Jump to content
Sign in to follow this  
IHunt2live

Lets hear about your close calls

Recommended Posts

Man there has been some great bucks and some great stories so far this year but sadly I am one of the many who have to fill their tag… yet.

I had a couple of close calls though. Opening days all I found were some does and one spike. I decided this year I was willing to take anything with antlers so I took after that spike, plus it was good practice. I blew that stalk. Later that day, in the middle of the day, I decided to still hunt from camp and jump a small 3 point in a creek bottom at 40 yards and he took off as I drew back. Next morning Casey showed up and he spotted a couple of good bucks but they were a ways off. He took off that afternoon and I decided since those were the only bucks we say that day I would try to get a closer look. Never did see them so I decided to walk back to camp pack up and try a new area for that evening. On the way back I stopped by a swamp and as I came to the edge a spike walked out at about 30 yards and I had to make a quick shot and shot right over his back.

After packing up camp I headed to a new area that was a lot lower in elevation that I was hunting and within a couple of minutes I spotted a small fork and a nice 80 inch class buck. I was running out of light and took off after them. I was hoping to pop up over a small ridge and get a shot across the small canyon but by the time I got there they change direction and head up hill. I made a large loop around the other side of the hill they were on and was hoping to come right on top of them. I get to the top and found it much thicker then expected. Since they were up feeding I knew they could be about anywhere so I was moving slow scanning the area for anything that look tike a piece of a deer when I spot deer with its head down through a small opening in the brush. I thought, sweet their feeding and down know I’m here” but I was wrong. As I tried to clear they brush for a shot I saw a flash of the two bucks run away. DANG!!! SO CLOSE. I’m sold on the Sneaky Feet, they helped a ton!

Those close calls have been on my mind for the last couple of days and I’m dying to get back out but with school starting I really don’t know when that will be. Hopefully this weekend.

Any of you have any close calls you would like to share?

 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Friday was my Wife's first day ever archery deer hunting and sitting a ground blind.... She is a very confident and profitient rifle hunter with many critters under her belt. But she had no idea what a step she had taken picking up the stick and string for the first time just a month ago! ;)

 

About 8:45..... Two incredibly tall coues bucks come walking in to the dirt tank. The first to hit the waters edge is a Great buck that at first glance is easilly over 90" and the second a super tall fork with eyegards. (I had to look twice to make sure they were not mulies!) :blink: As the bigger buck dropped his head he was at 23-25 yds and my wife knew that.... as she drew her elbo was hitting my chair <_< ...... I grabbed the chair to move it and the noise spooked the buck out to about 30-31 yds..... and the she did not account for how much he moved in her shot and missed low.... giving that buck an arrow "slap" to the bottom of his rib cage... :blink: After he ran out, the smaller buck came in and stood for ever at 15 yds :o but, we wnated to check the arrow for sign before we made any conclussions..... after the forky left and about 30 minutes of waiting, the examination of the arrow found it to be free of sign... a miss. Back into the blind and back to hunting.... 9:50 a 4-wheeler motors past.... :rolleyes:

 

At about 11:00 my wife starts getting restless... " nothing is coming in" and "she missed her one chance"... I tell her lets hold till noon and then go if she wants.....

 

11:30.... "Big Buck!" she whispers and The Fever was in her voice! The wide, heavy, mature buck walking straight at us drops his head to the water and she draws..... No shot.... "What do I do?" she says. "Well if you can thread it right between his shoulder blades..... but it is not a good shot..... it is up to you," I say. "Nope, I'm not comfortable with it," she grunts, "But I am getting tired of holding and am shaking real bad!" "Let down, can you let down?" I say...."Thuuu Wack!!!!!" The whole blind shakes! As she let down she hit the trigger sending the arrow off to the depths of the pond! :blink: :o Now she is a mess!! The buck is standing at 30yds wondering what the heck was that!!!! She nocks another arrow and I stop the buck at 40 and she sticks the arrow in the ground at his feet.... and he speeds away. Out the blind she goes.... Cussin' and a Swearin'..... " I suck at this!! I ain't doin' this any more!!! That was Pathetic, I Suck!!!! I can't believe that I just blew it on another Big A$$ Buck!!! That is Two.... I blew it on Two!!!!" ....... so this goes on for a while..... :rolleyes: :lol: I of course, am just calmly collecting my things saying, "It is alright Honey".... and smiling.... :lol: Cuz in my opinion.... if you have never had a "Melt Down" while bow hunting you haven't hunted very much..... :lol:

 

 

So we headed for the Ranger....... My buddy, Troy, was contacted by phone and he came up from his "Doe Blind" to the "Buck Blind" for the rest of the days hunt. By 4:10 PM he was calling me with a Buck on the ground!!! Congrats Buddy!!!! ;) ..... In the mean time I spent the rest of the day consoling my wife about the "Madness" called bow hunting!!! :lol: She is very hooked on bow hunting, now after one day, but her confidence and Very bruised pride has kept her out of the blind since. She plans to get back in as soon as she is back to confidently shooting 3-4 in. groups at 30-40 yds.

 

I am proud as heck of her.... but she just does not think her misses are anything to be proud of.... :rolleyes: I say, "If your not making Mistakes you are not learning anything!" She had more opportunity at Big bucks in one day than most get in a whole season..... and she walked away with bag full of leasons on how to be a better bow hunter..... all on her first Ever bow hunting day!!! :D She has never been that close to a Coues deer while hunting and what a Rush that is! It was a Great Day of Hunting IMO!!!! She, too, is starting to understand that.....

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Well opening day first archery hunt ever first buck i see is a spike laying down I know a spike for the first archery hunt ever isn't bad for me so i put the stalk on him and come up behind him. I see him stand up but he still hasn't seen me yet and I quickly range him at 43yards. I nock an arrow and try to move a few steps closer cause I'm blocked a bit by a tree... when I see him run off with his fork brother I hadn't seen but who was watchin me the whole time. I followed them to the top of this hill where I never see them again.

 

An hour or two later I'm sitting down watching this really nice 3x walking towards me and he just keeps coming without a care in the world. I mean hes being a bit cautious but not as much as they usually are. I nock an arrow while hes still out there a ways grab my rangefinder and start ranging trees where he might come to so i know exactly where to put the pin. Well he chooses the path that gives him a perfect vantage of where I am at but thanks to camo he never sees me. At this point it hasn't occured to me to stand up til hes about 30 yards away. To late now any movement is gonna jump him so I sit there hoping he walks past me so I can get a better chance. Well, he pauses at 23 yards sensing that something is wrong I'm not even blinking cause I'm afraid to spook him. What happens next there comes a truck down a close by road and he takes off. Usually they don't spook to bad by cars but i think he must have known that some amateur was close by. I followed him a little after he spooked but never got closer than 70 or 80 yds til he finally took off with some cattle.

 

Then to end the day Mark spots some a pair of spikes and a doe up this hill. Even after that 3x i would be statisfied with a spike cause i only have one day left to hunt. So I start up the hill when an unseen doe spots me.... I wait and try to let her calm down cause the other three have no clue whats up. So she finally lets me go after hooting and hollering like they do some times. I know at this point she is too worked up to keep getting any closer so I retreat and walk away and down to a draw coming down the hill where I know they will be in a few minutes and work my way to the top. Sure enough there they come and what happens well there weren't 3 or 4 but 5 deer. 2spikes 2 does and a fork. I see the fork right before he disappears behind a tree 40 yards away he pops his head out before I draw I'm already nocked but to late he sees me and takes off. I turn my attention to the others I draw on a spike but let down before I can get a shot and within 30 seconds they are all gone. zero shots taken zero bucks harvested..... But I'm still trying to come down off the adrenaline of the first archery hunt. I didn't harvest anything but one things for sure I learned ALOT about stalking and hopefully this weekend i'll get another shot.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Well I but a stalk on a beautiful 4x, big antlers. He was running around with 2 big mule deers. I actually thought he was a mulie. I started my stalk around 6:30 am, after an hour I was 90 yards away. I'm an amateur so I feel comfortable at 50 yards at the most, I relaxed took a couple of deep breaths and took another step towards him when I heard a cluck sound, I had stepped on a dry twig making almost no noise at all, he turned towards me raised his huge beautiful white tail and ran towards the canyon never to be seen again. I have never seen a deer like this one, I could have sworn he was a mulie, I was under the idea I was stalking a mulie, and much to my suprise he was a whitetail. He's ears, face, body everything looked like a mule deer. Has anyone come across any whitetail's like this?

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Great thread! I enjoy reading these stories!

 

Nogi, maybe your buck was a hybrid? When he ran away from you did he run like a WT or do that stotting gait of a Muley?

 

Amanda

 

 

 

 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

No close calls for me for the early hunt. :( 3 months ago I lost a third of my left thumb in an accident and the doctor told me it would be 6 months before I would come close to using it even slightly. Well long story short, I have gotten to hold my bow and take some practice shots, however, I was drawn for a rifle hunt that I have waited 5 years to get and I didn't want to be tempted to shoot one during the early bowhunt as I am really looking forward to October and don't want to waste that tag.

It is exciting to see pictures of the great bucks being taken by the fellow CWT members and all the good stories. :)

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I didn't get any closer than 100 yards from the bucks I saw this weekend. My brother had one walk by at 60 yards but never presented a shot. We'll be back at them this weekend. I did have a little fun with the turkeys this past weekend. I saw about 30 on the way into camp Friday morning. Saturday morning I saw about 15 working their way up a ridge, but they were over 100 yards out. Sunday afternoon I was in the same spot but closer to where I saw the turkeys the day before. I noticed 5 coming up the ridge right at me. When the cleared the brush at 30 yards I was at full draw. Since we are talking about close calls, you guessed it, I missed him. Those things don't seem to stand still very long. Hopefully this weekend is nicer to us. Good luck to all.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

My first year archery hunting was awesome!

I had nobody to teach me how, and thus I taught myself through missing and missing over and over again ha ha.

Anyway there I was sitting on this large rock looking over a green bowl.

I hear a stick break and there is a large 4x4 buck looking at me about 40 yards away.

I took my old PSE elite set at a whopping 110 lbs. (and with only 55% let-off, it was a pull and aim quick kind of bow) I ripped an arrow straight past his ear.

The noise sent the deer flying away.

 

I quickly hopped back up onto an old logging road and headed after them.

To my astonishment the deer came running back to where they had just been, leaving me out in the open with no cover standing in this old dirt road.

The buck was looking back at that rock I had been sitting on.

There were a few does who spotted me and began head-bobbing, I could barely feel my rubber legs as I dropped to one knee and knocked another arrow. I used 2319 full length arrows then and 2 inch Barrie Rockie Mountain broadheads in 175 grain to help tame that bow!

 

I had this 4x4 standing at about 15 yards broadside, and facing the other way, all I had to do was breathe deeply and release that string.

Did I mention this was my first year bowhunting?

Ya I shot about two feet high and the arrow hit a tree, sinking to about four inches.

Those deer tore out of there like the roadrunner being chased by Wile W. Coyote. . . ha ha ha that one still haunts me to this day.

 

Good times man, cutting my teeth bowhunting. I actually killed my first deer with a bow about 200 yards from that spot a few years back.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
AMANDA HE RAN JUST LIKE A MULIE

 

Sounds like a hybrid to me then. Did you happen to get a photo of him? If so, look at the length of the gland on the outside of the rear leg. You can tell a lot about it's hybrid status by looking at that.

 

here is a link to an article by Jim H re:hybrids so you can read more about them.

http://www.coueswhitetail.com/coues_biology/hybrids.htm

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Gino, if you need some one to sit your wifes blind, let me know!

 

We have been super slow at work, and I am sure I could get 3-4 days off in a row :D

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Gino, if you need some one to sit your wifes blind, let me know!

 

We have been super slow at work, and I am sure I could get 3-4 days off in a row :D

 

 

I am not sure there Casey but I am thinking that his answer would be a big NEGATIVE GHOSTRIDER.

 

:lol: :lol:

 

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
Sign in to follow this  

×