Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Bucks that still haunt you

Makes sense to me, hell we don't even trust people from Texarkana.

i just told this story to a buddy the other day. about 20 years ago i was hunting in this river bottom and slid my way down a cliff to a little area along side the river. it was about 100 yards wide and 300 yards long. bordered on 3 sides by cliffs and one side by the river. it was on a bend of the river that catches all the flood debris and is choked with logs and shoulder high brush. but there were trails all through it and it was full of huge rubs. i was working my way through looking for a spot to set up and jumped a buck out of its bed at about 20 yards. i just saw it for a few seconds but it was by far the biggest buck i have ever seen in the wild. lots of points, wide and high rack with a lot of mass. i saw it running through the bottoms and could just see its head. that was one for the books. the problem with hunting this area was the only way to get it out would have involved a boat and the nearest roads were about a mile upstream and downstream. and even getting to the place was a long hike with multiple steep climbs. i still toy with the idea of dropping my old john boat in there before season and camping out for a few nights. but thats not likely to happen.

I have a big list. Pictures of a couple, but most were before I started using trail cameras several years ago.

Here's one. The only main frame 12 I've ever encountered at the house. Tons of pics over two years, but I only saw him once. He was killed about a mile from the house...



I had another double beam buck that was around for a while. He was a true pig, mega mass and lots of length. I'd never seen the deer or knew he existed until a farmer ran over his shed right in front of my house. Punctured his tire and the shed never broke. He showed me the shed and my jaw dropped! The next October I walked out of my front door and the deer was in my yard! Never got a picture, never saw him again. Nobody around me killed him -- legally at least. True 200" deer and he disappeared like he never existed.

Pretty much what I said too.

Launched two arrows at 51 and 52 yards at this dudes twin brother the year after I got this one, less than a mile apart, except that he was in the velvet! What a pair they would have made on the wall. That dude jumped the string so bad it was laughable.

My backyard [img:center][/img] [img:center][/img]

A big 9 point that I had at 15 yards when an unseen branch deflected my arrow. He ran 10 more yards and stopped and my second arrow was deflected. It was very thick where I was hunting.

Lol...bad thing is, my daddy's family on his momma's side are from Arkansas. But daddy was born and raised here in LA and always told me you could bring a girl from Arkansas here to LA, but you could never take a girl from LA to Arkansas...lol.

Please...no hate mail. I never took him seriously!

I'm older and probably funny.

I don't have any to talk about. I used to have a few, but then I realized it really doesn't matter and I could care less if I ever shoot another one.

That said the less I care, the better I must hunt because I've killed ones I never thought I'd kill.

But I"m to the point of if its meant to be, it'll happen.

Some nice pics on this thread though.

Southwest Oklahoma. I was on a slight rise glassing a creek bottom several hundred yards to the north.
The wind was probably 40mph and I either must have heard something, or just sensed it.
I turned around and made eye contact with a buck directly behind me, maybe 20 yards away. For a brief second it was like time stood still. He whirled and ran in an instant, and I just watched- my gun was on the ground with my pack a few feet away.
I swear he was at least 24" wide, with long high tines. I'd say he was 30" wide, but don't want to be accused of exaggeration .
I've never seen a buck before, or since, as magnificent as that one.

Two of them. First one I never saw, but I've never seen so many large rubs on cedars as there was in this one thicket. Huge scrapes, and neighbor had seen a big buck there. So, what do I do on opening day.....shot the first buck I saw, a little 7 pointer. Found a shed the following year, 6 points, and after scoring one side, deer would probably have gone around 170. The other...I was walking through a little woods, right by a road, and jumping a buck was the last thing on my mind. Up jumped one of the biggest deer I've ever laid eyes on. It was thick cover, and I was packing a scoped 270. I got a shot off, but missed. Looked around, and found a ton of sign, and figured that buck was living there. Hunted the woods the remainder of the season, but never saw him again.

The second buck, the one with the wide spread, add some mass, and you have "Old Blunt Toes." When I first saw him, he was about 3 yrs. old based on his body mass and 34 wide X 22 high, four on each side. Tried to find him or fresh sign for the next 3 years. Never found either.
A good friend ran an intense survey of the Desert Bighorn living in that area. Said he found his tracks, but never saw him. In spite of covering the area on the ground and in the air with helicopters.
He finally got a video of him from a helicopter a year or two later. 7-9 points on a side and about 37 inches wide. I kept looking for him or his very distinctive tracks. Found nothing but a few old tracks.
Last year I found the tracks left by the one I wounded and lost in 2014. He's still alive. Lost seven pounds in three weeks looking for him. All I found were old tracks. That one was 33-34 wide and half that high with four points on a side.
Then there is the one I was shown a picture of at a water source while he was in velvet... Ever see a picture of a buck that would go well over 40 inches wide ? E

I've had several, but the one that irks me the most happened during muzzleloader 3 or 4 years ago. I'd gotten the traditional bug, and had a 54 caliber Lyman Deerstalker that was wicked scary accurate, so I just knew I was good to go. Opening morning, one of the biggest bucks I've ever seen, before or since, stopped about 40 yards from me. He was at LEAST a 10 pointer, and likely a 12. I put the sights behind his shoulder, squeezed the trigger, and was greeted by the pop of the percussion cap only going off . As he ran off, I swear he was laughing........

I was already so hot I couldn't see straight, but recapped it, and picked out a spot on a tree, pulled the trigger.......... and BOOM! It was all I could do to keep from wrapping that rifle around the nearest tree. Anyway, I took it home, threw it in the closet, and went straight to the local gun shop and bought a brand new inline. I killed 3 other deer with it that year, but never saw Mr. Big again.

As a footnote, to illustrate the brutality of women, my wife STILL brings that up, and laughs.................

You didnt snap that 2nd picture in the missouri breaks. Also would you like to see pics of his shed antlers?

AND don't think an inline won't not fire at times... or a centerfire rifle even.... its not the gun, the deer was not destined for your gambrel IMHO.

I was wondering about that second pic.


Couldn't imagine seeing a buck that big standing still.



If you don't mind me asking what is the story on that buck?

Uh oh.

That buck lives in SW wyoming. That picture was taken long after hunting season had been closed. If the OP indeed saw this buck in the missouri breaks that would be the farthest migration recorded of a mule deer to date. Impressive to say the least.

What year did you take that pic?? And where did you take it??

Thanks, Tz. That made me laugh out loud. Dayom. I wish you'd have done as your dad said. You now know, Father Knows Best.