Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors OT blew it this morning

Biggest miss of my life: classic broadside shot at a motionless buck, 50 yards or less away. Probably the ginormous rack caused the shakes that I can remember to this day, 30 years later. I'll wager it has happened to everybody at least once in their lives.

Dumbest miss of my life: missing a little spikey at around 50 yards also. No buck fever that time. It was a simple matter of the tang sight on the 1899H .22HP having been bent way up causing the poi to be about a foot high at 50 yards. (Note: don't ever remove a butt stock without first removing the tang sight. You may think you can.....)

Bears, they are neat to hunt, I got a couple of trail cams out, more bear pics than buck pics! You will meet him again I'm betting! What color fur? Just Black up here.

Excellent portrayal and all around thread. Really enjoyed the back and forth from each of you. Pretty neat forum.

Excellent portrayal and all around thread. Really enjoyed the back and forth from each of you. Pretty neat forum.

I started bow hunting in '69. The first really 'big' buck I had the opportunity to shoot at was in around 1977. A big ol' slough buck that wandered into my stand area one morning giving me a easy 20 yard shot. I let an arrow fly and it hit the buck in the left shoulder. Sounded like two 2x4's hitting each other. The buck bounded away with that arrow making little penetration, flopping up and down as he ran. Spent the rest of the morning and part of the afternoon trying to track, but no blood trail or body. I, in my 'buck fever' at having the opportunity to shoot at a really nice buck made a fateful error. I was looking at the whole deer, instead of a small spot. Aim small, miss small. Later that fall during the shotgun season, a guy shot him on the opposite side of the slough. A guy I knew told me the buck had a plus sign (+) scar on the left shoulder. Everyone raved that fall of the size and rack of that whitetail. Coulda' been me!!!! Shoulda' taken a couple aspirin that morning to prevent 'buck fever'! I thought I was a seasoned enough bow hunter that 'buck fever' wouldn't effect me, wrong!!!!!

My grandfather who was the best and most experienced hunter I ever knew told me 50 years ago, that anybody that has ever told you they have never missed, hasn't hunted very much...

Yeah! This!!

There are some red ones here, but this one is black.

I'm pretty slow. Bad lungs due to asthma. But I can go a long ways at a walking pace. (I get a lot of exercise up here at 7500' elevation.) I guess my nerves are OK. I don't get buck fever anymore at least. I would sure get it bad when I was younger.

Hopefully this will be ready soon, and I'll hand carry it out to you.

Gary, what happens if you don't? Ken

Everyone has missed. I have a couple of times on nice bucks. I missed a giant bobcat with my bow at 20 yards. I thought it was a yearling deer when I first saw him.

Took my wife this time. Spent the night up there and hunted all day today. Sat what I thought was the likeliest bed until 10:15 am. No bear. Tried a calf elk call, no bear. Got the wind right and moved down the creek bottom 400 yards and got up on the hillside looking down. Used a woodpecker then fawn in distress call and had him in our lap in less than 5 minutes. 60 yards. No love today either. I've decided this is a lucky bear.

Saw a yearling bear this afternoon that went 40' up a tree and relaxed on a branch cluster. I thought bear hunting was hard enough before, but maybe it's because I never thought to check the trees. I'll have to give that a go.

Saw another medium bear this afternoon, then another big one late in the day. By then we were both bushed so we headed home. We spent almost all day in them and my nerves are shot.

Sounds like a good day to me. In the woods, doing what I love with the one I love. Although a trophy would have been a bonus...

Doug

I've missed my fair share over the years. Haven't in a few years now, but I popped off some pretty terrible shots in my late teens-early 20s, before I really disciplined myself on when not to shoot. Managed to shoot right under a deer from 15 yards with a bow once, too 😬

Sorry, Ken. Been off my feed for a couple days.

A bit of lever droop nagged at me so I decided to correct it the day before the season opener. Not wishing to mess with the sight on a carefully sighted-in rifle, I thought I could finagle the butt stock off without disturbing the tang sight, as there was no time to re-sight in. I thought I had successfully accomplished that feat but evidently I didn't. I evidently pushed the tang sight upwards ever so slightly in the process and in the excitement of day-before-hunting-season last minute prep, I didn't notice it. The proof in the pudding was the clean miss of what should've been a chip shot. Upon examination I saw my error. So, right there in the middle of the deer woods at 7:30AM I re-sighted in the rifle after bending the tang sight down into approximate position with my thumb. I was not saying many cheerful words, if you catch my drift.

Note: orange wrappers off of Reese's candy bars make for pretty efficient targets when impaled on a tree trunk.

I think my wife got a few seconds of video of one of them. I'll try to get it posted tonight.

My hunting buddy, John,Said he found his cure for buck fever. Letting big ones walk. A couple years ago I shot my heaviest buck ever, 196 on the scale, after dressed. When he walked up the hill, stopped and scratched his hip with the tips of his tines, I got to shaking so bad, I knew I was going to blow the shot. He browsed around for a bit and I settled down enough to get the shot off. If I didn’t still get that excited now and then I think I’d quite hunting.

Didn't have time to get buck fever. He was going fast, headed for the thick brush and was close. Used my 99K 300. Bang, flop. Should have the head in a few weeks.

That's one nice rack David!!!!!! Bet the body looked as impressive.