On my second bow hunt last season I set up near a fairly new cutover that the deer were coming out into near dark, crossing and going down to watering pond. 30 minutes before dark, I had at 30 yards broadside, one of the farm hands playing push the dirt pile around for ten minutes on a bulldozer. Seriously, he came up in his truck, ran the dozer for ten minutes... smoked a cigarette and left.

The next day, another farm hand was spraying one of the paths threw the woods, and rode right underneath my treestand... he saw me and appologized profusely. Hey, they have work to do and I appreciate that, but its hard to hunt around that kinda thing....

centaur 1.....very good point!!! i was typing to fast to really give every aspect of the situation. i'm very safe andcautiouswhen i hunt, even back then.that day was on private land(15yrs ago)that only i had permission to hunt. even with that being said, i wasn't in a firing position, just started to bring the gun up.man, what happened to the dude that shot your buddy. no more hunting for him?

Like I said before, I'm not picking on you personally and I have no doubt that you're a safe hunter, most people are. Since the accident hunting hasn't been the same for me and I hope that no one else ever has to go through what we did that day. As far as the shooter goes, nothing ever happened to him, it was ruled an accident. I'll try and keep this as short as possible and still give the full story. There were 5 of us hunting that day and we were hunting on land where 2 of them lived. It happened in New Jersey where you're limited to shotguns.After lunch we were heading out to hunt on the final day of the season. I went one direction and the other four went off together toward a cut corn field. When they reached the field my buddy Vinnysat at the edge near one end not really expecting to see anything but it was late and he was tired. From where he sat the field was about 150 yards across and it extended several hundred yards to the left. The other 3 crossed the field widthwise. When they got to the other corner one of the guys went into the woods and the other two made a left toward the other end of the field. That's when things got bad. The guy who went into the woods kicked up a doe and it ran across the field lengthwise. At that point in time the two guys on the other side of the field and Vinny were 137 yards apart, the deer was about 35 yards from him and over 100 yards from the guys who shot him. My buddy didn't even think about shooting because there were 3 people in front of him. The other two jerks started shooting at the running doe with their shotguns, one was using slugs and the other used only buckshot. The slug hit him in the penis almost cutting it completely off, shattered his right testicle and entered his groin and exited his buttocks. The surgeon served in the armed forces in Vietnam and he said that the slug passed within 1/4 inch of his femoral artery, he saidif the slug was still traveling above the speed of sound the shockwave would have taken out the artery and killed him within minutes.
I'm sorry for the long post. I wish that my worst memory was a missed opportunity at a large buck. Since that day I no longer measure success by what I shot, spending the day in the woods and making memories and coming home safe is what is most important. Thanks for listening to my rant.........Mike

I agree a good day hunting is a safe day huniting.

This was......4 years ago now I suppose.....I took a couple days in early november off to be in the woods for the chase phase. I was sitting in an inside corner and the wind was perfect. I was in the tree early, and didn't see a thing. I had a few errands I had to run, so around 10 I climbed down. I headed back out after I was finished, and hopped on my climber and up the tree I went. It was straight up noon. I had literally just got to hunting height and taken off my backpack....I've been in the tree MAYBE 20 seconds. I hear something running to my left, and there is a doe busting tail straight at me.

"Hm, what's her freakin deal?" I ask myself. Didn't take long to find out. A 140 class 10 point was chasing her, and it's obvious they are going to pass by my stand. And they'll be here in like...10 seconds. Oh, did I mention....BY BOW WAS STILL ON THE GROUND???!!!! [:@] I hadn't even had the opportunity to pull it up yet.

That big ole boy stops, perfectly broadside, @ 15 yards. Ya'll, this was a PERFECT shot. Except for that one small problem. So he runs off, and I quick fast pull my bow up, because there is another buck coming. Bow in tree, he stops in the same place, but is an illegal buck. He takes off, and I nock an arrow. Here come the doe and the first buck, around my other side, through the bean field. Oh, that's right.....I DON'T HAVE MY RELEASE ON YET!!! [:@][:@] He stopped @ 20 yards this time, and I drew anyway......But I knew I was just going to wound him so I let him go. They run off, and I watched those 2 bucks dog that doe the next ridge over for the next 3 hours.

Needless to say, I do a few things differently now.

probably the time I talked my brother into helping me pack out a whitetail buck via quads in a very steep clearcut.. I ended up flipping the quad (hit a small stump)end over end with the buck tied too it.. I bailed.. (hvy rain/muddy) beat the crap out of my quad and my buck.. broke his antlers off.. it was a flipping goat show.. I was soaked and mudded up.. we got out on Robs quad and came back the next day to retrieve the buck and my quad with a chain saw wench