name a small detail that you missed that cost you a buck

[magicman54494]

Tad was talking about small details being important. Today I was thinking about the same thing only small details that cost me a deer. Here are a few of mine. What are yours?

1. I bought a new bow with a rest that I just didn't like. Decided to hunt with it anyway. It cost me a 140-150 class 10 pointer.

2. I passed up the first decent shot hoping for a better shot. Wind swirled- game over. This buck was an old knarly non-typical.

3. I called in a real nice 8 pointer and settled the pin and released. The arrow hit a small sapling that I failed to notice and it sailed over his back and away he went.

In each case changing a small detail could have got me a buck.
last year I got lucky because I lost my clip and didn't know it until I went to load my gun. I decided to just put one in the chamber and hunt single shot. I hit my buck on the run with one shot. Lucky! next time I'll be better prepared.....I hope. What small detail has cost you a good buck?

[jonsimoneau]

Not taking the first good shot has cost me more than once. Also not noticing a small twig or some other deflection. One that has cost me is switching recurves before season. I do not do this anymore. I stick with the same recurve the entire season now and it has helped a bunch. I now only shoot Habu bows so I can pick up one of the three that I own and be sure that they shoot very much the same with respect to poundage. Sometimes I will shoot a deer early season and then switch to another recurve that I have history with for the rest of the season. But for the most part, I now pick one well before season and stick with it to the end. The few years I shot a compound there were always complications. Sight pins loose and getting moved, etc. That was part of the reason I quit shooting them. That and the fact that compounds are just not fun to shoot. I accepted my limitation in range for the trade off of simplicity that is more reliable. But that was back when compounds were not much different than recurves with the exception of letoff. Now they are much different and closer to the old slug guns as far as range. Much more efficient. But not better in my opinion.

[jonsimoneau]

Touching brush or walking on trails where I expected the deer to come from was another big one when I was younger too.

[Stanley]

It took me a few missed opportunities but I finally caught on, you gotta have a clear shot or all is for naught.

[Ack]

Walking in to my stand mid-morning (rut) too slowly. I wanted to get in quietly, but in doing so the extra couple minutes I used to be quiet could have had me ready for the buck that came in before I had even settled in to my stand.....didn't even have an arrow on the bow yet. Streamline your process of getting to the tree and getting ready to hunt as soon as you can, but do so in a safe and smart way.

[kenn1320]

1. Decided to hunt till noon and call it a day. About 11:45 I wasnt seeing anything and broke a branch off that was short and stout. I tied it to my bow rope and was throwing it out to try and trim a branch that was in my way. After about 20 attempts I gave up and untied the stick and threw it at a hole about 10yds in front of me and just missed putting it in the hole. I was looking at my watch and thinking the day is over and I catch movement of a shooter buck. I grunt twice and dont see him. Next thing I notice the rack and he is coming in, nice wide 8pnt. He turns and goes right under me and I draw and put the pin on him. He is gonna walk right out into my clearing, why rush it and take the steep downward shot? I double check string clearance, peep aligned, this deer is dead! I figure when he gets about 10yds out, its a slight quartering away shot, game over. I was so close to touching off the shot when that buck wheeled around and ran back into the brush. I turned around in my stand and he was on my open side. He started to walk my way and looked up at me, game over he bolted. As I sat there replaying what just happened I noticed that dang stick I just handled laying there and no doubt he got my scent from it.

2. I hear a strange LOUD grunting and look over to see a NICE buck going wide of me. I grunted and he turned and came my way. He was gonna walk into my opening(shotting lane) and he paused briefly and nibbled on a twig. The shot was quartering to slightly, didnt want to chance it figuring he would continue on. He turned around and went into the thick pines and I thought dang! I watched him parrallel me and when he went by at 10yds he turned his rack to clear some limbs and then it popped out in a small opening in the pines and I could see the white of his eye as he rolled his head thru that mess. He walked by and I was like I could have shot him right there had I known that was an opening. I should have drawn on him and followed him in that brush the whole time. He popped out behind me and all I could do was stare at him thru the pine branches in the tree I was in as he worked a scrape not 15yds behind me.

Always take the first high percentage shot and its not over till your back at the car!

[Kodiakman]

Letting someone talk me out of a stand position while setting up other peoples stands the week of gun season. It was new land we were hunting and we had a small crew together to get them hung in a hurry. I had my tree along a ridge and in all very young growth where a trail T'd to the ridge and and then ran along it. Massive runway on a transition line. I even started trimming some small limbs. Then I got ganged up on and let them change my mind by 15yards of direction away from the ridge. The next morning someone jumped the biggest buck I have ever had a chance on, right to the trail and heading to me. It came in a hurry right down the path I HAD a clear shot on. STOPPED THE 15 YARDS I JUST MOVED and stood there trying to locate me. When it stopped all I could see was one leg, and one side of a massive main beam. Nothing else but a wall of small birch and poppels. Then poof, it turned around and left.

A second small detail is that I should have just got down and moved the stand right then and now, but I didn't out of anger. The next morning the big guy came again but when he hit the T in the trail he didn't come my way at all, he went the other way automatically. Didn't hesitate. We had some pics on him when we grabbed the cameras at lunch opening day and named him Brutus. I did get up there a month ahead of time and set a bunch out. Never saw him again and we are very sure no one got him, we would have heard. That was 04.

Since then I have been reluctant in letting people suggest where to position myself.

[Edcyclopedia]

Hey Magic - how long of a post do you want...???

1) Not loading my gun when going to my stand cause I was just going to unload it to climbe the tree. On the way there a huge buck pops out 15-yards from me stomping his hoove, bobbing his head...
- I THOUGHT HE WAS GOING TO CHARGE ME!!!
(3-deer dressed out over 245 pounds off that Mtn. that year and believe he was definately one of them )

2) 80-yard shot at a deer with antlers out passed 6" past his ears, had 4" of snow and thought I could stalk closer...

3) Decent 120" deer @ 40- yards walking behind me but broadside trying to sneak past me in a swamp. He made a suction sound when pulling his hooves out and a swung around...
Only a head shot offered (with a scoped gun - almost a freebee!), so I waited figuring he would step out in three more steps.
He took two steps and turned 90 degrees walking away from me with a big oak between us, all I could see is his but swaying from side-to-side...

[glow=red]If this post starts to die I'll add 3- more, and so on , and so forth...[/glow]

[jlh42581]

Thinking that a 90 degree day at the beginning of the season no way a deer would be on its feet at 2:30 pm I questioned my sanity and started to climb down with a climber. As I got about ten feet from the ground I caught movement over my shoulder and here he came.

[Southern Man]

Hunted a stand 20 yards out of position. All I could do was watch and admire a 3-4 year old last year.

Being too stubborn to modernise equipment. I have muzzleloader that was made for me by a good friend. Nice gun, but open sights, ball gun. Couldn't make the shot.

Years ago, relaxed and reclined, smokin when a buck walked out in front of me. Couldn't move or be seen.

Waiting for the perfect shot...it doesn't exist.

[NatureBoy]

#1. I've had my arrow get snagged on a nearby branch and fall off my rest a time or two that cost me. That "clunk" of the arrow hitting your riser is like a death knell that says, "GAME OVER!"
#2. I have a Knight Disc Extreme smokepole that has two safeties. Failing to notice that small detail and remove one of them before the shot resulted in loud but unproductive "CLICK" that cost me.

[jlh42581]

#1. I've had my arrow get snagged on a nearby branch and fall off my rest a time or two that cost me. That "clunk" of the arrow hitting your riser is like a death knell that says, "GAME OVER!"
#2. I have a Knight Disc Extreme smokepole that has two safeties. Failing to notice that small detail and remove one of them before the shot resulted in loud but unproductive "CLICK" that cost me.

Cover your riser shelf in adhesive backed fleece

[NatureBoy]

Cover your riser shelf in adhesive backed fleece

The riser [glow=red]shelf[/glow]is not the problem. Believe me, that's been covered with fleece for years. Details man, details.

[muddy]

- loose bunched up clothing on my bow arm sngging the string.

- rushing the hunt, i now plan on being in stand at least 30 minutes prior to legal time, even if legal time isn't bright enough for me to shoot.

- day dreaming about anything other than the hunt

[Brandon]

i wouldnt no where to begin.... i see a lot of my mistakes on here already.

my worst was missing a 9 point at 25 yards 2 days before gun season, then running late to my stand opening day of shotgun.... he showed up as I was climbing up in my climber, so I stopped and began to pull my shotgun up to shoot him. I had the tree between him and I for a few seconds until he was going to arrive beside me with 5 does. got the gun, went to pull my box o' slugs out... DROPPED the entire box of 5. He didnt spook and moved passed with the does. I slip out of my stand because I was only 7 foot up and must have kicked leaves over the box and couldnt find them as the buck slowly moved away. game over. I was 17 at the time. stupid kid... LOL