**Bad Luck Buck Stories** & Winner (s)

[Carol]

Did you join the Big Buck Contest (posted I"m In) http://www.thehuntingbeast.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=20405

Missed out on your buck??

Share your story here for the Bad Luck Buck Contest.

We reserve the right to exclude anyone from the contest for illegal or unethical behavior.

PLEASE ONLY POST CONTEST ENTRY STORIES HERE. TALK ABOUT THE CONTEST CAN BE POSTED IN THIS THREAD:
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=22999

[Czabs]

Too many to even type…Just hoping for some good luck before January 5th.

[Crazinamatese]

No bad luck on my end really. I killed two does this season in one week and Im a happy hunter. On Nov. 1st, I did miss out on an opportunity on a nice 8 point buck on MFL land. It was close to dark. Came out of the tree. Met up with my brother and while we were chatting, a nice 8 pointer came chasing a doe right by us. The doe stopped at 5 yards. The buck stopped about 20 yards and we all had a stare down for a few minutes. Not much we could do at that point. My bow was still laying on the ground, my brother was looking the other way and we stood still, but the doe knew we were right there. I managed to pull out my camera and get some footage of the buck before he took off. If only I was in that tree for about a half hour longer, that buck would probably have been dead. The next day, I sat in that same tree and shot a nice mature doe right at dark. This was the biggest buck I seen all season. I seen a bunch of fork horn and spikes the weekend after chasing around on a leeward hillside on a windy day of 30 mph winds. Better than last season though. I seen ZERO bucks. Here is the video.
[bbvideo=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJ-3FZHOVAQ[/bbvideo]

[Bigb]

Well, I don't know if this classifies as a bad luck story but if was a pretty stupid move that effected the hunting for the next the rest of our 1st gun season in Illinois.

Second morning of gun season had started as slow as the first. I was sitting in a stand overlooking unpicked bean field on one side, a pretty good travel route that I have a camera overlooking on the other side and a ridge directly in front of me. I bowhunter this stand the week before and pulled the chip on the camera and had a decent amount of deer, including two nice bucks, moving during daylight hours. Since a few other people gun hunt this land I have one of the last choices on where to hunt. It seemed like a good spot for the weekend since I had NW winds and not many other choices. During bow season we don't have anyone that hunts it but gun season we do have a few other people that come out.

Well, the night before I missed a real good buck with my slug gun so my confidence was low. I had been in my stand about an hour and a half that morning and it had been shooting light for about 45 minutes. I had yet to see a deer or even hear a shot, which was quite unusual. The second day of gun season in Illinois was pretty cold, I think it was about 8 degrees when we left our vehicles so I think that kept a lot of people out of the woods. Well at that time I caught some movement from behind me and anticipating a deer I turned around and at about 30 yards was a coyote jogging along. In the matter of about 4 seconds I thought to myself, I hadn't seen a deer that morning, hadn't heard a shot and we have gotten a lot more coyote pictures over the last few months. Well, this coyote was getting away. I picked out a hole about 60 yards away and as she entered I took the shot and dropped her in her tracks. I was pretty happy both because I got the coyote and I knew my gun was shooting straight.

Here is where the boneheaded move starts. About an hour later I get a call on the radio from my buddy. He's about 300 yards away on the side of a hill near some thick stuff. He already knew I got the coyote and was just checking in. He had seen a couple does and I had yet to see a thing. Then about 30 second later I hear a shot from his direction. I pull out the radio and stare at it. It only takes about 15 seconds and I hear "You there?" I answer and he lets me know that he just shot a nice buck and says he's just about sure he's down. I congratulate him and tell him to wait for a couple hours and I'll video tape him walking up on it, getting his initial reaction to his buck. He agreed.

About 15 minutes later I can see one of our buddies walking out. He's still a ways off from me and won't come near me in the stand I am at son I don't worry. He's about to walk up the side of the hill when he starts pacing back and forth looking on the ground. I can't figure out what he is doing. He hadn't shot and Brad said that he was just about sure his buck was down right in front of him. He disappears and I don't think of it much more.

About 10 minutes later Brad calls me on the radio ad says our other buddy had come up to his stand and said that he has found blood on the ATV trail. Brad, insisting that he saw his buck fall, tells me they are going to get down and trail what we assume is the buck. Well, he gets down and sure enough, his buck only ran about 25 yards into small ditch just out of sight and died. It was a nice 130" 3.5 or 4.5 year old. He had been chasing a doe and ran about 20 yards from Brad when he shot him. We dragged him to the ATV trail and then decide we had to trail whatever deer this was on the ATV trail. We begin the trail and in the first 20 yards I tell my buddies, "Guys, I swear this deer is going uphill by the blood spatter" but everything told us it should run downhill when hit. We don't know anything about this wounded deer so we continue to trail it downhill into the bottom of the ravine. The whole time, the blood is pretty good. Its not a solid blood trail but we can still find drops here and there.

At about 150 yards the deer is headed straight to a food pot my buddy was hunting on. We're baffled that no one saw this deer or how it hadn't left the ATV travel. Now were getting 200 yards and 20 minutes into the blood trail and no sign of this deer. All of a sudden Brad goes to us, "Bernie, where did you shoot that doe last night" referring to a doe he shot and only ran about 20 yards and piled up. I immediately started to laugh and say, "Guys, we are idiots!" At that second everyone knew what I meant. My buddy had shot that doe and drug it out to the food plot and loaded it onto his four wheeler. The deer we were supposedly blood trailing was the doe that he had put on the back of his four wheeler the night before and drove out! The blood was just the blood that was dripping out as he drove along the ATV trail. We all had a good laugh as we walked back to my buddies buck. We really walked that area looking for the "Wounded" deer so we left a ton of scent, not what I wanted to do, but you can't at least put in the effort to find a wounded deer, even if it wasn't yours. It was a bonehead move by us but it was still pretty funny.

I guess it don't cost me a buck due to something that happened on the stand but I'm sure the scent in that area didn't help our hunting for the next day.

[keb]

I make this story short and sweet, drew the coveted iowa bow tag, have 3 weeks to hunt. Arrive at camp ground not a level place to pitch a tent, looks like I'm sleeping sideways for a while. Lock my keys in my truck along with my cell phone, no cell coverage anyway. 7 hours later my truck gets unlocked for the sum of 160 bucks.

Start hunting, set up on a buck from the ground he walks by at 8 yards no shot, 2 days later he is at 5 yards get buck fever miss, 2 days later in a tree stand big buck at 10 yards, one limb in the way, but it's not really in the way. If buck takes one more step no limbs, he is getting nervous, do or die hit limb.

2 weeks are up need to go home, hit deer in my truck and almost totaled it out. Borrow truck it's 2 wheel drive can't go back to where I was need 4x4. Headed to new public land I have never been to that's has gravel road. Looks good farmer cutting beans on my walk in, tells me he seen 2 big bucks, I see big tracks and no boots tracks, it's looking up. Find the spot, no trees it ground or nothing. I set up but man I can't see anything and don't want them at 10 yards when they appear, I move to other side of waterway, last light big buck walks by where I was sitting.

Set in tree stand in river timber see no deer for 2 days, hunt weeds see all kinds of small bucks, miss a doe. Last day to hunt, making walk out, carrying lone wolf tree stand, 3 sticks, ghillie suit and stoll and all my clothes, must be 50 pounds in my badlands 2200. Half way to truck, see big buck tracks. Think quitters never win, and I got a few hours at least till 2pm. It's November 16th anything could happen, it's 930am. I got to random tree as close to bedding as I can. Get stand hung, it's a horrible set up, but I'm looking for a miracle. 1030 am I text my buddy tell him I need his acorn cruncher being a smart a$@, 1038 I look up big buck coming 35 yards and closing he veers of into some brush, after 15 minutes I can't see him or have no clue where he went. 5 minutes later turn around he is coming 20 yards behind me. I get ready, then it's apparent the calf sized limb, I can't get the recurve limb over it or back out far enough to shot, big buck walks by. I snort wheeze big buck runs away.

My Iowa season in a nutshell.

[ Post made via iPad ]

[Country]

This story of bad luck began in late September when I joined The Hunting Beast. Please let me explain. I had just purchased the Marsh Bucks and Hill Country DVDs and I was so excited to apply everything I had been learning. The hours I spent watching the videos and reading everyone's posts on this site might as well have been a full time job...my wife can attest to that. I made a commitment to myself to stay mobile and never hunt the same spot twice. I added a fifth lone wolf stick to my setup, silenced everything imaginable, and studied aerial and topo maps like never before. I practiced shooting my bow every chance I had so I would be ready when my opportunity came. My confidence was through the roof.

My vacation days were set and the end of October had arrived. Time for the big rut hunt with my wife's uncles, best hunt'n buddies out there. We loaded up the truck and began our journey to "Man's World.", located in Western Wisconsin. The whole ride there, I was spewing out Beast tactics left and right, trying to convince them we needed to hunt the hills with a different approach this year. Heck, if they didn't buy it, it really didn't matter. I planned on being successful either way.

The night before Halloween, we turned on the weather radio. Still calling for a south east wind, excellent. Just what I was hoping for. When I woke up the next morning, I sprang out of bed anticipating the day's hunt. I got ready in record time and headed out to the north west facing ridge with a Lone Wolf Alpha and five sticks on my back. I felt like a warrior. I arrived at my destination, picked a tree, and began to hang my sticks in complete darkness. Three sticks up the tree, I was greeted by two does about ten yards away. I could only assume they were admiring my stealthy setup. An hour after sunrise, I had five does bed down 25 yards behind me up the ridge. An hour later they decided get up and stretch their legs, which is when the real action began. I heard a grunt down the ridge and immediately grabbed my bow. In came a nice eight pointer headed in the direction of the does, which were walking away from me by now. I grabbed my grunt call and gave two short but purposeful grunts. The buck immediately turned and started walking toward my tree. I took a good look at his antlers and body size and decided in another year, he'd be outstanding. So, on he walked.

The rest of the day was packed with nonstop action. I saw more deer than I could keep track of. Little bucks were chasing little does all over the place. Occasionally, a bigger buck would fly by chasing a bigger doe. It was the most exciting rut hunt I had ever had from light to dark. The best part was I was convinced the "leeward side" technique really worked! After legal shooting hours, I took my stand down and headed back to the cabin to discuss the days adventures. The other guys couldn't believe how many deer I had seen and even wondered if I was making it all up or not! They had hardly seen anything at all sitting in their usual spots that just "seemed" like good places to sit.

Well, a bad luck story can't end with a day like that now can it? Which brings us to November 1st. I feel sick to my stomach just thinking about it. Hopes were high and the west wind I was really hoping for was in the forecast. The longest ridge on the property was a north to south running ridge with several deep draws from top to bottom. I woke up extra early and was out the door before anyone was even awake. It took me about 25 minutes to arrive at my destination. I started to scour the top of the ridge for a tree, which was starting to feel more difficult than I had hoped for. I finally settled on a tree that looked like it had some decent cover, but I still wasn't completely happy with it. It was already starting to get light out, so I felt completely rushed and sweat was rolling down my face, which was discouraging to say the least. I quickly and loudly hung my stand and climbed onto the platform. There was a huge branch right over my head preventing me from even sitting up straight, so I had to re-position the stand. I climbed back onto the platform to find out that the branch was still completely in the way. I would have to lower the stand another couple of feet which would provide me no cover whatsoever. In a moment of complete frustration, I took my stand and sticks down and quietly said some words to myself and to the tree. I decided to keep looking as the sky got brighter and brighter.

After disturbing the entire ridge from north to south, I decided to relocate to a previously hung stand where I had blown an opportunity on a slob last year due to my sheep counting hobby. When I arrived at the stand I was exhausted. Between hiking and a failed stand hanging, I wasted two and a half hours of daylight already. I was sweating like crazy and I just drank my last sip of water. I got all set up and my motivation was gone, probably crawled back into bed where I wished I was. I didn't feel like hunting at all. I was so thirsty I couldn't even swallow. I ignored my growling stomach. I sat there for about an hour wondering, "Why do I even do this?!" I needed to regroup and come up with a game plan. I needed to trust my instincts and use the wind to my advantage. I decided to head back to the cabin, change my clothes, and refuel. My plan was to head back to the ridge where I had been earlier that morning. I figured, now that it was light out, I could find an acceptable tree and still catch some bucks cruising for does.

I began the hike back to the cabin and just the thought of a drink of water was bringing back some motivation. I had never been so thirsty in all my life! I was halfway up the apple orchard trail and I decided to stop to rethink my plan. I could've taken the trail to my left which lead to the ridge or I could've continued the long hike back to the cabin. I decided to ignore the sweat, hunger, and thirst and began the hike to the ridge to set up. "I can't kill a buck in the cabin," I told myself.

As I started the climb up the side of the ridge, things began to look promising. Right where I was expecting deer activity, I saw trails and rubs and quickly picked the first tree that looked decent. The tree was about a third of the way down from the top of the ridge just north of a nice draw. Just to my west was a nasty, overgrown cow pasture and standing corn. I quickly unpacked my sticks and began climbing the tree. I still felt rushed, but the wind had picked up and I wasn't too worried about the little bit of noise I was making. Once I set my fifth and final stick, I pulled my Alpha up by the rope I had tied on and secured the stand to the tree. After attaching my safety harness, I climbed onto the platform to cam lock the stand. I turned around and sat down to make sure the stand was level and I immediately heard a loud crashing noise to the north of me and it was getting closer, fast. I saw movement in the distance and I soon realized it was a huge doe and she was coming right towards me at full speed. I said "Oh, bleep (not bleep)" out loud to myself as she slowed down and turned broadside 30 yards away from me. My fears came true when from behind her came a massive ten pointer. He too turned broadside at 30 yards and all I could do was try to take a picture with my crappy camera phone since my bow was still lying in the leaves at the base of the tree. Why me?

I sat there and literally shook my head as the buck and doe trotted off out of sight. I was reminded of the previous day's hunt and realized that they may be back, so I climbed down as quickly as possible and tied my bow to my rope. I climbed back up, pulled up my bow, and nocked an arrow. I checked some yardages with my range finder and noticed a stump I had passed earlier in the morning, 25 yards away. Right then, I hear more loud crashing coming my way again! I fumbled with my range finder and struggled to tuck it away. Here comes the huge doe again, yes! She ran right past the stump I had just ranged. I couldn't believe it was finally going to happen! All of the sweating, swearing, and dehydration were finally going to pay off. "Any minute now, he's going to come barreling through here. Get ready. I hope I can stop him in a good spot .... ... ... What's taking him so long? Hmmmm, maybe he lost her? It'll probably take him a few more minutes to follow her scent trail over here, which will be perfect because he probably won't be running through at full speed," I told myself. Well, he never came. If only I had gotten there just a few minutes earlier, I could have had him! If only I would have stayed in the tree I had originally set up in that morning, I may have had a shot at him. He walked right over my boot tracks for goodness sakes!

Later that evening, I had a nice 2 year old 9 pointer walk five yards away from me. My bow was raised and my arm was flinching at the thought of taking a shot at him. After debating in my head, I decided to let him pass. Little did I know, that would be the last opportunity I would have at a buck the rest of the season. If only I had known, I would have killed him and been perfectly happy with him.

For the past five years, I have blown an opportunity at a nice buck every single season. Although a series of bad luck situations, they are learning experiences nonetheless. Would I rather blow an opportunity than see nothing at all? You bet I would! Those opportunities are what keep me hungry, figuratively and literally. It's only a matter of time before all of the pieces come together and I can no longer participate in this contest. I wonder what next season will bring...

[keb]

Well written story, like it.

[ Post made via iPad ]

[muddy]

Season was tough, no getting around it. Camera sightings were pretty bland up until July when I got a few nice bucks on cam.

This guy I had on cam last year, he didn't grow at all. Not sure why, but I know it's the same buck because of his wonky eye.


And "Ulcer"




Opening weekend came and went, I managed to see "Ulcer" driving out in the headlights, at that point my goal was him or nothing in that area. My other goal was to shoot a mature buck with my Dads bow.




I spent a lot of time in a stand location where my Dad was going to hunt with me this year.



As October rolled on my target bucks disappeared, but I had some others show up.




First week of season I had this very nice buck come in and I opted to pass, I had specific goals and he just wasn't it. Very difficult to see from my pics, but he was pretty good. I rattled him up twice in the rut and passed him then as well.


video

http://s186.photobucket.com/user/muddy_ ... ort=3&o=15

The Lull turned into the rut, dinks were everywhere, and a few good ones got the pass again.






I passed this buck up several times over the year



video
http://s186.photobucket.com/user/muddy_ ... ort=3&o=18

video of another one that will be much better next year, but still a very nice deer.
http://s186.photobucket.com/user/muddy_ ... ort=3&o=20

random video, i believe this buck was grunting or growling
http://s186.photobucket.com/user/muddy_ ... ort=3&o=19

my "Ninja Video"
http://s186.photobucket.com/user/muddy_ ... ort=3&o=12

Finally we got thru the rut and into post rut. By this time I got disgruntled and didn't take as many pics. I did have this buck come in 2 times chasing a doe and let him walk, just not what I wanted.



Rut really showed how bad the EHD was in my locations. Hardly any bucks over 3.5 running around, heck even old does weren't around. I kept plodding forward, by the time November was over I had logged more hours than I could even really calculate. I hunted 17 days dark to dark just in Nov with no mature buck sightings, period. October I hunted cumulatively about the same, but the time was broken up to morning or evening sits with scouting and getting down in between. Crazy crazy slow year. I ended up making some phone calls and picking up some new land back by my moms house. This made everyone happy because she sees us, we see her, and I get to deer hunt. I decided to wait until late muzzleloader season to deer hunt again and we then concentrated on honkers.








Scouting yielded bad stuff.

Solid buck I found and buried in our flower bed to make into a Euro


Buck from trail cams above. Very good mass.


I got really bummed out, cams were sucking it up big time, I had 6 cameras out and nothing going on. I went coyote hunting, but didn't get much but exercise, but had fun and got my head right.




Season ended for me not tagging a single deer, which had never happened to me in very very many years. I made a few phone calls and a friend of mine let me come to his farm for the bonus late antlerless season. In the last 15-20 minutes I made a good shot on a big doe 2 days shy of my Dads 1 year death anniversary, so at least I had that going for me.



I had a very difficult and tough year. If I zigged, the deer zagged, and there wasn't anything I could do about it. I started hunting weird locations so I could scout in/out and deer sign was just NOT there. Scrapes were fewer, deer were fewer, and it really was a challenging season. Throughout all of it I feel I kept a positive frame of mind MOST of the time. I had a few rants with buddies in the same boat, but all in all it was a sub par season. I'm thankful I was able to hunt as much as I did, many guys only get a weekend or two, I had A LOT of tree time.

[checkerfred]

Dang muddy, I'd have shot those two you passed lol... That would be huge for me. I hunted hard this year while not over hunting my lands. I saw one small 7 pt. That's the only buck I saw this whole year. I'm at a loss as to what the deal was. I didn't even notice a rut. I'm really gonna have to analyze what went wrong... Check my setups..If it was the weather, me, or what. I'm just really disappointed overall in the season this year. I had this guy on camera one time... Never seen him since.



[ Post made via Android ]

[Black Squirrel]

After an uneventful early season so far I am down to my last weekend of bowhunting before the gun season opens the following one. Saturday was pretty uneventful. And Sunday morning was slow except for an early morning crusier, that I wasn't intrested in. It's now 11:00am and I am feeling pretty run down and depressed from the long season I am having, so I decide enough is enough. I take my stand down, pack up, and head for the vehicle. As I step out of the woods on to a farm path that cuts along a soybean field, I see a doe with an 8 pointer that I hadn't seen or gotten pics of since last year. He is at leat 5 years old, with a heavy dark chocolate rack. I wanted this guy since last year, but thought something had happened to him. Well there he is with a doe standing out in the field about 70-80 yards away. They don't have a clue I am watching them so, i settle back into the edge of the woods and observe and caculate what my next move is. The soybeans are still standing so I contemplate putting a salk on them but figure this would be in vain. No way could I get close enough to two sets of eyes. They didn't seem to be in a hurry to get any where. I decide to make a move, so I backed into the woods and try to get straight in line with them in case they decide to head for the woods. When I get back to the field edge they are gone. The field does have some rolling hills and a 1/4 pot hole about 50 yards away from where I last saw them. But its a huge field and I can see most of it. I thought it was strange that they just disappeared like that. Well it turns out the neighboring farmer had driven thurough the adjacent field to cut some firewood. I'm still like there is no way the deer could have gotten out of that huge field with out me seeing them. Besides the pothole, I could pretty much see the entire field. So I'm thinking they have had to just hang up in there.time to devise a plan. Well, you see, I have been reading a book about Navy Seals, and I get the idea that just maybe I can put on my ghille suit and try and sneak up to this pothole where these deer most certainly must be. So I hurry to my car and put on my suit, and quickly head back to the field. The neighbor is still cutting wood about 150 yards away or so, I think he sees me because he and his partner stop cutting wood and stare in my direction, as this idot is half running down the lane towards them. Much to both of our relief, I get to where I think I can make the stalk and stop. I know this pothole well, in fact there is a buck bed in there that gets used when the crops are standing. Any way I start to put the stalk on by crawling on my hands and knees. I got about a 100 yards or so, to crawl, through the standing beans. It rained hard the night before so the field is wet and muddy. The wood cutting farmer glances my way every so often to make sure this lunatic in the field isn't after them. Well after about an hour of slow painful crawling on my hands and knees I get to about 30 yards from the pot hole. I slowly sneak a peek at the pothole, which is really thick on one edge and kinda open on the other end, with just long grass and a couple medium size trees. I can't see any deer in the thick stuff where I expected them to be. So I begin to crawl around the pothole for a differnt angle. Doubt is creeping into my mind now that they must have left when I went to get my suit or during the stalk, becasue it is now about an hour and a half since I last seen the couple. The farmer still keeps a watful eye on me as I sneak through the soybeans. Again, I see nothing. Now I am fairly certain they got out of there with out me seeing them. So I stand up soaked and pretty muddy, only to see the two of them burst out from the edge at warp 3, not 30 yards away, They headed for the woods. With much dispair, I look at the farmer cutting wood and see both of the guys pointing at the doe and huge buck running throught the field. Oh well at least they now know what that crazy guy in the ghille suit was doing. I was very frustrated , but a little part of me was happy I could stalk that close to 2 deer.
I passed several bucks with the bow and gun and ended up eating tag soup for the 3rd straight year. My standards might be coming down next season.

[DEERSLAYER]

Dang muddy, I'd have shot those two you passed lol... That would be huge for me. I hunted hard this year while not over hunting my lands. I saw one small 7 pt. That's the only buck I saw this whole year. I'm at a loss as to what the deal was. I didn't even notice a rut. I'm really gonna have to analyze what went wrong... Check my setups..If it was the weather, me, or what. I'm just really disappointed overall in the season this year. I had this guy on camera one time... Never seen him since.



[ Post made via Android ]

[Carol]

WINNERS

1st place - KEB

2nd place - Muddy

3rd place - Black Squirrel

Congratulations!