RE: What buck haunts you???
That's easy for me.
I was about 12 and hunting with 12 ga. buckshot. Of course they dumped the young guy off in a stand where no one sees anything. It was flooded timber with about 1 foot of water. So I felt like I was dreaming when this huge 10 point starts walking towards me. I saw him from about 150 yards out and he walked all the way to about 25 yards and turned broadside. My heart was about to explode. I shot and the buck took about 3 steps forward and fell behind what must have been the biggest tree in the whole woods. All I could see were the bottom of his legs thrashing around. This would prove to be the difference. I knew I was supposed to wait but I was so excited and thought he was in his death throes. After about 2 or 3 minutes of this I started to climb down from my stand, and while I was on the ladder I saw him get up and run away mostly keeping his body behind the tree. I swung around and shot my shotgun off of the ladder, which swung me around smashed my arm. We tracked him all day, but due to the water it was almost impossible (should have had a dog), and we never found that deer.
Although I have not deer hunted consistently since then, only really picking it back up the last 3 years, I have never seen another deer that big. This was one I relived over and over. I never hunted with a shotgun after that.