37 years ago today

[KTS]

I know anybody that has deer hunted for any time, especially bow hunting has had a miss that you just can't shake.
I started bow hunting in 1965, bought a Ben Pearson recurve at Sears Roebuck. It took me a while to kill my first deer but I finally killed a big doe. Talk about hooked, I literally became addicted to bow hunting.
Over the years I killed a lot of deer with a recurve, mostly small bucks and does. I killed a nice mule deer in Colorado in 1969 with a recurve.
I finally graduated to a compound, I can't remember exactly what year but some time around the mid seventies. My first compound was a Jennings, can't remember the model but is was pretty simple. I killed several deer with it.
My next bow was a Martin Cougar and I also killed some deer with it which brings us to the title of my post.
On October 15th. 1987 I was hunting a place in Dickson County that I had hunted for three years.
The first year I hunted this spot I killed a really nice 8 point with a rifle. I was in the same tree that I killed the 8 point but I was bow hunting this time.
It was getting on up in the morning and I was thinking about climbing down when I caught movement.
Coming up the ridge at an angle that would bring him by me at about 20 yds. was a "really" nice 10 point, I mean he was wide and just beautiful. Then I realized there was another buck following 15 or 20 yds. behind the ten pointer. When I saw this second buck I never looked at the 10 again.
This second buck absolutely took my breath, he was an 8 point that just dwarfed the 10. By then the 10 had already walked by and I don't even know which way he went.
Well the 8 just kept on coming in the same way, to say my heart was pounding is an understatement. I had a full blown case of buck fever. When he got to about 20 yards I just drew back and shot at the deer. Well he spun around ran back the way he came and stopped about forty yards or so and just stood there stomping the ground every now and then. I remembered the grunt tube I had around my neck, I bleated a couple of times and here he comes on a string. I had always if I missed a deer and got another shot I would just calm down and kill it almost every time. Well he was coming straight to my tree and I absolutely got as calm as I could be and said to myself big boy I am going to kill you.
He walked right under my stand at about 5 yds. I took deliberate aim and was completely confidant that I had put the arrow right through his chest. He bolted down the ridge crashing like a bull moose through the underbrush. I was still completely confidant that I had killed this buck. I looked at my watch and it was exactly 10:15, I waited as long as I could stand it and climbed down. The arrow was sticking out of the dirt, I picked it up and there was not a single drop of blood on it. I absolutely couldn't believe it, I actually got sick to my stomach, I think I must have been in shock.
That did something to me, I actually quit bow hunting for 3 full years. After that I bought a Matthews and killed a few deer with it including a pretty decent 9 point at LBL.
I didn't bow hunt a lot after that, I bought a crossbow and tried it a few times but just didn't care much for it.
Most of the deer I have killed except for a few I couldn't tell you where or when they were killed but this particular hunt is etched into my brain and I can remember every detail just like it was yesterday.

 

[Ski]

Yep those ones hurt. I have one of my own that still haunts me. Like you I remember every detail as if it happened today.

 

[lung-buster]

27 years ago I was 13 and finally got a cheap golden eagle sparrohawk that was 40-45 lbs that i could hunt deer with. First deer i evere killed with a bow that year was a 12pt that I'm sure would make P&Y. Spined him and I would be lying if I said that deer didn't look like a pin cushion. The heavy aluminum arrows and heavy satellite broadheads weren't the best combo. I stuck him with a game tracker arrow with the string attached and left my bow with him while I walked back to the house to call my dad to come help me.
I bowhunted hard and in my mid 20's I missed a 140+ buck. I had the latest bow that was the fastest on the market and all decked out. That buck came in on a string in a group of smaller bucks. It was a chip shot. I released and I heard a wack and he took off. I was pumped up thinking I zipped him and never doubted I didn't hit him. I climbed down and my arrow was clean with zero blood. I was sick. Sold all my bow hunting stuff the next week. I did kill that buck with a rifle the same year opening day but I was still sick knowing I missed him with a bow. I'm 39 now and this is the first year I've really gotten back into it since then.

 

[rem270]

I think we all have a memory of the "one that got away". I know I sure do from 2004.

 

[Lost Lake]

1986, 17 years old.

Proudly toting a Bear Whitetail hunter, XX75 arrows and Bear Super Razorheads. Bear-hugged a tree twenty feet above ground in a new TSS climber that was sporting an unpainted wooden platform.

I thought I was ready.

Three bucks, the biggest a twelve point, ambled across the ridge toward a persimmon tree that I was intently watching. When I saw the twelve, I'm pretty sure my brain turned to cerebral guacamole. As he walked under me, I might have even said hello and tried to introduce myself. Dunno for sure. If I'd tried to speak, I'm sure it'd have been unintelligible due to the speech impediment his presence inflicted upon me.

I missed him three times before he laughed his way off the ridge toward the bean field in the creek bottom a few hundred yards away, him being the second of two bucks I'd miss in the exact same fashion from the same tree.

On that ridge, there is a maple tree that has overgrown a Bear Razorhead embedded in it since 1986. But that experience made me a determined bowhunter.