Roy
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LAST EDITED ON Dec-28-05 AT 11:49AM (MST)[p]LAST EDITED ON Dec-28-05 AT 11:47?AM (MST)
Everybody posts their sucess stories in the other forums so I thought the campfire would be the perfect place to start a thread about the one that got away. So go ahead, pull up a chair and tell us your "UN"success stories for 2005. I'll start...
Well first off, I live a long way from home (Utah) in Texas where there is plenty of good hunting but most of it is a long way away and there are virtually no public spaces that are good for hunting so you must lease land and it doesn't come cheap. Well, I am a Ph.D. student at UT Austin (HOOK 'EM HORNS!) and expenses are tight so there is no way that I can afford to have a hunting lease so to hunt deer, I do have a friend who is on a lease and every once in a while he invites me to go out there. Well this year, the only time I could get away was last week. Being that I am a student and I live in an apartment and I don't have a gun safe, I don't have any of my guns here. I should have brought them when I first moved here, but for some reason I didn't and my 30.06 and shotgun are at my dad's house in his safe. So I had to borrow a gun from my buddy. We went out the night before and saw plenty of deer (whitetail of course - Central, TX) but it was dark and we didn't get a chance to shoot the guns at all to see if they were sighted in, however he informed me that his was a few months ago. Well I was uncomfortable with that fact but I had to trust him so we put out some corn and checked out the stands and headed home to return in the morning. It was clear as a bell when we left and you could see the whole milky way. The next morning we got a little later start than we wanted but that was OK - a thick fog had set in and we couldn't see further than 30 - 40 yards. I got set up in the stand just before it was light enough to shoot and waited. After about 20 minutes, a doe and two fawns, one a little buck with about 1 inch nubs appeared right out of the fog and came up and began feeding right beneath the stand about 20 yards away. I didn't have a doe tag so I let them meander and hoped a buck would joing them. Then, the fog began to lift a little and I could see about 75 yards away, and sure enough another bunch of does and fawns were feeding just south of me, but no bucks there either. After about 2 hours I decided that I needed to take advantage of the fog and see if I could sneak down to another stand where we had seen a nice buck the night before. It was about 9AM so I climbed out of the stand and made my way around the edge of the field to the other stand and sure enough, there were some does feeding near the edge of the trees. The fog was really lifting now and I could see about 400 yards away with the naked eye. However, it was still hanging in the heavy grass near the edge of the trees and about 550 yards I could barely make out one deer hanging back in the trees through my binoculars but couldn't yet pick it up through the 3-7X scope on my buddy's gun. Soon I could see he was a pretty nice buck - probably 110" so I decided I should make an effort for him. The only problem was I was in the middle of a field with almost no cover and had about 300 yards to cover to get a decent shot. The doe in the open hadn't seen me yet but I knew she was the one I had to worry about. The wind was in my face so I had a chance. I started my stalk and tried to get into a position behind a big oak tree where I didn't have to belly crawl all the way and still be out of sight of the doe. I figured I could cover the ground faster that way so I started out slowly. I made it to the tree without an alarm and I could now see the buck through the scope but I didn't have a clear shot so I needed to get in closer. He was about 350 yards away and they hadn't seen me. I started out on my knees but I didn't get another 10 yards and the doe saw me, I froze and got ready for a shot, I knew she was about to bolt and about two seconds later she put it into high gear and bounded off. The buck came out of the trees and stopped for about half a second. It was my only chance for a shot so I took it but it was hurried and I was moving quite a bit and I missed clean. I took another shot as he was running that was worse than the first and then they were in the trees and gone. I went in vain to check for blood but I knew I hadn't even touched him so I looked around for a few minutes and determined the deer had left the property where we were hunting so I had to give it up for the day. Later, we shot the gun and it was shooting about 5 inches high and about 1 inch to the right at about 100 yards, so it was no wonder I missed. Well, I was mad - but not because I missed but because I knew that if I had my own gun, I never would have missed. So I will never hunt with a borrowed rifle again, the first opportunity I have to get a small safe I will and I will get my guns here and next year, I won't be on the WOULDA SHOULDA COULDA post! Story of my life!
OK - Your turn - let's hear it!
ROY
Everybody posts their sucess stories in the other forums so I thought the campfire would be the perfect place to start a thread about the one that got away. So go ahead, pull up a chair and tell us your "UN"success stories for 2005. I'll start...
Well first off, I live a long way from home (Utah) in Texas where there is plenty of good hunting but most of it is a long way away and there are virtually no public spaces that are good for hunting so you must lease land and it doesn't come cheap. Well, I am a Ph.D. student at UT Austin (HOOK 'EM HORNS!) and expenses are tight so there is no way that I can afford to have a hunting lease so to hunt deer, I do have a friend who is on a lease and every once in a while he invites me to go out there. Well this year, the only time I could get away was last week. Being that I am a student and I live in an apartment and I don't have a gun safe, I don't have any of my guns here. I should have brought them when I first moved here, but for some reason I didn't and my 30.06 and shotgun are at my dad's house in his safe. So I had to borrow a gun from my buddy. We went out the night before and saw plenty of deer (whitetail of course - Central, TX) but it was dark and we didn't get a chance to shoot the guns at all to see if they were sighted in, however he informed me that his was a few months ago. Well I was uncomfortable with that fact but I had to trust him so we put out some corn and checked out the stands and headed home to return in the morning. It was clear as a bell when we left and you could see the whole milky way. The next morning we got a little later start than we wanted but that was OK - a thick fog had set in and we couldn't see further than 30 - 40 yards. I got set up in the stand just before it was light enough to shoot and waited. After about 20 minutes, a doe and two fawns, one a little buck with about 1 inch nubs appeared right out of the fog and came up and began feeding right beneath the stand about 20 yards away. I didn't have a doe tag so I let them meander and hoped a buck would joing them. Then, the fog began to lift a little and I could see about 75 yards away, and sure enough another bunch of does and fawns were feeding just south of me, but no bucks there either. After about 2 hours I decided that I needed to take advantage of the fog and see if I could sneak down to another stand where we had seen a nice buck the night before. It was about 9AM so I climbed out of the stand and made my way around the edge of the field to the other stand and sure enough, there were some does feeding near the edge of the trees. The fog was really lifting now and I could see about 400 yards away with the naked eye. However, it was still hanging in the heavy grass near the edge of the trees and about 550 yards I could barely make out one deer hanging back in the trees through my binoculars but couldn't yet pick it up through the 3-7X scope on my buddy's gun. Soon I could see he was a pretty nice buck - probably 110" so I decided I should make an effort for him. The only problem was I was in the middle of a field with almost no cover and had about 300 yards to cover to get a decent shot. The doe in the open hadn't seen me yet but I knew she was the one I had to worry about. The wind was in my face so I had a chance. I started my stalk and tried to get into a position behind a big oak tree where I didn't have to belly crawl all the way and still be out of sight of the doe. I figured I could cover the ground faster that way so I started out slowly. I made it to the tree without an alarm and I could now see the buck through the scope but I didn't have a clear shot so I needed to get in closer. He was about 350 yards away and they hadn't seen me. I started out on my knees but I didn't get another 10 yards and the doe saw me, I froze and got ready for a shot, I knew she was about to bolt and about two seconds later she put it into high gear and bounded off. The buck came out of the trees and stopped for about half a second. It was my only chance for a shot so I took it but it was hurried and I was moving quite a bit and I missed clean. I took another shot as he was running that was worse than the first and then they were in the trees and gone. I went in vain to check for blood but I knew I hadn't even touched him so I looked around for a few minutes and determined the deer had left the property where we were hunting so I had to give it up for the day. Later, we shot the gun and it was shooting about 5 inches high and about 1 inch to the right at about 100 yards, so it was no wonder I missed. Well, I was mad - but not because I missed but because I knew that if I had my own gun, I never would have missed. So I will never hunt with a borrowed rifle again, the first opportunity I have to get a small safe I will and I will get my guns here and next year, I won't be on the WOULDA SHOULDA COULDA post! Story of my life!
OK - Your turn - let's hear it!
ROY