Trad Gang

I know we all have them, the one you wish you had to do all over again. For some maybe a choke in a big tournament for others maybe on the big one. Just curios to see.

4 years ago when i held a big hunt on the mounatin i had a doe at 7 yards, shot right over her back!!!! that would have been an AWESOME time for my first trad deer amoung friends.

Just one, Preston?  :dunno:  You sure know how to make it hard on a fellow.
Bill

Last year i shot right over a doe. 1 for 3 now and i have only shot at 2 deer.  :dunno:

Just started this past season.  No shots yet on deer.  But, I missed a Coyote last year at a slow trot.  Just didn't follow through.  I HATE YOTES! Nothing but turkey egg and poult snatchers.

Can't think of any. Don

My first trad kill, which was a button buck.  I burned a hole down between his shoulders and I guess he was wonderinfg where the burning was coming from.  About the same time he looked up and caught my broadhead in the eye.  Nothing feels lower than watching your orange crested  arrow flagging through the woods.  I did track him down though.  Can't you tell I'm new here.  No veteran would admit to this.  Ha! Ha!

The gemsbok I shot in Namibia 3 years ago.
I'd just shot a springbok (literally 2 or 3 minutes previously) & still had the shakes. I shot too low & too far back.
Tracked the animal for 2 straight days with a pair of Bushmen & never did find it.
That was the one animal I'd gone over to shoot, too.

In 2002 I missed a 360" bull in Idaho. Hunted him for 6 days in different drainages and on the 6th day I finally got a shot and over-neathed him. Biggest Bull I've had in bow range.

Last week I had squared up on an 80 yard target. I bet if I shot at it again, I'd 10 ring it.

Yeah right, i'd miss by a little again.   :readit:    :biglaugh:

I started out with 6 arrows and I was down to 3. Picturing the live animal and the spot in my mind, I shot over my 3x3ft target and thought my arrow had nestled nicely in the weeds. I pulled it out and it hit a rock, snapping the arrow shaft above the tip. Now I have two arrows. Not really the heart-wrenching "I missed the big one" tale, but still a sad day. My wife makes fun of me. Sad.... Sad.

The one I did not take and wish I did. Many Many years ago when first started bow hunting, There was a big snow storm in the second week of October and had to get out of the tree stand with the wind and whiteout. Snow was coming down big and fast so I got under a big balsam the branches were being weighed down and was nice and cozy. After about 45 minutes later I heard something to the rear. Turning ever so slowly trying to keep quit out of the corner of my eye was a giant long tined 8 point picture perfect. The deer moved right behind me at 5 yards and I could not get turned around to make the shot to take the offering and missed out due to not being prepared as they do not pose for you. To remember that lesson so long ago no matter how long you are in stand/ground hunting you must be ready to be in position to take that shot or chalk it up to another memory. Being prepared is not only physically but mentally prepared even though the sights, sound and smells of the wild are intoxicating remember you are not just out for a sight seeing trip. The hunt is a big part of why and how you go about it but if your goal is to take some food than get ready/be prepared. Every traditional game taken is a trophy and mounted on the end of a fork makes those memories with a smile.

I have yet to get a deer with my Trad gear but am more determined every year. I have missed a few and then there is one that should have been the first! Just a young spike but great table fare and trad trophy in my eyes but I think I had to watch him to long and at 15 yards only to blow the shot. When I say blow the shot, I blew the shot bad and watched that deer take off with my arrow, an ole Bill Stroupe cedar! I found the arrow 2 years later actually while looking for blood from a buddies pig that he had shot. Always wished I could take that shot again because I burned a hole in him where to shoot but I lost focus and just let that ole cedar fly!!

It was the one that i never let go, on the biggest buck I've ever had infront of me! He was broadside 30 yards, but, if he followed the other deer infront of him he was soon to give me a 15 yard quartering away shot!  Guess what, he didn't, from that point on he only got further away.  I snort wheezed, grunted, rattled, took a whole week off of work and hunted 7 days straight in the same general area and never laid eyes on the deer again! Should of let it fly!  As my dad says "you can't kill'em if ya don't shoot!"  :banghead:

4 years ago I lost a big bull elk in NM that and  big whitetail at home     Worst year of my hunting life    But I ve had a great 4 years since    it happens to everyone

I can still see it.  CAnoe trip into a remote spot.  First time in a tree stand.  Nice 8-point walks at me from behind and offers no shot.  Eventually he walks right under my stand and before he can cross the path I took in I put a Sasquatched tipped cedar arrow right behind his shoulder just to the left of his spine.  He drops in a heap.  

As I am lowering my bow om the safety line he starts to struggle and kick leaves and eventually gets to his feet and runs off with 20" of my shaft sticking out his back.  

I searched for the rest of that day and two more and never found him.  If I had that shot to take over I'd have waited for a better angle or just let him go his way.    :banghead:

A ten yard shot on a gob two years ago.

Got only feathers and I don't even remember the shot. I don't believe that is exactly what is meant by shooting instinctive.

I work hard at sticking to my routine these days.

I missed a big gobbler at about 15 feet.Id like that one back.
Missed a big 5x5 in colorado one year from about the same distance. He was going up a steep drainage and I took the shot while his leg was forward in between two aspens that were about 6 inches apart. Dead centered the one aspen just perfect for a heart shot. His next step he would have been in the clear...why I didnt wait Ill never know.
SL

The one that is burned deep into my brain never to be forgotten is a 320+ class bull elk at 20 yards in Colorado.  Never picked a spot and watched helplessly as my arrow sailed 6 inches over his back.  It continues to haunt me, and probably always will, but my life goal is to atone for that miss.

This past two seasons ive hunted my Godfathers 100 acre farm extremely hard.  Probably close to 60 days total in the stands.  This past year was especially hard.  There are alot of big bucks in the area but nothing had materialized until November 12th.  

It was really warm and being that the next day was opening day of shotgun (which is equivalent to a major holiday on the farm) i decided not to go too deep in the woods so i just sat down in thick cover at the edge of a field adjacent to some big woods.  

It was a last minute decision as far as sitting on the ground went and at first i thought it was a bad idea. i had literally 2 shooting lanes with one of them being an 8 yard shot behind me into the timber line and the other an opening into the hay/alfalfa field.

From the minute a sat down i heard bucks runnin does in the woods and behind me, i just couldnt see a thing due to me being so low in thick brush.  For about 30 min i heard a big buck grunting and running around.....constant chills down my back.  

i decided to move 3 yards or so deeper into the tree line in case he came into the field. the sound of my breaking some twigs must of brought him out of the timber to check it out because before i knew it he was standing in the weeds against the timber about 75 yards away.

Wouldnt you know it my phone starts vibrating.  It was my work and since i was "on call" i had to answer.  I whispered to my manager that i was hunting and i couldnt come in. She was pissed so i turned off my phone. lol.  

The buck just stood there then without warning sprinted over to me at about 12 yards. He stopped in my previousl shooting lane that i had before i had retreated a little more into the trees.  He slowly walked along the edge, maintaining his 12 yard distance and when he hit my new lane i rasised my bow, grunted, and let go. I saw him return to the woods with over half my arrow in him.

To finish my story (sorry its so long), we gave him about 2 hours and fit the blood trail.  We trailed good blood for 100 yards or so and found my arrow soaked about 3/4 way up with blood.  For the next 4 hours we tracked spots of blood for about 600 yards up a hill.  we gave up at almost midnight being that we were in someone elses woods and didnt want to intrude on their gun opener.  With opnening gun weekend in full swing i was never able to look anymore. i was so sick.

after further review we all dtermined that i hit him in the shoulder and it glanced up through the shoulder muscle.  There is no was a deer could go over half a mile if it was hit in the lungs, especially up a decently steep hill.

note to self: MAKE SURE TO PICK A SPOT

the deer was a 10pt that would conservatively go between 120-130 making him the biggest deer id ever shot at.

sorry for the novel but i had some time and was feeling like writing

-John

2 years ago spot and stalk on a big muley right after a rain storm and he was out feeding....snuck right up on him broadside at 20yds, right over his back.....kills me!!!

For me it was the really nice buck I double lungged this past season. Hit him perfect left/right but real high. No blood trail & 1.5" rain storm that night. Looked all day the next day. Nothing. I guess 5 yards was just to close.

                        :banghead:

Very first shot I ever took at a deer. OLD 9 pointer down in south Texas from 10 yards...dead on broadside and went right over his back about an inch. Deer walked off. He didn't even flinch. I should have reloaded and nailed him.

Replayed that one about a million times....

in 2001 the shot I didnt take at a world class woodland bou in Newfound, the shot over a P & Y Bou in Quebec in 2006, the monster 12 point non typical buck in Iowa in  2008 that I knocked hair off of

Two years ago, we were pushing a narrow strip of woods. I was on the ground, on stand hoping to ambush a deer. All of a sudden a buck came running over a small ridge. I had to lean out of the way to not get run into. I instinctively drew to anchor and released as he went by. I think I hit him on the leg bone, because the arrow bounced back and lay one step away from me.
Literally a couple inches back and he would have been mine, I think.

A few months back I was shooting at about 30 yds at a coffee to-go top with a fellow trad gang member. We shot one after the other and matched each others shot for 3 shots honing in, at first nicking the top, then nailing it. It was sweet sharing the experience - and uncanny how our shots were matched.

Shot a propane cylinder 2 years ago in the garage, I'd like to redo that one an hit the target this time.

Last fall I was getting down from my treestand. Soon as my foot hit the ground, a doe came hauling butt right in front of me. She took off then I heard grunt..grunt...grunt.
A MASSIVE buck that had at least 8 points came bounding through the swamp and stopped 12yds away. He had a very thick chest and shoulders along with the headgear.
When he stopped, he looked at me with this very intimidating look I had never seen from a deer before. Almost like a, "I'm going to hurt you" look. Buck fever got the best of me and I shot right over his back!!! A squirrel at that distance would have been in trouble but I managed to miss that swamp monster.  :knothead:  

Here are a couple misses on video that should have never been!!!!
This first one is called, "Branch Attack"
 (http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g128/ad2877/videos/th_0013.jpg) (http://s55.photobucket.com/albums/g128/ad2877/videos/?action=view¤t=0013.mp4)

Next one is called "Two for None"
 (http://i1232.photobucket.com/albums/ff369/arwin29/videos/th_010.jpg) (http://s1232.photobucket.com/albums/ff369/arwin29/videos/?action=view¤t=010.mp4)

Hmmmm, I can remember a certain moose... come to think of it there was this incredible bedded caribou that I stood beside with bow ready for about an hour too.... or maybe that old bear with only stubs for ears... oh yeah, that dark heavy beamed ten pointer that I watched make a scrape was really nice too.... hmmmm... tough question.

But then, what the heck, on the positive side, I know for sure that there will be less of those shots in the future since I passed the "half way mark" quite a while back. LOL

I took a shot at a doe in Vermont years ago, straight down.Just missed the spine and only took out one lung the deer went a very long ways and rain over night washed away the blood trail...Lost it:(  I felt awful, I've never taken another shot where I could not take out both lungs.....hey this is my 100th post I think. finally something good came from that shot.

A teenager....a black widow recurve.....a beautiful Alaskan barren ground bull caribou at under 10 yds......an arrow shot harmlessly under the vitals and buried in the tundra.....nope, I don't know nothin' about it!

 :rolleyes:

If I could redo any of them, it would be the one where I killed my first buck with a bow.  I should have invited my dad along on that outing so he could have seen it happen.

The one when my Bro-in-law missed his 6pt elk in '03. Sure wish he had it in his living room. I got my 5pt that trip and I am "camp boy" till he does.
ALL camp duty till he connects--thats been for the past 8 years!

The one in which I shot the biggest whitetail buck I've ever drawn on... in the antlers.

Hmmmm.....this is a great question....one I'll have to think about....if I could have ONE back.

Oh, it wouldn't be a target shot I can tell ya that....

1996 first arrow of season. Still a haunting day.

OK...didn't take near as long as I thought.

It was a shot that I actually have no regrets on still to this day.  The arrow went exactly where it was suppose to go, right where I was looking....I was evidently looking in the wrong place.

Black Bear in the Cohutta Wilderness.  I can still see it plain as day.  Hi-backed flo-yellow nanners stobbing in a 250+ pounder at 12 yards.  I was just looking too far forward.  Like to have that shot a couple of inches to the right.

Yep...that's the one.

Doe I shot at 22yds uphill went just over her back,I was pumped and didn't pick a spot.

I have a few but the one that sticks in my mind was a P&Y class 12 point whitetail in 1972. I watched him bed down with about a dozen smaller bucks and does. Then the whole procession of deer got up, turned 45 degrees and were going to pass my tree stand. I had chip shots at some real nice bucks but the big one was at the rear. He passed by about 25-30 yards and I took my shot with a 50# Howatt Super Diablo. The shot looked GREAT but I heard a loud crack and I hit him too far forward in the shoulder bone. I saw the arrow flip out and when I recovered it it had only penetrated about 1/2 the length of the Bear Razorhead. What a great buck.

Opening morning of NY's '96 southern zone.  Had a beauty of either a 9 or 10 pt(he had 5 pts on his left side) at about 20-25 yrds.  He came in at dark and hung around well into shooting light. I shot under him, total miss.

Last year. A nice buck walked right in from my blind side (you know, the direction their NOT suppose to come from). He had a destination in mind cause he was walkin at a brisk pace. I scrambled for the bow and actually was able to stop him at about 25 yds with a very poor imitation of a doe bleat. My rushed shot went perfectly under his chest.

I was able to take a doe about a half hour later and am extremley thankful to the huntin gods for that but the sight of my arrow passing under his chest and him trottin away will stay with me.

The first deer, a PY caliber white-tail, I shot at as a Left-Handed shooter in 1997. As a RH shooter with left dominant eye I always closed the left eye to shoot. When I switched to LH shooting I began shooting with both eyes open. This buck traveled a fenceline, jumped to my side and walked within 15 yards of my tree. I shot about 12" to the right of where I was looking--into the dirt in front of the buck. After he walked off I tried another shot to see what happened -- I closed the left eye -- oops.

I cant even talk about it 380 at 15yds

10 pt. two years ago during the rut. Was coming to engage another buck coming from the other direction but not yet visible. This dark horned marsh buck offered me a 10 yd broadside shot and completely unaware of my presence. I didn't focus on the spot, shot about 8"s high. still though I got offside lung. Jumped him at 75yds after 2hr. wait, lot's of blood both sides. Two days of searching never found him. Maybe only 1" lower and he would have been down. Think about it all the time but has helped me focus since then.

My biggest buck to date, last year two days before gun season Nov 14th, grunted him in to 18 yards in a tree didnt bend at the waist just too high and never found him. (140-150 CLASS)It still haunt's me, ruined the rest of the season. Talk about taking the wind out of your sail.

QuoteOriginally posted by Elk whisperer:
I cant even talk about it 380 at 15yds

:eek:  

That one would be tough to think about I tell ya...tough!!!

my first year of traditional hunting.  My college roommate and I were doing a nudge through a big crp field.  We had this deer figured out and flipped a coin to see who got to nudge and who got to shoot.  I won.  I nestled up against a large oak tree and waited.  About ten minutes he came lopeing around the end of the of finger and right into my lap.  He caught me draw and started to bolt past me.  I swung and had the windage perfect but just shot right under him at about 8 yards.  I wanted to puke.

I have taken exactly one reverse cant shot on a deer and man do I wish I could get a mulligan.  Well, really I wish I had practiced that shot more.

It was my first time sitting on a tripod stand.  A small bodied 14 point buck I had seen the previous two days from the ground presented a shot.  But somehow I managed to get the pants of my ASAT 3D suit snagged and I couldn't turn to take a shot.  The platform of the tripod was too small for me to stand on so I was confined to the swivel chair.  So I waited and the buck circled around me and I was able to twist my body far enough around for a reverse cant shot.  Which I promply buried in the ground about an inch behind his front hoof.

The next day a 13 year old kid shot him with a 30-30.

Reverse cant?  More like reverse can't for me.

QuoteOriginally posted by treetoppredator:
It was the one that i never let go, on the biggest buck I've ever had infront of me! He was broadside 30 yards, but, if he followed the other deer infront of him he was soon to give me a 15 yard quartering away shot!  Guess what, he didn't, from that point on he only got further away.  I snort wheezed, grunted, rattled, took a whole week off of work and hunted 7 days straight in the same general area and never laid eyes on the deer again! Should of let it fly!  As my dad says "you can't kill'em if ya don't shoot!"   :banghead:  

but you can wound em' if you do!  if you were comfortable shooting him at 30 yards you probably would have. imagine how bad you would have felt if u took the shot at 30 and paunched him. imo u did the right thing.   :clapper:  

gr8 thread

Veterans Day 2001, I had the opportunity to hunt a property due to an injury to the gentlemen who normally hunted it. It is now one of my properties. First time in and only going by a hand drawn map, I walk in at 1:15 and after a bit find the stand marked on the map. Just climbed up got settled in and turn to see 2 fawns scoot across a field in a bottom 150 yards away, they were running scared, next out comes a big doe and she is looking back. Behind her comes a 140" ten pt., she does some zig-zagging and loses the big guy. I take out the grunt and hit hard and loud!! I know he hears it and starts to come but I lose him ashe is crossing a creek about 100 yards away. Next thing I know he is 25 yards below me and peaking over an edge looking for the source of the grunt, I hit the grunt again and here he comes, at 21 yards I let it go, right over his back. He runs out to 50 yards and I grunt him again and to my amazement comes back, this time to about 25, you guessed it!! I missed again, still sick about it to this day!! Shawn

It would be the 10pt. I shot over in '07.He was about 10 yds and it was a steep shot from a treestand and I didn't pick a spot or looked at the top of his back at the last second.Better a clean miss than a bad hit but I still kick myself.

Started trad this past season.  Only have one shot on game under my belt, and it's a re-do.

Watched an amazing scenario of predator and prey unfold before my eyes one AM with a coyote busting up 3 turkey and chasing off two deer that were headed my way.

The coyote came right up the path toward me.  I figured I'd give it a whirl.  I let go on a quartering toward me shot while he was on the move.  My arrow struck a branch and the rest is history.  Had I waited he would've likely made a turn and been broadside at less than 10 yards.  Made a novice / nervous mistake and rushed the opportunity.  That entire AM was amazing.

A couple of weeks later my wife had her first ever shot opportunity using any type of weapon.  She had a K-mag in hand and the arrow fell off the shelf on an 8pt at 17 yards.  That's her re-do.  That was awesom though too.  We were together in a blind that AM and he just appeared.

Hmmm there are several I would redo if I could.

Last year there was the shot of a life time that did not work out. Twelve point perfect angle...very close range...I picked a spot everything seemed perfect.  

I was using a new arrow holder with an Easton Axis and it on my RER.  I picked a spot drew back and the arrow holder would not turn loose of the arrow.  

I like to use arrow holders on bows in Missouri because the wind can pick up just about any time...it's nice to have the bow hanging next to me with the arrow on the shelf.  But I learned a lesson the hard way and from now on now will always take the holder part off the arrow before I draw.

When I told my husband he couldn't believe it until I showed him.  This arrow holder was rated for small carbons too.

The shot at the 170" + this season at 20 yards. Side hill to side hill, miss judged the range and shot over his back. Was a real heartbreaker! That is a really tough shot for me.

Only shot at one deer so far and its a redo.She came in and at 20 yards I let go only to see her run off with my arrow.Its amazing how much slower a arrow from a longbow is compared to a compound.But I would rather be shooting my longbow or recurve anytime now.Sold my compound and went all trad.

two years ago I shot a 6x6 elk in the shoulder blade at 5 yards out of a tree stand (10 high).  If I could do that one over I'd aim about 4 inches lower.  (or just have him stand there and take it like a man instead of all that string jumping crap)

McAlester ammo depot,170 class 12 point at 8 yards,bottom limb tip hit tree limb still wake up in middle of night SCREAMING

2 years ago I spent a couple months patterning this buck day only to miss him opening day first sit in the tree... 12yds right over his back!!!

(http://i904.photobucket.com/albums/ac248/TmPotter47/trailcam4-1.jpg)

I sure would liked to have that shot to do over again  :knothead:  

Tracy

Last Fall I was sneaking into my favorite spot and bumped some quail. They flew away into the direction I was headed and I should have stayed put for 15-20 minutes and let things settle down. I didn't and within 50 yards I saw a beautiful buck who was looking dead at me and he bolted before I could even get an arrow drawn back. The quail had alerted him and he busted me big time. I can't help but think if I would have been more patient and waited a bit, I could have snuck in and seen him first. that's why they call it "Hunting" and not "Getting". Still an amazing and rewarding sight to see, so like anytime in the field it was a "Great Day".

5x5 bull at 27 yards.....sheesh. I take that shot back every day.

Mine came on a Maine moose hunt. A young bull came in to the calls on a woods road to a whopping 4 yds.!! Was kneeling on the roadside slightly downhill from him as he left the road broadside. I dutifully waited for the near leg to swing forward and buried the arrow at an upward angle about 8" up, tight behind the leg. Sure it was a heart shot - proved to be brisket. Learned much about moose anatomy that day.

If I could have one shot to do over, it wouldn't be one that I took. Avery good friend of mine, whom I invite to my place every year....Had a shot at a 150+ class WT @ 17 yards a couple of years ago. The shot was about 4" over his back! I was sittin' in a ground blind about 40 yards aways. When Bill took the shot and missed, I saw his quiver come flying from the tree stand, then his fanny pack! I was waitin' for the bow to be next!

I've had a few but found that I learned something from ea. experience that made me a better hunter.

But, the one that I really hope to get a second chance on is the 2006 do it yourself trip w/ 3 friends to the Haul Road. I had a Caribou Bull (not huge or even real big but still a do it yourself caribou in Alaska!) at 25 yds broadside. Rushed the shot and put it 2' over his back. Just writing this brings back that damn "inner ouch" feeling.

3 years ago went right under a 130 class piebald at 13 yards. Would really like to try that one again.

Painful memories, huh?

My story:

Had a very, very big eight point magically appear 15 yards downwind. Hurried needlessly and shot under him. I felt physically ill.

Did not nock another arrow and proceeded to hang my head and pout. Two minutes later I hear a guttural grunt northwest of my position. Two does, followed by a spike raced past. Forty yards behind is the big eight.

"You messed up this time. You are not gonna get by me twice," I thought. HA!

Missed the same buck twice in two minutes.

Hopefully, not my next.

I had a big non typical whitetail come by me one morning at a fast walk and about 25 yards out. I shot right in front of his chest, if I had it to do again I wouldn't have taken the shot . I was confident to 20 yards , but 25 was too far for me. I missed him clean, but I learned a lesson that morning!

14 yards- 175"+ Non-typ buck.  Was sure I had him. Checkmate!!!  As I drew I looked at the whole shoulder. . . over his back!  I will forever be sick.     :banghead:    

The 5x5 Roosevelt Bull I shot under last fall... I had him quickly figured at about 23-26 yards.. His size and the size of his rack, was very decieving!!! After pacing it off while going to retrieve the arrow that had just passed 1/2" or so under his chest on a slightly down hill shot... I took 32 long paces to get to it.   :banghead:    

Gene   :rolleyes:

July 2003, Limpopo Province, South Africa. My first day in a blind in Africa. I had been watching two kudu bulls out in the bush and the bigger one finally came in. He gave me a broadside shot and I hit him low in the brisket.He was farther away than I thought.

Monsterous woodland caribou in Newfoundland. Went against all my instincts and practice and took a 38 yard shot at a moving animal. Never found him, the guide wanted to move on the next day to hunt another. I said no, my tag was filled, tipped him and looked for my animal the remaining three days of the hunt. Rained every day, blood was long gone.

 HARD lesson for me.

Last year was my first year using my recurve all season.  I still have my compound but was hoping to use my recurve on a doe early for my first traditional harvest.  Well instead of a mature doe I had this 5 1/2 yr old 8 pointer that probably grosses 150's.  I have watched him for the past two years.  The good part was my first shot went exactly where I was looking as it should since I shoot instictively.  The part that I would like to redo is to stare at his shoulder and not his rack!  It rattled around and lodged behind the other side.  The best part is he ran past my trail camera and gave me this picture as my only trophy.  I am still waiting on my first traditional harvest.

(http://i1139.photobucket.com/albums/n550/paperenginner/MattsMiss640x480.jpg)

1994 Archery elk season.

I had been shooting compounds and was going to switch to traditional.  I ended up drawing an archery elk tag and fell back on my compound.

What a fantastic season, hunt of a lifetime.  I had a raghorn elk broadside at 12 yards.  I muffed the shot, went high and spent three days looking for him.  Never found him.

So my redo would have been to switch traditional and have that first Browning recurve in my hands at the moment of truth.  I still remember that dang pin buried on the spot tight and low behind the front leg.  I can't figure out how I shot 18" high.  

After the elk season I switched to tradtional and have not looked back.  Just wish I would have had the confidence to convert a couple months earlier.

Jackson county Michigan...November 5th, 1995.

I had shared permission with my brother in law on a small tract of private land. 20 acres.

I was on the ground in some thick stuff near a deep drainage ditch. Soybeans, and corn EVERYWHERE around us. I could see across a field to a woodlot, and I could actually see another bowhunter in a treestand on the neighborring property.

A doe walks out of the timber right under the bowhunter in the treestand. I actually WATCHED him draw and miss the doe. She bolts and runs straight towards me. Suddenly, a mass of deer hide and antlers busts out of the woodlot, and is following the doe. They are on the beaten path through the soybeans that leads straight to me.

The doe jumps the fence, goes down into the deep ditch and seems to wait for the buck. She is ten yards from me. The buck follows. They come up and filter past me.

Using my Super Diablo, I put my Zwickey tipped arrow through both lungs. When he spun, I could see blood flying. Back down into the ditch, over the fence, and about eighty yards into the field...he goes down. The other "bowhunter" is almost already to "my" deer. To my surprise, he begins screaming that I cannot come onto that property to get my deer, as he continues all the way to the fence. The beans are too tall to see the deer, but I know right where it is. I just can`t go get it. Physically, the "bowhunter" would NEVER be able to stop me from getting my deer, but I decided to use my head and do it the "right" way.

Instead of causing a problem, I decided to call the county sherrif for help. On the phone I was told that I indeed cannot retrieve my deer without the landowners permission. The next day a Conservation officer responded, and I was able to finally get ahold of the landowner and DID get permission. The deer was gone.

That is the ONE shot I wish I could redo, and turn it into the shot that never was.

Kingwood was being developed (not one house built as yet, 1977?) & my bud was surveying through the Big Thicket. Deer everywhere he said. LSS, before daylight we started walking down a survey road w/barbed wire fence border. Stopped & set my portable stool 10-15 yards off the road behind a big bush not expecting to see much & not even trying to be quiet. A flicker above my eyes (my head was down) revealed a BIG buck walking away other side of the fence. Soon, he turned & walked straight towards me to the fence. Heart was beating jackhammers! That's where I saw his Monster rack! Bosses like BB bats. Easy largest I've ever shot at. Like a small elk. He went UNDER the fence onto the lane broadside at 13 yards. Drew the alum arrow. It squealed when drawn on the hard plastic covered flipper rest. WHAT..RUBSNme!!? Hit anchor & released what I knew to be perfect heart shot. This Monster deer dipped 2' easy completely to the ground! His torso actually hit the dirt! The arrow cut tophairs just high over his dipped backbone at 13 yards! Impossible! He snorted, farted, & high stepped (not ran) straight away down the lane quartering away. Could have shot again...didn't. Too flustered. Made every mistake in the book. TYL for this experience!

I shot over a huge 4x4 heavy horned tall tined bull elk at 30 yards with my compound in 2000 and still get pissed thinking of it. He was walking and i rushed the shot.