Will he come back?
 

So I had a nice 8 walk down my clearing last night. I had dumped some doe estrus on the ground and he came quickly from a 100 yards out. I couldn't draw back without him seeing me because he was walking straight my direction. Once he past my stand I decided to draw back. He never slowed down and started to walk into the woods away from me. With me being nervous (woulda been my first big buck) I decided to try and shoot him in the shoulder although he was walking at an angle away from me. Long story short I missed right by him. He took off in the woods and I heard him stop once and blow. After that was silence. I got outta my stand to check my arrow. No blood, no hair, no anything. Got back in my stand hoping he would randomly come back. He never did. So my question is will he come back anytime soon? Although he looked my direction once he never seen me. Sorry for the long post, thanks.

how d you say good by in deer talk !!!

He will come back. Maybe not when you are in the stand, but if it's his home area he will still be around. Deer can't just up and flee the country anytime they get spooked by someone or something. They can change travel routes though.

Big bucks don't really relocate. They do go nocturnal though

Well thanks for the help. Maybe I'll get lucky and see him again sometime soon. Hopefully this time I'll get a kill

OK MY 2 cents
if he never say YOU, he really has NO idea what happened, so there is NO reason he wouldn't come back
a prime example and a funny one is
I had a good buddy come hunt my place, and he is KNOWN for messing up at time of shot
he missed the same buck 4 evenings in a row hitting a tree or shooting under the deer, and each time, the buck bolts, snorted and then he walked away
ALL clean misses (thank GOD)
and then a week later he actually killed it , a 120 inch 8 pointer!
in my many yrs bow hunting (30+) I have had several bucks, get spooked by silly things like dropping something or? actually getting busted and still came back next day or later in the season if a buck left the area every time something spooked it, they would never have a home range, be on the run all the time and thats a way there WAY more likely to get killed and THEY know it
if there is a reason for the deer to return and its on its home turf, they will come back
look at it this way, odds are that buck walked thru there hundreds of times and NEVER had anything happen, the ONE time something does, ain't going to chase it away forever, all the more so if its NOT sure what even spooked it, for all t know a BIG branch fell or?? some idiot just happened into his area and then left HAHA!
(just teasing here LOL)
it can be best to give the area a little cool down time, but that honestly comes down to how many places you have to hunt and IF that deer seen YOU or not

A lot depends on the time of the year. 2 days ago a neighbor cleanly missed a nice 8 point. He has a food plot which attracts a lot of does and last night the 8 came back running does. He didn't miss this chance. They forget and get stupid during those few "special days". It is going on right now in my area and 3 of us neighbors filled our buck tags last evening and all the bucks were snorting and chasing.

As was said if that is his home turf he will be around. If he was just passing through on his search for does he may not ever be seen again. We get dozens of bucks on our trail cams during the rut that are only on cam that one time and are never seen again by anyone in the local area.

We had a huge three legged nontypical buck (was missing the lower potion of his left front leg) on our cams for three years in a row during the exact same nights (Nov 11th or 12th) and that was the only days it was on cam or even seen for those three whole years.
No clue what ever happened to him, just disappeared. I suspect he died during a very icy winter we had in the area a couple years ago. After all he only had one hoof to dig through the crusty/icy snow with.

I beg to differ sir, but yes they can and will. If he feels any kind stress or pressure his will pack his suitcase and leave. It being the rut might save the day, he usually come back if a estrous doe is nearby.

It may seem that way but they usually don't.

I manage a lot of hunting property and mature bucks don't just pack up and move.

They do get elusive enough that they might as well be gone though.

I missed a big buck yesterday, I bet he won't back. I scared the crap out of him.

has he lived there his whole life?

I've seen Bucks leave the county and if they could swim very long distances they would leave the damn continent! And then I've seen Bucks that were hit with arrows or even firearms of various sorts and not even leave the 200 acre home turf! If it's a "home base" they will typically stick around but as Rock put it, they go nocturnal and as far as being able to hunt them, they may as well have left the area because you sure wont see them. Most seem to believe the rut makes a Buck 100% stupid. While yes they are definitely more aggressive and on the prowl in daylight more than they normally would be, they are still fairly alert and wary for the most part.

Being as the OP didn't actually hit the Buck, I highly doubt that it high tailed it out of the area. More than likely, since it was with archery equipment, it probably didn't give it a whole lot of thought at all. Bucks tend to leave an area more from a scent than from a noise.

That I don't know. Just started hunting there. This place is only 15-20 acres but it's very thick. Agriculture fields on all sides. I will run trail cameras out of there this spring and summer.

Don't get me wrong when I say he won't leave I mean he won't leave his home range not that he will continue the same pattern or stay in exactly the same spot.

I used to think they would leave if you pressured them but they just don't and actually the older and wiser they get the less likely they are to relocate.

For the most part the ones that don't show back up thats because they are dead.

If you are hunting 40 acres then sure he may stop using that part of his range but he didn't go far.

Outside traveling during the rut its very rare that I see new bucks or quit seeing local bucks on my camera.

The biggest smartest bucks on my properties get jumped and shot at but they ALWAYS come back.....ALWAYS

The number one hit list buck has lived in the exact same spot for years.....ive been putting hunters on him for years.

This is the only daylight picture of him all year


Another One of my oldest bucks finally fell last weekend. He has shown up every Oct for years. He is a mover and has always moved in the daylight but uses the wind brilliantly. He has winded hunters over and over again but last weekend he finally got caught.

From what little I can see of that deer, he looks a bit like the nasty old (around 10 years old) 9 pointer I smacked Friday Rock.

Yeah he was old. We didn't think he made it through the winter but sure enough he showed back up in Oct healthy as a horse.

The hunter really didn't know what he had.

I also put a Dr who owns some land I manage on a buck of a lifetime last weekend but he got busted.

Picture doesn't do him justice as its a picture of a video but he is a monster



All these bucks have been spooked and stayed around.

I know this is the bowhunting section of the forum but I missed with a shotgun.

With all the agricultural fields around there is only small partials of woods. I am going back out this Friday to see if he'll come back through. If not I will try and catch up with him in December. I believe this is or was his bedding area. Straight to the south is a small woods with a huge strip pit.

in my personal opinion, when an animal detects you it needs to satisfy 2 of 3 of its senses. so it needs to either see you, smell you or hear you in order for it to make the call to flee.
that being said, a gunshot might shake that up a little more and cause him to avoid that specific spot for a while too. set up your cam and see if you can spare the time.

That's why it's called hunting
 

You may never see that buck again this season. It might show up, the day you're absent. It might be following a doe, on someone else's property. Gets harvested there.

Where a deer goes is decided upon mainly by the deer. It lives in a area\ 24-7. It might move to an area not covered in your hunting. A deer doesn't care if its outside your coverage area.
It doesn't care if you never see the buck again. It never cares what you think of where the deer will be found.

That's why they call it hunting and not collection. The deer mainly decides where its going to go. And some hunters learn about hunting the hard way.
And there always is a little luck, mixed in with a little skill. Maybe you'll be a little lucky.
Harvest a great deer. You would probably say it was all skill.

Results are in....the buck pictured above that the Doc spooked (and by spook I mean the deer walked right up behind him in in broad daylight and saw him at 10 yards) he was back on the camera by Tuesday. Getting just as many pictures of him now but just none in the daylight.

I haven't seen any sign of this buck. Bucks can leave their home range in search for does, only to return later after the rut is over. This area might not even be his home range. My camera is out there right now.