I cannot begin to think of the number of mistakes I have made. Some funny, some just stupid.
One of the most heartbraking, I was at LBL, area 13, first gun hunt. Walked til a couple of hours after daylight first morning. Could not find any sign and did not see any other hunters. Finally just found a pretty spot and climbed a tree. Wasn't there long when I heard deer coming. A huge buck chasing a doe. A for sure 150 class or better 10 ptr. They were to my right and behind me. I had to hang my right leg over the seat and turn almost directly behind the tree. They were maybe 80 yards and just standing there. About the time I get settled to shoot the doe takes off and runs to a spot just in front of me still on right side. I had a shooting stick and had it wedged into stand somehow so I picked it up, turned put shooting stick back on stand (so I thought) and got set up to shoot again. Still about 80 yards, maybe closer. As I start to squeeze, the stick falls out from under my gun, not sure if it was on my boot or stand and my finger squeezes the trigger. The buck trots up the hill, I hit him, but it looked like just a graze, but he stops about 20 yards in front of me, it was the gun hunt. I had my muzzleloader, the buck started walking and got out of sight before I could reload, I think about that often.
In La Vergne, saw a buck on land across the road from one spot we hunted, a giant. Both sides of the road were owned by same landowner, except, where the buck was, there was a ridge going away from the road. The right side had been sold, I could still hunt the left side, but since the people who built a house on the side that was sold, did not allow any hunting and it would cause issues, I had told the landowner unless I saw really large buck, I would not hunt that side of the road and I would let him know if I did. This was a really large buck. I called the landowner's phone, knocked on his door, all his windows. Never could get an answer. I decided to try to ease the side of the ridge I had permission to hunt, to see if the doe would get chased to where I could get a shot at the buck. Spent a couple hours easing around, nothing, I had hunted before "work" that morning and finally decided to go to work. There was a block of woods on the side of the ridge where the land had been sold and you could see the house with leaves off the trees through the block of woods, 250 to 300 yards. It was all downhill to an open area behind the house. I was walking to my truck to go to work and just on the side of the hill that had been sold, a doe came running up, looked at me and took off. The buck, he was huge and would have scored well, came running and stopped and looked at me, maybe 30 yards. I had a completely safe shot, I could see the house well to the right of the deer through the block of woods. The buck may or may not have been on the property I had permission to hunt, real close to property line. I couldn't shoot him, I aimed at the buck and yelled "bang" he took off. I finally found the landowner the next day. The couple that had bought the land and built a gigantic house on it, were getting divorced and hadn't been living there for a couple of months. Til the landowner died, he told me I should have killed that buck. As far as I know that was the only time that buck was seen.
