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

Yup. My buddy and I were watching two mule deer bucks, almost identically shaped antlers, but one was clearly larger. They were bedded down. When they stood up and started moving around, I got a clear shot and took it.

Then my buddy asked me why I'd shot the smaller one... Oh crud!

Ah well, I was happy with the one I got anyway.



Guy

Yep. Early in my hunting career…first time to see a youngish buck chasing a little early. He came in hot with his head down and I thought he was way bigger than he was. Learned a big lesson about ground shrinkage when I walked up to him.

Nope. But I have low standards. I've never killed a deer I wasn't proud of.

Moose.

I was going back in before daylight one morning, to camp and hunt over the weekend, when I heard a bull calling, "Thwup, thuwp, thwup". One can make this call with a metal can and string devise, but that's the only time I ever heard a moose make it, but I'd done my homework and knew what it was.. It was coming my way, and getting light, so I took my pack off, sat on it, chambered a 210 NP round in the .338WM rifle, and waited.

First a couple cows traversed an opening on a small ridge about 100 yards away, followed by a legal bull, long enough for i.d. not long enough to then shoot I pulled up on the next small (really small!) opening and waited. The two cows came through, and what I THOUGHT was the same bull. I shot, the moose all bolted. Next I saw was the two cows and my bull bolting through the next and larger opening. The bull stopped behind a clump of brush but there was no way out for him that I would not get a shot when he left , so I waited for him to go down, which I expected momentarily, or for the 2nd shot opportunity

Then I heard thrashing and kind of bubble-breathing back toward where I'd first fired. "What the hell did I shoot?" About that time the brush-hidden bull moved out and I got another look at him - he looked the same as the first bull I'd looked at.

"WHAT THE HELL DID I SHOOT?"

Note to self - FINAL IDENTIFY AGAIN, before tripping that trigger!

I walked up on my downed bull and things got interesting. When I was 10-15 feet away he surged to his feet, and I more or less one-handed the second 210 NP round "up his nose" - actually between the eyes. More or less.....

Note to self: that's the last time I approach from the front, and always put an insurance shot in from a few yards away.

The two bulls were virtually identical - I suspect they were twins. Luckily the downed bull made noise before I shot the standing one "again".

The first round had disintegrated on the shoulder blade, shattering it sending bb-sized bits of bone and lead into the near side lung only. No penetration to the off-lung at all. I never found the rear portion of the NP - I suspect it richochetted or fell out of the large entry wound.

Note to self : don't use 210 NP on moose. and I never have on anything since. Probably OK for caribou, tho. Or deer. Or coyotes.

I still have no idea whether I shot the first or second bull following those cows.

Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good.

One of my hunting knives is still there, somewhere....

Yes and no. I shot the buck I wanted, he dropped at the shot, but immediately got up, so I shot him again. Only to find out it was a different buck that was bedded next to the first buck.

Not me, but an older gent we used to hunt with but has since passed. He was a farmer and was as frugal as they come. He hunted with a trapdoor Springfield 45-70 he bought from the DCM in his youth, along with a crate or surplus ammo he was still using. This took place in the early 80s. Anyway, he farmed sugar beets and usually brought a good enough supply that he sometimes had to wait for the deer to move from behind the pile to shoot. One day, he shot. You could always tell from the boom of the old cannon. When we all got back to the cabin, he came in talking of the ‘monster 12 point’ he shot. ‘Biggest damned deer I ever seen, and I seen a few!’ This is from an area not known for big bucks and a buck surviving until his third year was unusual. So we went to help track his deer. Come to find out it had been standing behind a 6” diameter maple in a stand of poplar. Knowing his old rifle had probably killed Buffalo, he shot through the maple, and that bullet had hit and killed the buck. It lay about 12 feet away, a true trophy for the area. It was a 2 1/2 year old basket racked six point that live weighed about 130 pounds. He swore until he died that wasn’t his buck, and that we just didn’t look hard enough for his deer. When he found it, one club member said, ‘well, I found your deer, but I think that old cannon blew half the points off him!’

I may have shot the wrong buck once, too, but that story still amuses me.

Old70

Yes - still pisses me off when I think about it.

OMG yes just last year. Watched a big buck run a doe into a creek, moved my position and watched a buck run a doe back out. Didn't figure out there were two bucks and two does in that creek until I walked up and put my hands on him, while watching the first one run out the back with his huge rack and doe in front of him.

I’ve only shot the wrong buck once. It was opening weekend of Oklahoma rifle season in 2017. It was still a really nice buck just not the buck I thought it was at a little over 200 yards and on the move.

Not exactly, but last year I shot this scrag at the crack of dawn with my xbow, thinking it was a doe. Left me stuck with an Earn-a-Buck restriction for the rest of the season.

^^^^^^
Close enough.

Super long range.
I shoot the buck.
I look through the scope.
He is still standing.
I must have missed.
I shoot the buck.
I get there and find two bucks.
Ask the other hunters, "Anyone want to tag the extra buck?

My story also. Had to be about 35 years ago and I had my oldest son with me. Luckily my wife also had a tag but she was back at camp.

Another time my son was with me and I shot at a nice 4x4 standing in the oak brush but he hauled ass away like he hadn't been touched and I didn't get another shot off. Went to look for a blood trail and there was that 4x4 laying in the oak brush. Luckily I didn't do that same stupid stunt that time.

Kind of. Opening day late I was getting out of my tree stand when a fork horn went under my tree. I didn't want to shoot that one or show him where I was, so I let him feed his way over the hill. About a minute later he came racing back under my tree like he was on fire. Strange I thought and then the buck of a lifetime came up over that same hill with a doe. I've seen a lot of big deer including B&C mounts and this guy had it all. Broadside at 80 yards with snow... But late, like half an hour late. I hunted that buck for three days and never saw him again, only big tracks and a rub on a cedar tree I could barely get my arms around. I went back for my camera to get a picture of that one.
I gave it up on that stand four days later, moved and 8:30 that morning shot a consolation buck. 210# dressed weighed a week later as a main frame 10, with 18 scoreable. That opening day buck still haunts my memory years later.