The Best Shot You NEVER Took

[skeeter@ccia.com]

Good one tall shadow...says a lot about you.

[VaRedneck]

Many years ago....35, to be exact...I was walking through woods close to my house. I wasn't allowed a gun at that age and certainly wasn't allowed to be hunting if I had. I'd secretly bought a wrist rocket slingshot a few weeks earlier...the parents were kinda looking the other way about me having it so I took pains not to rub anyone's nose in the fact that I had it.

Anyhow...I'd entertained the idea that I could knock a squirrel offa limb with my new weapon. 'Course that would actually mean I would be able to hit what I aimed at...and a squirrel was a small target at 30-40yds...the branch it was sitting on even smaller...heh.

So pretty much I was walking though a small creek bed shooting 45 cal shot at anything that would sit still long enough....rocks...pools of water...ect.

I came around a slight bend in the creek...looking for somethin to shoot at, when he saw me at the same time I saw him. A buck....a big buck...14pts or better....tall tined and awesome looking. I came to full draw at the same time as he brought his head up to look right at me...from 25 yds or so.

I remember thinking to myself...."now what are you gonna do...you won't kill it...hell....you won't even piss him off."

He musta decided that he'd almost shown me enough....so it turn back up that moss covered slope and showed me the rest....a white flag as he disappeared.

Biggest buck I never shot at...and the biggest I've ever seen since.

[lastofthebreed]

About 3 years ago, late one afternoon during deer season, I moved a tripod deer stand to a new location. I was sure I would see a nice buck from the stand the first time I hunted it.

Two days later one of my hunting pals called me and asked how the hunting was going - I told him I had plans to hunt a new location the next morning. He wished me good luck and then told me he had lost his job that day. His company was downsizing and he got caught in the shuffle. He said he was kind of depressed and would be down to hunt a couple of days since he didn't have a job anymore.

I hunted the new stand location the next morning before my buddy got there and, lo and behold, around 9:30 AM a real nice 9 point buck came by at 50 yards. I put my scope on him and started to squeeze the trigger when the thought hit me to not shoot.

That evening, when my buddy did show up, I told him I had a perfect place picked out for him to hunt.

The next morning I put him in the tripod where I had passed on the 9 point the day before.

Sure enough, at about 9:30 AM I heard him shoot. You guessed it, the buck had come back by and my buddy was able to make a good shot. My friend was very happy as it was the biggest buck he had ever killed. I felt good and was pleased I had passed up the shot.

To end the story, my friend was offered a job with another company the next week and he continues to work there. He still talks about getting the "big one" while out of work and jokes of quitting his job so he can kill another one just as big.

Me, I just smile every time I think of the one I "let get away".