I had a Winn release that you had to push forward on the string to lock or with a D loop you had to snap it down with your finger.

The buck just materialized 15 yds away broadside and feeding. I put my release on the string and raised to draw and "tink" my release lets off the loop as I draw. The buck raises his head at the sound and then goes back to feeding.

I put the release on again and "tink". Buck raises his head. By now I'm going insane trying to figure out what's going on watching this huge buck just stand there.

One more time I put the release on and "tink" He runs off. I just sit there shaking like a leaf looking at my release trying to figure out what was wrong with it. Then, after about 5 minutes of just sitting there in disbelief it dawned on me what I did wrong.

Here's the sad part. When the buck ran away he ran right over to another guy and he shot it. I heard the guy setting up his tree stand earlier in the morning and it was like a guy banging a garbage can lid off a stick. There was no way that buck was going his way if not for me scaring it. My dad found out the next day the guy shot it. My dad comes home from work and says, "How big was that buck that you saw" I said, "About 20" wide I think. I tried not to focus on the rack." My dad says, "Another guy got him when you scared him. He was 24" wide, 10 pt."

I just shook my head when he told me that.

Snuck up on another buck almost that big the same summer and some morons in a Jeep started honking their horn on a dirt road above me when they saw the buck and me sneaking up to it. I was 60 yds away and closing the distance with it never knowing I was there. He was too busy with his head in the corn field eating and every time he'd stop and raise his head I'd stop my pursuit. Crossed about 300 yds along the corn field before the Jeep and wanted to fling an arrow at the idiots in the Jeep.

The next year the corn and soybean fieldswere sold and developed for housing.[:@]