Funny buck or bull fever stories

[schoolhousegrizz]

This should be enjoyable. Let's hear the most extreme cases of buck or bull fever you've ever experienced or witnessed. This should crack a few smiles.

Man that fever can be real.

 

[MountainSqwabler]

Brother drew the unit 10 hybrid bull tag a few years back. We had spotted a bull wayyyyy off in the spotters and he made the call that he wanted to try and get a closer look, and possibly a shot at said bull. Drove about 10 mins down a 2 tracker to the ridge right above where the bull was last spotted feeding under. We took off on the top of this ridge hoping to be above him by about 100-150 yards. While walking We stumbled upon a group of about 25-30 cows bedded down, with the lead bull bedded as well about 100 yards from us. I took my brother (who is older by about 5 years) behind me and we crawled up to this little hill between us and these elk. We spotted the bull and he decided that bull was the one for him. We set up my back pack for him to rest his gun on (as we were laying on our stomachs). Shaking like a SOB he took aim at the bull. THANKFULLY I was paying attention to everything and noticed his barrel was pointing right into the dirt of this small hill, his scope was clearing the hill but not his barrel. I reached over and snapped his safety on so he couldn't fire, I instantly recieved a death glare along with "wtf are yoi doing????" I pointed out that he was about to blast dirt, and we rearranged the pack and got him higher so he cleared the hill. He took aim again and I noticed he was shaking worse than a whore in church! I put a hand on his shoulder, had him look at me and I affirmed to him that the bull was bedded, had NO clue we were there, and that he had all the time in the world to shoot this bull. After about 1 minute, he took a deep breath and smoked the bull. Bull stood up and started running a little to our right, stopped and my brother made another standing shot on the bull, dropping it in its tracks. Brother ended up with a beautiful, typical 342" bull.

 

[littlebighorn]

Many years ago I took my younger brothers and one of their friends on a general deer hunt on the Utah opener. It snowed hard the day before, keeping us from our normal hunt area, so we went to a location we had never hunted before. I felt a bit like the guide being the oldest and most experienced, so I made the goal of getting them all a buck.
In those days, just getting a buck was the goal, regardless of size and by noon I had successfully helped all three tag small bucks. I left them to drag their bucks to the bottom while I decided to hunt over the top and meet them back at the truck. On the other side of the mountain I spotted a bedded spike. I questioned whether or not to shoot him, but since he would be easy to get out, I laid down to take a shot.
When I got him in my scope I started to shake like a leaf. For some reason I felt I needed to kill this buck to complete the day, but I couldn't begin to keep his body in my crosshairs.
I thought to myself..."this is the stupidest thing that's ever happened while hunting. It's a dinky spike!" but I continued to shake.
Finally I sat up and almost laughed at myself.
The buck had no idea I was there and eventually I came to my senses and walked back to the truck. I had killed several nice bucks before this, including a 31 inch Kansas muley. But for whatever reason, on that day, a dinky little spike had my number!

 

[schoolhousegrizz]

I'll share one story now and one later. I was 13 and had a muzzleloader elk tag. I had a few chances during the week at elk but couldn't make it happen. The elk disappeared for a few days. On the last day we saw a cow run through the bottom of the ravine. We followed the cow for a few miles with no sign. Eventually we saw some elk ears poking over the hill. We snuck up over the hill and found are self in the midst of a herd. There were elk everywhere. A bull stepped out about 12 yards in front of me. My dad laid down so I could lay the gun over him. I went to put the old Hawkins over his back and could not find the strength to pick it up, I was frozen. I used my whole body and all my strength and flung the gun up on my dad's back. I set the hair trigger and fired. Elk ran everywhere. I had no idea where my elk had ran. About 30 seconds later my elk came out from behind the brush and stood there. I was able to get another standing shot. I was so shaky, I dang near blew my foot off by shooting 5 feet in front of me. The elk took off running into some trees, snow fell everywhere and I could not see anything. I started to feel sick and wanted to cry because I thought I had blown my chance. I walked over there and laying dead in the snow was the elk. I hit him perfect the first shot. I thought it was a three-point when he was laying in the snow. I pulled on his head and out of the snow came two more points which made him a five point. We were able to hike back down to the four-wheeler and find a trail that got us within a couple hundred yards. We were able to get the whole elk on the four-wheeler and drive it to the truck. It was quite the sight.

 

[schoolhousegrizz]

Many years ago I took my younger brothers and one of their friends on a general deer hunt on the Utah opener. It snowed hard the day before, keeping us from our normal hunt area, so we went to a location we had never hunted before. I felt a bit like the guide being the oldest and most experienced, so I made the goal of getting them all a buck.
In those days, just getting a buck was the goal, regardless of size and by noon I had successfully helped all three tag small bucks. I left them to drag their bucks to the bottom while I decided to hunt over the top and meet them back at the truck. On the other side of the mountain I spotted a bedded spike. I questioned whether or not to shoot him, but since he would be easy to get out, I laid down to take a shot.
When I got him in my scope I started to shake like a leaf. For some reason I felt I needed to kill this buck to complete the day, but I couldn't begin to keep his body in my crosshairs.
I thought to myself..."this is the stupidest thing that's ever happened while hunting. It's a dinky spike!" but I continued to shake.
Finally I sat up and almost laughed at myself.
The buck had no idea I was there and eventually I came to my senses and walked back to the truck. I had killed several nice bucks before this, including a 31 inch Kansas muley. But for whatever reason, on that day, a dinky little spike had my number!

Love it!!

 

[2lumpy]

My buck fever stories aren’t funny, they are like enlarged prostates, they get worse as I get older.

In my youth…….. back before I turned 65, I can only remember having buck fever once, which occurred while archery hunting and waiting for a forked horn mule deer to walk across a large meadow on Cove Mountain, with my 8 year son. I was shaking so hard I couldn’t draw the bow, much less hold it still.

Now I’m 75 and I can’t get around worth a dang anymore, so……….. my opportunities are more limited. First I’m no longer hunting for meat and self gratification. I honestly don’t need the meat anymore so I hunt just for the love of the interaction with the wild outdoors and my family interaction, so on the very rare occasion I encounter a animal I want to kill I’m no longer the calm, cool and calculating killer I once thought myself to be.

Urgency and capability are not good bedfellows. Maybe it’s a good thing the opportunities don’t come as often as they used to. I don’t handle failure well. LOL.

 

[Butts]

It was 1996. Our neighbor had seen a big buck cross the road on numerous occasions around 4:30 AM on his way to work. I was (still) friends with the son my age.
We figured out his bedding area and since the neighbor first laid eyes on the buck, his family got first dibs on location for opening morning.
The buck did show and the neighbor let lead fly…, didn’t touch a hair.
Fast forward to the last couple days of the hunt, I decided to push this patch and hopefully jump the buck into my dad.
I did jump the big buck at about 7-10 feet. I was shooting a model 760 pumpmaster chambered in 270.I shot one mag box.. dropped it to the dirt. Slammed another one in. Shot it. Didn’t touch S…
Met up with my dad and I told him I couldn’t understand missing him 9 times! He said was there someone else shooting? I replied NO. He said I only heard ONE shot….
Well, I shot once and then proceeded to jack 8 live rounds out in the dirt….

Not a proud moment, great learning experience though!

 

[timbuck2]

Ok, This was hilarious!…. Mid 1980’s, my dad archery hunted blacktail bucks every year in the Sierras. I shot a bow with him all the time but was too young to hunt on my own. We had a blind set up in some trees that was large enough for me to sit with him. One cold morning we’re sitting in the blind and a forked horn walks down the trail. It stops perfectly behind a tree giving my dad time to draw. I’m SO excited thinking this may be the first time I’m with him when he gets a buck. My dad goes to full draw and waits for the buck to take another step….. and he waits, and waits…..and waits. Pretty soon under the weight of this old 50% let off bow, my dad’s leg goes to shakin’. And then it starts shaking bad… so bad, that dead pine needles start falling on to our heads because he’s shaking the trees so bad…. And then, I start getting the giggles bad!! It was all I could do not to scare the buck and ruin my dad‘s chance. Finally the buck takes a step out and the arrow files right over its back! Not sure if it was buck fever as much as holding his bow back for so long, but either way it was funny and this story has been told many times! Fun times with dad

 

[Tristate]

My dad told me a story of a man he was told to put on a deer.

He set the guy up with a Winchester 30-30 and made a little brush blind near a waterhole that he knew deer frequented.

About mid morning he goes to pic the guy up and he's stumbling around the water tank. He asks the fella what happened. The guy tells him the biggest deer he ever saw came to water. He says the buck actually climbed into the tank belly deep and starts drinking. He fires. Says the deer doesn't flinch. He fires again. Nothing. He fires again and again. He says the deer is now looking at him. He says he actually walks towards the deer and fires a couple more times and the deer has enough and hops out and runs into the brush. The man says he has been looking for blood and there's no way he could have missed unless the borrowed gun is off.

My dad looks and sees where a wet deer jumped out of the tank. Tracks it into the brush never finds any sign of wounding. Goes back and starts looking. Says he finds live 30-30 rounds scattered here and there. Never found one spent round. The guy just worked the lever and never fired the weapon.

 

[2lumpy]

Ok, This was hilarious!…. Mid 1980’s, my dad archery hunted blacktail bucks every year in the Sierras. I shot a bow with him all the time but was too young to hunt on my own. We had a blind set up in some trees that was large enough for me to sit with him. One cold morning we’re sitting in the blind and a forked horn walks down the trail. It stops perfectly behind a tree giving my dad time to draw. I’m SO excited thinking this may be the first time I’m with him when he gets a buck. My dad goes to full draw and waits for the buck to take another step….. and he waits, and waits…..and waits. Pretty soon under the weight of this old 50% let off bow, my dad’s leg goes to shakin’. And then it starts shaking bad… so bad, that dead pine needles start falling on to our heads because he’s shaking the trees so bad…. And then, I start getting the giggles bad!! It was all I could do not to scare the buck and ruin my dad‘s chance. Finally the buck takes a step out and the arrow files right over its back! Not sure if it was buck fever as much as holding his bow back for so long, but either way it was funny and this story has been told many times! Fun times with dad

 

[2lumpy]

My dad told me a story of a man he was told to put on a deer.

He set the guy up with a Winchester 30-30 and made a little brush blind near a waterhole that he knew deer frequented.

About mid morning he goes to pic the guy up and he's stumbling around the water tank. He asks the fella what happened. The guy tells him the biggest deer he ever saw came to water. He says the buck actually climbed into the tank belly deep and starts drinking. He fires. Says the deer doesn't flinch. He fires again. Nothing. He fires again and again. He says the deer is now looking at him. He says he actually walks towards the deer and fires a couple more times and the deer has enough and hops out and runs into the brush. The man says he has been looking for blood and there's no way he could have missed unless the borrowed gun is off.

My dad looks and sees where a wet deer jumped out of the tank. Tracks it into the brush never finds any sign of wounding. Goes back and starts looking. Says he finds live 30-30 rounds scattered here and there. Never found one spent round. The guy just worked the lever and never fired the weapon.

I’ve heard similar stories from other hunters. Buck fever is a wonderful thing.

 

[2lumpy]

^

 

[schoolhousegrizz]

My dad told me a story of a man he was told to put on a deer.

He set the guy up with a Winchester 30-30 and made a little brush blind near a waterhole that he knew deer frequented.

About mid morning he goes to pic the guy up and he's stumbling around the water tank. He asks the fella what happened. The guy tells him the biggest deer he ever saw came to water. He says the buck actually climbed into the tank belly deep and starts drinking. He fires. Says the deer doesn't flinch. He fires again. Nothing. He fires again and again. He says the deer is now looking at him. He says he actually walks towards the deer and fires a couple more times and the deer has enough and hops out and runs into the brush. The man says he has been looking for blood and there's no way he could have missed unless the borrowed gun is off.

My dad looks and sees where a wet deer jumped out of the tank. Tracks it into the brush never finds any sign of wounding. Goes back and starts looking. Says he finds live 30-30 rounds scattered here and there. Never found one spent round. The guy just worked the lever and never fired the weapon.

Crazy what it does to people.

 

[JPickett]

mines kinda like llittlebighorns. the funny part about mine is though i've never had "buck fever" on a big game animal. bulls at 15 yards, bucks i know i gotta shoot before they disappear. nothing.

coyotes. little coyotes. i love calling. any more its what i look forward to more than any big game season. and it never fails, at some point in my calling season (usually more the once) i get one coming in that i just cant settle down for. i dont know if its worrying about messing up the stand or second guessing when i should move on him or what. but i have absolutely screwed up what should be a dead dog by getting all jittery.

 

[HikeHunt61]

OK- not me, but my son.

First- he's a better shot than I am. When we practice, he's steady as a rock.

So we are on his first antelope hunt. He's good taking a 14" buck, so we find one and get on him- 150 yards away. Son has his bipod and rifle set as the antelope stands broadside. I know that antelope is surely gonna die.

First shot- I see dirt fly over his back. I simply cannot believe it. My son is shocked, runs another one in the chamber. The dang antelope is just standing there still! Unreal, but there he is.

My son settles in and fires again. Dirt flies UNDER the antelope this time. I'm beside myself- he's killed 6 or so deer and elk before this, never even a hint of buck fever.

Son looks at me like "should I bother shooting again?". I'm doing my best "of course" look. That poor antelope STILL is standing there. Son shoots, the antelope drops almost instantly.

We spent the better part of that day going back and forth on what happened. Son said he wasn't a bit nervous, had no idea what went wrong.

After the hunt, I was cleaning the rifles. As I was going over the scope on his, the ocular housing was OBVIOUSLY loose- the stupid locking ring was not set against it, and it was nearly backed completely off the scope.

Needless to say, he was sure happy to find that out!

 

[2lumpy]

Buck fever means you still have organ function……… should be considered a blessing.

 

[Tristate]

I've got another one that's pretty funny.

25 years ago I worked for a taxidermy company. Good place with good clients. Learned a lot there.
So we had this one client that the owner grew up with. He built a big successful company and some giant national company bought him out and left him fabulously wealthy. It was really cool American dream type stuff.

Well he tells us to celebrate he purchased an elk hunt at white mountain at the best time with their best guide and he's gonna kill a 400 incher with his bow.

Months go by and he comes to the shop for a visit. We were all sure he had a giant dead elk in the truck but there wasn't one.

He told this story.

He says it was a greater hunt than he could have ever imagined. Says day after day he turned down bulls as much as 350 inches in bow range. He says the guide was phenomenal. He says with just a couple of days left to hunt they move to a new area. He says the spot a bull that is enormous and alone. He says the guide bugles at him, not cow call, and the bull screams at him. The guide immediately pulls the client back and they retreat into some very thick saplings. The client tells his guide he won't be able to shoot through all the limbs if the elk comes across. The guide tells him not to worry. He says the bull heavy stomps all the way over to the saplings. The guide blows a giant bugle and the monster begins pushing into the saplings breaking limbs as he enters the thicket. The customer says the what he remembers is the bull forcing his head and body through little trees and stops right in front of him and growls out a bugle right in his face. He said the guide whispered , "4 yards". The client said all 4 of my pins were covering the kill zone. He could see individual hairs on his body. Steam coming out his nose and the smell of elk pi55 filled the air. He let loose the arrow. He told us he had no idea where that arrow went. Says they never found it. Said he was shaking so bad it took hours for him to calm down. Never saw the bull again.

 

[2lumpy]

I've got another one that's pretty funny.

25 years ago I worked for a taxidermy company. Good place with good clients. Learned a lot there.
So we had this one client that the owner grew up with. He built a big successful company and some giant national company bought him out and left him fabulously wealthy. It was really cool American dream type stuff.

Well he tells us to celebrate he purchased an elk hunt at white mountain at the best time with their best guide and he's gonna kill a 400 incher with his bow.

Months go by and he comes to the shop for a visit. We were all sure he had a giant dead elk in the truck but there wasn't one.

He told this story.

He says it was a greater hunt than he could have ever imagined. Says day after day he turned down bulls as much as 350 inches in bow range. He says the guide was phenomenal. He says with just a couple of days left to hunt they move to a new area. He says the spot a bull that is enormous and alone. He says the guide bugles at him, not cow call, and the bull screams at him. The guide immediately pulls the client back and they retreat into some very thick saplings. The client tells his guide he won't be able to shoot through all the limbs if the elk comes across. The guide tells him not to worry. He says the bull heavy stomps all the way over to the saplings. The guide blows a giant bugle and the monster begins pushing into the saplings breaking limbs as he enters the thicket. The customer says the what he remembers is the bull forcing his head and body through little trees and stops right in front of him and growls out a bugle right in his face. He said the guide whispered , "4 yards". The client said all 4 of my pins were covering the kill zone. He could see individual hairs on his body. Steam coming out his nose and the smell of elk pi55 filled the air. He let loose the arrow. He told us he had no idea where that arrow went. Says they never found it. Said he was shaking so bad it took hours for him to calm down. Never saw the bull again.

Oh yeah……… been there, seen pretty much the same thing, first hand. Took all the muscle control out of my legs. Collapsed! Think I shared it here a number of years ago.

 

[ELKOHOLIC]

My dad and I was driving down the road when I was real young. There was 2 nice four points just off the road. The road was icy and my dad was trying to stop. I jumped out with my gun and fell on my back on the ice. My dad honked the horn at them as he was turning to get his gun out of the gun rack. The two buck just kind of looked at us and finally walked away from us never to be seen again. We never fired a shot!

It was probably the same year I came face to face with a big buck and didn't have the gun loaded. I tried as hard as I could to cram 270 bullets into a 243 with no avail!

 

[antlerradar]

I have a tale of disappointment
I hunted this bull for five years. The first year I didn't get any pictures of him, but he was every bit as big as in the later years. I located him early in the season, but no close encounter that day. A week later a friend and I found him and some cows on a timbered hill under a high ridge. I went down after him and my friend stayed on the ridge to watch. As I was sneaking in the big bull decided he had enough of satellite bull and proceeded to put the run on him. In no time they were out of sight of the cows. This was my chance. If I could get between him and the cows it would be golden. Not how it worked out. The cows busted me and took off towards the high ridge. The bull realized something was up and took off after them, but by now the cows were well ahead of him and out of sight. My friend gave a couple of blows on a cow call and it was like you hooked him with a fishing pole. The bull headed right for him. At 25 yard and broadside my friend drew back and prematurely tripped the release. Arrow hit at his feet. The next spring a friend found his antlers. Bull fever? maybe.
That fall he was back, but like most years most of the time during the rut he was where I couldn't hunt him. After the rut he left the cows with still a week of season I found him on a hill were I could hunt. Try as I might I never could get that close. In the spring I missed the sheds by a half a mile. Some other guys found them.

That fall he was back again, and the results were the same. He and I were never in the right place at the same time. That spring another kid found the sheds. I had missed them by 1/4 mile this time.

That fall I saw him often and even had him close a few times.

That spring it was my turn to find the antlers. Both antlers are better than 175 if unbroken.

Again during the rut he was hard to find were I could hunt him, but after the rut he was back on his favorite hill. I hunted him every chance I could. I think this year was his best ever. Not only did he have the extra crown point on the left, but he added a extra third on the right. It was looking like the same old same old until the last evening of the season. I spotted him up on the hill and he was coming down off the hill towards me. I got set up in a little saddle and waited. with 15 minutes of light left, he stepped into the saddle at a bit over 35 yards. I drew back and let it fly. The arrow hit well under him and he took off. Not sure what I did, could be in my hast I didn't anchor correctly or I may have just used the 20 yard pin instead of the 40. One think is for sure, having him close got to me a bit and I blew it. I never saw him again.

 

[schoolhousegrizz]

I have a tale of disappointment
I hunted this bull for five years. The first year I didn't get any pictures of him, but he was every bit as big as in the later years. I located him early in the season, but no close encounter that day. A week later a friend and I found him and some cows on a timbered hill under a high ridge. I went down after him and my friend stayed on the ridge to watch. As I was sneaking in the big bull decided he had enough of satellite bull and proceeded to put the run on him. In no time they were out of sight of the cows. This was my chance. If I could get between him and the cows it would be golden. Not how it worked out. The cows busted me and took off towards the high ridge. The bull realized something was up and took off after them, but by now the cows were well ahead of him and out of sight. My friend gave a couple of blows on a cow call and it was like you hooked him with a fishing pole. The bull headed right for him. At 25 yard and broadside my friend drew back and prematurely tripped the release. Arrow hit at his feet. The next spring a friend found his antlers. Bull fever? maybe.
That fall he was back, but like most years most of the time during the rut he was where I couldn't hunt him. After the rut he left the cows with still a week of season I found him on a hill were I could hunt. Try as I might I never could get that close. In the spring I missed the sheds by a half a mile. Some other guys found them.View attachment 85436That fall he was back again, and the results were the same. He and I were never in the right place at the same time. That spring another kid found the sheds. I had missed them by 1/4 mile this time.View attachment 85437
That fall I saw him often and even had him close a few times.View attachment 85441That spring it was my turn to find the antlers. Both antlers are better than 175 if unbroken.View attachment 85445
Again during the rut he was hard to find were I could hunt him, but after the rut he was back on his favorite hill. I hunted him every chance I could. I think this year was his best ever. Not only did he have the extra crown point on the left, but he added a extra third on the right. It was looking like the same old same old until the last evening of the season. I spotted him up on the hill and he was coming down off the hill towards me. I got set up in a little saddle and waited. with 15 minutes of light left, he stepped into the saddle at a bit over 35 yards. I drew back and let it fly. The arrow hit well under him and he took off. Not sure what I did, could be in my hast I didn't anchor correctly or I may have just used the 20 yard pin instead of the 40. One think is for sure, having him close got to me a bit and I blew it. I never saw him again.View attachment 85456

Way to stick with it though! I'm sure you learned a ton.

 

[NVPete]

I'll share mine (even though it pains me just to remember how it went down): My guide and subs had found one decent bull elk and several smaller bulls before sunup. They were moving towards me, and might even pass within less than 100 yds. My guide told me to get down behind the .338 Lapua and get ready. For 20 minutes, I drilled myself: sight, squeeze, relax. I had only a small window to shoot, as the elk would be passing over a highway which I could not shoot across. Everything was going fine until a point where I looked into the scope, and a head and antlers filled the scope- I instantaneously wondered if this was one of the lesser bulls- in just seconds, I messed everything up. I turned to ask if it was a raghorn- the guys were yelling "SHOOT HIM! SHOOT HIM!"...followed by "Not now, he's standing in the middle of the road!" Opportunity lost! We chased after the elk for rest of the morning in thick pj's- saw him several times but could not get a clear shot. I guess I'll have visions of that bull standing there in the middle of the highway forever!

 

[NVPete]

My dad told me a story of a man he was told to put on a deer.

He set the guy up with a Winchester 30-30 and made a little brush blind near a waterhole that he knew deer frequented.

About mid morning he goes to pic the guy up and he's stumbling around the water tank. He asks the fella what happened. The guy tells him the biggest deer he ever saw came to water. He says the buck actually climbed into the tank belly deep and starts drinking. He fires. Says the deer doesn't flinch. He fires again. Nothing. He fires again and again. He says the deer is now looking at him. He says he actually walks towards the deer and fires a couple more times and the deer has enough and hops out and runs into the brush. The man says he has been looking for blood and there's no way he could have missed unless the borrowed gun is off.

My dad looks and sees where a wet deer jumped out of the tank. Tracks it into the brush never finds any sign of wounding. Goes back and starts looking. Says he finds live 30-30 rounds scattered here and there. Never found one spent round. The guy just worked the lever and never fired the weapon.

I did this once as a young boy- shot once, and levered out the ol' .30-30 Winchester!

 

[NVPete]

Another one I will relive forever: I was hunting in thick pj woodland near Elko, Nv. I'd hunted all afternoon, not seeing or hearing anything. I saw what were really fresh track that went around a large juniper. Like peering around a building corner, I stretched my neck to look around the tree. At the same moment a forked horn buck was doing the same thing- not 5 feet away (like looking in a mirror!) I know I was shocked, and to this day I swear I could see the surprise in his eyes! I had a bolt action Stevens .30-30 with one ready in the chamber, but for the moment, I glitched and jacked out a cartridge, and muffed cycling the next round as the buck bounded away! And that was the last I saw of him...all I saw the rest of the day were does.

 

[Sherlock]

First time i had a buck in archery range, walking right at me at 20 yards and it occurred to me I was about to shoot my first archery buck. Turns out I hadn’t really contemplated what I’d do given that situation, like where to aim. It wasn’t that haystack at home this time. At about 15 yards…maybe even less…I managed to shoot right into its feet as it was quartering towards me. Wasn’t aiming there. Pretty sure I was just aiming in its general direction and couldn’t think straight. Wasn’t even a very big buck.

 

[Sherlock]

As for bulls…4 years ago I took my 10, 11, 11 (twins) and 12 year olds and wife with me while I was archery spike hunting in Beaver unit. Really wasn’t seriously after killing anything, just really wanted them to experience a bull being called in. Only one of the 11 year olds had ever witnessed such a thing. Well, I managed to call in a ~350” bull from over a mile away (we could see it the whole time from our vantage point). Took two hours, but eventually it came crashing through the trees into our clearing at 20-25 yards screaming at us trying to run off another bugling bull coming in from the other side of us. All wound up and excited. Had a decoy near us, so it hung around right there for a couple of minutes bugling and not seeming to care that a group of six humans were sitting there all huddled together. My 11 y/o daughter was crying and sobbing uncontrollably. I thought she was scared. I asked her and she said through the sobs, “I’m just so excited”.
The girls named the bull “Dragon” and talked about that experience for days.

 

[Gator]

Archery first time shot 5 arrows at a forky over, under, behind, feet, had to scare him away to go and pickup my arrows.
Seems like it was yesterday.

 

[littlebull209338]

I was muzzle loader hunting on Grand Mesa for elk. It was late in the morning and I was sneaking down a ridge when off to my right I see a big bull laying down at about 100 yds...no problem. I get steady and squeeze off...the bull stands up and stretches leisurely walks off. I could have gotten much closer if I had been paying attention. It rained hard that night and the forest was stone quiet the next morning. I went further down the ridge and up toward the top. I found a cow path and was sneaking along in the scrub pines. I came to a tree about 15' tall and 10' around as I came around the tree the big bull was coming around from the other side. I had my rifle on my sling on my shoulder. It scared him so bad that he whirled and in the process hooked his horn into the tree and fell flat on his side at about 10' from me. By the time I got my rifle off my shoulder he was up and gone. I think we both probably were about equally scared/startled. I laughed, giggled and cried for the next few days. Never did see him again.

 

[elkchaserreturns]

Hmmm, , , I have had many funny (embarrassing) stories in my hunting career.
In 1999 I was archery elk hunting in CO. I had been hunting elk with a bow for 3 years and had not yet had much success. I was hunting from a tree stand for the first time and had been sitting still and quiet for few hours when I heard rocks "clicking" from behind me. Then I heard what sounded like a horse stripping & chewing grass. The sound kept getting closer & closer until finally, it was right below me. I slowly moved my head to look down & there is a bull elk right at the base of the tree I am sitting in! He was just an average bull but he looked HUGE to me.
My heart started pounding and I was breathing as hard as if I had just run a 4-minute mile! I had my bow in my lap with an arrow nocked. If I could see either of his eyes, I didn't move. As the bull fed slowly below me, I managed to get the bow up & drawn without being seen or heard. As he was feeding straight away from me, I was able to come to full draw. Now all he has to do is turn one way or the other. He finally turns to his left & stops in front of a down spruce log at about 18 yds. Perfect! It doesn't get any better than this!
I put my 20 yd pin right behind his left shoulder, about a third of the way up from the brisket, and released !
The broadhead buried into the log an easy 10 inches below the elk. He jumped straight up in the air like a bucking horse and came down, took a couple steps, looks around for a few seconds, and went back to feeding !
Now, I am really rattled! As the bull is feeding, I manage to get another arrow out & nocked. By this time the bull has fed around to the back side of the log.
When the bull put his head down behind the log to feed, I drew, aimed, and released. At the sound of the shot, his head came up and my arrow GLANCED OFF HIS ANTLERS, WENT STRAIGHT UP INTO A TREE, RATTLED AROUND AND CAME BACK DOWN AND WAS STICKING STRAIGHT DOWN IN THE GROUND!
The bull didn't hang around after that!
I sat in that stand four a couple hours just shaking. Finally, my hunting buddy comes in to check on me. He sees the arrow sticking in the log, and then the second arrow sticking straight down in the ground, the elk divits in the ground where the bull jumped and blew out of there. He then looks up at me sitting in the stand, shakes his head, and asks me what the blank happened. I don't think he believed me.
I'm not sure I would either!
If you hunt long enough, Buck/ Bull Fever happens to everyone!

Elkchaser

 

[wstrntines]

I did a backwards summersault at full draw my buddy killed the buck a few days later.

 

[woodruffhunter]

For some odd reason I have been thinking about my “buck fever” experience lately. It was 1988 I believe and I was 17 years old, on my second year of deer hunting.
Our family was hunting near Park Valley Utah and had been a tradition for years. My cousin was high on a ridge and I was at the bottom walking parallel to him. I must of got ahead of him because I could hear some deer coming towards me that he had jumped. As this was the general hunt I thought I would soon see a doe. I crouched down to hide and I’ll never forget the site of a nice four point that was only a few yards from me (I’d guess 10-15 yards). I remember getting so excited and sat and watched myself eject 3 or 4 rounds to the ground. I may or may not of finally took one very bad shot. I’ll never forget wondering how I could be doing this as the shells fell to the ground.
I’ve been on a lot of hunts since and never experienced anything like that.

 

[Broomer]

Worst buck fever ever!

In my 20’s I hunted with a traditional bear recurve. It was way fun chasing things around.

On an elk hunt my brother and I called in a spike to about 5 yards. Stood there looking at us so I pulled back, aimed and shot right through his two velvet antlers and about 2’ over his head!

Throughout the 1990’s I chased huge bucks on the Wasatch front before they made it an extended area. I stalked sooooo many 190” bucks within slingshot range. Had my trusty old stick bow and I thought I always needed to get closer. The bucks over the years had me so worked up and afraid they were going to bust that I couldn’t close the deal.

Finally in early 2000 I hung up the recurve and bought a new bow. The first compound in over 15 years. I practiced all summer and I just knew i was going to finally kill a huge buck.

Opening day I spot this pig feeding and I knew right were he was headed. So I bailed off the hill and got in front for him and the group he was with. The bucks were feeding in the trees by now and working their way up this hill onto a shelf of conifers. Wind must have been perfect because these bucks feed right to me. At about 20 yards the smaller bucks all off a sudden scattered and bolted right up to me about 10 yards. Had two of them doing the “what the heck are you” look. All the while the big buck feed, not lifting his head once. He feed and feed and feed right to me. Like 10 feet to me. He was just slightly below me and this entire time I was false drawing my bow, thinking if I came to full draw these two points would blow and it would all be over. Truth be told I couldn’t pull the dang thing back. I was so worked up. Breathing heavy, I couldn’t even see really. My entire body was shacking.

I can still see those big heavy mature antlers just twitching as he feed. Anyway, I attempted to draw the stupid bow but never was able too. The big buck finally snapped his head up and stared at me for 2 seconds before he bolted. Only when he was 40 yards and bounding away from me was I able to get drawn. Flung a hail merry shot only to grossly miss.

During this entire sequence I see this guy with a recurve just come out of the trees and I look at him and gave him a signal that there is bucks right in front of me so stop. I don’t know were he came from or were he went. Never did see him again.

1 year later I was back in the same area and I ran into a couple guys bow hunting too. They said something about a guy from Idaho that shot a huge buck last year with his recurve in this basin and that he had finally published an article about his hunt in a magazine. My heart sunk and I ran down to the nearest store and bought this magazine. Frantically I searched and found his article. Sure enough it was the same guy I saw and the same buck I vapor locked on. He ended up killing the buck about a week later at 20 yards. The buck was a true typical with a score of 197”

 

[BLooDTRaCKeR]

My second year hunting elk as a teen…

Night before opener finds me out on a quakie ridge listening for elk bugles right at dark. Standing there in silence when one sounds off within 50 yards of me in a small grove of pines!

That was all I needed to know for where I wanted to be in the morning. I snuck out of there and had a sleepless night back at camp.

I headed out the spot opening morning. Stood there shivering from cold and excitement. Sun comes up and I look around only to see hunters EVERYWHERE!

Disappointed, I try to think of plan B. During this though process, I hear a faint bugle way below me on the mountain. I chalk it up as a hunter. The next time I hear it, it is much louder.

I decide it is an elk so rather than get caught in a cross fire on top, I bail off top and run toward the bugle. I go about 200 yards down mountain when the bugles goes off again. This time he is close! (Keep in mind I have never killed an elk before)

I set up by an aspen and wait. Before long I hear crashing and more bugles. They are going to walk right in front of me!

I see a cow and calf come up first. They walk by me a 30 yards. Then a spike comes up. Crosshairs are on him when the big bull bugles!

I instantly pull trigger and drop the spike. Then the herd bull comes out of nowhere, stands broadside at 40 yards, bugles and walks off. Then a satellite 5 point comes up, then another spike and cows…..

I had buck fever so bad, I killed the smallest bull knowing the big bull was right there. Still haunts me to this day haha!

The best part was telling my dad the story….he laughed for hours over that situation.

 

[schoolhousegrizz]

So 2007 in Wyoming I had a deer tag. I had a herniated disc and it hurt to do pretty much anything. I would later get surgery on it to repair it. The biggest buck I had shot up to this point was a mid-150s buck. Opening morning I hike about 3/4 of a mile and watch this little basin with my dad. Couple bucks in the mid-160s show themselves but I hold off. That night my back is hurting and I'm thinking you just let two bucks go that are bigger than anything you've ever shot. At this point I'm getting mad at myself and I say if I see those bucks the next morning they're dead. So anyway we go back the next morning. A really good buck with about 3 others show up. He is upper 170s. He 120 yards broadside. I have the best rest in the world, I could have pulled my head away from the scope and pulled the trigger and it would have smacked him. I pull the trigger and click, nothing. I go to eject the shell and the bolt is locked/frozen shut. I didn't realize at this point in my life when you lift the bolt up it resets the firing pin. I was just trying to yank the bolt open I started looking for a rock to smash the bolt to try to eject the shell. I'm saying every swear word in the book at this point as the deer start to bounce off. My dad says just try to shoot it again just trying to shoot it again, and I'm like what the hell are you talking about I have a shell that won't fire and I can't **** the gun. Anyways I decided to do what he says I put the crosshairs on the buck as he is walking away and at this point I'm shaking pretty bad. To my disbelief the gun fires. Bucks scatter everywhere. I shoot at the buck 3 more times and miss him every time. Good thing I missed him, because my brother is screaming at me asking me what the hell I'm doing because I already dropped a buck. I look over, and my first shot had hit him in the spine and dropped him and I was shooting at the wrong buck. The buck is trying to crawl off so I reload the gun and shoot at him and completely miss because I'm shaking. I finally settle down and drop him for good. I walk over there and it's the biggest buck I've ever shot. The whole way back to the truck and packing up camp I was running around and packing stuff up bending over lifting stuff and my back never hurt once for about 4 hours. My adrenaline rush was so high, the pain was gone. Great memory!

 

[Tristate]

So 2007 in Wyoming I had a deer tag. I had a herniated disc and it hurt to do pretty much anything. I would later get surgery on it to repair it. The biggest buck I had shot up to this point was a mid-150s buck. Opening morning I hike about 3/4 of a mile and watch this little basin with my dad. Couple bucks in the mid-160s show themselves but I hold off. That night my back is hurting and I'm thinking you just let two bucks go that are bigger than anything you've ever shot. At this point I'm getting mad at myself and I say if I see those bucks the next morning they're dead. So anyway we go back the next morning. A really good buck with about 3 others show up. He is upper 170s. He 120 yards broadside. I have the best rest in the world, I could have pulled my head away from the scope and pulled the trigger and it would have smacked him. I pull the trigger and click, nothing. I go to eject the shell and the bolt is locked/frozen shut. I didn't realize at this point in my life when you lift the bolt up it resets the firing pin. I was just trying to yank the bolt open I started looking for a rock to smash the bolt to try to eject the shell. I'm saying every swear word in the book at this point as the deer start to bounce off. My dad says just try to shoot it again just trying to shoot it again, and I'm like what the hell are you talking about I have a shell that won't fire and I can't **** the gun. Anyways I decided to do what he says I put the crosshairs on the buck as he is walking away and at this point I'm shaking pretty bad. To my disbelief the gun fires. Bucks scatter everywhere. I shoot at the buck 3 more times and miss him every time. Good thing I missed him, because my brother is screaming at me asking me what the hell I'm doing because I already dropped a buck. I look over, and my first shot had hit him in the spine and dropped him and I was shooting at the wrong buck. The buck is trying to crawl off so I reload the gun and shoot at him and completely miss because I'm shaking. I finally settle down and drop him for good. I walk over there and it's the biggest buck I've ever shot. The whole way back to the truck and packing up camp I was running around and packing stuff up bending over lifting stuff and my back never hurt once for about 4 hours. My adrenaline rush was so high, the pain was gone. Great memory!

What would make this one tough for me is the witnesses.

 

[schoolhousegrizz]

I don't know why there were four asterisks in my post I was just saying "I can't SHOOT the gun."

 

[2lumpy]

Typo……. can’t sh!t the gun…????

 

[schoolhousegrizz]

Typo……. can’t sh!t the gun…????

Couldn't do that either!

 

[elkhunter21]

Great stories!! And how cool to be so excited that you empty your gun without firing a round. I have missed my fair share of "easy" shots and wish it was due to buck fever... I have a 2yr old grandson... and cant wait to get him hunting.. and I know that I will be shaking like a leaf the first time he aims/draws/shoots at a big game animal. Thanks again for the great stories!!