I have missed 2 with a compound but thank goodness i have not with my long bow. I have not had a big one come by. Here in NC a 140 is a buck of a lifetime to me. Mybe I will get my chance this afternoon. Big bucks and turkeys tear me up.LCH

please dont remind me  , missed just one? Shoot in 30 years of bow hunting  I have missed several  including one just last season..........the horor of it all

It's not a once in a lifetime buck unless it made
you quit hunting. there will be more just stay at
it. good luck.

Shot right over a nice 10pt 2 years ago because I didn't focus on "the spot" and it would of been my best archery buck ever   :mad: .Good thing is I got an even bigger buck 2 weeks ago.
So,like TRAD101 one said,if you continue to hunt then you just might get a crack at another "buck of a lifetime."

All this makes me feel a little better I missed the largest whitetail I have ever shot at this fall in KS. I was on the ground at the time, ticked a barb wire fence and went right over his back. He was with three does that came so close I could of poked there eyes out with my bow.I didn't know if I should laugh or cry I think I did both.I just walked in little circles a quivering all I got to say is what an experience would of like a different out come but that does not happen every day.

To many times.

I missed two chip shots this year.  One decent buck in October and "the buck of a lifetime" on November 12 at 12 yards.  It is truly heart breaking.  I did shoot a mature doe in between the two misses.  I truly feel your pain.  You work soooooo hard for the oppurtunity and then blow it.  Over time the another chance will come.   Hang in there.

Missed a trophy this year in Indiana, low light and 20 yds, if you can't laugh it off and enjoy the encounters and have fun, it becomes work! I hunt to get away from work. 2 days later my friend missed a trophy with a wheelie bow sitting with me...we laughed! I always hunt hard, but purely for personal satisfaction. It even helps the clutch shots, because you are not under any pressure to kill, so you can try and shoot calmly and confidently. Also, shoot lots of does and squirrels, or anything legal that gives you the real life situations in hunting. Practice makes perfect. You will get him, just be patient!

I've had 4 chances at bucks over 150" while hunting with archery tackle and I choked on all 4 of them!  Not to mention a few with a firearm as well!  But man what a rush, and what memories that will be with me until I die or old age gets the best of me.  I beat myself up over them at the time, but now I grin from ear to ear when I think about how close I got.  I know it's just a matter of time before the good Lord blesses me with that once in a lifetime deer I like to think he's only gonna give me one so he's holding out for a 300" for me.  

Ken

13 years old, first day deer hunting ever.  Monster symmetric 10 point with tons of mass.  I wasn't shooting a bow, I was shooting an old marlin 336c in .35 Rem.  I was so cold I was shivering, but that was nothing compared to the shaking that I did when that deer made it's way 300 yards along the edge of a powerline on oak leaves that sounded like corn flakes crackling with the sunlight glinting off of his antlers.  I didn't know it at the time, but I had buck fever bad.  He was 70 yards away and broadside, but the iron sites were going above the deer and below the deer and I tried to time it for the middle.  After the first shot, which I never in a million years would take again, the buck fever was gone.  Unfortunately, so was the deer.  That was November 30, 1981.  For christmas that year, my father bought me my first bow, and Indian Stalker compound that drew 45-55 pounds.  My father said that at 55 pounds, I would have to worry about drawing it back and wouldn't get buck fever.  I don't know if it was the draw weight of the bow, but I started shooting archery with that bow and have never had buck fever since.  I know most of this isn't a trad archery story, but it is part of the pathway that led me here.

Neverr missed, just been caught asleep or with pants down when the big one decides to come around.  Hit a heck of a buck 2008 archery season, day before rifle.  5 X 5 never found him.

Sept. 17 2005 I missed the largest Missouri buck I have ever seen in the woods,,, at 12 steps! Yeah I blew it.

I did miss a huge Kansas buck in November 2007.  

Stay calm, pick a spot and things will work out. Getting close is a memory never forgotten.

John III

Hunted the same buck in OH for 2 seasons , on November 19 1999 I had the 163 inch ten point at 14 yards broadside and I locked up . I could not shoot I vapor locked . How do I know he was 163 inches , the neighbor over there killed him in gun season . I had nicked named him Festus  because he limbed like Festus  on Gunsmoke .

Jack

Bill, I've always wondered about that picture in your avatar.  Cool!

More than once. But it doesn't keep me away.

I missed the biggest deer I've ever seen on the hoof back in 2005.  I saw him again the next day, but he was way too far out to shoot.  This was on public land also.  From what I can remember, it was a heavy massed 12 pt buck.  Oh well, there's always more out there and thats what keeps me coming.

A few years ago I couldn't take my eyes off of a monster 8 pointers rack and accidentally shot through the antlers.

2 weeks later, my dad shot him opening morning in the gun season.....He now is residing in my Dads condo stairway...laughing at me every time I see him!

Not sure it it was "my deer of a lifetime", and I hope it wasn't....but I did miss the biggest buck I've ever shot at...a 14yd. "chip shot" at about a 150" Missouri buck    :( .

Hang in there buddy....time will help you feel a little better!  Just go out and get the next one and you'll "almost" forget all about it      

Until this year, I've botched every shot (4 or 5) I've ever gotten at a decent buck. I missed a big nine point once at twelve yards broadside and unaware. Five minutes later I called in a scrub buck and killed it in the exact same spot I missed the big one. Hopefully I've broken the spell. It's frustrating.

i missed getting a shot on a buck of a lifetime last year. at one time he was 10 yards. long story short i spooked him tring to get a shot on the does he was following. i just did not know he was there until it was too late. i kicked myself in the but a while for that one.

      benji