What was your luckiest kill on a nice buck?

Discuss deer hunting tactics, Deer behavior. Post your Hunting Stories, Pictures, and Questions/Answers.
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Pullintoobs
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Re: What was your luckiest kill on a nice buck?

Unread postby Pullintoobs » Tue Jan 03, 2012 12:29 pm

About 5 or 6 years ago My buddy and I were planning on going hunting. Well that day there was 30 mile an hour winds with gusts over 40.Not ideal. We decided to go anyway. I was going to walk the transition and set up where I found some good sign. My buddy decided to sit in a hardwoods. After walking for through some serious marsh crap I got to where I wanted to look around. Found some fresh sign and a nice trail coming out of the cattails and hurried to get a tree within shooting distance. After bustin my nuts getting my stand in this tangled mess of a tree,(good thing it was so windy to cover the noise I made) I get in my stand only to find out I cannot see very well and there is no way I am getting a shot off. knowing I was running out of time I quickly got down and hurried to find another tree. There was not one other tree I could have got in. Si I wandered on down the edge of the cattails finally coming the end and no other tree for miles. Solid cattails. So I just said to heck with it and got in the last tree in the treeline. 10 minutes later here comes a dude with 2 dogs. Now I am really frustrated. I get down and start walking out. Not wanting to screw up my buddys hunt because I would have had to walk past him to get back to the truck, I just climbed up on a fallen down tree about 3 feet off the ground and figured I would wait for dark. As darkness was slowly fading, I am just staring at the wall of cattails about 25 yards in front of me. My bow is just laying there with no arrow nocked. All of a sudden this buck pops his head out of the cattails directly in front of me. Just his head for like 3 minutes. Then he starts trotting right at me! I am crapping myself and trying to get an arrow on without him noticing. He doesnt. That deer stopped lie 12 yards from me broadside.I drew and shot.. He just walks away out into a crp field as last light was just about gone. I missed! or so i thought. Got down and was looking for my arrow and found some blood! Then I heard a deer take off back into the cattails from real close to me. I thought it was him. Walked out to the truck and my buddy thought I was bs'n him. Well next morning at light we were back....followed blood for 25 yards out in to the crp and lost it. Well because I had heard that deer run off the previous night, we went looking in that direction. After an hour I am not feeling to good about it. My friend is sitting on his but in the crp. He had given up. I decided to look in the opposite direction more into the crp. and found blood 10 yards from my friend. Happy as heck I start following the trail again...Now my bud is pumped again! All of a sudden there he was 20 more yardsin this shoulder high grass. I had a great shot Heart shot. But had a mediocre blood trail at best.Image


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Re: What was your luckiest kill on a nice buck?

Unread postby Edcyclopedia » Tue Jan 03, 2012 1:03 pm

I'm not sure if you call it physical luck more than fate...

Nov. 17th, 2007 and sort of a Holiday for me, being the anniversary of my Dad/best friend/mentor's life.

I tried to get into one of my spots in a suburbia neighborhood - this neighborhood runs parallel with a major highway and borders $$million dollar homes, so stealth is key!
Quit work early for an afternoon hunt and my first attempt to get in the woods was met by a police cruiser radar checking speeding vehicles - I opted to pass.

Drove around to a second location of another suburban hot spot and was met by the neighboring house leaf blowing, so I didn't want to alarm him either.

Now I had wasted 45-minutes and went to spot #3... A subdivison of about 20-houses with only the spec house in place and empty house lots waiting to be built on.
While occasionaly watching cars drive thru the new cutover street this guy popped out and I watched him come towards my location for about 150 yards.
I almost passed him seeing I had arrowed a 6-pointer earlier in the season and thought to myself Dad's sending me a sign - take it!

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Re: What was your luckiest kill on a nice buck?

Unread postby Stanley » Tue Jan 03, 2012 5:56 pm

Lots of great stories.
You can fool some of the bucks, all of the time, and fool all of the bucks, some of the time, however you certainly can't fool all of the bucks, all of the time.
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Re: What was your luckiest kill on a nice buck?

Unread postby dan » Tue May 27, 2014 1:37 am

One of this years bucks... He was in a food plot adjacent to his bedding area and I misjudged distance and hit him low thru the chest just behind the front leg... I thought maybe it was still a kill shot but he ran a short distance, stopped wagged his tail and came back standing right under me looking back at where he was standing when I shot. My quiver was hanging on a branch below me at the bottom of the stand and I was standing there with no arrow. As I slowly moved to get my arrow the buck kept looking at me. Once I got it, he came walking right by and gave me a second chance at less than 10 yards...
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Re: What was your luckiest kill on a nice buck?

Unread postby Bowhunter4life » Tue May 27, 2014 2:50 am

6 years ago I went to a public land I had never been before. Had only scouted it once. It was the 3rd day of bow season and it was hot. I had found a lot of good buck sing near a pond so I slipped in and set up near the fresh sign I noticed walking in. The buck came in heading for the pond at last light. He had 6 does following him which I had never seen before. As he neared closer to me I took the shot. I heard a funny noise and notice a branch moving inbetween me and the buck. I climbed down and found the arrow with some good blood on it. Decided to wait and go after him the next morning. After 3 hours of searching I finally found him. Arrow had ricochet off the branch and hit him in the neck. 130 inch 8 point. Definitely got lucky!

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Re: What was your luckiest kill on a nice buck?

Unread postby Ghost Hunter » Tue May 27, 2014 3:03 am

The first weekend of October in 2003 I climbed into a tree with some willow oaks an acorns falling. I was running a little late that morning. I had just sat down an heard movement to my left. There was an eight point walking right under my stand. I stuck him as he passed by. He ran about 150 yards. That was my shortest hunt. I had been in the stand no longer than about 1 1/2 minutes. He was about 110 inches.
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Re: What was your luckiest kill on a nice buck?

Unread postby Bowhunter4life » Tue May 27, 2014 3:20 am

I had scouted this area a few weeks prior to rifle deer season. It was public land and some guys were camped at the campground near where I had to enter for my morning hunt. While scouting the weeks before season opener I had jumped a nice buck out of his bed on the hillside above. I noticed his rub line and scrapes heading in the direction of the bed. As I scouted more that day I noticed big tracks back down the ridge crossing heading for this bedding area. They were probably a 100 yards back from all the sign. I knew these were from a good buck and figured he was crossing here even though there was no sign other than tracks. I got in the stand well before light. At 7 30 I hear a 4 wheeler coming up the ridge. The guys from camp must of had a rough one and getting a late start. There are no 4 wheelers allowed on this land mind you. He spots me in the tree and stops. He said what the f*** are you doing. I replied hunting and ask him the same. He said well I'm hunting this buck that is leaving all this sign on up the ridge here from ya. He said if you would of walked on up you would have seen it all. I said yeah I saw it and good luck to ya. He just shook his head and took off. Now I was kinda worried because even though we were in the timber a 100 yards is not a safe distance apart with rifles. Not 20 minutes after he drove off on his 4 wheeler here came the buck crossing in the same spot I saw all the tracks. I took that shot and he went down. Felt pretty lucky the guy on the 4 wheeler came by when he did. 20 minutes later and it could of been a bust. A little bit after the shot I hear the 4 wheeler coming back down the road. He ask what I shot at, I said I killed a decent 7 point. He was not pleased. He said he had been hunting his scrape and rub line for 2 weeks before rifle season. Guess this explains why he was crossing where he was. The guy ask me why I set up there. I showed him all the big tracks and said I knew these weren't from a doe. He didn't offer to help me get the buck out which was ok but he did change his attitude after seeing the tracks.

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Re: What was your luckiest kill on a nice buck?

Unread postby Muy Grande » Tue May 27, 2014 4:30 am

I had this buck come in with about an hour of light left about 6 years ago. Plenty of time. I had just gotten a new facemask that I was using for the first time (rookie mistake). When I came to full draw on the buck, the mask had bunched up by the corner of my mouth and I couldn't feel my kisser button. I was also worried about it catching my string when I shot. So, I tried to take my index finger to push it down (still at full draw by the way). Somehow, I managed to instead hit my arrow enough that it came loose from the nock. So, there I stand, at full draw, with nothing on the string but a nock. Luckily, for me, when my arrow started to fall the blades on my Rage head opened and caught on my rest and it never fell. It did produce an audible metal click though. He immediately looked up at me and the buck and I had a staring contest for about a minute with me at full draw loaded with a nock. Finally he put his head down to feed again, and I was able to slowly let down, remove the nock and nockless arrow, and load another on the string. Shot him at around 20 yards. Not a whopper, but a decent buck for the area. Got lucky several times during that whole sequence. A video of that whole mess and the looks I am sure were on my face would have been priceless. Try a new mask out first, guys :lol: :lol:

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Re: What was your luckiest kill on a nice buck?

Unread postby john1984 » Tue May 27, 2014 7:57 am

WI gun opener 2005. Me and my brother walked a brushy fence line , a buck flushed out on his side and my bro shot it near the colon, paralyzing the buck. We walked over to the deer and all the buck could do was lift its head up. I told my brother to put one in his neck, he fired from 12 yards away and missed. My bro told me to finish him off, and that's what I did. So technically I did "kill" the buck. It was a 6 x 4 big bodied 10 point. But I give my brother 98% of the credit. Image

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Re: What was your luckiest kill on a nice buck?

Unread postby SamPotter » Tue May 27, 2014 9:49 am

At daybreak on a frosty Mid-November morning on our dairy farm in CT (when it still existed), I was checking some heifers when I noticed two deer in the cornfield 100 yards behind the barn. It took me a moment, but I quickly realized it was a big buck with a hot doe! I remembered I had a rifle in my truck that my brother had borrowed when we hunted in the Adirondacks the week before, so I ran down to the milking barn, grabbed the rifle and ran back. The deer were not where I last saw them, so I ran to the other end of the barn. I distinctly remember the rhythmic clank of startled heifers pulling their heads back through the headlocks (which is a lot of noise) as I ran by. When I got to the other end of the barn I saw the buck and doe again. He was doing the cutting-horse routine and he stopped facing directly away, with his head turned slightly to the right. Having read too many mentions of the "Texas Heart Shot" and with a steady rest on the dry cow fence, I thought this seemed like a good option (I am embarrassed to admit this, but I was much younger and a lot more inexperienced at the time, and I would never try this again.) At the shot the buck took off running and appeared to enter a small woodlot on the end of the field.

My dad (who was heading to the Adirondacks that morning for his own hunting trip) and uncle came running when they heard the shot. Because I wasn't sure if I'd hit the buck or not, we did a little push in the woodlot, but nothing came out. We then walked over to where the buck had been standing when I shot and lo and behold, there was blood, a lot of blood. In fact, from where I stood I was able to follow the obvious blood trail fifty yards to the edge of the field where the buck lay dead. When we examined the buck for a wound I was surprised to see that the bullet had entered the base of his neck on the right side and exited under his jaw, severing the jugular in the process.

In summary: I was lucky to see and shoot the deer while at work (one of the perks of being a farmer) and I was extremely lucky on an inaccurate shot that was a poor decision in the 1st place. (For the record, when I shot the gun on paper afterwards I found the gun was off by 8 inches to the right, which was likely a result of my brother's abuse the weekend before, but I still shouldn't have taken the shot.)

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Re: What was your luckiest kill on a nice buck?

Unread postby PK_ » Tue May 27, 2014 12:57 pm

Many years ago in the mountains of Northern GA I went for archery opener. I set my climber the day before on an area of a hill I just had a hunch the deer would walk through(Looking back now it was a bench that connected an oak ridge with a bedding point). At 9:30am We checked up on the radios. I believe I was uttering a sentence like "this place stinks, there's no deer here" when I caught movement below me. Saw a rack, stopped him in the only thing that resembled a shooting lane and let it rip. Hit him right in the jugular.

Luck, luck and more luck. Still my only velvet buck to date.
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Re: What was your luckiest kill on a nice buck?

Unread postby JoeRE » Wed May 28, 2014 5:18 am

I shot this buck a number of years ago in Iowa's late muzzy season. Everything was per plan up until the actual shot. My brother and I were doing a little nudge, this guy came by right in the middle of a pack of does. They got to within 20 yards and then smelled me, I couldn't get a clear shot because there were does all around him. The buck moved off up a really steep hillside away from me quartering almost straight away at kind of a fast trot not quite a run. What ran through my mind was that I shouldn't try to shoot him in the chest because that would mean I needed to put my bullet through his ham to get to it and ruin a lot of meat, so I let the sight drift up on him a little higher and shot him right where the neck attaches to the head at about 45 yards. Keep in mind I am just an inexperienced kid all shook up looking at those antlers. I would not do something like that now. If I tried that shot three times in a row I would blow it at least twice.

The buck was dead when he hit the ground and he rolled down the hill toward me almost to my feet. It was an incredibly lucky shot, I hit right where I wanted to but I had no business trying that shot, trying to hit a 2" moving target at 40 yards shooting up at about a 30 degree angle using an old sidelock with a red dot scope on it.

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As far as lucky hunting circumstances, I was lucky on my first bow buck. Another hunter pushed him to me as he drove his lazy but in his ATV to his stand 200 yards away. The guy drove by along a field edge and then here came this buck trotting toward me right from him.
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I have to agree with moondunedude that some element of just about every kill has some luck in it when I look at it in hindsight. I would like to think I make it all but I don't!
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Re: What was your luckiest kill on a nice buck?

Unread postby rizzo999 » Wed May 28, 2014 1:40 pm

November 10, 2010 was hot for IL. 76 degrees if I remember correctly. The night before at last light I watched a definite B&C walk past me at 55 yds in the last couple minutes of legal light. I was hunting a bottom cause of the hot weather so it was really dark. I was hoping to catch him there the next AM as he came back to his bed up the ridge, but did not see a thing. Around 9:30 I moved my stand to get a crack at him that evening...if he was even still in the area.

As we drove back to the campground to shed some cloths and cool down we crossed a river. In the river was a big buck walking right down the center of the river. We stopped the truck and I offered the attempt to my hunting partner who told me that I saw it, I should go after it. He stood on the bridge taking pics of the buck while I snuck along the edge of the river bank. He tried climbing out when he was at 35 yds and I was fully drawn, but he could not make it up the bank so he dropped back in and headed my direction. I needed him to get out of the water as all I could see was his head and barely the top of his back. At around 25 yds he tried again and I sent a Hellrazor thru his lungs.

That buck was pure luck! For 4.5 days of bowhunting on heavily hunted public land we tagged all 3 bucks we took a shot at. First evening (Saturday), neighbor got a 140", I got a 125" 9 pointer on Monday evening in the same bottom as mentioned above and then this 152" buck in the river Wednesday morning at 10:20.

I wrote a story about the hunt and submitted to a few publications. It was never published, but it is a great memento for the two of us.
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Re: What was your luckiest kill on a nice buck?

Unread postby oldrank » Wed May 28, 2014 1:57 pm

I cant say I have had a lucky kill... more like a lot of unlucky no kills... I have got lucky on a few nice gobblers but never a nice buck... they have all came from hard work and determination.
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Re: What was your luckiest kill on a nice buck?

Unread postby Dewey » Thu May 29, 2014 7:15 am

Luckiest kill is any buck I killed during the rut, which coincidentally is many of my bucks.

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