anybody care to share funny or odd stories of "the one that got away?" this should be a fun thread. i'll go first...

WARING: THIS IS A LONG POST

well, i had been hunting this buck all season, but hadn't seen him yet (he was VERY nocturnal.) he had a good-sized track so i was pretty sure he was a good buck...on one cold december day he finally showed himself to me. i was sitting in my stand all bundled up for the cold weather, when i caught movement out in front of me. there he was, my buck. i was sure it was him. he wasn't a giant buck, but he was what i would call a "dandy" eight pointer. anyway, he was coming directly towards me offering no angle to draw (let alone shoot.) 40 yds, 30 yds, 20 yds, and coming closer. i still can't draw on this buck because i'm afraid he'll see me move. finally at about 15yds he stops in the wide open and actually turns broadside so he can look behind him at something. when he does this i see my opportunity and draw. as i'm finding my anchor point and starting to settle my pin on the hair i have picked out he turns back and faces directly towards me! ah! my shot opportunity is gone and i am standing there at full draw. he continues towards me. i figure i'll just hold my draw until he walks past me and hopefully offers a quatering away shot...he keeps coming closer until he's about 5 yards from my tree and then he stops...he is underneath a very brushy dogwood tree that is growing from the base of my tree. this worries me, i'm sure he has smelled where i had walked in to my tree just an hour before...seconds begin to turn into minutes and still he stands there. there wasn't a wisp of wind at all. i could actually hear that deer breathing and every breath he took looked like a fog...my string arm starts to burn and my bow arm is starting to quiver...i couldn't hit the broadside of a barn now...i had to let my bow down. the pain was just excrutiating! finally, i let my bow down. i had been holding my bow so long that i hardly had the energy to keep that bow from tearing my arm off! well, you can imagine the "woosh" noise i made as my string arm brushed against my heavy coat. anyone ever held their bow a long time and tried to let it down "slowly?" ha! didn't happen for me! needless to say that buck took two giant leaps directly sideways about 20 yds and stopped and looked back for the "boogie man." he just stood there for a long time. my arms may have been tired but my concentration on that deer hadn't waned...after i would guess about 10 minutes the buck went to feeding on some of the late season acorns...i could not believe it! what luck! god must have known how much time i had put into this season to give me a second opportunity! i was elated...i let him feed until his head went behind a tree and i drew my weapon with my fully recovered arms. i was practically already smiling for my "after the hunt" pictures...but, when i came to full draw, i could tell something wasn't right. standing at full draw, i glanced down at the arrow on my string to only see it wasn't there! WHA?!?! after further investigation i found my arrow, perfectly "balanced" teeter-tottering on my forearm of my bow arm. sure as you please there it was...i could not believe it...i guess when i had let down my draw the first time, all the force had dislodged my nock from my string just enough that when i went to draw the second time it slipped off the string completely and somehow nestled itself on my bowarm. i was so intent on that buck (and so ecstatic) that i almost didn't notice the arrow had come off my string. can you imagine if i had dryfired that bow?! anyway, my new plan of attack was to quickly let down my draw (while the deer's head was still behind that tree) and grab the arrow before it falls. well, you can guess what happened. i let down my draw and saw my arrow fall off of its balanced perch and clang against my stand as it fell to the earth. the buck leaped out to about 60 yds, again looking for the "boogie man." after about 20 minutes, he went back to feeding and fed out of sight...after he was gone and i was replaying the fiasco of what happened in my head, i just burst out laughing. i just couldn't contain myself. i couldn't believe my entire season had come down to this moment and this is what happened. unbelievable.

i never saw the buck again that season...

to this day i still think about that buck and think if he only knew how lucky he was, or how UNLUCKY i was!!

so, that's just one of a number of stories for me. surely, something like this has happened to someone else...please don't tell me i'm the only one!