Buck Fever Misfortunes

[musketman]

The thread "Had My Chance" over in the Traditional Hunting section got me a wondering, what are some of the strangest BUCK FEVER misfortunes that have happened to you or your hunting buddies?

I forgot to cock the gun once when a really large buck popped into close view...

I even had pseudo recoil when the gun went off in my mind...

'corse now days, that would never happen again...

 

[Dave Poss]

Oh boy do I have one for ya!!! I tried to kill a buck once by throwing my tomahawk at it.

I was walking down a fireroad and kept hearing a noise russtling the leaves in the revein off to my right. This continued for about 50 yards. thinking another hunter might be there; I wanted to let him know I was up on the road. I couldn't see down the slope because of small bushes and assorted other woods manure, so, I proped my flintlock up against a tree and climbed a deadfall to look over the stuff. Suddenly a 6 pointer came charging up the hill and stopped about 20 feet from[url] me...broadside[/url]! My rifle was 10 feet away so I slowly reached back and got my tomahawk out of my sash with him looking me square in the eyes. I couldn't belive he didn't run when I moved for the hawk. In one swift motion I hurled the hawk at him and fell off the deadfall at the same time. When I dug my way out of the broken tree limbs,I looked for my dieing deer...he wasn't there. All I found was my hawk and a small tuff of hair. I came close to having an "all-time" tale to tell but all I did was give a buck a haircut.

P.S. I wouldn't attempt such a stupid thing now. All a hawk would do is wound the animal uless I cut a major artery,and not much chance of that. That was my days of being young and foolish!

 

[leadball]

When in my less than enlightened days of using centerfire guns, I had a small 4 pointer come out of a tag alder swamp 25 yards from my blind. I brought the gun up and yelled "BOOM"! Then took a hurried shot. To this day i am still trying to figure that one out. The deer escaped unscathed. Probably a ripe 14 pointer still laughing at the over excited hunter.

 

[roundball]

Just Saturday I was sitting on the ground against a tree, had just shot a doe and it was still very early, reloaded, sat back down, pulled up my collar and proceeded to doze off while things settled back down.

Something caused me to look up and I saw what I think was a 6 pointer 25yds in front of me, front legs splayed out, head & neck stretched out as far as he could towards me trying to scent me. As I raised my head up he saw me moving, his tail started to raise, and I knew the launch sequence had begun, had maybe a second.

With the surprise of this buck practically standing over me, max adrenalin dumped and I thought I was going to have a heart attack...immediately shook so bad I couldn't get the hammer stall off. Everything seemed like it was in slow motion, he started recoiling his weight back on his hind legs for the launch, I got the rifle up, jerked the trigger, missed him clean as a whistle at 25 yards !!


Alphabetically, I was/am:

Disgusted
Embarrassed
Mad
Sad
Shocked
etc
etc
etc

:shake: :curse: :shocking:

 

[silverfox]

longknife do I have one for you. The year 1958 west Texas analope as you can see long time ago. No rifle, no permit, short on knowledge but at 20 feet I got my buck with a bowie in the throat only went about 50 feet. luckest throw I ever made. Now the deer story 10pt. about 20ft. set the triggers, aim pull the trigger (snap) deer looks puzzled and walks while I try to see why the gun didn't go off. You gots to cock the hammer first or the set triggers won't work is that the way it works.
Fox

 

[Bill J.]

Mine is very funny as I look back at it, but I still have not seen a buck as big as this one. This was about 17 or so years ago. I hunt in my back yard and I ran out for a couple of hours after work. It was very warm here in upstate NY and very dry and I was making alot of noise in the dry leafs. I still hunt down a ridge top and then back to the other end of it. When I got back to where I started I heard some leaves moving on the other side of the ridge about 50 yards away. A huge buck 10 points {I know how many points just keep reading} stood up broad side looking at me. As I pulled up my shotgun I noticed something strange about him, one side of his antlers where hanging down on the side of his head. It must have been shot and was loose. The other side stood up well above his head. I drew the bead on him and BLAM, miss, he stood there BLAM, BLAM, now he started to go, but the antler that was hanging down was tangled in grape vines and all he could do was run around in circles BLAM, BLAM, missed all five shots. Now my gun is empty and I only brought five shells with me and this huge buck is running in circles 50 yards from me. I start running toward him not have any idea why. As i close in on him I think " Hey hit him with the gun stock" I turn my gun around grab it by the barrel and Im going to hit this deer in the head with the stock of my gun. As I get to him he's still running in circles antler caught in the vines. His butt comes by me and I swing of course I miss and I fall down just then he brakes free nearly running me over. He hit atleast three trees head on he must have been dizzy. I will never forget it funniest thing I ever had happen to me in the woods.

:cry: :cry: :cry: :cry:

 

[16gauge]

While it is not a muzzleloading story, my Uncle likes to tell of the time a "city feller" came up hunting one year. He came back to camp around lunch time on opening day telling about the big buck he saw and emptied his rifle at. He claims he hit it each and every time he fired, but that deer never went down and that the .30/30 winchester he was carrying was just not powerful enough to drop a deer. My Uncle asked him to take him back to where he shot at the buck. When they got there, my Uncle asked where he was standing and where the deer was, ect. When the man showed him where he was, my Uncle looked down and found 7 live .30/30 rounds in the leaf litter. The guy had gotten so excited and rattled that he simply racked fresh rounds in the gun and forgot to pull the trigger each time! The interesting part is that the guy never did believe that is what happened.........he thinks that someone went out there, picked up his empties, replaced them with loaded rounds, and left to make him look stupid! He showed up the next year with a brand new shiny .30-06! :hmm:

 

[bob1961]

how bout being a 20 year old greenhorn to hunting of any kind....HOW GREEN YA ASK....like reading an artical saying a neck shot is a quicker kill then a body with a bow till i found out after the deer is done it was a artical bout guns....and now the rest of the story....any one remember who said that all the time on the radio....back when....i was on stand and this was my first year hunting deer and all ready had a nice 9 point for my first deer....

darn near had a heart attack so i thought before knowing bout buck fever....it's two weeks after said deer and was on the same stand last weekend of fall bow season....i have two bucks that where bout a 10 and a 12 pointers and bout 250 lbs each make the one hanging look real small....chashing a doe in heat oh by the way the doe made that buck look small too....well after bout a good 10 minutes of these two chaseing her around and me getting dizzy in my stand from spinning around trying to follow these deer around and hopeing one would stop for shot....these deer stop to look at was makeing noise from the thickets coming out of the swamp behind them and i did too i was allready a basket case so what the heck....well this deer that looked like this pic at bout 300 lbs....well as close as possible....

i think it was a deer but it didn't have long dark hair comeing off it's head and neck area so it must have been a deer and not an elk he was that big and made the other two look small....he came out of the swamp and walked right down the very same path that my 9 point had taken a arrow at 9 yards two weeks earlier....grunting all the way and i'm thinking what in the tar is that noise....remember i'm greener then green bout hunting....my jaw hit the ground and i was 18' feet up in a home built stand....and all i could do ( besides wetting myself ) was look at this deer and say in my head i think and not out loud was LOOK AT THE SIZE OF THIS DEER....as he walked by the very same spot my 9 point did remember....well all of them started to chase each other around and daylight is closeing fast....let see bout 10 more minutes of my heart not beating or beating so fast i couldn't feel it anymore....the big guy STOPPED and i thought he was bout 30 yards out....i had 10 - 20 -30 -40 yard pins so i was ready i think....took the shot and he went straight up in the air bout 6 feet with his tail between his legs sign of a good hit....right i hope....and took off running and the others followed....now i'm totaly a spent comatose bag of bones bout now....wait for bout i don't know many minutes get down and go and see what i don't know my first deer dropped in 25 yards and insight of me so there have never been any kind of blood tracking by this greem horn....can't find my arrow can't find any blood my flashlight batteries are going dead it's dark and i think i'm afraid of it....then i find my arrow it's clean as the day i bought it stuck in the ground....my guess was it was a clean miss at this point....picked up my bag of bones and drag my butt home not know how or what to think of what just happened....i think i was awake....and now ya heard the rest of the story....sorry for the long windyness but had to be told as it happened right............bob

 

[Rebel]

And now the rest of the story. That would be Paul Harvey. Goodnight.

 

[bob1961]

bingo we have a winner............................bob