A terrible evening, awesome wife and best friend.

nemesis

nemesis

Joined
Nov 5, 2005
Messages
2,022
Yesterday evening I was out hunting, at about 17:15 hrs I here something in the woods and turn my head to find the biggest buck I have ever put my eyes on in real life. I shoulder my 45-70, my heart is about to beat out of my chest, slowly squeeze the trigger and CLICK!!! The safety was on, the buck ducks down, runs forward a few steps and is on high alert, my heart is beating twice as hard as it was I initially. I take the safety of and cock the rifle as I raise it back to my shoulder and took a fast shot....... Too fast. I went down into the woods after sitting a while and found a tiny spec of blood. I popped a glowstick and left it at the initial blood spot. I couldn't find the next spot. I called a good friend of mine who is a very experienced hunter and tracker, he told me to back out and give him time and he would be over to help. I walk out and we return in an hour approximately 18:30. I take him to the initial track and he starts looking and begins finding tiny drops of blood. Pencil eraser or smaller. I stayed behind him from that point on watching and learning as he methodically inspected every leaf and branch that was out place finding these tiny spots of blood that at times had 50 yards between them. About 2 hours into the track he says shhhhh cuts the light off and kneels down, I hear him draw his pistol in the dark. Clicks the light back on and boom, shoots coyote coming towards on the the deers trail but backwards. The yote ran off a little ways in the brush and he said not to worry about finding him, we pressed on for another hour, covering nearly 2 miles from the start point. The blood ran out. We made some circles around the last blood spot trying to find something. Nothing. I have never been so discouraged since I have been grown.

I have never been a big hunter until the last two years, this year more than ever. Knowing I was frustrated he explained to me that as small as the blood trail was it probably wasn't a life threatening or debilitating injury. He said thats part of hunting, it happens and if you do it long enough it will happen again. Then he said check your rifle zero and get back out there, don't let this get you down. I'll check the rifle today but I don't think it's the rifle, I was shaking like a leaf and frustrated after my safety fumble.

Lessons learned from the hunt: take your time, calm your mind and make it happen. You have to pay attention to the smallest details may be the key.

Now on to my wife, I get home just before 22:00, my phone had died around 20:00. I get to the door and she meets me there and says I did something bad.... I'm thinking how could this day get worse. But it didnt.....she says I didn't want you to miss out so I signed into your busse account and ordered you that big knife you wanted to get! It was on sale! I was so excited I forgot all about my hunting debacle. After a little bit of excitement wore off I asked what color she had gotten? Black and green g10 with a desert sage blade she says....... What?!?! How the heck did you know that I asked (it's not my usual color combo, but I have recently started to like black green more than my initial love for black/red). She said well I looked on your facebook and saw where you were talking about what color you wanted with some guy named Jaxx. Now I'm even more excited! I picked a good one! I remember thinking as I got back in truck to head home "the BGAK is probably sold out by now if it's been posted" so it definitely made my night.

I still tossed and turned all night thinking about the hunt but also thinking about how fortunate I am to have the wife I have and the best friends anyone could ask for.
 
Last edited:
Great story nem....sorry about your bad luck with the deer....but it seems to have been made up for with the other "Dear" you have. Lucky guy you are man. My wife would have had all my stuff packed outside if she knew I wanted to get a high priced blade like a Busse. She has no idea what they cost.
 
Great story. Cool she was able to find your color combo. It's a great offering. Been able to resist all the other BG's but a Muddy and Black Canvas AK was too much. I can't believe I may be more excited than for the Battle Saw.

As for the wife. She's shoes, I'm Busse knives. It seems to be equaling out.
 
Sounds like a fun night minus the miss on the deer!

When I am hunting I always keep my 45-70 (Marlin 1895) with the safety off and the hammer at half cock, that way I can't forget about that safety :)
 
Remember that show wife swap? Maybe we need to set up a program like that around here. :D

Congrats on the blade and the surprise from your lady.
 
Great story brother. You'll probably remember "the one that got away" more than if you had actually bagged it, certainly you will learn more from the experience.
 
Great story. Sorry about losing the deer, but it sounds like you have a great wife!!!! Congrats on that.
 
Thanks guys, I don't so much mind missing out on the trophy as I do the thought of it being injured and still out there but the blood trail was so small and far between spots and he covered so much ground that my friend decided he more than likely wasn't seriously injured. So that out my mind at ease. I walked back out this morning and didn't see any buzzards or anything so that puts my mind at ease more. And I learned some good lessons, and they have definitely sank in. And yes I picked a winner!
 
Wow, great story man--sorry about the deer; awesome move on the part of your wife! Congrats man--and no worries, there will be other deer, and you are that much wiser.
 
Plus one for the safety off half cock method. We've all pulled the trigger with the safety on. Lesson learned. Good luck with the rest of the season.
 
Awesome wife you have there! She knew exactly what you wanted and gave you the good news right when you needed it!You can hunt for years and still learn something new everytime. It's all in the experience. Good luck next time :thumbup:
 
Sorry to hear about the buck. That sucks. :( Mental checklist. Practice, practice, practice. Muscle memory will eventually take over, and you won't have to think about it.

Pretty awesome wife you have there!!! :thumbup: The last thing my wife would do would be to assist me in my blade habit. :foot:
 
I'd take a Busse over a Buck anyday.:D I bet you'll never forget the safety again. Great girl you got.

My step dad shot one of the biggest deer I've seen come from our family farm this year right out of the house. Sad part is somebody had already taken a shot at it, hit it in the a $$ and it was pussie and festering inside. He said he could see that it had a broken front leg before he shot it also. So no meat but the wolves got a good meal and he got a nice European mount out of the ordeal. Larger one in pic. I'm so pissed I didn't get it. Put in lots of time in this year and only wound up with a 5 pointer. Going to check game cameras tonight and see if there's any other good ones I missed out on.:grumpy:

mount_zpsuwdyk68x.jpg
[/URL][/IMG]
 
Last edited:
It's all good. :) It is human nature for us to learn far more from our failures or shortcomings than our successes or strengths. ;)
 
Cool story mate!

You'll live and learn re the heart, of that I'm sure. :thumbup:
 
This just shows that you're a good person, of which there are too few these days.

My Father forgot the safety on his lever gun due to buck fever - TWICE!
Hopefully you won't do it again and I have no doubt that you'll be better prepared next time knowing just how intense Buck Fever can get after the evening you had.

You're not alone, I've been hunting 31 years and this is the second of the last 17 that I didn't get a deer. I was sure that I hit a 4pt at 122 yards with my .308 ( saw him hop/jump when I fired ) but after 2 days of searching and the help of my best friend I also came up with nothing.
The fact that we never found blood helps numb the disappointment but I know that they hop when hit low and I pray that I didn't wound it mortally.

That was the good part of my season, the rest may make you feel better. Within 2 days I fired 15 times with my shotgun and ended up with nothing. The first day I assumed that it was the new low recoil ammo having a different trajectory that caused my problem so I loaded with the usual pills and the next day had more of the same. I had no choice but to believe that I somehow became a horrible shot overnight, but, I knew better than that. When I got home from my trip I thoroughly checked over/cleaned/inspected the Benelli that I wanted to wrap around a tree and realized that I had left the wrong choke in the gun, %#** !
Not only is it unsafe but it absolutely destroys the accuracy in this gun- lesson learned, the hard way.

Am I embarrassed to tell you this, no, I'm stronger than that.
Am I discouraged, no, if anything it'll only make me work harder and be more vigilant.

After 31 years of hunting I still learn something everytime I walk into the deer woods, and, that's why they call it hunting and not harvesting.

We all make mistakes, the lucky ones learn from them and the really lucky ones only make them once 😉

I have to admit it would've been nice to come home to my Wife telling me that she picked up a new Busse, I hope that you spoil her in return.

Enjoy that new blade when it shows up and please take it easy on yourself, after all, days like that turn out to be part of the fun.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top