Thursday morning you guys might remember me posting that I had a nice 8 or 10 pointer walk underneath one of my stands I wasn't sitting in and I was kinda bummed out about it. Well that was only a sign of things to come.....

Friday morning I called in sick to work and took off to Western IL for the weekend. Here's a quick summed up version of the events that followed.

Friday Morning: Spooked away one of the biggest bucks I've ever seen while hunting. He came from a direction I wasn't watching closely enough right at the crack of daylight and caught me moving as I turned around to look in his direction. Truely a magnificent buck.

Friday Night: Saw a total of 7 deer from stand, 2 really nice bucks. One of which was a heck of an 8 point but had 3 tines busted off about halfway down. He came straight in to my buck decoy and stood broadside at 30 yards. I shot right underneath him.

Saturday Morning: Same stand as Friday Night, rattled right as it got light out. 10 minutes later I spooked a big 8 pt as he was coming up through a valley where I couldn't see him very well. Later on in the morning while still hunting through the woods I got within 40 yards of a HUGE 10 pointer with at least a 24" spread, but couldn't get any shooting.

Saturday Night: Didn't see a single deer.

Sunda Morning: sat on the ground in a ravine 100 yards from the stand where I missed the 8 pt on Friday Night. Perfect morning. Slightly foggy, no wind, nice and damp, etc etc. I get set up at about 6:00 or so. At 6:30 I spotted a nice buck moving down out of a CRP field and into the ravine I was watching to my left. As soon as he got in the ravine I let out 3 small doe bleats. Sure enough, he turned straight for me and walked up the ravine. After crossing in front of me and coming across the ravine on my righthand side now, he stopped cuz something just wasnt right and he turned back the way he came, crossed over the ravine, and stopped directly in the center of one of my shooting lanes. I drew back, settled my pin on him and released. Only to watch my arrow sail 3 inches over his back and see him bound off into the fog.

Sunday Night: Saw one doe.

So yeah, that was my weekend. I saw more big bucks in a period of three days than I've seen all year and missed TWO of them! I still can't believe it. The first one I missed I underestimated the distance of the shot. It was an mistake anyone can make I guess. But the second one was just pure stupidity. I knew how far the shot was, used the right pin, and still somehow managed to shoot over him. I have no idea how. It was one of the biggest bucks I've ever had within bow range. Probably a 140+ class 8 point. At least a 20" spread and 10-12" G1's.

Ah well, time to go practice some more and hopefully get a shot at this big one I've been seeing close to home. I guess that's why they call it hunting and not killing.

I very much feel your pain, I am the guy who posted the ground hunter needs help thread, my weekend was much the same, missed a 6 point friday night misjudged yardage by a solid 10 yards.
Satu. morning grunted in a nice 8 point, and wasn't watching the right direction close enough and spooked it.
My sympathies :-)

Jennings Buckmaster Bow
.50 Cal Thompson Center Renegade

Zarr I hate to say this, but it sounds like you may have had a case of buck fever, I got it on a doe last year, it was the first deer I had ever shot at with a bow and I though I had everything right, the second I released I knew I missed my anchor point and sailed it over her back.

I do have one question, were you shooting fixed blades? If you were have you tuned your bow to them, fixed blades do fly differently than field points.

The Tazman aka Martin Price
Founder and President of
Virginia Disabled Outdoorsmen Club

it sounds like you have had one hell of a weekend. i did the same thing this weekend i drew had my 20 yard pin on him and changed to my 30 at the last min. sailed 4 inches over his back but 2 days later i did not make the same mistake and filled my out of state tag.

I've gone over the scenario's in my head a million times and this is pretty much what I came up with.

Yes, I shoot fixed blade Zwickey's but they are sighted in for my bow. The problem is not my sight being off, its basically that I misjudged the yardage.

The buck on Friday night I thought was 30 yards out. The top pin on my bow is good from 20-30 yards since my arrow's speed and tragectory is fairly flat out until 30 yards. I used that pin and the arrow missed under his chest cavity by about 4 inches. Obviously the shot was closer to 35 yards or so. It was deceiving since he was standing in a on open CRP field in waste-high weeds.

After that shot I began second-guessing myself as to whether or not my top pin really IS good out to 30 yards. Maybe I should've used the second pin.....

So Sunday morning comes and before I went out my dad told me that if a deer comes up the trail I'm watching that its a 25-30 yard shot. So when this big buck came out I second guessed myself when I was lining up my sites and I used the next pin down instead of the one I should've known to use. Basicall I was unconfident in my shooting ability because of my miss the other night and I didn't want to shoot under another one, so I ended up shooting over this one. Dumb mistake on my part, but I'll have to deal with it.

I spent all of yesterday afternoon practicing shots from 20-30 yards and my sights were and still are dead on, I just plain and simply screwed up. That's all.

And as much as I have had buck fever in the past and rushed my shots at deer or been unsteady trying to line them up, the more deer I get close to and the more deer I successfully harvest the easier it becomes to not get over excited. Heck, I was calm as could be both times. My brain just decided to turn itself off I guess.

Maybe it's God's way of telling me to hold out for the B&C buck I saw Friday Morning. haha.

Zarr from what you are saying you had the same thing happen to you that happened to me on that doe, I called it buck fever, not because I ruched the shot or was shaking, but simply because I blew my anchor point, I have killed a ton of deer with a gun before that doe, but I simply missed my anchor point and the only real reason I could come up with was because it was my first shot at a deer with a bow. As you said, my brain was turned off in regards to my anchor point.

I will tell you this, one day the buck of a lifetime will appear out of nowhere so close it will scare you, watch for the fever than!!! No one is totally immune. I have found with me that the longer I have to react to a deer the less chance I have of the fever, it is when they just suddenly appear that seems to shake me! I know some people who are the opposite, they are fine when they have very little time to think about a shot and loose it if they have to deal with the adreniline for 15-20 minutes before the shot presents itself.

The Tazman aka Martin Price
Founder and President of
Virginia Disabled Outdoorsmen Club