Tell the story of the biggest buck you've ever wounded and not found

And go...

Knock on wood.....

Never done it

well how would I know how big it was if I never found it??

Hunting with a friend in the a.m. He was coming to get me and must have jumped the deer. Came running off a hill and jumped a creek. I shot when he landed on the other side. Not a far shot. A shot I reasonably expect to make. He ran. Blood everywhere when friend gets there and we find the trail. Then three shots on neighboring property. Blood trailed him right to their truck. 156" 8pt. You can see him in the
Alabama Record Book or what ever its called.

I would have a great story had I not found the deer this past spring after 3+ years

Illinois 2012 shot a big mid 140's 9pt with my bow at last light had good blood for several hundred yards up and down the hills, crossing ravines and the thickets of Shawnee National Forest. After 400 yards or so and couple hours of tracking we found the deer. Then left the deer and tracked back 3/4 of a mile or so to the truck to get the deer cart, make it all the way back in to where the deer was at and the deer was no where in sight. Only thing we could come up with is a big cat, bear, coyotes or even another hunter got it in the time we was gone. Yes we went back the next morning and looked for several hours with no sign of the deer. Only thing we seen is where he fell and died you could see the leaves and ground had some drag marks for about 10-15 yards and not another trace. You talk about a sick lost feeling yet pretty spooked out at the same time . I still think about that deer and if I'll ever have a shot at another buck of that caliber with my bow.

Don't have a story because I've never shot a buck and not found it...


....but also, I've never shot a buck....

Gut shot about a 160" in IL when I was 17. He had been shot in the shoulder earlier in the season by a friend of the landowner. He came limping through following a doe. I got him to stop and about the time I let it go he started back after her. The shot looked pretty good to me on impact, but when I found my arrow, I knew it was no good. Gave him the night and went back with a search party in the morning. We covered the property pretty thoroughly to the lines and never found any sign of him.

Rushed a shot on a prolly 120" buck last year that CNC came and helped track. Deer ended up being more quartered than I thought and I hit high shoulder. Neighbor had pics of him this spring.

I shot at a 160"-170" that I evidently missed. It may have been bigger than that. This was in Fitzpatrick probably 8 years ago.

This year in Missouri. Watched a buck walk a scrape line for 300 yds up a fence row. Shot low at 20 yds and clipped in. 170s deer. All on video. Still makes me sick.

I can't. It's too painful.

Cool! You hadn't told me that. I'm glad to hear he made it. Shoot him again this year.

A perfect chocolate horned 150 class 10pt. with my bow in Kentucky back in 2005. Shot him for 35 yards and he was 39 yards. Hit him too low. He bedded down about 400 yards from where I shot him within sight of a buddy of mine. Went back the next morning and never found another drop of blood after he got back up.

Was walking in the last afternoon to hunt a plot in a corner of a 60 acre cut corn field 4 seasons ago. As I turned the corner into the field I was going to be hunting there was an 8 point, nothing huge but probably a 125 inch deer. Solid deer. Tall rack with good tine length. Walking right across the field at 2:00 pm. About 150 yds out. He never knew I was there. I knelt down and got steady. He stopped and put his nose to the ground, I pulled the trigger, he mule kicked and ran in the woods. Ridiculous blood trail for about 40 yds then it just completely stopped. Never found him. Our neighboring land owner lives at the end of the road, I started noticing a rack when I'd ride by that looks like the deer I shot hanging on an old tv antenna pole last year. Looks like it has been laying in the woods for some time. Been meaning to ask if he found it down in the bottom by his pond or something by chance.

Can only think of one decent rack one about 5 years ago. Was prob too late to be taking the shot to be honest. have had many more that busted me with my finger up my arse than wounded

It was during the rut and I had gotten in the shooting house just before noon to eat lunch and sit my midday hunt…… when this doe walked out and started feeding before I ever got my sandwich in my hand. The pole in front of her is 200 yards from the stand. I watched her for several minutes and nothing happened so I snapped a couple pics with my camera and started eating my lunch. All of sudden another doe comes running out of the woods 250 yards down the powerline in the OTHER direction. She’s acting like something is chasing her so I get my gun and get ready. She runs in and out of the woods several times but I never saw another deer. In the meantime I’m steadily looking back the other direction at the feeding doe in the pic that had walked out first.

Well, about the 4th time I turned back to look, she’s walking off of the powerline to the left with a stud already about even with that pole. I swung my gun around and hollered out a “WHOOOP!!” in one motion. He stopped for a second just as I got my gun settled. When I got the crosshairs on him he was turning his head to start to walk off……and in the excitement of the moment I yanked my trigger and put one right into his guts. All I found was a big wad of hair that I blew out of him. I looked for him for days but never found him. It was just after losing him that I bought a tracking dog……..Here’s the doe. I suppose he was just standing over in the bushes watching her the whole time…..

I'm still so butthurt over it that 3 years later I still don't want to talk about it. I'll just say that after I shot and saw where the arrow was sticking out, I knew that because the broadhead didn't come out, I wouldn't have any blood but I wouldn't need any. I knew he wasn't going to make it more than forty yards. After looking around in one spot right where I shot him and not seeing him or blood, I backed out and waited 3 hours for a tracking dog and he couldn't find him. I looked for that deer for 2 weeks and still ain't seen his ass. Legit 135" 8 pt on public land in alabama

Two jump out at me. The first was October of 2014. I had a history with a particular buck that had busted me the prior year. Had him regularly on cam going into the season and on my second sit of the year he came out with another mature buck just like he should. I shot him for 30 and he was closer to 38. Hit him high leg and got about 3" of penetration. Definitely not likely fatal, although I never saw him again. Prob a 130" 9 point.

The other was sometime around 2000-2001. It was rut and I was bow hunting an older, flooded cutover. I also had my rifle with me. Heard a buck chasing a doe in the water so I started grunting with my mouth. He bristled up, turned and made a beeline 12 yards from my stand and I center punched him smooth as butter. Watched him trot off about 100 yards or so and could have shot him as he eased off several times with my rifle, but the thought never crossed my mind. Trailed blood for 250-300 yards before it played out. He wasn't a giant, but was a real, solid 4 or 5 year old buck. Prob a 115-120" deer.

2005 I shot a really nice 8 point. Didn't know exactly how big he was because it was fast. I was in the woods, he came down the hill chasing a doe. He was chasing her around in some thick stuff. I knew he was going to come out into an open spot. But, it was behind my tree and on the wrong side of the tree. Instead of waiting for a good shot, I took a shot leaning around the tree right handed (I am left handed). I hit him never knew where. He ran and ended up stopping behind a tree with his rear end clear. I should have shot him again in the hip. But, I thought he would step toward. He never did. He turned and walked directly away offering no other shot.

I found blood trailed him forever, couldn't find him. Ended up finding his head and skeleton the next summer. He ended up scoring in the mid 120s.

I would. But not hunting there thisnyesar

I was a young teenager. My Dad had me hunting with an old rickety recurve. I'm sure he didn't expect any action out of me....just taking me along for the ride. Well, I climbed up in the homemade HEAVY tree stand he set up for me on the edge of a sage field with a homemade hinged 2x4 ladder tied to the side of the tree and waited for daylight. Daybreak arrived, and I was just sitting there watching the woods wake up. I glanced over to my left and within 10 yards, a very nice mature buck was standing there. I drew back sitting down (as I couldn't stand with the deer being right there) and fired a shot. I hit the deer, and I remember him twirling and bucking in circles. I could see the arrow lodged in him. After putting on a show, he ran off. This was before cell phones, and at that time, we didn't have any two-way radios either. So, at least 3-4 hours later, my Dad came to get me, and I told him the story. We trailed the deer for a while and even found where he struggled to get over a fence (a tree had grown into the old fence and was stained with blood). We eventually lost the blood trail and gave up. After that, I guess I proved that I was serious about hunting, and he got me my first compound bow (Bear Whitetail II). I became a lethal youngster with that bow.

Unfortunately I have a few episodes. Two that really stick out are probably the two biggest deer I've shot at with a gun and a bow.

GUN: I'm guessing this was nearing 7-8 years ago now. Huge frost that morning, I was hunting with an older CVA powder gun on a giant cutover at the military base I hunt. On the other side of the cut (probably 1/2 of a mile) I hear a shot, then within seconds I hear deer running in the cutover. When they crest this big rise in front of me there are bucks running EVERYWHERE!!!! When the whole thing was over I had counted 13 bucks, yes that's right, 13. I don't know what most of them were, but the lead deer came to a stop about 200 yards in front of me and he was gargantuan!! To this day I will swear he was a LEGIT 160" deer. If you hold your forearms up in front of you, that's how his G2's looked, and the whole rack was a huge chocolate cage like that. They all had steam coming off their backs in that frosty cutover. I was rushing, put the crosshairs maybe just above his back (frankly I don't remember), BANG!!!!...smoke goes everywhere and deer do too. When the smoke drifted out of sight this deer is flopping around in the cutover, then gets up and runs/stumbles/bumbles completely out of sight across that cut. Other deer ran straight under me, I'm trying to reload, it was a circus. There was some blood and hair and a bone fragment where he fell, but we could never find any more blood, really never figured out where he went. Nobody ever claims to have found a deer like that dead either. I had a BDC scope put on that gun ASAP!

BOW: About 4 or 5 years ago on the very last day of season I was bowhunting on that military base (out of the exact same tree I killed the 138" deer from last season and the 141" 'stickers' deer from 2009). Near dark I heard deer running up this dim roadbed towards me, and I saw 4 does at a pretty quick trot. They ran right under me and stopped, looking back, and then I could hear a deer coming. When that sucker popped out of the briars/brush and hit that road in the hardwoods I about fell out of my stand!! Legit 150"+ deer, crazy heavy mass, looked like trash on the bases, but it was happening way too fast. The does (who were directly under my stand) busted down the ridge, and instead of coming on the same path they did, he veered off to cut the corner (which would have put him too far to shoot). I got lucky though, he stopped and began to wreck a small pine sapling, then started slowly walking about 20/25 yards from me angling down the ridge, lightly grunting (actually ticking) the whole time. I drew and quickly just found deer in the peep and shot, I don't remember aiming, but my Lumenock went full pass thru low in the chest (I thought??). In hindsight I think I shot him in the top of the legs. He pushed himself about 30 yards then made a big loop with tail tucked kinda back where he came from. I never heard him crash, he just went out of hearing. I got the biologist and we looked for him till about 8:00 that night, crossed a paved road, and lost him in a big cutover. The next day we tried to pick up our trail, but never found blood or anything else. No way to connect the dots, but the next season in the neighboring area there was a huge "goofy racked" deer killed with a gun, one side was malformed.

I've got probably a dozen missed opportunities I've just blown at mountable deer. Quite a few came when I was really young. I'm only 20 now.

10-12 years ago, last day of season. I took my .44 mag carbine (recently purchased at a pawn shop) to shoot me a doe. I went to a small strip in some big old pines where my furthest shot would be about 60 yards.

Well at 4:15 I hear something to my right and look even though I was sure I would not be able to see anything through he thick understory. Well I saw a 130" 8 point crusing through the pines. When he came in line with my row of pines I drew a bead on him. The front post of a 44 carbine covered about 3/4 of his body. I squeezed one off, he circled and ran back where he came from 20 yards or so. Then I saw the doe he was following, she was too short to see in the understory. He couldn't stand it and walked back to her. When he got back to my row of pines that time I gave him the other 4 bullets.

Knocked him down, he got up a ran off. I walked to my truck and waited for a couple friends that I took that afternoon. We went back and started the trail. I found a great blood trail through some thick nasty stuff. Several times I told my buddies to just wait, I would holler when I find him, he can't be much further. Ended up trailing him till my flashlight died. Paced off the shot and it was about 175 yards.

Looked off and on for a week, never found him. Must have been a muscle wound, nothing vital.

About 5 years ago while hunting in Wilcox County I had a 30 yard shot at a 20" wide buck with my .308. I held right on his shoulder and hit exactly where aimed. I was using a Berger 168 grain VLD bullet and it exploded on his shoulder with limited penetration. We found THREE pie plate sized puddles of blood, but after tracking over a mile, lost him in a swamp. He was a TOAD

One of the oddest no-kills I've had was similar to this, but I was using a .270 with 130gr ballistic tips. I was sitting really high in big pines with an edge of short pines about 75yds to my left. Never heard this deer, but I caught movement and there was a pretty nice buck walking the edge, as I remember I'd guess he was maybe a 15" to 16" eight pt. The shot was pretty strong quartering away, he was turning to walk back in the pines, maybe 100 yards distance. I shot and it looked like a feather pillow exploded, he dropped like a sack of rocks, I assumed he was DRT. When I walked over there, there was hair EVERYWHERE!!!...and that's all. Not a pin drop of blood, we never found anything. I guess he got up when I was getting down.

Throw those ballistic tips in the garbage......

That's why I shoot a bonded bullet

That was the only season I ever shot them.

Iowa 2004
Had this huge 9pt come in to 20 yards. When he quartered away I aimed right behind the shoulder and shot. When I released he turned to the left and his shoulder/elbow went right over his heart . Well my arrow hit solid bone and penetrated all of 1-2"'s. He ran about 50 yds, stopped and looked around, and then walked off. I was heart broken.
And yes it was all on video. We had a tv show at the time and no it didn't make the cut. I know the pic makes the shot look perfect but if you look at the zoomed in pic walking away you can see the hole. Yes we looked and looked and looked. No blood. No deer.






Right as released the shot


You can see the blur of the fletchings


The hole is visble right on the bone.

I’ve tracked several bad hits from ballistic tips but one that I recall from last year was a guy that shot a big bodied buck with a ballistic tip out of 300 mag. He had never used ballistic tips before and was just trying them because someone else he hunted with told him he should use ‘em. Well, it turns out that he had always aimed right at the point of the shoulder and crumpled most deer with his old shells that penetrated hard. The ballistic tip he shot this buck with though just exploded on the deer’s shoulder. It was a little over 100 yard shot with a good rest out of a hut. He said he felt really good about the shot but the deer just dropped down in the front and then ran off. We jumped him up the next morning bedded down a few hundred yards away but he wasn’t hurt bad enough to do anything with. We ran him around in a circle for about a mile before deciding that he needed to save those ballistic tips for the zombie apocalypse or something and quit shooting deer with ‘em. The fragmenting action can devastate the inside of deer but it can also explode on a shoulder as well….or what I really don’t like about them…..they often don’t leave an exit hole.

I may be wrong on this but I believe this was before they redesigned the jacket on the bergers. No issues with this now.

Illinois about 10 years ago. Mainframe 12 170's. Liver shot. Pouring dark red blood. Crossed on to neighbors land and before we could get permission to cross it rained washing out blood.
Last deer I lost.

Flintlock on Wheeler monstry buck de-legged by round ball did not find him

full draw on a solid 120" class 8pt, Hit a tree that was 2" wide right in front of him. watched him turn and run away laughing the whole way as i sat pissed in the stand

I can't tell it again. I don't need to throw up today.

I was sitting in my favorite stand back in 2010 on a Late January, Mid Day. I heard some commotion in Front of me and to the Left. I then heard some grunting. When I spotted the Biggest Buck I have had the chance to take a shot at he was 10 yards in front of Me and had nose down and was in a hurry. By the time I could get a shot on him he was behind Me and I had about a 30 yard shot right down the middle of his back as he was moving straight away from Me. I shot and He went down immediately. I watched him thrash around and kick as the Buck was on his side in what looked to me like He was dieing. He was also bleating like a doe does sometimes when they are shot or wounded and dieing. This went on for at least 10 seconds. I am standing in my treeclimber and I took my rifle off of my shoulder and was holding it down at waist level. All of a sudden the Buck jumped to his feet and loped off like nothing was wrong with him. I got down quickly from my climber and found no sign that I wounded the deer. No hair and no Blood. I looked around for a while zig zagging in the direction the Buck went with No luck.

Went to Ohio a few years back and 2nd morning had a huge buck step out at 37 yards, I shot and missed he jumped and stopped at 51 Yards, I put another arrow in all with him still standing there. I shoot and as soon as I let it go he turns to me and I center punched his shoulder, sounded like a .22 rifle on impact. He runs up the draw with my arrow sticking out his shoulder, runs past my uncle who was sitting about 200 yards on the other side adn walks into the corn field. We trail him for about 1000 yards. Then with the help from the outfitter next door begin looking in huge circle for the next 2 days. When they asked me what the deer looked like I told them, outfitter says to me "You shot that deer?" I havent even told my clients about that deer, he will go 170." Found 2 beds with blood in them but no deer. Reported back to me in February that the deer was shot with a muzzleloader in the same hardwood ridge I was on and still not recovered. Upon arriving back in Alabama I started researching tracking dogs and narrowed it down to 2 breeds, the teckel or drahthaar. I went with drahthaar. Not that it would have helped with this recovery but I will never know now. I still have nightmares about him walking out and running off.

Knock on wood I have no story to tell.

This past season, hunting black warrior wma A side rifle hunt about 1030 I stood up to stretch my legs put my rifle on my left shoulder looked up and here came a stud of a 8 point. When I picked my gun up to shoot the bolt hung my jacket pocket and popped it open and he looked dead at me. I slammed the bolt shut and he turned a 180 and I took a shot only shooting right under his belly. Makes me sick just glad I didn't wound him and hopefully he will be there during bow season.

Same here. I've hit a couple with non lethal shots and killed them later, some that lived even a couple yeas. Others folks have killed one I've grazed. Bout 25 years ago I put a liver shot on a big buck that took off down the mountain, couple minutes after I hear a shot then another shot couple minutes after the first. Deer had ran past a buddy who put a DRT shot on him. When he saw the other hole in it he (shot in the air) I think. Claimed he hit him both times as I followed the blood trail straight to him.
That dang near turned out really bad. He was almost 20 years older and I just walked away. It's on his wall today. He is in really poor health now and can't hunt but I still tell him thats my deer and them we have a beer and laugh about it.