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?    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.  

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.      

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!"  

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.    

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