Sorry

[1eyemountainmen]

I just missed the deer. I saw were his tracks were-no blood, I have seen him in the past two days. I think the reason I'm being so harded on myself is because I am starting to go blind. It's no longer good for me to shot at animals without a "@%$#" scoped rifle. I'm not sure what hurts the most-going blind or not being able to shot my muzzleloaders. As fot he saying "Fortunata ferina est, quae telum fulmen meum defugit" It's on all my guns. It's latin "lucky is the game that escapes my rifle"

 

[paulvallandigham]

Many years ago, my brother came down to hunt deer with me one season. I put him in a good stand, overlooking the junction of two trails with active sign, and then moved off to hunt another spot. I got a deer the first day. He fired a shot at a 5 pt. buck on the second morning but missed. The deer was only 15 yards from him, but in woods, below him, and his slug hit a broken branch of a limb that crossed in front of the buck, and went who-knows-where. He didn't want to believe that he could miss a deer at that short range, even if his slug did hit that limb, so I began tracking his deer for him.

I followed that deer for more than 150 yards through bottomland forest. At about 100 yds, the buck stopped to eat some grasses. At the 150 yard mark, we reach the junction of two more trails, alongside a small creek, and by that time, we had seen no blood, there was no evidence from the gait of the tracks to indicate that the buck was wounded, and the buck's behavior indicated he had forgotten all about my brother. I gave my brother the choice of going on with the tracking, and he decided he was convinced. He still mumbles about that shot. I told him he had " Joined the club ", and that I was already a member. I worry about hunters who are not bothered about missing game.

My brother now works with a retired barrel maker, who has both a pacemaker, and a defibrillator in his chest, difficulties breathing, and eyesight that is failing. He put a scope on his custom made deer rifle this year, for the first time in his life, I believe. Its okay. Better you use a scope to help those old eyes, and enjoy another season of hunting, than quit hunting and go blind watching TV! :thumbsup: :hatsoff:

 

[musketman]

I just missed the deer.

You are not the first to miss a deer my friend, that is why its called hunting and not killing...

Why I had once carried the nick-name "Tree Slayer" because of my ability to miss deer size game.

So I got to thinking, what if I aimed for the tree, would I hit a deer by mistake??? :hmm:

That didn't work either... :rotf:

Its your rifle, if you need optical aide than use it, you will get no gripe from me.

 

[shootemup]

Well said Musketman,

There is no disgrace in adding a scope if you need it. No disgrace in missing the deer either 1eyedmountainmen, hang in there. :hatsoff:

Spot

 

[jtmattison]

Why I had once carried the nick-name "Tree Slayer" because of my ability to miss deer size game.

Geeze, I wonder how Stumpkiller got his name... :hmm:

HD

 

[PreglerD]

Hello from Germany!

Thats the cause why I'm using a Deerhunter rifle from Traditions because it is drilled and taped for scope mounting. And here in Germany a scope can be useful, especially in autumn and winter when it gets dark early and game is moving only in the late evening. No chance with iron sights, but I want to be as traditional as possible and use a sidelock ML with bp and PRB. In spring and summer when game is moving during daylight I always use a unscoped rifle.

Regards

Kirrmeister

 

[Stumpkiller]

Geeze, I wonder how Stumpkiller got his name...

Roving and field archery. I had more fun in hunting camp shooting stumps than sitting around or still-hunting. Wastes too much time not shooting! :rotf:

We were on a canoe-in camp and I had arranged to meet up with the other hunter I was with for lunch & to compare notes. We did some stump shooting with blunts (we were both traditional hunters with no sights and it pays to keep your "eye" in practice. He was a former state champion archer and I was keeping up with him that day (but then, he's also had recent heart surgery slicing up his chest muscles and a torn rotator cuff since his tournament days - still an astounding archer, though). He pointed out a dead trunk about a foot wide at about 70 yards and said "Lets see you hit that one." I did.

He said "Common Stumpkiller, lets get back to hunting" and thereafter I took on that camp name. Especially since I didn't get a deer. :redface:

When it gets to be time I can't see the iron sights I guess I'll take up the scope. I have stooped to keeping on on my bolt-action .22LR and I find myself reaching for that more often than my trusty iron sighted pump .22LR

I've been deer hunting since 1980. Lived with deer and spent days in the woods. I'll be damned if I could tell a buck from a doe bu their tracks in the leaves and mast on the woods floor hereabouts. I generally can tell size and whether they were hauling or moving slow. That's about it. But I do have a bag of tricks for following a blood trail.

Carry 20 ft of drag rope. Unfurl it and pull it along with you as you track the deer. If you get to a spot where you lose the trail drop the rope and start spiraling out (on your hands and knees if need be) until you pick up sign again - and then bring the rope up and continue. This, and leaving little wads of TP at hip level as you track, has helped me recover some bow shot deer that went goodly distances. If I am certain I hit a deer I will stick with it as long as it takes, returning and retracing.

I lost a well-hit buck years ago while hunting the edge of a swamp. I spent the remainintg two days of that canoe-in trip in knee-deep water under hemlocks and over hummocks and cattails and found a few spots where it had laid up. That was a steep downward angled shot from a treestand. The buck took a leap and collapsed about 20 feet from the tree I was in, laid as dead, and then regained it's feet after a struggle (while I had already started to lower my bow on a string) and stumbled off with the last 10" or so of my 31" yellow crested arrow sticking up out of it's back. I'm fairly certain it died within 300 yards of that spot, but I never found it. Never found any part of the arrow, either, and that is the only time that has happened. I was about 60 feet from the edge of a lake and it's possible it tried to cut across part of it and drowned where I never searched.

It upset me enough that I didn't hunt from a treestand again until last year. 17 years later.

At one time I used to deer hunt with a Bess. No sights not to see and out to 50 yards as effective as all get out. BIG .650" round ball (this was a 16 bore). Might be a thought.

 

[Britsmoothy]

You sound like a feller that knows when he can not shoot but me thinks that the very fact that you did take the shot says you were confident to get the job done. How far?
Alot can happen to a ball on the way there!
I've been shooting fox for over 20yrs now and just last week got the shakes like a newbie which resulted in a miss!
You do whats best for you Sir and good luck :hatsoff:

Britsmoothy.

 

[Emet Huntsman]

Don't beat yourself up. My grandfather enjoyed nothing more than hunting. When his sight began to go he pretty well gave up on it. Then my mom and her sisters bought him a scope for his favorite rifle for Christmas. (Had it mounted and sighted in for him too.) He went out that evening and got a nice doe. He was tickled pink that he could hunt again -- which he did until just before he died in '73. I now have that rifle in my collection.

 

[tg]

It will happen to us all someday, put it behind you and go ahead with your plans for hunting there is no discrace in useing a scope of Peep on a ML when the eyes start failing, I chose the route of the smoothbore with no rear sight, the smoothrifle has a rear sight and so far is still useable but the rear will likley come off in a few years, hang in there and put a ball smack in the boiler room of the next one, this ain't the end of the world, just a start of a new phase.good luck and enjoy the journey, it is far from being over....