Would or should have bucks.

[Ghost Hunter]

Do you have video or pictures of bucks over the past years that you could not get on for one reason or another?

This is one that I had drawn at 32 yards at a steady walk. I just could not make my self release on him because of all the limbs an vines that were in the way. I look back now an wish I had took the shot. I watched this buck for three days run some does in circles at this location which is a stand of willow oaks or pen oaks between two bedding areas. I took this shot with my Nikon camera at about 80 yards.

[Crazinamatese]

I pursued this buck one season. Never seen him during daylight during the season, or ever after 2008. He dwelled on the neighbor's land alot during the rut and winter. He hung out in a bachelor group during the summer on the land I hunted though.

[Ghost Hunter]

Nice Buck.

I hunted this one for three years. Never did close the deal on him. I would get a shot of him on the trail camera at night an a mile down the road he would be on another trail camera the same night. I don't ever know what happen to him that was in 2007.

[Dhurtubise]

This year. The Cowbuck. I knew I might regret not taking him, but that was a chance I had to take.









I did not shoot the Cowbuck because the whole time I was hunting hard for my Target Buck, who I will from now on call him the Moose. Recently I met a native guy who had his eye on my buck (Moose). He saw him twice (I've never seen him). I knew it was the same animal because he said he looked like a small moose- antler and body size. I can't tell you how jealous I was when he told me. I showed him my pictures and... sure enough he said that was him. No season, no tags, no firearm restrictions for him. He was talking about taking him with a .22 subsonic shell. Thankfully, he said he had second thoughts, because he thought the .22 probably wouldn't kill him. He looked really scared when I showed him the sheds - he thought I had got him. It's going to be an interesting fall.

The Moose Buck.

[hunter_mike]

I was hunting on some MFL near lancaster that is no longer MFL and I had this guy at 80 yards. I watched him mill around for an hour. With the knowledge I have right now I probably could have had a second crack at him later that afternoon because I watched him walk up to a ridge point that morning. Now I know he probably bedded down right on that point. Picture was taken with an old cell phone through binoculars. I believe he was a 13 pointer. Both brows were double split and he had split g2's I wonder if what ever happened to him. I almost gaurantee other members of this site had to have hunted this property before.

[JoeRE]

This is a great topic...

Usually if a buck is very visible on land I have access to, he is in trouble. One buck I chased a few years ago however gave me fits for two seasons. It all started when I killed a decent 8 point with my bow in November 2009. I had very little hunting time that year, I was working in a different state, and I had time to get out once that weekend. I killed my buck that hunt, in the evening, then hung a trail camera on a nearby scrape when I came back to drag out the deer that night since I was done hunting for the year. I checked the camera a couple weeks later and this guy had been there the next morning, right were I killed a buck the night before. That made me wish I had picked the morning to hunt - which I had considered!! The big branchy maple tree in the left-background is actually the tree I killed my buck out of.



I had a shed from this guy as a 2 year old in 2007, but not a trace of him since then till this photo - so he was 4 in 2009. He made me mad by waltzing in front of my camera like that, with human scent and deer blood all over the ground from the night before!

I had a late muzzy tag that year, so this buck was high on that list. I knew where a big buck would be seeking cover in that area come winter, after being chased around by the orange army. On one of the first days of late season in December I hunted a stand near there on a strong hunch - one of those times were I just knew I needed to be right there. I even brought my brother with a video camera. The weather was miserable,freezing rain and sleet, but with a few minutes of daylight left this buck showed himself coming by me in thick cover at 40 yards. I couldn't get him to stop so I took a walking shot at the last opportunity. Even on the video it looked like I smoked him, but a close looked showed I hit a 3" diameter stub of a branch that just at that instant lined up with his chest. To say I was mad at myself was an understatement. I saw the buck a couple more times but ended up tagging a different buck with the muzzleloader that year.

The next year I was very focused on that buck, I had his core area pinpointed and through tracks and trail cameras he was quite visible - too visible it turned out because he disappeared the second week of October never to be seen again. I had not been able to get in a single bow hunt for him. The area has a lot of hunting pressure, I am sure someone stuck him although I never found out who. I was left to contemplate what "might have been."

[Bucky]

Only big one I shot at with bow close range that I completely whiffed. 25 yard shot broadside...

Buck had a 21" inside spread and was not busted when I missed him in early Oct.

[ Post made via Android ]

[Dewey]

I don't have many pics of bucks I have been chasing but do have a few from trail cams. Here are a few marsh bucks I never ended up killing but did have encounters with.







Back in 2010-2011 I had many encounters on a secluded island with this buck but passed on him numerous times to give him more time to grow. He bedded on the point of the island consistantly but I could only hunt him on any type of east wind so that limited my hunts. In 2012 he was right around 150" and I finally decided to kill him if given a chance. Unfortunately I only had one chance that year but he caught me by surprise and couldn't get a shot off. Never seen him again and believe he was killed during gun hunting that year!