I'm super bummed...
 

Well I'll try and make a long story short. While doing some scouting last week my cousin and I bumped up one monster of a whitetail. We backed out of there and came up with a plan to drive him out of his honey hole the next morning. We didn't get a real good look at him but decided he was probably a 170 class buck.

The next morning we gather up the tribe and plot our attack. Two drivers and three posters, if he is in there we will most certainly get a shot at him. Right away, the drivers kick him up and he cuts loose. After some zig zagging, he ends up coming through an open field to my left. He would come no closer than 45 yards so I stop him broadside and settle the sites on his torso, trying to ignore his monstrous rack. I was using my dad's Excaliber ExoMAX crossbow which has 3 pins, set at 30 40 and 50 yards. I THOUGHT I put his boilermaker between the last 2 pins, but after I shot I had to endure the agony of him running away, and looking back to remind how the trophy that I just missed.

This buck is easily a 170" whitetail, and had I connected on that shot it would have easily put me into the top ten in PA archery kills. The state record for a typical is only 178" which he was pushing.

I'm so sick that I can hardly concentrate. I may never get an oppurtunity at a buck that big for the rest of my life, and I blew it. Especially for a Pennsylvania whitetail. He's out of the area now and I only have til the end of this week before I head back to school and my 2006 archery season is in the books for good. Not sure how long it will take me to bounce back, but I can only hope he returns to this area where he feels safe for next season, only this time as a 180"+ state record. :(:(:(

RE: I'm super bummed...
 

that sucks, but at least you had such a great encounter with him.

RE: I'm super bummed...
 

Driving and bowhunting.... hardly ever a successful mix.

RE: I'm super bummed...
 

Man, that sucks... sounds like a great encounter though. Good luck in finding him next year!!

RE: I'm super bummed...
 

Oh I wouldn't go and say that much. I bagged three does this season, and all three came off of archery drives with two of those kills with my Bowtech. Using a crossbow SHOULD be much easier but it was purely shooter error as he was standing still broadside at 45 yards. I guess that makes my success rate this year on archery drives 75%. I don't think that's a bad number at all.

RE: I'm super bummed...
 

I guess I can't knock it. It's something that I've never tried. Sounds like it works well for you though.......exept for this last time.
You gotta wonder what would've happened with a well executed still hunt through that area.

RE: I'm super bummed...
 

442deer i agree. i hunt from stands alot, but this particular area is overgrown scrub field with no trees to climb into, and im not much of a ground blind guy. i feel uncomfortable in them with a bow.

RE: I'm super bummed...
 

That's hunting. Now you're all the more driven. Good luck with him!!

RE: I'm super bummed...
 

Mee too. No matter what I do, I feel naked on the ground. Even if I do wear clothes that day.

RE: I'm super bummed...
 

jhalf, a great encounter and a memory for a lifetime. I have a similiar one, I watched a 170" class 8 point from the stand this year with nothing but a camera to capture him with. I haven't heard of his fate through rifle and I'm assuming I would have, I hope to show him to you next year;) but it's an honor to see a buck like that period.