Discouraged yes…Defeated no….

Just home from Deer Camp. I find myself discouraged, but certainly not defeated. I’ll share the whole story in the coming days when I can relive it in full. I had the good fortune of being at the right place at the right time. a couple days ago I found myself within 75 yards of another Monster Buck. “Monster” in my book anyway for here in the Northwoods. I expect the Buck would have been in the 160 class. Not quite as tall as the buck I shot 2 years ago, but much wider. In fact when I first got a glimpse of the beast I thought I was looking at a bull moose paddle coming through the bramble. I hate to say it, but frankly I messed it up. Hard to admit.

Long story short for right now; Took out the front shoulder and spent 2 days cursing a blowdown area of Minnesota’s Northwoods trying to find him. Sinking feeling knowing a true majestic beast will be easy pickings for a thriving gray wolf population that needs little assistance. I clearly would have rather missed completely. Fellow deer hunters will surely understand the despair felt right now. Just goes to show 2 inches can make a big difference. I’ve always said hunting big bucks can be a game of inches. The last 2 seasons I was on the right side of the coin; This season I rolled snake eyes. You can do everything right, but even the smallest human error can cost you big time. I fault myself on the shot too far forward. He bolted into the heavy bramble at a slight quartering away angle and I expect I deflected off his shoulder blade with my .270. I have a pocket full of bones and a bit of a dampened spirit tonight. Tough Ole Boy!!

chris-
What happened to you is frustrating, but common.

I did two years of work for a national archery company on penetration and mortality. The patella (front shoulder blade) can be a real devil for both arrows and bullets.

In your situation, a sub 45 degree entry is very difficult, even for high speed bullets. The projectile ‘glances’ off, rather than entering.

On the bright side, the animal quite often makes a complete recovery. Some of the things we encountered were amazing. Makes us seem pretty puny by comparison.

Sorry you missed, but your odds are good that you’ll get another chance!!

Sorry to here, You may need to up that .270 for them Northwoods bucks.

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Sorry to here, You may need to up that .270 for them Northwoods bucks.

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Trust me my 30.06 is waiting in the wings, and I just was looking at it while explaining the big shoes it has to fill!! That angle in the end cost me, but even more painful was my initial WHIFF (Practice Swing?)that cost me a clean kill shot. I had him walking towards me and simply seemed to miss the whole BARN somewhere. I’ve replayed it a thousand times already. I slept about 15 minutes that night and got at least 2 hours the next night. I can’t tell you of course where my initial phantom shot ended up since I failed to recover the animal. I still find myself shaking my head, and yes I even shed a tear as I ran out of marking tape for the second day in the bramble. I will admit I live every aspect of life with total passion. I took a moment to sit down on a rock that had a glimmer of sunlight penetrating the deep forest. I came to grips with the fact that sometimes you can come so close, but in the end fail to reach the pinnacle of success. There was no lack of fight in this boy, but ultimately it wasn’t meant to be. I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t made a few negotiations with the man upstairs over those two days. Frankly I ponied up a lot of poker chips in the “High Stakes” room of life in exchange for a different outcome. Finally upon realizing I was chasing a memory I turned around and tracked myself back out. In all honesty I almost felt relieved based on not having to fulfill the previous negotiated tasks!! You know when your making deals with the man in the clouds things might not be going quite as planned, but desperate times call for desperate matters. Truth be told I’m probably lucky I ended up finding my final piece of 3 inch marking tape to get my sorry *** out of the woods that day.

I buried my good friend the day before opening morning. I hit camp late Friday night. The Solitude of the day in my climber brought much needed reflection of life in general. Those who ignorantly think hunting is soley about the kill fail to recognize the the true spirit of the hunt. I wanted that buck and worked very hard to achieve my ultimate goal of shooting another stomper. In the end I fell a bit short, but will promise you I gave it everything I had.

Those are tough animials Stu!! I truly hope he recovers and can somehow avoid the wrath of the Gray wolf while healing. Rumor has it there are a few around though seems a tad tough to spot from Washington.

not saying it would have had a different outcome, but, I know after hunting with a slug gun, unless i was to be taking animals over 200 yards, there is no way i would go back to a rifle.

For anything under 200 yards, i would take a rifled slug gun, shooting sabot slugs over any rifle cartridge. slinging a 385 grain bullet at 1900 FPS has devastating results, and goes through brush and bone much better.

just my $.02

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not saying it would have had a different outcome, but, I know after hunting with a slug gun, unless i was to be taking animals over 200 yards, there is no way i would go back to a rifle.

For anything under 200 yards, i would take a rifled slug gun, shooting sabot slugs over any rifle cartridge. slinging a 385 grain bullet at 1900 FPS has devastating results, and goes through brush and bone much better.

just my $.02

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Yeah lots of theories. 27 years and probably 35-40 deer considering party hunting and this is #1 that was hit and lost. The “Angle of the Dangle” likely cost me. Anyway it is what it is. Not saying there wasn’t some human error as well. That shot was too far forward as well. Oh well…..I’ll get him next time!!

Count yourself fortunate on that last stat. Not a lot of us that can truthfully say the same. I lost a big one a couple of years ago. Tracked until dark with a bit of blood in the snow until that dried up and he hit a big batch of tracks from others that was unsortable. Spent all day the following day with a new GPS and my labrador (day after deer season closed) tracking at the highest available resolution over likely cover and came up empty. At the end of the day all I could come up with was that I somehow just grazed him and made him smarter. Hopefully your right on the gray wolf situation for the one you encountered and he’ll be there to pass those northwoods stomper genes along. Chin up, he has a brother or two out there!!

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The Solitude of the day in my climber brought much needed reflection of life in general. Those who ignorantly think hunting is soley about the kill fail to recognize the the true spirit of the hunt.

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Sorry to hear about the buck, but this statement shows you honestly know why we hunt. To know you put in every effort to recover him is all we can do.

Chris I feel for you and the deer. Sorry buddy. I don’t hunt anymore because the little free time I have I want to spend in the boat. Tough luck. Get them next time.

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The Solitude of the day in my climber brought much needed reflection of life in general. Those who ignorantly think hunting is soley about the kill fail to recognize the the true spirit of the hunt.

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Sorry to hear about the buck, but this statement shows you honestly know why we hunt. To know you put in every effort to recover him is all we can do.

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X2 it will get better…

Mark

Thanks Men!!

Yes there was little doubt day 2 would start off looking again for the wounded buck. We came to a general conclusion the night before that the shoulder shot probably would not take that animal due to the angle, but I wanted to give every possible effort to recover him. I think most of us would do the same. It was turned out to be a fruitless aggressive walk, but I feel better knowing I gave it my best.

Even though the big guy eluded the Fireplace this season both the spirit and challenge of the hunt seems to fan the fire in my soul to chase big guys even more today. I assure you I’ll learn and become further wise based on this experience. We’d all prefer to learn from good experiences, but honestly the painful ones tend to teach us the most. The mistake if there in fact was one was the initial shot. Frankly the shoulder hit on a dead run wasn’t a bad shot, but I still wish it would have been a clean miss now. If I had it over I would have tried to stop that buck with a mouth bleat…..Funny!! As I’m typing it I gave a Doe Bleat and I do believe my 2 gals think I’ve finally lost it. Best of luck Guys!!