Just an update. I thought passing on that buck was the biggest hunting mistake I've ever made.... boy was I wrong! I topped it last night by a long shot.
So I went out hunting with my 11 year old son. We get to a new spot in the same area, just one we've never tried hunting. We get to a point along a barb wire fence where we can glass an entire quarter. Immediately we spot my target buck and the other large buck at about 800 yards. We have never seen them in daylight, ever. Wow, what a sight. In fact, they haven't been on camera for 3 weeks. We watched them for 20 minutes till they disappeared into the trees. At this point we split up, he stays glassing the field and I move 100 yards away into a little clearing hoping they might walk right to us.
He doesn't have a phone and is only 11 so every 20 minutes or so, I walk out of the trees 15 feet (without my bow), wave to him for a thumbs up and then go back to my spot. Well the third time I do this I can't seem to get his attention. I make a few grunts and he still doesn't give me the thumbs up so I start waving to him with both arms. Just at that moment I look over and 20 yards in front of my seat is the Giant buck I've been chasing for years looking at me like I'm a kook. I have a clear line of site to him through the trees and my bow is 15' away on the ground. And the other buck had walked right up to my son to 20 yards. Let me also preface this by saying moments before this my son had "said a prayer" that we could just get an opportunity. I froze and didn't move but this buck was too incredible to fall for it. He knew something was up as did his friend. They both backed up to 60 yards in the trees, snort wheezed a few times and then bolted. My one and only chance was blown.
If I had just stayed in my seat for 1 more minute, he would have appeared. If I had just taken my bow for that 15' walk, I could have got a shot. If I had stayed on the fence line with my son I would have got a shot. We had done everything right, including playing the wind and figuring out one of their travel routes. We staked it out and our plan worked perfectly. Hundreds if not thousands of hours and gone into that moment (scouting, trail cams, setting up stands, looking at maps, practicing) and at the most critical time of it all, I blew it.
I thought it was hard to live with passing up a buck, but this is so much worse. I'm trying to learn a lesson from this but its hard to know whether I should keep chasing this big buck, or if maybe its a sign I've become too obsessed with antlers and scores and bragging rights and I've lost touch with the reason I even started to hunt in the first place.
Uggggg. I have many sleepless nights ahead of me.
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