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Buck of a Lifetime?

Buckmaster

Senior Member
14,362
191
Portage
What's your buck of a lifetime? Did you score (if so please post a pic) or did you whiff and how?

The year is 1990, Thursday of shotgun season, I was 19 years old and had about 6 years of deer hunting under my belt with 4-5 deer harvested.
It was an afternoon hunt following a couple college classes here in Portage Co. I got to my hunting spot about 3pm. I was the only one there as no tire tracks were evidenced on the oil well road leading into the woodlot. The weather was around freezing with a couple inches of snow on the ground. My plan was to still hunt around this 5 acre pine woodlot that the deer frequently bedded in. This pine lot was a perfect 5 acre square in the bottom of a valley within a couple hundred acre hardwood lot; prime bedding area. There were lots of tracks in and around this pine bluff in the snow. I hunted this area very slowly until almost dark. I had a couple of minutes left so I began my uphill venture back to the truck with no sightings thus far. Suddenly, I noticed something brown and horizontal in a couple blow down trees about 75 yards above me. I froze in my steps and raised my Remington 1100 12 gauge with anticipation holding just a little off my target for safety reasons. My staredown at this proposed tree stump lasted about 30 seconds with the dwindling daylight. I asked myself mentally, "That cannot be a deer, they don't grow horns that big with about a 2 foot spread. That has to be a tree stump. I'm seeing things." I proceeded to lower my gun back to my waist and take another step forward toward this proposed tree stump. Just then the Big Buck turns side ways to bound off. He has a doe with him too. I throw the gun back up to my face and in rapid succession throw 3 slugs at his white tail as he's bounding away. I quickly made my way over to the shelf they were bedded on to check for blood and hair. "Nothing!" I had blown my opportunity. While looking around this specific blow down tree there was deer pee and poop all over the place (I'm taking almost half a wheelbarrow load). It looked like this buck and doe had spent Monday though Thursday of shotgun season in the very same spot without moving.

Lessons learned: Always identify your target properly no matter how much time it takes. Patience. Bucks bed on shelf for days on end.

Followup: Two weeks later it was identified that a motorist killed a 14 point buck just outside this farm on the state highway. The buck was a 180 class which is the largest I've personally seen to this day while deer hunting. Twenty two years later and my stomach is still sick about it. I will never forget (listening Jesse?).
 

Rutin

Senior Member
2,029
0
Ina Duck Blind
a 7.4 yr old 165" typical 12 pt I chased for 3 years and shot him just above his lungs without hitting either. Got pics a month later dogging does at night.... never saw him again. Still miss seeing that deer on every camera check!
 

brock ratcliff

Dignitary Member
Supporting Member
24,834
247
I have no good guess at the score of the deer, but it was as close to a 200'er I will likely ever see. It was 1995. I was living in Washington Court House and had shot a doe with my Hoyt Pro Force on a Monday ... Nov 10. On Tuesday, I traveled to my recently abandoned old stomping grounds in Pickaway Co, just outside of Circleville. It was good to be back on the farm where I'd harvested my first deer, and spent a lot of my childhood sneaking through the brush. I took along my Assenhiemer recurve, a bow I shot really well at the time. 69# @ 28", shooting 2413's tipped with Zwickey heads. I slipped down a hill into an old orchard after having waited out a rattling sequence for 45 minutes or so. Just as I hit the orchard's edge, I heard birds chirping to my right. The kind of chirping that gets your attention that you aren't alone, the kind you know when a bird isn't telling on you. I stopped and focused my attention for just a short time before I saw his leg move, and then his head. The outline of his antlers eventually became apparent and I almost had a stroke. He didn't know I was there, but I felt like I needed more cover and dropped to the ground. I was stuck there for 10 minutes or so watching him. He was only 25 yards or so, but I couldn't get an arrow to him! I sat there, watching, wishing I'd brought my Hoyt, thinking I could have slipped an arrow through to him with it. Finally, he took a few steps, I came to full draw and watched the big white feathers fly perfectly towards him. They just hung there, like a snowball....and then darted into the ground below him after clipping a limb. He took just a couple of hops and stopped, looking around. After a minute or two he turned and walked up the hill on the same trail I'd just come down. I couldn't get another arrow through to him, but I could see that massive tall rack all the way up that hill. I'll never forget it. I can't help but think if I'd have killed him, I wouldn't have spent so much time thinking about it. That, was one heck of a deer.

BTW, I sold that bow a few months later. I never did forgive it.
 

mrex

*Supporting member*
439
79
Two feet wide…>30” main beams…14” brow tines…6” bases…net nontypical 218 6/8…typical 10 point frame gross 216…typical frame net 210…8 point typical frame net 207…and without question, the buck of my lifetime.



…a mixed blessing. Up until the year I killed him, my goal was always something bigger than anything I had. I’ve killed 6 BBBC qualifiers since then and they weren’t nearly as gratifying as the 6 I had taken before then. Seven years later and I’m still hearing bullshit stories about how and where the buck was killed. I had a guy this past summer tell me that the deer was confiscated and hanging in the D4 Headquarters. He swore up and down that he’d seen it there with his own eyes. Hunters as a group are an interesting bunch. I’ve actually considered writing a book about the unintended consequences of killing the buck of a lifetime.
 
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finelyshedded

You know what!!!
Supporting Member
31,856
260
SW Ohio
Good thread Ben! Good stories TOO. I posted this on another thread about mess ups and embarrassing moments so here it is again....UGH!!! Very painful, but at the time not so much but everytime I relive it years later.....I just shake my head and think "Man!, I'd like that chance again!!! Lol

The very first deer I shot at was with a Bear Whitetail back in the mid to late 70's. Ron and I each had 3 pins on our bows(20-40 yards) and were pretty efficient at those distances. We were both still pretty green though in our yardage estimation and mainly just shot at marked yardage targets.

It was one day during the rut in the middle of the day I grab my bow and head out to kill me a deer, any deer! I walked 500 yards thru the middle of a huge hayfield to a haul road leading back to a pump jack and tank that sat in the middle of a clearing that was about 70 yards wide. To the right of this tank was a very small pond surrounded by cattails and briars. Its about 1:30 in the afternoon on this cool and partly cloud day and I'm still hunting to my stand which lies 100 yards ahead down over the hill beyond this pump jack. As I get to within 50 yards of this jack I glance over towards this pond and I see nothing but big horns walking from my right towards the jack and tank directly in front of me. These were BIG horns and prolly the biggest buck I ever shot at to date. He was at least a 10 or maybe a 12 mainframe but prolly a booner. I was actually not nervous or shaken, I just took an arrow out of my quiver and nocked it on, fastened my release and waited till he was right out in the wide open directly in front of me with his head down. He had no clue I was around! I figured, Oh, he's about eh 25 yards...drew my bow back and anchored split the 20&30 right behind his shoulder and touched it off. It was a beautiful shot, got the surprise and everything but he was more like 55 yards away instead of 25! Rotf
Needless to say even though my arrow looked like it was headed towards the sweet spot it dropped way short and he looked my way, rocked that wide huge longtined crown back over his shoulder blades and bounded straight away from me. I simply went looking for my arrow in the tall brown weeds and couldn't find it and turned around and went home! That memory still haunts me to this day but it's still a fond one. Lol
 

Fullbore

Senior Member
6,439
126
South Eastern Ohio
Well, My brother FS and I were hunting one particular buck about 5 years ago. That buck we now call the " Slater Buck ". Ric and i were on a ridge the same morning, he was high and i was 150 yards below him. Ric had the deer at 50 yards cruising for does up high. Ric got some really good video footage of that deer, but the buck was out of bow range. The deer worked his way down to my location about 15 minutes later. As I was stuffing a sausage sandwich down. I was scanning the oaks and caught movement. The buck was behind my tree approximately35 yards. The trail that he should have taken, would have given me a 10 yard shot. Instead the deer walked through some sumac on 10 inch centers. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. I was pretty shook up, I didn't even try to grunt at him or anything. Basically,he just walked out of my life!lol. As the story goes. He was shot on the Thursday of gun season, by a guy from the Caldwell area. He seemed very grateful for harvesting such a magnificent animal. I scored that deer the evening he was taken. 196" ,basic 6 by 6 with 8 stickers. Totalling 20 points. Still haunts me!
 

brock ratcliff

Dignitary Member
Supporting Member
24,834
247
Some really good stories of heartache in here. I guess the ones that get away really hold a special place with us all.

Mrex, you gonna use Mitch Rompola as a co-author?lmao
 

huntnfool

Junior Member
67
0
Thornville
It was my first year shooting a bow and bow hunting for that matter. The year was 2003 and I was hunting a 15 acre patch of woods. There had been talk a double drop short tined buck running the area. Well it was about 3:30 and I hear some commotion behind and I look to see a 2 dogs chasing some deer. Chased them right by at about 10 yards. It was the big buck and at that time I had no clue what it would score or did I even think about that at the time. Well anyway the deer split and about 20 minutes here he comes walking past me at 25 yards. I thought he wa 35 to 40 yards away. I had no range finder and I was using a old old pse and I was rookie. Deer ended up getting killed 3 years later and went 180 and had the double drops. The only reason I know he passed 25 yards is because I still hunt this place and have stand in that area. first year hunting and I had to experience that. I ahve seen some 160s but nothing bigger that on the hoof.
 

hickslawns

Dignitary Member
Supporting Member
39,721
248
Ohio
Mine seems a little insignificant after MRex's story. lol

For 2 seasons my buddy and I were after an 8pt we called Mr Browtine. In two years we only got daytime pictures of him twice. Ironically, on the same November day in two consecutive years and on the same camera. We didn't really have very many night time pictures of him either. He was just one smart deer. Never found his sheds either. It is quite possible he used this property as an extended home range or a second home range. I don't know. Might not have been his main core area. Maybe just on the fringes?

Two years ago he was a beauty of an 8pt. Neither of us saw him on the hoof. Last year he was even more spectacular. Last year I saw him on the hoof for the first time. He came into 50-60yds thru the trees offering no shot. Too far for me and too many trees if it was in my effective range. He stepped out of the woods and was in the clear but about 75yds away. He made a semi circle around my stand and walked to a scrape which had been used by a couple smaller bucks earlier in the day. He went from 75yds to longer distances, then was approximately 75yds again at the scrape. Unfortunately, I had witnessed the aggressive chasing of a young buck and doe earlier in the day. They both stopped at this scrape. They exited the field and entered the woods close to where Mr Browtine had popped out of the woods. He followed their trail right out of my life. I have never been more shaken up by a deer. Not sure why. I never had a chance to draw on him. Just not quite close enough. My adrenaline was flowing like I had never experienced before. It was amazing.

I never did hear the official score but he was killed that week by another hunter on a neighboring property. I was told mid 150's. His brow tines were 11" and 11.25". For me, this quite possibly will be the biggest 8pt I will hunt. They just plain don't get this big very often. (Or so I thought until Mrex posted lmao)

I should add, some guys on a neighboring property flung an arrow at him earlier in the season. The trail camera pictures of him you can almost see the injury. It is possible the hole is from fighting with another buck, but we do know he had been hit by a kid throwing a Hail Mary his direction. Pretty sad. Guys to the west injure him. Guy to the east killed him. We have pictures, memories, and frustration.
 

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cotty16

Dignitary Member
Supporting Member
The year was 1993 and I was in my sophomore year at the U of Akron. I was able to to gun hunt for some reason (can't remember if I played hookie or if we were off). Anyway, on my way into my trusty spot I jump a ginat chocolate horned buck. He was bedded just over the hill as I was walking in and he was gone so fast all I could do was admire the size of him.
My dad, who to this day still loves to sit with me during gun season just to get out, was late getting down to me because he was setting up a buddy in another spot. When he got to me I tell him about the giant and he suggests we stay put because there were scrapes in the vicinity and he thought maybe that buck was watching them.
Old Scout was right again...
Right before dark we hear a deer walking in from our left. Ducking through the underbrush is ol' Chocolate Horns. I swear to God, this deer waddled when he walked. He is, to this day, the biggest buck I've seen on hoof. He was extremely wide and thick, but had real low tines. It looked more like a moose than a whitetail. In fact, we compared his rack to a giant steel rake.

As he waddled closer, he froze at about 25 yards. I had the Remington 1100 12 guage up and ready. The scope was right on him. It was decision time. To be perfectly honest, I was shitting my pants. 25 yards with a gun is a chip shot, right???

I fire the gun, he bounds off... immediately dad and I head down to look for blood. NOTHING! All I can see, after lots of searching the area, is several grapevines I shot through. There were slug cuts in some branches. to this day, that is my excuse. In all reality, I pulled the trigger rather than squeezing it.

I still think about that miss frequently. It was an experience I'll never forget and a lesson well learned about a lot of things. One thing for sure is that deer are unpredictable. I spooked this deer 2 hours earlier and came back. It baffled me that he backtracked like that. you just never know.
 
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twireman

Senior Member
2,929
149
Kingston, OH
I took my buck of a lifetime more than likely as a 17 year old Senior in HS. I had given up basketball that year in pursuit of chasing Whitetails. Boy did that pay off big on Veterans day of 2000. Rattled in this 12point that grossed 172 and change. Shot him at 20 yards and he ran 100 and piled up.




To this day I've never seen a deer as big on the hoof while hunting. I kinda think this guy haunts me a little. I've passed a lot of bucks over the years anticipating a shot at another one like him but to no avail.
As you can see I even made an article in the local newspaper over that buck. LMAO!!

Good thread!