RE: Interesting stories of "almost had him"
Four years ago I was bow hunting in my tree stand on our lease. It was an evening hunt with a steady breeze and the acorns were dropping like crazy. This made it difficult to hear any approaching deer. With only a few minutes of shooting light remaining, I called it quits and put my arrow back in the quiver. Just as I was starting to lower my bow to the ground I heard something behind me. I turned to see what it was and was shocked to see a big rack buck coming out of some thick brush only 15 yards away. I hurridly untied my tow rope and quietly nocked an arrow. As I was doing this, the buck came to within 8 yards of my stand, but he stopped behind a tree. Naturaly, his vitals were blocked by the tree, but I got a real good look at his rack. He was a massive 11 pointer with about a 20 inch spread. I was already having visions of this slammer in the back of my pick up truck that's how confident I was going to shoot him. All I needed was for him to take one step. Then for no reason he bounded back into the brush. My heart sank to a level I've never known. All I can figure is that his 6th sense kicked in and told him to get out of there. But, just when I thought all was lost, he turned and started to come back out towards me. Then I started to think that maybe I would just end up gettting him after all. Just as I was about to draw on him, another deer I never knew was around scented me and blew. That big buck didn't hesitate and he blasted out of there like a locomotive.
I hunted that buck the rest of the season as did everyone else in my hunting club and nobody even caught a glimpse of him. It just didn't add up that nobody saw this buck during the season and there were no reports of a big buck being taken in the area. Then near the end of the following summer, I was returning home from shooting my rifles in preperation of the upcoming season and the guy renting the house next to me stops me and starts to talk hunting with me. You guessed it, he tells me the story of the slammer 11 point 205 pound buck he shot the year before during black powder season. As this guy was not from the area I asked him where he shot it and I was blown away when the area he described was none other than my hunting lease. When I told him that area was a posted lease he winked and just shrugged his shoulders saying that he had a special 5 day hunting permit to be on the land.
Let me just say, there is no such thing as a special permit and I had all I could do not to punch his lights out on the spot. He shot that buck less than 200 yards from my tree stand. The only good thing is that I didn't waste my time that next season hunting a buck that was already hanging on a poachers living room wall.