Brennen24

Has anyone been in a hunting situation where you just wanted to pull a temper tantrum right there and start bawling?

For instance, my dad and myself were hunting bighorn sheep on the last day of sheep season. We were sitting on a mountain range for the morning, and we happen to spota band of rams on one mountain range over. Anyways one of these rams was the biggest ram ive ever seen. I havent been hunting sheep for very long but this ram had lamb tips thatjust broke the bridge of his nose, well over full curl! it was really pretty too and he had huge bases.
By the time we get over to where he was, we were sittin about 800 yards away, and we were stuck because they were bedded down and the only way to get to him was out in the open, so we waited for him to jump up and walk down the other side of the mountain so we could try to get in range. When they did that, we made our move. About 20 minutes later and about 400 yard away we see the same group of rams peek over the edge, see us, and take off.
Ahhhh, so frusturating! but thats how she goes i guess... Sheep are really smart animals, i guess thats why its so fun.

Does anybody else have any stories they want to share?

24/7 hunter

last october my grandpa and i went to wyoming muley and antelope hunting. we took a drive the afternoon before opening day to some public land and glassed for a while and i spotted 3 muley bucks standing 250 yards away. one was a 12 inch wide, one 20 inches and one was alot bigger. We went back there opening morning and at first light i spotted a huge buck (especially compared to whitetails where i live, it is hard to see an 18" spread) feeding on a ledge 400 yards away. I was not confident shooting that far so i tried to stalk closer. When i started moving he saw me and looked but didnt run away. When he continued feeding, i walked down the ridge i was on, up onto a huge flat with sagebrush and cactuses. I glassed him as soon as i got to the top and he wasnt looking my direction so i continued the stalk looking to make sure he was still there every 10 - 20 yards. I finally got to about 200 yards away and he was looking straight at me. i got behind some sage, unfolded my bipod and found the buck in my scope... running away[:@]I didnt want to shoot a running deer so all i could do is watch him run around a bend and dissappear. I spent the rest of the morning looking for the buck and heard a shot at about 11 o clock. I went over a ridge and met a guy that stayed at the same hotel as us. He said he shot at a 27 inch wide muley. I knew it was the buck i shot at. He said he missed and it was the biggest muley he has seen in that area of public land in wyoming. I made up for it that afternoon by killing an 11 1/2" antelope at 300 yards but i still think about that buck everyday. Not bad for my first out of state hunting trip. We are planning on going back this year for elk and muleys in the bighorn mountains.

Brennen24

I have another story...

I was hunting white tails in southern alberta. All the deer would hang out on this private piece of ranch land, where nobody could hunt. We would sit along the fence line and wait for the deer to leave the ranch to feed. Anyways there was about an hour of daylight left and i had been watching this buck for a while. He was roughly between 155 - 165ish and he finally jumped the fence with about half an hour of light left at about 300 yards. He came out about 5 feet and stopped. I just got my crosshairs on him when all of the sudden he turned around and jumped right back in! I was so mad! Im not sure if he saw me or what, i didnt think he did. Anyways i rattled, and he came running at me full blast, but then circled and winded me.

... He would of been my first deer too.

feddoc

A few years ago I was hunting elk in CO and came across a nice 6X6 running across a huge open park.

I went to where I thought he would appear...he was standing at the edge of some trees. Easy shot...200-250 yards away...I pulled the trigger...click...I had not pulled the bolt back far enough to chamber a round. I smiled at him as he trotted into the chamber.


Same area about 4 years ago. Some friends and I hadtracked a small herd of elk for a few miles. Last day of the season. We got tired and decided to head back to camp as it was close to dark. I had put my gun away in the truck and rode in the back with my pals. I also decided to have a beer...another reason why I put the gun away. Anyway, we were headed back to camp when I caught movement out of the corner of my eye. The biggest bull of the bunch was standing broadside about 30 yards away. At least one of my buddies got him.

Spiffy

We were doing a drive here in ontario when a nice doe came flying out. I fired 2 shots at he running and missed both with my shot gun. She then stopped and stood about 20 yards from me in the wide open. I put the bead on her chest and ... click! I still don't know if I forgot to put the 3 shell in, pumped and extra time, or if the gun malfuntioned.

I managed to jam in another shell as it was standing there but when I put the gun up she turned and ran. I fired anyways and only wounded it. It wasn't a good hit but we took up the trail and saw it twice but couldn't finsish it off. We nearly had it again when 2 shots rang out infront of us. The neighboring gang had got it. Knowing it wasn't woth arguing for it we went back to camp... sick and tired. I was only 15.

The shots are loud but the clicks are deafening.

GR8atta2d

Hmm all these statements don't add up... Did you shoot at it or not?

ShatoDavis

I was bowhunting my fathers farm. I had seen a true monster of a buck the whole winter and summer previous while feeding, brushhogging, etc. I had glassed him several times and knew the caliber ofwhitetail he was. He had a 20" spread a typical 6 x 6 frame with spilt browtines making him a 14 point. I estimate that he was a true 170 incher. I had passed ona fewP&Y caliber bucks because I had one deer in mind or nothing. It was nearing the end of the first bow season. Missouri's bow seasons are split by rifle season. I had hunted the morning, sitting in my stand until noon. I got out of my stand to stretch my legs and relive myself. After a half mile walk away from my stand I returned to hunt the rest of the day. As I neared my stand I saw him. 100 yards away, a mear 20 yards from my stand. There was nothing I could do but hunker down. I watched him mill around my stand for 10 minutes. No cover to make a stalk. As I watched him walk away I knew that I had blown my chance. Still I climbed into my stand and sat until 30 minutes after dark. I hunted the rest of the season sitting in my stand from before daybreak until dark, but never saw him again that first season.

The late season I didn't hunt for the first week after gun season hoping he had made it through the rifle portion and would return to his normal routine if not pressured for awhile. The first day I returned to hunt the wind was wrong for my primary stand. I decided to hunt a patch of woods that I hadn't hunted all year. The timber is thick and their is a spring at the head of a ravine. I decided to sneek in and hunt from the ground. As the sun rose and started warming my face I started nodding off. There is something about sitting in the woods with the sun on my face that makes me tired. As I was snoozing I heard a twig snap. I opened my eyes to see the monarch mere feetaway staring me down. He could see me but didn't know what I was. The stare down seemed to last forever. As he wheeled to leave I tried to bring my bow to full draw before he was gone. NO LUCK! He dissappeared and I never saw him again. I heard that a neighbor had killed him out of season a year or so later. When I heard the rumor it was like getting kicked in the stomach. I remembered my failed attempts and felt responsible for the disgrace of his illegal demise.

24/7 hunter

No i didnt shoot which i sort of regret. I meant the buck I saw, not shot at

DM

It's a long story, so i'll shorten it a bit.

I took a friend out for sitka blk tail deer and to get a brown bear, out on an island in Prince William Sound in Alaska. A few days later we came up on a reallyNICE bear sitting faceing us at about 75 yards away, in a clearing that i knew of, in some virgin rain forest i like to hunt. I told my friend, "there's your bear, shoot it right under the chin in the chest". He just stood there stareing at the bear with his rifle pointing straight up. I said "TAKE the shot before it moves off", and he just stood there shakeing his head back and forth, no! Then i said, "what the he!! are you doing, you going to take that bear or not!!!" He kept stareing and said "I don't want a bear".... Just then the bear put it's nose in the air and winded us, andimmediately charged downhill straight at us. I put the cross hairs on the bear, but it lost our sent at about 40 yards away,and started milling around.

hahahhaahaaa Man, was i ever peeeeved at him... He never even aimed at the bear and proclaimed, "my a$$ was puckered up so tight you couldn't have pounded a pin up it with a sledge hammer!!!" hee he heee i'llNEVER forget him saying that...

Next day he asked me, "do you think you could get me a bear yet?" I said "HE!! NO,and i won't eventry!!"

Drilling Man

Cowboy Al

I went bear hunting for the first time last spring. The first evening we went in, a huge chocolate colored bear showed up just at "prime time" enticed by my attempt at a honey burn (he came from downwind) but man was he smart. He paced back a forth 50m behind the bait trying to wind us(there was two of us in the ground blind). I was totally calm until my buddy told me it was one of the biggest bears he'd ever seen at one of his baits. Then my knees were knocking! After he said that I wanted the shot angle to be perfect so I was going to wait until he was braodside. Finally he started to come to the barrel, I was ready to shoot, he cautiously sniffed the top of the barrel, only exposing his head and a portion of his neck, I thought he was going to take another step so I started to squeeze, instead he backed away and started to circle us, we knew he was going to wind us as he was circling downwind. I changed positions on the tree I was using as a rest looking for a spot to shoot, he stood 30m away sniffing the air screened by trees he scented us and bounded away! He only went 70-80m back into the bush, by this time it was getting dark so we snuck out. Unfortunately he never returned, during daylight hrs. What a rush!!