Any More "One that got away" Stories?

NVPete · Oct 20, 2014

Years ago now, I was hunting with family in the Independence Mountains in northwest Elko County, Nevada. I had to leave camp for a day to get supplies in Elko. As I left camp about daybreak, I was in a hurry, and didn't even consider I might happen upon a deer heading into town. To add insult to being in a rush, I had a flat tire crossing a small stream. As I was changing the right front tire, I had just finished changing the lug nuts, when I looked across the car hood, my eyes met the gaze of a really nice 4-pt. buck not twenty feet away standing in the creek, water still dripping from his mouth! Now, how can I ease back, quietly open the passenger side door, and slip the rifle out without startling the buck? I made it to the door,and quietly and stealthily as I could, slipped open the door...FORGOT about the "bong!bong!bong!" of the security warning...saw the buck head up and move out, about the time I got my sling tangled on the floor shift...lost valuable seconds...ran up a hill, sat down and waited...lots of does, couple of smaller bucks...where'd he go? I was late for the business I had to take care of in Elko, as I spent a couple of hours trying to find that buck to no avail, and never saw him again.

eelgrass · Oct 21, 2014

I was hunting blacktails here in Kali in the pouring down rain. I was walking an old skid road at the bottom of about a five year old clear cut. It was raining so hard I was worried my scope might be fogged up, so I raised my rifle and pointed it up the hill to check. Not only was my scope fine, there was a nice buck in the field of view! At least a 3X3. What were the odds of that? LOL

He stepped behind some brush before I could compose myself for a shot. I hung around there until dark but he never showed himself again.

Eel

Nobody goes there anymore. It's too crowded.

Zeke · Oct 21, 2014

LAST EDITED ON Oct-21-14 AT 10:37AM (MST)[p]My brother and I were working our way over a ridge and a huge buck with several does trotted over the far ridge not 100 yards away. They were gone before I knew it but I knew I'd catch them just on the other side.

Sure enough, the does came out just as "purdy as you please" but the buck didn't. I could see the whole canyon but he was gone!

It wasn't until I tracked him that I realized that the moment they were over the ridge, out of my sight, the buck took a sharp left down the canyon and from the track he left he was moving mach-V. He was down the small canyon and off to places unknown before I could cover that 100 yards! He left his does to decoy me away!

I ended up killing a smaller buck on that trip and it was 30 1/2" wide 4x4 with good eyeguards. I can only imagine how big the buck was that escaped!

It still haunts me! (that was exactly 30 years ago. 1984)

Zeke

feddoc · Oct 21, 2014

Several years ago my wife decided to start hunting with me. I got a buck easy enough and was looking for a bull as was my wife.

Last day of the season about 1000 we were sitting on a hill trying to do code what to do when a group of cows trotted across an opening about 800 yards away.

I told her we would need help flushing any remaining elk out. So so friends of mine agreed to work the trees. After about an hour two bulls came running out; a decent 5X5 and a very nice 6X6.

Unfortunately she wasn't able to get a god shot and they ran across a park which was about 3 miles long.

After gathering up the fellas we had a good idea of where they would go so off we went.

We walked and heard but never saw them. It was gettng almost dark and we decided to try one more spot. We loaded up in back of the truck and headed back to camp. I had set my .450 in the cab of the truck with her and grabbed a beer confident that I had a good season anyway.

About a mile up the road I saw him standing less than 30' off the forest service road. All I could do was point my finger at him.

Little2Feather · Oct 23, 2014

LAST EDITED ON Oct-23-14 AT 10:48AM (MST)[p]LAST EDITED ON Oct-23-14 AT 10:47?AM (MST)

Well every year I have this happen to me, sometimes a few times a year. I go out with my bow and rarely come back with a dead animal.

This year, I saw this gorgeous 33 inch 4X5 that went about 195. I have his sheds, or I did before I sold them, and anyway he was a great buck.

So I found him again a few weeks ago, snuck in to 120 yards and let an arrow fly. DOWN HE WENT!! Yeah baby, I thought - we are in business! Then he got back up and ran down a canyon. I tracked the blood for a while, must have hit him pretty far back. Anyway, as I was tracking him another bigger buck jumped up right in front of me. So I sling two arrows at him on the run. I hit him with the first one and clipped him with the second. He didn't go down though.

Went off tracking that one, lost track of the first one (decided he was a dink anyway compared to thsi one) and he too went of in to a canyon. Lost his track at dark and decided to come back the next day and start over.

I was pretty tired from the day before though so I slept right through my alarm, then it was kind of rainy and I didn't want to get wet so I stayed in the cabin that day.

Went back a day later and couldn't find his track, but a nice 3 pt. was grazing about 30 yards a way so I plugged him.

Went back a week later and a few hundred yards from there I smelled this awful, stomach turning, stench. Saw the birds circling too. Must have been the big buck! Oh well!

Wish I could have got him. Maybe I will find his dead head this spring.
"Pics or it didn't happen!"

sageadvice · Oct 23, 2014

I was in my twenties, checked my scope in the breaking of morning light to find a broken cross hair after a long ride back into a favorite area near RedBluff Ca. with friends. One of our party offered me his 243, his extra rifle, and i gladly used that.

So naturally, not a hour goes by and i jump up this huge blacktail cross buck out of a nearby brush patch with about 20 does. I'd never seen a buck of his kind that big before or since. At first, i thought the safety was on, the gun wouldn't go off, but it was just the exceptionally heavy 10-12 pound trigger pull that i had neglected to test.

I finally jerked off a few rounds at him, none over 100 yards, he got away clean, but the memory of that beautiful heavy horned monster standing there a chip shot away haunts me to this day some 40 years later!

Joey

"It's all about knowing what your firearms practical limitations are and combining that with your own personal limitations!"

lang · Oct 27, 2014

LAST EDITED ON Oct-27-14 AT 05:15PM (MST)[p]I'm an archery guy, but the panhandle of Idaho gives us a few days with a rifle after the rifle guys have been chasing everything around for 2 weeks. I rarely if ever see much during these couple of days, and this particular day I didn't get off call till 7 well after sunrise. So I needed to go get a trailcamera off the mountain before the snow got too deep. About 10 miles in a cow rounds the corner in the road...then another and another...about this time I am throwing stuff trying to dig bullets out of a gym bag that was burried under all of my call stuff for work cause I know what is coming. Next thing I know a beautiful 340 heavy 6 point (which is about as big a bullas you'll find in our otc area) comes around the rear of the herd right in the road less than a hundred yards away! By the time I got a shell in and off the road I could just see antlers heading over the ridge.