I was fortunate on opening day to take a decent buck that I had seen a few times before ; not a monster , but too good to pass up for the area I'm hunting . Right at daylight a young doe came in to the scrape I was near . She stayed in the area , looping out and back for about 45 minutes , so I suspected she might be " hot " . About 10 til 8 she looked hard to the area behind me and I heard footsteps coming from that direction . With a slow glance over my shoulder , I could see the buck coming... uhhh walking to the scrape . He passed directly under my treestand but went past and stopped in some brush . The doe got jittery and she started to lead the buck away . I let him get out to about 30 yards and shot him with my muzzleloader . He leaped up and then took off on a " scalded dog " run . I found him about 100 yards away at the end of a blood trail that even me and Stevie Wonder could follow . Heart shot .
The sad part of this tale is that about 2 weeks ago , from this exact same stand , I arrowed a buck that makes this one look like a puppy . Hit exactly where I aimed but the arrow exited high instead of driving down through the vitals . Must have deflected off some bone . He ran out about 30 yards ( of course where there was no possible shot ) , stood there about 10 minutes occasionaly licking where the arrow came out the other side , then walked off . I waited about an hour , thinking he would lie down and expire . Just as I was getting ready to get down , two does came blasting by with the buck chasing them . Shocked ? Stunned ? Pissed ? Sick ? You name it , I felt it . Got my blood covered arrow and looked for a blood trail but found only one drop . Searched the rest of that day and a whole day more but could not find him . Hoped against hope that he survived and that I might at least see him again . All the bucks that came through after that still avoided getting near his scrape so I thought either he was still around or THEY thought he was still around. The buck I ended up killing had avoided the scrape too but walked right in on opening day of gun season . That's hunting . From the highest of highs to the lowest of lows in an instant . I'll play that shot over in my mind for the rest of my days . Don't get me wrong , I am thankful , pleased , and proud to have taken the buck I did and will never forget that either . Both deer were exceptional for such a hard hunted area of stripped ground and almost no agriculture . The " one that got away " was exceptional for anywhere on earth .