mobow

This story always makes me cry......Here we go...

November of 2005. I'm on an inside corner and the weather is perfect. I had intentions of sitting dark to dark but I had a couple errands I had no choice but to do. So I got down about 10:30 and at noon I was climbing the tree. I had just got to hunting height and heard something running to my left. I looked over and a doe was busting tail right to me. I think to myself, "Now what's eating her?" and about 10 seconds later I saw what it was......

Bout a 140" 10 point hot on her tail, and they are headed right to me.....Yeah, that's right, my bow is still on the ground, I haven't pulled it up yet.....Ya'll, I've been in the stand LITERALLY 15 seconds....They run directly under me, and he even stopped broadside at 10 yards just for good measure. Then ran off. I pulled my bow up and heard a grunt....Looked left, and here comes about a 130" 8 point....SON OF A!! I don't have my release on yet.....

I watched those 2 dog that doe the rest of the afternoon on the next ridge.....Never got a shot......I now climb the tree w/ my release on, and my bow comes up ALOT faster.......

YooperMike

I have hunted the U.P. of Michigan my whole life, and IL last year for the first time. I've killed some nice deer in the UP, but never killed, nor have seen a real bruiser. It was the third week of season in IL last year, like the 20's or October. My friend Ross and I were hunting together, about 70 yards apart on a hedgerow, both up in trees. The wind was howling into our faces, sleet, cold, just miserable. It was 4:00 and my phone vibrated, and it was Ross. He was calling to see if I wanted to call it quits, which I was more than happy to do at that particular time. So, we go back and forth on leaving, and he says "Oh my God, look behind you up to the top of the bean field. There is a monster coming right down here." So I said, yeah, whatever, I'll see you ina minute. Well, I turn around in my stand to start getting down, and holy god, biggest buck I have ever seen is 150 yards away and sauntering my way. The deer is in the middle of no kidding, 500 acres of bean field. I have no clue where he had come from, but he was coming. I always get excited when deer come in, does, bucks, it doesn't matter. I have never been affected like this by a deer. I hunt from a Summit climber, and I was facing the tree as I was planning to shimmy down and head to the truck. So, I see the deer, take stock of the situation, sit down on the front bar of my stand, basically it was sit down or fall down, as I was shaking so bad. Next thing I notice is the wind...it was perfect for the set-up for that day...but absolutely wrong for that deer and where he was coming from. The only hope I had was that it was blowing hard enough to go right over the top of him. When he got to about 75 yards, and I realized that it could actually happen, I got really nervous, like conciously nervous. I raised up my bow, to be ready...and in doing so I came to the unnerving realization that my EZ hanger was right where the shot was going to be. So, I put down my bow across the rail of my stand, reach up and start to unscrew the hanger. About 1/4 turn into it, the hanger lets out a squeak and would wake the dead. The deer looks around, but continues to come. He is now at about 60 yards, to the south west, wind howling out of the NE. I get the hanger out, bow back up, release clipped to string, begin to draw...buck freezes, one foot up in the air still. I know he caught my wind, but just a hint, and he isn't too spooked, just cautious. I maintain position, and he takes another step, and freezes again. This time, I sprayed a tiny bit of Docs 249, and he threw his head up and was sniffing like crazy, took one more step, and caught me again on air. We did this for maybe 10 minutes, and finally he bounded about 10 yards, and then just turned and walked straight way. He got to within about 45 yards, and with that wind, no way I was taking a shot.

Still the best encounter of my season, and just an awesome experience. I have never had a deer rattle me like that, it was almost a little embarrasing to tell my friends about it and Ross saw the whole thing happen. Sure I would have liked to get him, but it may even make a better story this way!

Germ

Oh yes like it was yesterday.

The first real encounter was right after I shot my first buck.

My first chance at a mature deer came a few years later. I looked up and there he was standing on top of a hill. Just like you see in pictures. He walk past meat 5 yds. Went to a tree put his head down and started making a scrape. He was qrt away slightly and I was ready to send him a Game Getter two with a 125 Thunderhead.

I never took my eyes off the buck. I was zoned in right in the kill. I hit the bush perfect right in front of him Year later I shot his son I think at the same tree. I trimmed the damn bush Now I always make sure to check lane a little better[:-]

W.T.F.

I actually have 2 stories to share about this. I have hunted the PA woods for a long time now and have seen my share good bucks but never any monsters that were in bow range. 5 years ago I had the good fortune to relocate to Montana for about 20 months and on the first night sitting in the stand for whitetail it was early Sepy and they were still in bachelor groups I am in my stand for about 45 minutes and 3 bucs appear out of nowhere. All 3 of them are far bigger than any buck I have ever killed,and they are only 30 yds away, the trailing buck was the largest a 142" 10 point and I took the shot, hit him hard and sat and gave him an hour. while sitting in the stand 3 more bucks show up walking down the same trail and the smallest one is the size of the one that I just shot. I swear if I didnt have a harness on I would have fell out of the tree. The largest of the 3 was probably about a 170 class 7 x 6 and it was the most amazing whitetail I have ever seen. The brow tines alone had to be 8" and the spread was easily 24" but the body is what was incredible my dear weighed in at 205lbs and I am telling this 13 was damn close to 300lbs. They grow alot bigger in MT than we do in PA

JNTURK

it was one of those things when hunting just "clicks" like learning math or science. it was 5 years ago (i was 18) and it was the last weekend of rifle season. my dad and grandpa had been up hunting and had seen another "bruiser" of a deer and had told me where they saw him. i went therefriday afternoon and followed the trails the deer had been walking...crossed the road and saw they were walking a trail parellel with the road...lots of sign on it....next morning my cousin dropped me off and i just sat right on that trail....had a view looking down the hill into hardwoods (view of only about 100 yards or so) the wind was hitting me in the face and i knew that they came from down the mountain and crossed the road in the morning (lots of road hunting/scouting over the years led me to this discovery) it was about 830 and i looked over to my left where the oak trees met the pines and the pines were thick and a caught a glimpse of something shining...then there he was...just walking out of the trees....all i could see was a monster body and a huge rack (for a blacktail) i went to make the shot but his vitals were behing a buttom branch of the pine....i made the decision NOT to shoot...then he walked up the ridge some and i lost sight of him....felling like a big pile of %#*% i sat there and visioned him for a minute keeping my eye over there just in case he were to come back out.....and then i saw him....he walked up the ridge and was on the same trail i was sitting on walking right for me....with his head down walking on the trail i took my shot at about 18 yards ( yea i know, but it was now or never as there were pines between me and him and this was my only oppurtunity) he jumped up and fell over then rolled down the hill some......an awesome 5x4 (western) or 11 pointer (eastern) ...

this was my first encounter of a true monster buck......we guessed his age at around 5-7

W.T.F.

hey yooper that was an awesome story I just wish it could have ended better for you

rybohunter

Really can't recall my first time. About the closest was when I was pretty young and ran the trapline with my dad. This one morning in early november, we saw 3 large bucks, one of which is still burned into my memory as it ran down thru the field. I was small so everything looked big, but my Dad agrees that that buck was a beast.

curth83

i dont recall seeing such a thing!

GR8atta2d

Yes the first time I saw a Genuine Monster while hunting..Dad and I had hunted in the Morning and then we we going to another place in the afternoon. This is the last Saturday of Rifle season in PA geez...1980-ish. We are nearing the place we are gonna hunt in his 1970-something Bronco. About 300 yards ahead of us deer start crossing the road 15-20 of 'em (back when deer numbers were alot higher in Pa). The last one steps out on the road. We both simultaneously yell.."last one is a huge buck!" Dad punches the gas we go around a few corners he finds a make-shift trail and we have the Bronco bouncing up the mountain..sideways..through stuff over stuff..
We are gonna get ahead of them! We hit the mountain top, grab our stuff and take off. Dad finds a decent funnel (somehow ..while we were familiar with the "area" we'd never hunted, exactly, here.) We get set and deer start coming..I'll never forget we thought we had'em..we saw 29 deer come through in the first 30 minutes..but I guess the old boy got big and stayed alive by knowing when to break off from the group. I've seen my fair share since but he was the first jaw dropper and we still relive the memory virtually every deer camp!

quiksilver

My first time was just a couple years ago. It was the West Virginia rifle season opener, and I still hadn't found a good spot.So, Idid some asking around, and a few guys told me that there were some real big bucks at the Cabela's in Wheeling, WV. So, I loaded up the .300 mag and headed for Wheeling. I was optimistic.

I got out of the car and loaded up. For it being a Cabela's, people sure seemed skittish around a hunter on opening day. I really don't know what their problem was... The greeter at the door asked me if I needed some help. "Thanks but no thanks buddy, I'm just looking for a good spot to set up - it's already daylight, I'm running late"

Anyway, no sooner than I got inside the door, I caught an outline of a whitetailin the distance, and there he stood. King Megabuck - he was perched up on a rocky bluff in the middle of the store, kinda looking the other way.Tines everywhere - totally majestic.

I got a rest on a rack of Scentlok gear, leveled the sights on him andtouched off the trigger.All hell broke loose. Foam stuffing and deer hair blew everywhere. People were running and screamingwhile I wasbusy cycling the bolt for a follow-up. Just before I got a second shot in him, some guy from security wrestled me into a Billy the Big Mouth Singing Bass display.

After the arraignment, I did 30 days in County Jail, and Cabelas has a restraining order against me, so I never did make it back down there to look for a blood trail or anything. Not sure what ever happened tothat buck. He was a guaranteed booner. I think that security guy might have taken off with my prize.