Best deer hunting experience without scoring

[Doc]

We always like to tell the stories about that big buck that we got. But How about experiences where you didn't get anything? deer hunting is about a lot more than just the shooting a big buck. How about those times when the deer never gave you a shot, or some other critter made the hunt memorable or maybe some other weird but memorable thing happened? How about fessing up to a severe case of buck fever that totally screwed you out of a kill. I have a few recollections of watching other hunters do some screwy things. Also some situations where I could hear a buck but never saw him. I have also had some close encounters with squirrels, chipmunks, and raccoons. And then there were the weird noises heard on the way home in the dark. And then the two times I almost got ran over by a deer. There has to be a million stories that could serve as warm-ups for the coming season. How about a few.

[Lawdwaz]

I'm thinking......................................

[fasteddie]

I'm thinking......................................

 

I knew I smelled something burning !

[Deerthug]

I knew I smelled something burning !

This may help ...lol.

[Lawdwaz]

OK, almost 30 years ago a group of guys I hunted in PA with had an idea.  They wanted to hunt the back of a mountain in Tioga, PA.  To access it we'd have to use a boat & motor we could carry down to the Tioga river from the highway.

 

Opening day of Buck Season dawned cool, damp and foggy.  We got to the water edge at least an hour before legal shooting time, after lugging the boat & motor down the slick bank.  I don't recall the exact number of guys but 9 could have been it.  Multiple trips back and forth to ferry the guys took some time as I don't think we had more than 4 in the boat at a time.  Between loaded packs, empty guns,  heavy clothes and winter boots we were pushing the Coast Guard limits on the boat tag.................................

 

All went well during the days hunt, typical opening day in Pennsylvania; rain, snow, wind, ice and fog.  We fanned out all across the mountain, some climbed to the top, others stayed near the bottom.  We had the entire joint to ourselves, we thought.  One of the guys shoots a spike buck near the top and while tracking his buck stumbles onto a back tag that some other guy NOT in our group lost!!  (in those days that was called a bonus tag)

 

The weather got even worse, the snow/rain mix turned to ice pellets for a bit that stung like #9 shot from a .410......................All this is before cell phone or even reasonably priced two way radios or we probably would have beat it out of there.  We had no contact with each other during the day, the plan was to meet at dusk back at the cruise ship.  (12' Sears row boat)

 

One deer died that day, that was it.  One guy saw a bear, most saw zip when it came to deer, some doe of course but they were safe,  We noted when we got to the river at dusk that she was starting to skim over with ice.  Ahh, that could make it sporty!  The wind was picking up and now snowing harder.  Two guys and the captain per trip was all we could do with the gunnel's close to the water line.  The boat had some water in it from splashing over the edge in some of the open water we tried to navigate through.  It was cold and damned scary.

 

The young guys were last to go across.  Three of us, a spike buck and 4" of water in the boat made the water line closer to us than we liked.  Breaking ice on the water, snow, darkness and crappy little flashlights made for a white knuckle ride back to safety.  We pulled the boat & motor back up the hill with the help of all the guys and a couple drag ropes (that didn't see any action that day either) to the highway, Rt 15.  Cars were spinning out and a tractor trailer jack knifed into a ditch.  

 

A couple of the guys have passed on but it is still fresh in the minds of the rest of us.

 

 

[Lawdwaz]

I knew I smelled something burning !

 

Ahhhhhh come on.  Gimme a break.  I had to really think back for something.  The problem is, usually something dies in MY stories!!

 

I type with one bent finger and I'm running on decafe coffee....................................................

 

 

[phade]

First timer ever hunting I had a deer about 30 inches nose to my barrel and the deer lived. That safety worked no matter how hard I pulled the trigger. Hooked.

[TheTruth2]

Last year I saw nine different bucks chase one doe. At 8 in the morning she came through hot. Within the next ten minutes the nine bucks, all individuals, we're on her trail. An hour layer she came back the same way. Of course all nine bucks were still on her. One of the most funny things I've seen.

[the blur]

I wear the electronic ear muffs.  Opening day, all the sudden, it sounded like a freight coming through the woods.  Crashing, banging, all the sudden there is a deer running towards me full speed.   She practically jumped over me.  Within 5 feet, at full speed.  She was spooked.   All I could do is watch her run off into the woods behind me.    My heart was pounding, like never before.

 

She finally stopped about 200 yards behind me, and all I could see is a white tail.

 

 

[ants]

I was bow hunting, several years ago. A huge buck kept chasing a doe by my stand. Big heavy, wide rack.  He was grunting, snorting, wheezing and making sounds that I haven't heard since.  The doe just kept zig zagging all around my stand. A couple times they passed directly below my feet. This went on for what seemed like forever but was maybe 5 minutes or so.  I came to full draw 3 times but when ever they were in range they were beyond hauling ass.

Thats why I keep going.

[ncountry]

2 years ago while hunting near the bottom at Letchworth sp I see a bear.there is no bear hunting in the park. So I am sitting there watching him mess around.. he even climbs up a tree less than 100 yds away..I'm sitting on the ground with my shotgun so am not really worried about him. Eventually he wondered off. An hour later a 9 point comes by.Bam!! He scrambles and falls about 100' down a really steep bank. He doesn't move. In my excitement I scramble/ fall to the bottom. I gut him and knowing there is 0 chance of getting him out by myself, I head out to get help..4 of us get back there ,its dark now....we throw a rope over the edge and 2 of us go down the other 2 wait up top .

I'm standing at the spot my deer was and he was gone..

Dam bear! So here the 2 of us are at the bottom of a cliff and the edge of this thick #@$% with 2 pocket knifed LOL...

So we did the only smart thing and started following the drag marks. We hadn't gone 60' when the guys up top are hollering down (still dark out) saying they think they hear something in the brush . We didn't hear anything so continued on.. they hollered again.. we continued... Again ...and we heard it too... And decided this was pretty stupid and turned around and and climbed the rope back out...

Upon returning in the am: with shotgun this time we found my deer 90% eaten. I have no iedea how a bear could eat that much meat in one night but it was gone...

At 1st glance he didn't appear touched but the hide was pulled free and he ate everything underneath..

Turns out the night before we could not have been more than 50 yds from the bear..

So I left with a good story , set of horns , and no meat...

[wooly]

About 8 years ago durring slug season, I spotted two deer coming my way one ridge over from the stump I was sitting on. The lead doe stopped in a clear lane and she looked like a fatty so I sent an ounce of lead her way. I watched her run off and I was sure she dropped just out of sight so I immediately followed up on her.

 

 I finally got to a point I could see her white belly laying there, so my pace quickened. In my mad dash to get to her, I didn't notice the big ol' buck standing next to her dead carcass untill he took a few hops out of sight. I assumed he made his way off so I began to field dress my doe. A few minutes later, something caught my attention, and I looked up to see the buck standing there watching me gut his girlfriend. I slowly eased over to my shotgun laying a few feet away and let a shot fly from an awkward position. The buck bounded off once again, but I couldn't tell if he was hit or not.

 

I left the doe lay while I went to look for blood from the buck. When I got to where he was standing I searched for any signs of a hit but found nothing. A little disgusted, but I'd just get back to my doe and finish up my work with her. When I picked my head up from the ground in front of me to turn around, I heard the buck blow at me and saw he'd been standing behind a tree trunk watching me the whole time.

 

Certainly by now he'd seen enough and was probably already in the next county, so I got back to my doe, and finished cleaning her up, and began the drag home. Not long into my drag, I stopped to take a smoke break. When I kneeled down and unslung the gun from my shoulder and rested it against a nearby tree. As I sat there smoking, something once again caught my eye coming down the same bloody trail I'd dragged the doe..... yup, you guessed it.... the buck was still following all this time and I could never be ready for him even having so many oppertunities. That memory always comes to mind any time I shoot a doe durring the rut now days.

[pointman]

The thing that comes to mind was the first time I used my Thompson Center 54 cal. rifle.  I was on my post when this big 8 pt. came out of the thicket into a clearing about 50 feet away and stopped broadside to me.  I pulled the hammer back, squeezed the trigger and the only that went off was the percussion cap.  The deer looked and walked off. After it left, I placed a new cap on the rifle and it went off. Every time I use this gun that story makes me think about that.

[josephmrtn]

One of the most fun times was last fall w a flock of approx 50 turkeys right under my stand of course it was after turkey season ended lol

[First-light]

Maybe 10 years ago at bow season. It was an afternoon hunt around 4:00, overcast 38 degrees no wind. In my favorite stand at my BIL house. Behind me was some dense cover and I heard deer walking. I stood up and my back was to them. I turn my head to see a doe be tended by a massive buck. He was not grunting but making this long clicking noise. I heard about this noise and it is when the buck is locked n on the doe and a bulldozer couldn't separate the two. Now I have this massive wood limb Browning bow that I'm holding. It starts to get heavy as she is working her way down towards me. She is now 10 yards broadside but the buck is thrashing a small pine tree30 yards off no shot. She catches movement of my bow that sends her bounding 20 yards and stops. The buck charges towards her and offers me a perfect 25 yard shot. The arrow sails right under his chest. I was so excited that I dropped the bow on the shot. He was a stockey 3.5 8 point. We found his sheds that winter, what a deer. They hang on the front of my cabin...........

[Merlot]

 The only odd or unusual occurrence while bow hunting deer was in 1978 when, on stand in the late afternoon, a hot air balloon coasted directly over me and just over the treetops. The balloon was occasionally firing flame into the balloon for loft as it came over me. The balloon actually pushed several startled deer right past me. Of course, I was busy watching the balloon overhead and was not prepared for the 8 point that trotted by that was with the group...never forget that one...At least the wine was tasty while telling the story that evening at camp.

[Nomad]

I had a ballon practicing touch and goes in the field I had my turkey decoys in a couple years back.....

Then there was this as I sat in the snow, or maybe not.

[Merlot]

looks like martian eyeballs in the backround.

[OnHoPr]

Roughly twenty years ago while bow hunting in early November, I was sitting in a tree stand rattling & grunting every once in a while. It had just started snowing that morning and I put on the Game Tracker equipment. In fresh snowing with the possibility of melting, drizzle, off and on light rains, and approaching bad weather I used that equipment back when I bowhunted more often. It might not work picture perfect all of the time, but it is definitely helpful. At twenty yards with a 70# bow and 550 gr arrows the Game Tracker string had little effect, but at 30 yards the drag effect started to show as I found out with even the top bows at the time. About noon I caught movement off to my back right hand side and turned to look. It was a Good buck for the area, which went to a scape and did his pissing and licking branch thing. When he started to walk away at about 29 good paces I let one fly and seen the arrow breeze just right below him next to the front leg. He did the the quick bound a few times and stopped and started looking around. I then saw that my Game tracker string was laying on a slightly jiggling jackpine branch about the size of the ink tube inside a pen about 20 feet in front of me. The arrow flew straight and I used the correct pin, it was just the string started to lay with the arc of the arrow and caught the branch dragging the arrow speed down enough to miss. Darn, I would have like to got that one.

[covert]

1994 I turned 16 in time for the last 3 days of Southern tier shotgun.  My Dad had been watching a big 11 pt in a small stand of spruce in the middle of an uncut hayfield out back all day while I was in school the day before.  About daylight he sent me up to the edge of the woods to get on watch and he went through that patch of trees.  I was standing along a mowed path between the hayfield and the woods and heard a deer coming.  I got ready and saw a doe jump into and across the mowed area.  I let my guard down because I thought she was alone when I heard another deer coming, looked up and all I saw over the grass was HORNS!  This buck crossed right where the doe did and I stood there on my tongue, my gun across my chest and eyes wide.  In two jumps he was gone and a minute later I heard a flurry of shots in my cousins woods bordering ours.  I nearly cried thinking they got "my" buck.  Turns out a friend of ours saw the buck and did almost the same thing I did, except he lost it in the scope and unloaded the gun without touching a hair.

 

A few years later I was hunting with some friends and a couple hundred yards away across a field I watched a nice buck walk out right in front of a guy.  He stood there and pumped 5 rounds into the ground right in front of himself.  He looked right at the deer the whole time but never lifted the gun, just moved his head to follow it and shot then pumped until the gun was empty!

[growalot]

this is many times...every time I sneak into one of my best stands an hour before light...I mean any light... and I no sooner am I half  way up the ladder the chasing and fighting starts...I'll settle in and listen to the boys spare and fight...then the doe's being chased...Lots of time it all ends before light...but when they are rt under you during all the action...it's great hunting

[NFA-ADK]

Last year bow hunting, last day Dec 31st.  Stalking a trail I see a deer about 200 yards away and approach.  At about 40 yards I see its a fawn and give it a pass as it runs off.  300 yards down the trail I see a deer in the valley below me but it's in cover about 25 + yards.  I give a fawn in distress call Ma Maamaa,  MAAA.  Well the deer in the valley did not budge but the 2 doe about 70 yards to my rear came in charging and busted me in my green and brown camo with just enough snow cover to make me stick out.  ARG So I chased the 2 doe for about 2 min just because the busted me lol...  Then I waited at the truck for an hour because my buddy says the GPS and the compass are both broke as his phone battery dies... ARG  Good times!

 

[covert]

OK, almost 30 years ago a group of guys I hunted in PA with had an idea.  They wanted to hunt the back of a mountain in Tioga, PA.  To access it we'd have to use a boat & motor we could carry down to the Tioga river from the highway.

 

Opening day of Buck Season dawned cool, damp and foggy.  We got to the water edge at least an hour before legal shooting time, after lugging the boat & motor down the slick bank.  I don't recall the exact number of guys but 9 could have been it.  Multiple trips back and forth to ferry the guys took some time as I don't think we had more than 4 in the boat at a time.  Between loaded packs, empty guns,  heavy clothes and winter boots we were pushing the Coast Guard limits on the boat tag.................................

 

All went well during the days hunt, typical opening day in Pennsylvania; rain, snow, wind, ice and fog.  We fanned out all across the mountain, some climbed to the top, others stayed near the bottom.  We had the entire joint to ourselves, we thought.  One of the guys shoots a spike buck near the top and while tracking his buck stumbles onto a back tag that some other guy NOT in our group lost!!  (in those days that was called a bonus tag)

 

The weather got even worse, the snow/rain mix turned to ice pellets for a bit that stung like #9 shot from a .410......................All this is before cell phone or even reasonably priced two way radios or we probably would have beat it out of there.  We had no contact with each other during the day, the plan was to meet at dusk back at the cruise ship.  (12' Sears row boat)

 

One deer died that day, that was it.  One guy saw a bear, most saw zip when it came to deer, some doe of course but they were safe,  We noted when we got to the river at dusk that she was starting to skim over with ice.  Ahh, that could make it sporty!  The wind was picking up and now snowing harder.  Two guys and the captain per trip was all we could do with the gunnel's close to the water line.  The boat had some water in it from splashing over the edge in some of the open water we tried to navigate through.  It was cold and damned scary.

 

The young guys were last to go across.  Three of us, a spike buck and 4" of water in the boat made the water line closer to us than we liked.  Breaking ice on the water, snow, darkness and crappy little flashlights made for a white knuckle ride back to safety.  We pulled the boat & motor back up the hill with the help of all the guys and a couple drag ropes (that didn't see any action that day either) to the highway, Rt 15.  Cars were spinning out and a tractor trailer jack knifed into a ditch.  

 

A couple of the guys have passed on but it is still fresh in the minds of the rest of us.

Good times!

[Arrow Flinger]

My best day out without shooting a deer was definitely the day my son shot his first deer when he was 15. It was cold and raining so I texted him to tell him I was getting down. As I was walking out of the woods he texted me back that he just shot one. Definitely one of my best days hunting ever!

[Doc]

Actually this is a story of an event that happened on a hunt for the biggest member of the deer family ...... a moose.

 

Back in the mid 80’s, 4 of us from work planned a moose hunt in Ontario, Canada. We drove way north past Sudbury to an outfitter’s camp in Shining Tree. In order to get farther in, we drove about another 40 miles on dirt road, parked at a lake put our canoes into the lake, went to the end of that lake, portaged for about 150 yards to another lake and went to the end of that lake. That put us much deeper into the Canadian bush than any of us had ever experienced. There were absolutely no humans other than ourselves and no signs that humans had ever been there. We carved out a campsite along the lake edge and set up the tents. The isolation was complete. Not even the sound of airplanes.

 

So now a bit of a flashback to before trip. I had a dog that enjoyed a good game of tug-of-war with an old towel. While playing at this, she would always make loud, gosh-awful snarling and growling noises. The sounds actually were like some huge crazed animal of some sort. Well, that’s when I got the idea. I had a small portable tape recorder/player, and I made a special tape that had about 15 minutes of total silence in the beginning and then this real loud growling and snarling noises from my dog playing tug-of-war. I packed this in my sleeping bag.

 

Now back to the hunt: On the first night we were all sitting around the campfire talking about the next morning’s hunt when I pretended that I was heading off to take a leak. I went out and planted the tape player and turned it on. Then I came back to the campfire and resumed all the yak-yak B.S. that was going on. The empty 15 minute leader of silence played, and time went by so everyone had forgotten that I had even gone out there. All of a sudden, there was this hideous loud sound of growling and snarling from some unknown beast out in the darkness. Immediately, there was instant chaos as everyone dove for their bows, knives, and anything that could be used as a weapon. Meanwhile this vicious animal continued the aggressive sounds of a crazed maniacal animal ready to attack.

 

It was obvious that this creature was not going away so naturally, I hammed it up and bravely volunteered to head out to see what it was. So brandishing only my bow and a flashlight, I headed out. The other guys decided to go with me. Off we went stalking this “thing”, all armed to the teeth with me out in the lead. When I finally got to the tape player, I set down my bow and dove onto it, wrestling around on the ground in the dark with this tape player. Finally, holding it up in the air I victoriously claimed, “I got it”. When everybody saw what I had, it took a few seconds for it all to register, and then they finally realized that they had been had.

 

There was some talk about throwing me in the lake, but eventually we all settled down back at the fire. Those guys still remember that trick, and we all have a pretty good laugh every time we think back to that moose hunt.