Ones that got away

[cgasner1]

Looking thru photos on an old phone I still can’t believe this bull cleared 100 yards that dot is where my arrow entered at a stupid steep downward shot. I took that photo of him 2 days later he never let me inside of 500 yards for round 2. Anyone else got some pics of the should have beens

 

[Forkyfinder]

Saw this big boy at norris road.

Got within 150 twice but ran out of cover. Looked crazy in the scope...

 

[cgasner1]

The bad thing about that bull is I remember being in full draw and telling my self to shoot a touch high because of the angle so the arrow would spend the most time in the lungs and come out in the lower 3rd area

 

[Schaaf]

47 yards steep downward angle through the liver. Never found him.

 

[cgasner1]

View attachment 322843
47 yards steep downward angle through the liver. Never found him.

He even looks jumped up in that photo bummer

 

[TheTone]

No pics but a bull I had inside 20 yards in 2013 still messes with my mind. Had him dead to rights and my arrow popped off the rest when I drew back. Had an issue where the cord for my drop away test had slipped causing the launcher arm to basically bounce up when I drew back. I’m not sure how big he was; either a 6x7 or a 7x8 I suspect. He looked insanely wide and heavy with long curvy beams. Had a kicker on the base of his right 4th that looked as big around as my forearm. I remember being super bummed out sitting around my house that night thinking I should be able to look at him laying in my garage

 

[WildWill]

Shot the ram on the far right and he immediately ran to one of the clumps of brush behind and to the right. Looked like he fell all the others ran off. Walked up on him and he stands up at 15 yards I pull my rifle up to shoot and nothing. Hadn't cycled another round through in the excitement. By the time I figured it all out he was over the hill. Followed him awhile but never caught back up. Hasn’t happened on a elk thank God.

 

[MTLabrador]

I’ve had so many heartbreaking close calls on elk. The worst was a very nice 6 point at 5 yards working his way into a shooting lane while I was at full draw. At the last second he turned around to chase a cow. I pivoted around, he was gone. Never even let the arrow go.

Several other nice bulls during rifle seasons past still haunt me, especially last year.

 

[thomas89]

Bedded at I think 80 yards, stood up and took the shot head on. Trailed blood for a long while before it petered out.

Still pretty vivid in my memories.

 

[Dan-06]

No shot.

 

[ashersdad]

This was many years ago and I had already killed a great bull in Utah that year. 2nd to the last day of the WY Gen hunt and I come over a ridge and had this bull at 200 yards. Compared to the Utah bull he looked tiny so I passed. Still not sure what I was thinking.

 

[BuzzH]

This one gave me the slip. Found the bull a few days before the opener in AZ, was with 5-6 other bulls but the best in the bunch.

Got into the glassing spot at daylight with Stan D. and his buddy Bret and found the bull right away. Nobody else around, and still not sure what spooked him. Wasn't us, but he stared for a long time up the sidehill he was on directly away from us, then just took off running, crossing a major drainage into a different hunting unit.

Really clean 6 point, nothing busted which is always a problem on the late AZ tags:

We found the second best bull in that group directly across from us a few minutes later, decided to shoot that one. He didn't get away.

The last we saw of that bigger bull, he was across the canyon behind Stan, moving up into the trees and in a different hunting unit at that point. The fact that bull got away never has bothered me at all, but I just have to wonder what it was that spooked him. Stan thought probably either a lion or a bear, but we never did saw either.

 

[BuzzH]

Last fall I thought for sure this was the last time I'd see this bull after my friend Steve missed him shortly after we took this picture.

Found him 2 days later with a herd of 11 bulls, one of which was just a pinch, and I mean a pinch, smaller than this bull, clean 6x6 with nothing broken. They were in a bad spot that we couldn't get after them due to the wind being all wrong that day. Let them go.

About a week later, Steve went back and found him again, this time, he didn't get away. Interestingly enough a friend of @JM77's that he was hunting deer in Oregon with had a friend that hit that bull during archery. My buddy Steve found the guys broadhead in the bull and sent it back to him.

I looked and looked for that other big six point and never could find him again. There were 17 different bulls on that ridge, and I found 15 of the 17 multiple times. The big six point and another 300-310 type six point that didn't even have a chip in his antlers. Spent a lot of time looking, and I think they must have picked up shop and moved or they just never got into a spot that I could see them. It seems odd I found all the rest multiple times, but not those 2? Looked a lot of hours for that other big 6 and just didn't find him. Doubt anyone else killed him, but maybe.

The bull I ended up killing, I saw multiple times and finally decided he was good enough.

One of the days I saw him.

Done deal.

 

[LuketheDog]

In 2022 I got permission from a couple neighbors around me to hunt this buck I'd been seeing come down out of the hills every fall. I had access to 45 acres total, so I played like a whitetail hunter and spent 12 mornings in a brush blind waiting for a chance at him. The first two pics are off my game camera, right before I shot and right after, check the time stamps. You can see the arrow hit high in the shoulder in the blurry pic, I held my 30yd pin on him when he was at 20yd, DOH! At first I thought I shot over because I saw the arrow go into the brush beyond him, but then I found a couple tiny specs of blood, so I grid-searched close to 400 acres around me for the next week, met all my neighbors within a 1/2 mile or so. I looked for birds, listened for coyotes, glassed carcasses and met the people whose land they were on, couldn't find him. Then one of my neighbors saw him 11 days later on his property, slightly limping but chasing does, that's the skyline pic at the bottom. I recently found out somebody else killed him this past fall (2023) on a ranch down the road a mile or so...


View attachment 1879D21B-1651-4A65-9004-3D20FBD44F65.jpeg
View attachment 13DD92B5-C87F-42F7-A07A-135D598069C5.jpeg

 

[Aerosith]

In 2022 I was fortunate enough to have 3 Nevada tags as a NR. I managed to get this Early Rifle September 17-30 Elk tag. It is the hardest unit in the state with about 100 elk scattered across 2,600 square miles. This was the only elk I saw throughout the entire season, I called this bull in the day before the opener. I found him 4 days later, he had moved about 12 miles. I had a shot opportunity on him quartering at me @100yds for 4 mins with my finger on the trigger, and with the reticle on his shoulder. I choose not to shoot due to a fear of wounding the bull, I had wounded a deer the prior season. Looking back at the situation shooting a 30 cal with copper bullets…I should have taken the shot. By far my biggest hunting regret, it haunts me everyday.

 

[Werty]

I short stroked my follow up shot on the biggest black bear I have ever seen. The bear was spinning and chewing the off side. We hunted the area for a week and never found the bear, no birds, no blood.
Would have been my first bear.

 

[Schaaf]

Tried letting a buddy shoot this guy and then he ghosted us never to be seen again. I had seen him a few times the year before when he was still in velvet.

 

[antlerradar]

I have got more of these stories than I care to remember. One big mule deer back in 86, (good typical frame, lots of extra points). Shot right across the top of his back and he dropped like a stone. When I got to were he was he was gone and no blood to speak of and lots of hair. He was gone, never to be seen again.
Another big 30+ mule deer with plenty of extras in 87. Arrow hit low, maybe foreleg or brisket. Tracked him for better than a half mile and ran out of tracks in thick grass. Ran out of blood long before that.

Missed this bull at close range on the last day of archery season. I never saw him again.

 

[Carnage2011]

Sent an arrow over this bulls back about 8 hours into my first day of hunting a few years ago. I chased him the rest of the season without another opportunity.

Found him again the following year but he was badly broken on one side.

The next year he was absolutely giant. I watched another hunter hammer him the last day of bow season. I walked down and talked to the guy and shared some pics. Dumb luck…he was after any bull and this one just happened to walk by.

 

[SC Living Outdoors]

This is my only one. I found the buck 5 days before the season opened while scouting in NM. Hunted him hard and never saw him again. I ate that tag.