ApexerER

Core, you never have everything....At least that is what I tell my wife...

Good luck to everyone on the last day and congrats to everyone that had a successful season (no matter how you define it!) I will be becoming much more productive at work again with the closing of this thread. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all my online friends and hunting brother/sisters.

You are correct...I did not mean to make it sound like it is easy. It isn't. Most people can't leave a job they have been in for 20+ years and make the same money. I just don't believe people hold ill will to an older person. I certainly don't...

I wouldn't worry to much about the fact that she is 50. When I do my hiring I take the older employee that has grown up with a work ethic over anybody younger. I am 100% positive many other people feel the same way. Sucks that large companies do this now....Good luck...she will find something...

Posts like this make me hope full there is yet hope for the world!

Jeez, I thought we were nice. Maybe we are cheap. My wife always makes bags of cookies for the mail lady garbage man and schwans man. I have no idea who our UPS guy is...Never seen him. Never use FedEx....

Papist, sorry for your loss....Animals are 100% family

Buckmaster....Its weird how you feel like you can get to know somebody on a forum like this. Maybe its just because we all share the brotherhood of hunting. You posting the other day that you wouldn't shoot the deer on the other side of the property line shows what kind of man you are. You learned to be that man from your father who was obviously a stand up guy or you wouldn't be the man you are. I am sorry I am babbling because I don't know what to say. I am so sorry for your loss....Thoughts and prayers to you and your family...

Mountain monsters reminds me of being a kid when your imagination would run wild. Remember when kids used to play with their imagination? You would be so into what you were playing you would really believe you were seeing it. My brother and I when we were probably about 9 and 7 would chase the yellow man. I have no idea where the idea of the yellow man came from. But I have memories of that and in my memories I can picture the yellow man. My brother and I who are now in our 40's brought that up at Thanksgiving. We described what we were chasing....I was chasing a little guy that looked kinda like the Gordens Fisherman in a all yellow rainsuit with a white beard but really small. My brother was chasing a glowing yellow figure with no features at all. I think the mountain monsters are out there chasing the "yellow man". They are so into it they believe they are seeing something because you can't possible act that stupid otherwise....

I watch finding bigfoot but that show is pretty much a joke. I do like hearing the stories from the people they interview and that is pretty much the only reason I watch it. I wouldn't say there isn't a shred of evidence. There are some pretty clear footprints with dermal ridges in the casts. There are also some interesting photo's caught on trail cams so to say they never catch anything isn't true. The survivor man bigfoot series was pretty cool to watch. He found things that were awful hard to explain out in the middle of nowhere. In the show he was saying this has to be a hoax or something else. Like he said in the show...would you come out miles and miles from nowhere just to make a stick structure of some sort just in the hopes someone would find it. If you had one deer on say 1000 acres....Could you find it? I am sure I couldn't. I have a hard time finding them when there are probably more than 100 of them where I am hunting. I am not saying that it does exist. I am just saying I do believe it could and hope it does....Imagine an animal, that can smell and hear like a deer but is probably closer to a human in intelligence. I bet finding an animal like that, that didn't want to be found would be pretty difficult.

Best by far....venison Worst by far....venison So much depends on who is doing the cooking...

I need to start being less generous with my likes....Hate when I read something I really like and I am all out of them! Great job and great season Grampy!

I would gladly buy my hunting buddies dinner every season if it meant I shot the biggest of the bunch. Even if that bill was bigger than the taxi it would be worth it to me....

Yes, the Hornady grouped tighter though. I agree, I am trying to let it go but I just can't....I have never had a shot I was so positive of. Even shots I have connected perfectly on.

It would take me two weeks to write all the mistakes I have made in my deer hunting adventures and I would probably forget half of them so I will only write the mistakes I made this year. Mistake number one - Opening day of Crossbow I decided to sit in a stand I wasn't familiar with. I had a group of 5 large doe come in from behind me on my right. Of course the worst possible position being a right handed shooter. As I slowly stood up and got turned trying to beat 5 sets of eyeballs they became spooky and the lead doe started marching back the way she came. I was following her in the crossbow scope waiting for a clear opening and she was about 30 yds away. When I had a clear shot I squeezed the trigger and everything sounded terrible. I knew immediately what happened. Following her in the scope I lost track of where I was in the stand and when I fired I was to close to the tree allowing my crossbow limb on the rt side to hit the tree when the crossbow expanded. My bolt slammed a tree about 10 feet in front of me nowhere near the deer and they all ran off. Thankfully I didn't damage the crossbow. Mistake number two - I believe it was the second weekend of crossbow. Again I am sitting in another stand I had never sat. With about 15 minutes or so of legal light left I was thinking this sit was a bust when I heard a noise and look behind me to see 5 doe sneaking behind me from my left to right about 60 yds away. I stood and turned around hoping a buck would be chasing (and be closer) but no such luck. I sit back down and think about packing up when a deer comes in from my left in front of me to my right getting closer. I catch glimpse of antler and as he comes around me on my right he stops and looks my direction. I can't see how many points but he is much wider than his ears so I decide he is a shooter. I got the crossbow up, put the 30 yd dot on him and squeeze the trigger and watch as my bolt with the lighted nock deflects off a branch and smashes a tree behind him. He slowly trots off. Mistake number three - I get impatient with my treestand not seeing many deer. After checking my trail camera I find a picture of the big 9 out in day light while I was sitting elsewhere. Not sure this was a horrible mistake because I killed him on opening day of rifle but I could have just as easily never saw him again. Mistake number four - Last day of rifle season. We are doing drives and I am on watch. It is the last push of the day and I have a deer come down the ravine, stop 35 - 40 yds tops in front of me. I have a steady rest, clear shot behind shoulder, squeeze the trigger...Bam, I have a dead deer running. Nope....no blood, no hair etc...still haunting me. I made a post about it in another thread... Every season is a learning experience and that is why I love hunting.....

I was using Hornady Super Performance Ballistic Tip 165 Grain but they did so little damage on the 9 Pt I shot on opening day that I switched back to the Federal Fusion 165 Grain that I have had great luck with in the past.

THIS ^^^^^ Is exactly what I bugging me about the whole thing....It has been two days and I can't understand how I missed. I am really worried that I hit the deer and there was just no blood. 5 of us looked until dark because I was so adamant I couldn't have missed the shot and then the snow came in Sunday evening. There was no snow on the ground to follow tracks but there was a pretty pronounced deer trail. If it was a clean miss...awesome...shit happens....I can't help but think that deer is dead and something whacky happened like you said above and that is why it is haunting me....

.308

All possibilities I guess. Never thought about leaning on the stock. Gun is zero at 100 yds. I have not put it to paper at any other range. Any other time I have missed I have been able to find a sapling I hit or tell my self I am an idiot for pulling the gun or punching the trigger in a rushed shot. I really felt like I did everything correct this time. I don't believe the deer ducked but I guess anything is possible. Grampy's idea of raising my head knowing I am going to drop her right there. That may have been what happened. I was so sure of my shot I peaked...maybe

I could have....I honestly have no idea....

Wow! Awesome Buck for sure and on the last day! Just Awesome

I am shooting a .308.....Not really sure what makes that ridiculous for deer hunting....I have recoil anticipation problems from too many years of having to hunt with a 12 gauge....but I thought I was well over that by now...

I agree with you BigVal. I have never seen anything to make me believe but I enjoy reading and watching some of the shows. Not mountain monsters but I really enjoyed the survivor man bigfoot. I guess part of me just hopes we haven't made every discovery yet. My wife and daughter make fun of me for watching the shows. But I hope it is real...

So I have missed several deer over my life. I am not afraid to admit missing a deer. But yesterday I had a crazy experience. We were pushing and I was a sitter on our final push. I had a doe come in through some thick stuff down in a ravine. She stopped at about 35 40 yds tops. I had my rifle rested on the tree stand shooting rail. Shot looked perfectly clear through the scope. Put the crosshair on the her shoulder, she was stopped and looking at me. Told myself to squeeze the trigger. Bang...she bolted. Thought for sure she was on a death run and I was going to hear her pile up. I never heard her crash but I was positive I drilled her. Sent a text to the group that I had a doe down and waited out the rest of the drive. When the guys came out I climbed down, went looking at the shot site to find blood. Couldn't find any at all. Followed where the deer went. Couldn't find a drop of blood. There were 6 of us and the guys started razing me for missing. I was adamant that I made the shot and that we would find the deer. We did half circles for 200 yds. Spreading out looping around. I was positive this was a good shot but we couldn't find a speck of blood or the deer. I was so adamant we looked until we could no longer see. I went back to the shot site. I couldn't find any brush or small trees that I hit. I couldn't sleep last night. I was not nervous, had a steady rest and a 40 yd chip shot. I played it over and over. I still can't believe I missed. I am going to get to the range and fire my gun. Maybe I wacked it doing drives?? It was fine before the season and on opening day. I can't help but think that deer is dead and just never bled...Is that possible? I have a very bad habit of recoil anticipation if I don't tell my self to relax and squeeze the trigger but I did that this time and didn't feel like I pulled the shot at all. I am sitting here at work, still replaying the whole sequence out....

Wow, I can't believe they didn't call the cops. I think I would have been on my cell phone if the manager wasn't...