Well, I completely blew it on a very large buck yesterday and it was because of stupid mistakes I made. This thread is partly just venting, but it is also to admit the mistakes in the hope of helping someone else avoid them.
I was hunting public land that I had found good buck sign on. At about 9:15 two antlerless deer came by and I got them both. I was hunting deep and at the bottom of a large valley and floodplain. After killing the deer I contacted my buddy, sinac84, who was hunting at the top of the valley wall to help me get them out. I moved both deer about 150 yards away from my stand along the floodplain to the foot of a large ravine we would drag them up to get out of the valley. I dropped the deer and moved about 25 yards away to wait for him at the ravine mouth at the side of the floodplain.
As I was standing there I heard movement to my right. I was not paying very close attention because I was most interested in getting the deer I had down out. I assumed it was a squirrel or another doe. I had no interest in killing a third deer. Getting these two out was already going to be very difficult. That was a mistake. It was the big boy sliding along the edge of the floodplain. If I had been paying attention he would have walked right into me and I would have been ready for him. As it was, he spotted me because I was not standing still and I never knew it was a deer until a few seconds later.
He circled around after back tracking from me a short distance and trotted (not in a run) right down the floodplain. When I first saw him all I could see were his legs and again did not want to kill another deer, so I didn't even take my rifle off my shoulder.
Then I see that he is a huge buck and my heart about jumped out of my chest. I whipped the rifle off my shoulder and got it up just to slowly to take any easy 25 yard broadside shot in a nice big opening.
I kept tracking him in the scope and as he passed through another much smaller opening at about 40 yards broke the shot. I have made this type of shot several times without any problem in the past. I can also call my shots very well and know where my crosshair is at when the rifle fires. When I intended the rifle to fire I had a perfect sight picture. When the rifle actually fired the crosshair was about and inch or two above his back. I knew I has missed. I looked for blood very carefully to make sure, but I knew I wouldn't find any. Why didn't the rifle fire when I expected to? Because it is a new rifle for me and I had KNOWINGLY not adjusted the trigger pull the the rather light setting I have on every other hunting rifle I own. To make it worse, the trigger is owner adjustable and I had thought about adjusting it several time and just never did it.
So let's break down just how much of a dumb ass I am.
Lesson 1) Don't shoot a small deer when you are in an area that has big buck sign. This buck was on a trail that would have taken him right past my stand location and if I had let the other deer walk he most likely would have presented an easy shot from my stand about 45 minutes after the time I killed them.
Lesson 2) Keep your antenna up and be alert at all times. Don't assume that what you hear is not the buck of a lifetime.
Lesson 3) Don't sling the rifle unless you really need to. If I had had the rifle in my hand I would have been able to take the easy shot at 25 yards.
Lesson 4) Don't assume you don't want to kill it. As soon as you can see that it's a deer, get the rifle ready and THEN decide whether or not you want to take it. If I had done this I would have been able to take the easy shot at 25 yards. Even if the shot had broken late like it did, the error would have been much less at 25 yards than it was at 40. At worst I would have spined him.
Lesson 5) Pay attention to the weapon set up. That heavier trigger pull is why I pulled that shot high. If I had simply taken five minutes to adjust it before hand I'm confident that shot would have gone where I wanted it to.
To make things worse, it did not take all five of these mistakes to miss that deer. If any one of them had not been made I would have killed one of the biggest bucks I have ever seen.
Well, I feel better now that I've vented............not really. LOL I hope this gives others food for thought. I'll be back in the woods soon to see if this boy will give me a second round. I know where he lives. I just hope he hasn't moved because of this encounter.
I was hunting public land that I had found good buck sign on. At about 9:15 two antlerless deer came by and I got them both. I was hunting deep and at the bottom of a large valley and floodplain. After killing the deer I contacted my buddy, sinac84, who was hunting at the top of the valley wall to help me get them out. I moved both deer about 150 yards away from my stand along the floodplain to the foot of a large ravine we would drag them up to get out of the valley. I dropped the deer and moved about 25 yards away to wait for him at the ravine mouth at the side of the floodplain.
As I was standing there I heard movement to my right. I was not paying very close attention because I was most interested in getting the deer I had down out. I assumed it was a squirrel or another doe. I had no interest in killing a third deer. Getting these two out was already going to be very difficult. That was a mistake. It was the big boy sliding along the edge of the floodplain. If I had been paying attention he would have walked right into me and I would have been ready for him. As it was, he spotted me because I was not standing still and I never knew it was a deer until a few seconds later.
He circled around after back tracking from me a short distance and trotted (not in a run) right down the floodplain. When I first saw him all I could see were his legs and again did not want to kill another deer, so I didn't even take my rifle off my shoulder.
Then I see that he is a huge buck and my heart about jumped out of my chest. I whipped the rifle off my shoulder and got it up just to slowly to take any easy 25 yard broadside shot in a nice big opening.
I kept tracking him in the scope and as he passed through another much smaller opening at about 40 yards broke the shot. I have made this type of shot several times without any problem in the past. I can also call my shots very well and know where my crosshair is at when the rifle fires. When I intended the rifle to fire I had a perfect sight picture. When the rifle actually fired the crosshair was about and inch or two above his back. I knew I has missed. I looked for blood very carefully to make sure, but I knew I wouldn't find any. Why didn't the rifle fire when I expected to? Because it is a new rifle for me and I had KNOWINGLY not adjusted the trigger pull the the rather light setting I have on every other hunting rifle I own. To make it worse, the trigger is owner adjustable and I had thought about adjusting it several time and just never did it.
So let's break down just how much of a dumb ass I am.
Lesson 1) Don't shoot a small deer when you are in an area that has big buck sign. This buck was on a trail that would have taken him right past my stand location and if I had let the other deer walk he most likely would have presented an easy shot from my stand about 45 minutes after the time I killed them.
Lesson 2) Keep your antenna up and be alert at all times. Don't assume that what you hear is not the buck of a lifetime.
Lesson 3) Don't sling the rifle unless you really need to. If I had had the rifle in my hand I would have been able to take the easy shot at 25 yards.
Lesson 4) Don't assume you don't want to kill it. As soon as you can see that it's a deer, get the rifle ready and THEN decide whether or not you want to take it. If I had done this I would have been able to take the easy shot at 25 yards. Even if the shot had broken late like it did, the error would have been much less at 25 yards than it was at 40. At worst I would have spined him.
Lesson 5) Pay attention to the weapon set up. That heavier trigger pull is why I pulled that shot high. If I had simply taken five minutes to adjust it before hand I'm confident that shot would have gone where I wanted it to.
To make things worse, it did not take all five of these mistakes to miss that deer. If any one of them had not been made I would have killed one of the biggest bucks I have ever seen.
Well, I feel better now that I've vented............not really. LOL I hope this gives others food for thought. I'll be back in the woods soon to see if this boy will give me a second round. I know where he lives. I just hope he hasn't moved because of this encounter.
