nice....
Now,being a new Canadian,had no connection with local customs,no one to teach me deer hunting,and just barely passed the course,i said -whoa,this is something else.
I want to do this!

What does really take to hunt BIG game in Ontario?
Now,i should have known,passing the course,but all was so new,so different language,so remote to our thinking about hunting-never paid much attention.
So ,we went home- and phoned MNR to buy a deer tag ,to go into Controlled Deer draw.Sorry Sir-the voice said,the deadline passed for this years draw. Good luck next year.

Next year came with great expectation-watching the dates as they come,not to be missed,and Lo and Behold,both of us got the antlered/antler less deer tag in our WMU for November shotgun hunt..
Wow!

So all the prep,all the talk,all the excitement.Deer season came.
No vacation!Me a new employee,so little days off available,nothing to "waste"on deer hunt.
We will hunt Friday afternoon(leaving early),and Saturday all day.

Left work at 1 pm(washing in the washbasin at work)and driving an hr to the pay for use public land.
We drove in my buddies sporty looking car,parked off the road,in a bend ,and left for a walk.No still hunt,no spot and stalk.Just two of us ,side by side walking thru the forest and high bush.After all,this is how we saw back home roe deer hunters hunting(yep,but that was always a drive-not a walk).What did we know!

After having all this beautiful afternoon spent with walking,we got tired and hungry.
Lets go back to the vehicle and eat.
So ,the vehicle is parked in a bend of an inside gravel road-trail,used by low vehicular traffic.We got to the bend ,facing the L -right side of the letter.Unloaded our guns(we are close to the road-trail whatever)and we start to munch on some stale sandwiches(boy did they ever taste great).
The guns leaning against our vehicle,right beside us.

All of the sudden ,to my right is a ruckus thru the bush. A nice doe runs straight at us,full tilt(boy,i just got goosebumps typing and remembering all this.......)so she comes,and then comes the next one.They see us,took a slight right turn,and instead of running into us,basically leap across the road, about 25 yards from us.With a "big"buck in a tow.Would not recall what this buck was antlers wise at the moment,but looked big,and indeed was big.Tell you how in know ,later.We are like-WTF,throwing sandwiches ,looking at each other,grabbing guns(MOVE) when a fourth deer,another buck runs out,again straight at us,sees us,and turns back,never to be seen again.
My buddy is like-coursing,grabbing gun and going full tilt after the tree deer.Loading as he walks and saying many things about us eating sandwiches while deer are all around.........
I collect myself( my first day deer hunting-withing 3 hrs, such a magnificent scenery)so i go after him,off a bit,parallel with the road.Loaded with a slug(12 gage)then a buckshot,then a slug.After all ,this is how it suppose to be(ready for all scenarios,right?)
So he walks off,and i walk parallel with the road.L letter-in the direction of the longer arm of the letter.My heart is somewhere in my throat,and i am in different world.I walk slow,and stop occasionally,after few steps.Why-just because i was not knowing any different,and being so excited. Now,in about 200 yards in my walk(goosebumps are coming again)i hear something walking parallel to me,about 80 yards in the forest.Must be my buddy walking out.
So i walk,stop,walk stop-and i am somewhere else in my mind.All of the sudden ,the forest opens,and i could see 4 legs,walking parallel to me!!!It is not my buddy,but a deer.Whoa!

So i stop,and walk,and stop and walk.And the deer legs walks,then stop,then walk, then stop.
What the heck.............

So,we make this a tandem walk ,for about 100 yards.Then there i this old logging road coming perpendicular to the main road,about 50 yards or so.The deer walks bit faster then i am(me still in seventh heaven)and TURNS onto the old logging road(which WILL cross my path!).So i stop,heart pounding(maybe i developed a chest cavity expansion from all the pounding.......)kneel,get ready,and watch those great legs walk out in front of me.(So far saw no deer head ,just belly and legs,sort of).

Now,this is a HUGE buck,full grown,big body,and he is like 30 yards from me,walking across the old logging road,to cross my path in an opening.In the hindsight,this was the first buck,being separated from the does he was chasing,and thinking me being one of them(based on my walking cadence, i recon).
I put the barrel of the old Winchester 1200 pump on the side of the buck,at the moment when i had a clear shot, just before he may see me ,while walking thru the brush.
BANG! The deer turns 180% in a millisecond,runs 100 miles an hour,me shooting the other 2 loads at the running deer.
I ran over,look up and down,then look more,then take my hat off in disbelief ,and swatting it in the air, like i am a chopper on a loose-WTF just happened?
First day of deer hunt ,biggest buck in my life(even still after so many years of deer hunting)and i missed!!!?
My buddy walks over in great disbelief,knowing something big is up,hearing all the shooting,then seeing the orange hat flying around............he traces the buck for maybe 200 yards to see if any signs of a hit.......Nothing!...........We go home.

I am empty in my heart,empty in my mind,and an empty handed poor slob.

Up until today i am not sure did i hit the deer,and we were just unable to do a better job of tracking,tracing and perhaps finding the buck.

Even though, i tend to believe ,i did not kill that buck!
Simply, because next year ,me and my buddy were sitting (really close to the same spot)with archery gear in hands(no luck for Controlled deer that year)and from the same direction ,a HUGE back walked out in front of him,not presenting good shooting opportunity for a novice archer.
He said, it was as big as a mare,and had antlers like an old branched tree.
We named him simply"The King"and ever since call the area-the King's bedroom.

As a Happy Ending,on the next day of the same year(my first ever deer hunting season)on Saturday morning,very close to the same spot,a nice young doe walked out,about 90 yards from to me,to my left.I took her with one shot,3 buckshot hitting her in her neck(by this time i said-no slug for deer hunt-right?pellets are more in one buckshot charge ,then a measly single slug).So i though for the next few years.
In a hindsight,i should have never taken this, long shot.

I did.
What did i knew at that time?...and it worked.

Hey! There you go. Persistence paid off.

Here's a short one:

I live rural on a 10 acre parcel. The front 5 acres is house, lawn and 2 large ponds (one beside and one out back of the house, both with islands) while the back 5 acres is left rough (cedar/pine groves & sedge grass). I had come in from bow hunting a small spot at the back corner that morning and removed my camo outfit. I looked out the back window around 1PM and saw waves in the back pond. I first thought that a few geese had pitched in but then I saw antlers passing behind the island. My son and I watched the 8 point climb out of the pond and trot into the cedars along the West side of the property.

Knowing there was really nowhere for him to go except towards the back end of the property, I clamored into my camo, grabbed the bow and headed up the East side of the cedars. My son was watching from the window. I paused at a point where my path cut through an open spot before just walking through. A couple of seconds later all I saw was the bucks flag. He had button-hooked to the East side and been standing in the trees on the other side of this open spot, likely watching his back trail after breaking his scent trail by swimming through the pond. I had no chance with the bow but marveled at this bucks tactics.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by canthitathing

Here's a short one:

I live rural on a 10 acre parcel. The front 5 acres is house, lawn and 2 large ponds (one beside and one out back of the house, both with islands) while the back 5 acres is left rough (cedar/pine groves & sedge grass). I had come in from bow hunting a small spot at the back corner that morning and removed my camo outfit. I looked out the back window around 1PM and saw waves in the back pond. I first thought that a few geese had pitched in but then I saw antlers passing behind the island. My son and I watched the 8 point climb out of the pond and trot into the cedars along the West side of the property.

Knowing there was really nowhere for him to go except towards the back end of the property, I clamored into my camo, grabbed the bow and headed up the East side of the cedars. My son was watching from the window. I paused at a point where my path cut through an open spot before just walking through. A couple of seconds later all I saw was the bucks flag. He had button-hooked to the East side and been standing in the trees on the other side of this open spot, likely watching his back trail after breaking his scent trail by swimming through the pond. I had no chance with the bow but marveled at this bucks tactics.

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i was waiting for you to say "and i dropped him"

haha sweet story. seeing that buck swim across must have been a beautiful sight

A couple years after the blowdown buck,and a few more deer under my belt,I had moved from NB to Southern Ontario,where I soon learned that not only could I not use my beloved 30-06,but shotgun season(s) required a draw and were only a week long each,either in Nov or Dec.....but I could buy an OTC tag and hunt with a bow for 3 solid months!!
Knowing that my stay in ONT was gonna be temporary and would likely move back to NB eventually(I ended up staying 5 years)and crossbows were illegal at the time in NB,I decided that I would learn to shoot and hunt with a compound.
So I bought my first bow that summer in 1990,a Bear Whitetail 2 And was self taught from reading Bowhunter magazines as there was no internet in those days....but we figgered things out somehow,lol...and I wore out 2 straw bales shooting that thing almost every day after work,and by fall was pretty confident in my ability to lob an arrow 30 yards into an apple with that bow’s painfully slow by today’s standards rainbow trajectory,but hey I thought it was pretty badass at the time,lol....
So I had been hunting this Conservation property on Niagara escarpment every weekend,then the Nov shotgun season came(no tag for me)and went...iirc it was(is?} a 5 day,M-F season ......anyhow,the shotgun season ended the day before and I was bowhunting on the Saturday immediately afterwards.I had been out all morning and was making my way back to my car early afternoon to have a snack or call it quits for the day,I dunno....and I’m walking along this fenceline in a hayfield,and beyond the fence on the forest side is a lil pond,or more like just a big puddle really,maybe 20 yards wide and 30 yards long.On the back side of the puddle,about 25 yards from me and the fence,there’s a deadfall tree lying on the ground extending out into the puddle.....and on the other side of this blown down tree,lying flat on the ground,there is this huge set of antlers poking up.
Now this buck is flat out on the ground lying behind a fallen tree and facing away from me,looks like he died right there at the edge of the puddle,he might even be in the water a lil bit.I can see all 160”+ of this beautiful 10 pt rack only 25y away,the back of his head,and a wee bit of his neck......and I’m thinking,”What a shame,somebody shot that buck yesterday and he got away and died right there in the pond”......so I of course gotta go check this out,if nothing else I’m gonna recover this gorgeous rack....so I drop my bow over the fence then climb over the barb wire fence,then take 3-4 steps towards this dead buck.and he springs to his feet and prances away in no great hurry,he only trotted another 40-50 yards into the hardwoods and nervously paced around,too far and too thick for a bow shot but I coulda shot him umpteen hundred times with a shotgun he was that close.....then finally he blows outta there and the whole patch of hardwoods exploded with tails bouncing everywhere,must been 7 or 8 does in there as well.
Worst part is,I coulda put an arrow into the back of his neck from 25 yards when I first seen him lying there,I had an arrow nocked and half drawn a few times while I stood there for almost a minute trying to get a better view and angle until I convinced myself that he was already dead since yesterday and likely some shotgunner had hit him and couldn’t find him.
Not a damn thing wrong with that buck,he just had his chin flattened right out on the ground trying to hide behind that log....argggggg!!

Another great story..thanx

I'll share one of my first deer hunts when I was 14 or so. I'm sitting in my dad's tree stand at the edge hardwoods overlooking a bean field. Day light comes and I see a nice buck walking down the bush edge towards me.

Dad dropped me off there and he walked 50 acres south along the tree line to the gap way to the next field. He said to radio him if anything is coming his way.

Buck works his way right under my stand, I'm shaking like a leaf and trying to keep it together and make a good shot. Buck is 20 yards away in front of me and I try to shoot but cant pull the trigger with my 870. I forgot to take the safety off so I pushed it off and CLICK. Buck looks right at me, snorts then takes off running.

I unload the gun on him and he doesn't even slow down. Now hes running down the tree line right for my dad. Dad couldn't see what happened but he sure heard me shoot so hes standing there listening and ready.

Now I'm rifling threw my pockets trying to find the radio, get my hand on it while watching the buck still run down towards my dad. I start talking into the radio" DAD, DAD?, YOU THERE?

he answers what happened?

I said "buck coming your way I missed"

Soon as I said that, The buck went past him at 20 yards then jumped the fence into the bush right in front of him.

Hes like "Why didn't you just say buck coming towards you first!?!"

Dad had to put the gun on his shoulder sling to grab the radio to answer me....or he would of had an gimmie shot on that buck


To this day, safety comes off right when I see the animal I'm going to shoot, that was a good lesson learned. He heard me slap that safety off. LOL

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Sent from my SM-G960W using Tapatalk

I hate to admit it, but here's two more:

When scouting the bush behind my house, I had found a mature sweet apple tree in a small clearing in the middle of the concession, possibly the result of a discarded apple core many years ago. There was a copse of cedars about 20 yards to the South of the apple tree. I cut two shooting lanes through the cedar branches, one towards the apple tree and another 90 degrees to the West. I placed a 5 foot A-frame ladder at the intersection of these shooting lanes so I could see over the small cedars in the lanes that provided low height cover for me.

One outing, I had 5 Does trot into the clearing led by a large dominant Doe. The matriarch trotted right across in front of me and past the shooting lane while the others milled around. I decided to shoot the large Doe if she presented a shot. She turned and walked back towards the others. I drew and fired when she was in the lane. I heard a “thwack” and they all took off but I watched my target pause, looking around with no evidence of being hit before running off after the others.

I followed her path but found no blood. Returning to the clearing, I found my arrow embedded in the trunk of the apple tree. I had shot cleanly over her back.
………………………………………………………………………………
Another year, I was sitting on the ladder sipping coffee, and heard a twig snap behind the copse of cedars. A short time later, I heard another twig snap so knew something was coming. I pivoted to peer through the cedar branches and saw a deer coming around the backside of the group of cedars. I then saw antlers so got the bow in hand. Unfortunately, I was late in prepping the stand this year and had only trimmed the shooting lane towards the apple tree. The buck came around the cedars and stopped right in the untrimmed shooting lane within 10 yards of me. He stood looking at the apple tree and he was so close I could practically count his eyelashes. I expected him to continue around the cedars and pass between me and the apple tree as this would lead to the thicker woods. However, he completely baffled me by turning West, towards a few houses with pastures.

I found a right side shed the next spring in an agricultural field further South that I was convinced was his. It was a 4 point antler with good mass.

The Christmas Buck
On another occasion in the same Conservation Area where the “dead” 160 got up and trotted away....might even have been the same year or maybe the following year,I dunno.......but the Buck Zipper knife with hardwood handle was brand new that year,and my girlfriend bought it for me for Christmas.So she was a bit of a Princess and liked to sleep in Christmas morning,so we opened gifts Christmas Eve,smashed back a bottle of wine and a buncha rye and went to bed early as 25 year olds do,lol....and I said good,you sleep in til noon babe,I’m going deer hunting with my new knife and hopefully gonna get it bloody with some Christmas magic,lol.
So again,we got drunk and I slept in a wee bit later then planned,but off I go hunting in the pre-dawn darkness Christmas morn about 1/2 behind schedule to get to my stand at first light.I remember driving there in my Celica thinking how traumatizing it was gonna be for lil kids going to grandmas house and see me driving down the highway with Rudolph strapped across the trunk of my car,lol.
Anyhow,it was already shooting light when I was walking in to my treestand,and I got about 75y away from arriving when I heard this God awful snorting and grunting like pigs,and my first thought was there’s cows around here,wtf are pigs doing out in the bush,then I realized OMFG THAT is a buck grunting!!
Up until now,I had never heard a buck grunting so loud and aggressively,but sure enough,it was indeed a nice big 8pt Buck grunting up a storm with his nose right up the butt of this doe,and they were heading right towards my stand,only problem is I was still 75 yards from it in the hardwoods.
So commercial grunt calls were pretty new at the time,and I had my Knight&Hale grunter hanging around my neck,and I tried grunting them over,and the doe was interested and tried 3-4x to come my way but the big 8 wouldn’t have any of that and he kept herding her away with his antlers,then they got to about 60y straight downwind of me eventually and the tails went up and gone.......but they had passed almost directly under my tree stand in the meantime,within 5-10yards of it anyway,and if I hadn’t got drunk and stayed up half the night as horny 25 year olds tend to do on Christmas Eve,I wouldn’t have slept in and I’d have been sitting in that tree half hour earlier and woulda let the air outta Blitzen,lol.

There are some great stories here.
I don't really have a specific story of one which got away that I think about very often. That's basically because I mostly bow hunt with my recurve, still hunting on the ground and it happens more times than I can remember. I have lots of memories and I could write a book on the topic if I really wanted to, but that's the nature of the beast and really with that kind of hunting is all about, right? Haha. To me, that's what makes it special. If it were easy it wouldn't be much fun. Anyway, I have lots of five to ten-yard stories of being busted or not being able to get a shot away because of the position I was in, etc., etc. It happens every year.

Last year moose hunting. Sitting in an old cut where the jack pines are now roughly 4 - 8 feet tall. Let out a few calls and a bull starts to reply back. About a half hour later he finally shows himself about 150 yards away, but I don't got a good view of him. He's walking through the cut towards a much more heavily wooded area. Through a couple trees I pick a spot where where there is a little bit of a clearing and I know I might only have one chance at a shot. I lift my riffle up to my chest and periodically take a look through the scope as I follow him across the cut headed right for the spot I picked out. With my rifle now resting up against my chest, and me slightly hunched over in my stand watching as he peeks in and out of view through the pines I start getting excited ! He's getting close ! Soon as he steps into the clearing I waiting 15 minutes for him to reach I pull the rifle up and set my sights on him, only to realize I can't see him. I can't see nothing ! Too excited and breathing too heavily I had been breathing right on my scope and couldn't see anything out of it when I brought it up to my eyes. Fogged it right up. I watched him walk away that day. Was a hard story to tell back at camp that night.