Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting You ever shot the "wrong" buck?

I did

I plead the 5th! Lol! One year in my WI deer camp, one of the guys returned to the cabin with a doe asking if anyone had a doe tag as he only had a buck tag. He "explained" that a nice buck was in his sights, but just as he pulled the trigger this doe jumped in front of the buck and took the bullet! Oh boy! Thankfully a doe tag was presented to him making it "legal", but he also wasn't invited back the next year.

Nope, it will start right on time- Dec 1st

This was a very interesting morning. I had a bachelor group of 3 bucks on me and it was just getting light enough to pick the best one when they took off from my clearing and went in the brush. This hog waded out into the clearing and stood there. I had enough light to drop him in my food plot. After the shot, the bucks came across another lane and I shot what I thought was the biggest one. He dropped as well. Then the actual biggest buck stepped out and thrashed on the dead buck for several minutes, tossing him like a ragdoll. I let the bigger one walk (we get only one buck per day), and never saw him again.

I can sympathize. That's prezactly what happened to me in my earlier reference above. Grrrrrrrrrrr.

Oh, yeh. Through out the farms I have trail cams and while doing field work I get to know some of the Whitetail bucks. I had patterned a real nice buck and had a tree stand set up in his wheelhouse. Opening morning I was there and a few does moved thru but no buck. About 11:00 AM I heard a couple grunts then the tink, tink, thud of antlers. Shortly thereafter a big buck came trotting down the hillside to my left that the does came down and I could see enough of him that I was going to pull the trigger. I voice "meh" him and he stopped and I sent a 87 grain .257 bullet.

At the shot a second buck came down the hillside and ran right at me. When he came by me at about 20 yards I could see it was the buck I had patterned. WTF.

I was filled with anticipation climbing out of the tree stand, walked the 80 yards to where the buck was when I shot, found blood after a couple jumps he took and continued on the trail. It wasn't more than 50 yards and there he was. Huge buck, bigger than the one I patterned. Wrong buck but great buck.

Roundoak - something similar. Hunting with my adult son 2 years ago late in season.

I was only going to cull this year after several years in a row of nice ones. Since before season I kept seeing a mature large buck that looked awesome, hi and wide, straight on but was missing a tine or two on one side- genetic not from fighting.

On a foggy morning we saw 'him' trot into a treeline not far from us and I debated if I would take him if he presented. He popped out not 25 yards aside us and stopped cold staring at me perfect broadside when he heard my excited son say, Holy crap Dad shoot this big.....and heard my "pow".

Son decided to film and asked me to tell about the buck on way towards it after I spotted it under a tree . I got there and chuckled and said "well...." discovered it was a big ole symmetrical 10 point - nicest ever for me.

So - wrong buck in reverse story. Deer now watches tv in same room with me.

first deer I ever killed. Shot a nice 8 pt 3 times with my Savage 99 in 250. First shot killed him, but I was to excited to let him fall. I ran to the top of the knoll he had crossed, and saw a nice buck standing there. Dropped him with first shot. walked down there, 2 nice 8 pts laying there. that was back when we got one buck a year. dad was proud to check it for me.

Yes. Big Eddy and Jr, both being 4 bys, once bedded in the shady side of a boulder on the Idaho side of Hells Canyon. Eventually, Jr departed traveling about 500 yds around the end of the ridge. Stalk was on and in about an hour I made it to "peek over rock" that would offer about a 150 yd shot. Pushed the rifle over the rise, and the buck was right where expected. Dropped him, gathered up pack frame and optics, and started the hike over. About half way on the approach, Big Eddy stepped into sight from behind the boulder. Seems in the hour or so I was out of sight, Jr had returned.

There was great temptation to high grade, but likely someone somewhere on the horizon was witnessing the event.

A sometimes hunting partner was on a guided trip, and the guide took him on an extended approach to a fine buck. Guide peeked over, announced that he was still there, the hunter crawled up, and leveled the still bedded buck. A nice 3 by kicked a bit, as the monster rose and went over the rim. Guide was pissed as there was a contracted trophy fee for 4bys but none for 3 bys.

Yep, did it last year.

I was in a treestand, tracking two bucks that were running nose to tail, with the bigger buck following. I knew where they were going to cross a logging road, so I moved my scope ahead of them and waited. In a second, the first deer bolted across the road and then the second deer crossed, I pulled the trigger and down he went. To my surprise, within the second it took them to reach and cross the haul-road, the bigger buck took the lead and I ended up shooting the smaller of the two.

Nothing but love coming from here (and a touch of envy).

Egad! Big pig?, or small buck?

Come to think of it, on a guided hunt in Spain a couple years ago we got into a bachelor herd of Iberian red deer. Looking at them I swore I knew which one the guide said was the biggest bull (buck?), and it sure looked the biggest to me, but it ended up being we were looking at different animals. The one I took ended up being pretty old I was told. The guide said that for whatever reason they tend to loose their second points as they get older. I dunno.

I was happy with him regardless.

Our club allows two bucks per member. About ten years ago on opening day, one of our new members, the brother of one of our current members, was sitting in a tripod stand overlooking a three or four year old cutover. This cutover has some pretty good ridges and deep draws and really good cover for the deer.

That morning he saw a pretty good 8 point about 150 yards away and took a shot. The buck ran over the ridge and disappeared. A few seconds later our guy saw him making his way up the far side of the draw so took another shot. The buck stumbled but continued over the ridge.

Well our guy worked his way down to where the buck was for the first shot and followed blood over the ridge and found a buck just beyond the crest. He got to thinking that he had taken the second shot on a buck going UP the second ridge. Hmmmm?

By that time a couple of guys had worked their way over to him and they went to the spot where buck was for the second shot, found blood and sure enough there was another buck over the next ridge. Doh!

When the two bucks were compared side by side they were practically identical….same body size and the two racks were perfect matches. Possibly brothers. In any event his season was over maybe 15-20 seconds after it started. He was hunting does only for the rest of the year. He was a member for several years but eventually joined another club. On occasion when he comes back with his brother as a guest, that episode always seems to pop up in the conversation. 😁

Better question is who hasn't shot the wrong deer. I had a nice buck in front of me one morning at daybreak and I shot and it took off, walked up to where it stood expecting a blood trail and there lays a spike horn. I think back and only thing I could come up with was the spike was on my near side and had his head turned back to his offside maybe licking himself. No pass through or I might have had 2 and only 1 tag.

Yep, a rag horn 6 pt. that I thought my wife had shot.

I tracked on my hands & knee's for an hour only to find a chunk of leg bone & white hair. Questions resulted in; no way she pulled the shot. I could have retaliated but how do you reason with a faultless, perfect, ahh, woman.

So I tracked some more. Then I saw the 6 pt. I didn't wait to see it limp or anything, just pulled my 44 Blackhawk & put it down. Wrong dang deer, hers still limping away. Sad.

I checked her Rem. 243 with Nosler 95 partitions a few days later. I could have hit a chipmunk with it @ 200.

But did I bring it up?

Yup, wrong deer, it steps out on the cut line doesn’t look that big of a set antlers but really good mass. Boom. Small skinny antlers turned slightly on an angle looked so much better than reality.

Wrong bull as well, see part two or part three of my post in the Africa forum on my 2021 trip to Namibia.

Hunt enough and everyone will have the “wrong one story”

I knew a guy in PENN who shot a buck with a 7RM and killed the doe standing beside the buck also with a pass through, I wasnt there but thats what he told us happened