Anyone ever mess up, and shoot the wrong thing?

Most of the "Game & Fish" folks are pretty decent people, and if you have made a mistake as you describe, they will work with you to the best that they can.

Now, if you are poaching, [out-of-season blazing away at anything, etc] deliberately going over the limits, & stuff like that, then yes, the "Game & Fish" guys ARE going to make life difficult for you.

I have run into a real 'jerky boy' or 2 over the years, but MOST (99.999+%) of them are the Good Guys.

My father got invited on a lot of hunts. He once went with three others to hunt a ranch which never before had been hunted, out in far west Texas. Mule deer.

The common practice is to walk through likely areas, with the hunters spread out and hoping to kick Ol' Bucky out of bed and shoot him.

My father jumped a good buck and shot him, running. The buck cartwheeled into some brush. As my father went over to start the gutting-out process, the buck jumped up and took off running.

Another shot, another cartwheel into some brush. My father heads over to the deer, and Lo! And, Behold! Away goes Bucky. Bang, cartwheel, brush--you get the picture.

And, Bless Pat, another repetition.

So, finally going to an unmoving buck, my father starts in with his knife. One bullet hole. Oops!

So, back up. Sure enough, another buck. One bullet hole.

To shorten a long story, four deer. Well, four hunters, but you can imagine the grumping and griping from the other guys about "That greedy SOB! He went and shot every danged deer in the pasture! And I never got a shot!"

Sure were nice bucks, though...

, Art

Art, I shot 3 bucks in an oak brush patch in CO much the same way your father did, I was 16 years old at the time. I was watching a buck move across the canyon wall about 150 yards from me, it was the first rifle season so there were still a lot of leaves on the brush so I could only see him as he popped into the small clearings. I shot, he humped up and ran behind the brush. When he popped out in a little clearing I shot him again and he humped up and ran behind another patch, when he came out the last time I spined him as he was on a pretty good run. He dropped instantly and was quickly finished with a head shot. I had no idea that it was a different deer either time, I saw him run in the brush and then a deer with horns came out about where I was expecting it so I let fly. When I only found two bullet holes ont the deer that dropped I got that sinking feeling that you have to experience to know what it feels like. Sure enough, two more deer with good solid double lung hits were piled up about 40 yards apart, they were about 20 yards from where they had been hit. Two were 3x3 and one was a 4x4. I was by myself though, that was a LONG day getting them out. I learned a good hard lesson that day. The worst part was telling my dad that night. He got fairly warm, and explained some things to me ever-so-clearly. I earned it.

I guess I let the cat out of the bag already so yes I have shot the wrong thing. I never left one lay, and I never went to get the warden either. I've known quite a few game wardens on a personal basis, while all were decent people only one of them out of all I have known wouldn't have absolutely hammered me to the fullest extent of the law for my mistake/s that day. Whether they would be justified in prosecuting me for what I had done or not prosecuting isn't up for debate, I'm just saying that I know they would have. Game wardens in my experience don't interpret the game laws as applicable to the particular situation at hand, they simply enforce them as they are written in black ink on white paper. Wardens enforce, judges judge.

Yes, I nailed a deer that I thought was a doe at 200 yards with a 30-30 but when I got to it the darn thing had nubs on its head. :banghead:

I felt like hell for taking that BB.

Guess I should of taken a better look at the noggin before I shot.

Shooting at a Buck and got it and a Doe which wasnt a big deal i had a tag for both but i still never figured how i got both i shot buck heart/lung and the deer were standing eating head to head but not right side by side more at a 35-40% angle well bullet when though him and went in the does neck looked like a 50 cal hole at least i guess it was the bullet ..

Oddest thing ive ever had happen except this year while dad was gutting a doe i shot less than 10 mins earlyer with wheelie and a 5 point comes in even with noise we were making and i took him with my wheelie strage things happen

Best archery shot I ever made was on the wrong deer.
I watched a nice big 10pt Illinois whitetail buck follow 2 does into a thicket. Bunch of deer noise for almost 15 minutes and the 2 does come busting out and run behind me in my tree stand. I turned around so I'd be ready when Mr Bigrack comes after them. I waited... nothing happened. No lovestruck buck following them as I expected. And then I see him standing to the side of the thick brush behind a couple trees. Nice body size but his head was partially hidden. When he moved I could see some antler flash in the sun and I hadn't seen any deer other than the 2 does and 1 buck. I was backwards in my stand and strapped to the tree with my safety belt. I crouched back on my heels with my weight into the belt and slipped the arrow thru a gap in the brush and right thru his heart at 35 yards. He went down then jumped up, ran around the clump of trees and straight towards me. funky little 4+3 rack with 10 inches of inside spread fell dead 10 yards from my tree. Nice mature buck just a genetic weany rack.

Lennyjoe:
The nice thing about Maryland is they only count antlered/antlerless, antlered has two tines on one antler or an antler of more than 3".

Kharn

I have yet to shoot the wrong one, but two years ago my hunting buddy and I are up in a stand, when a pretty average buck shows his face about a hundred yards away. Buddy is trying to manuver for the shot but can't quite get his rifle around-stand wall is in the way. Tells me to take the shot. I pulled my rifle up and started to zero in on it, and a huge buck walks out of the same place, so I dropped it. Got some foul looks for that one, and a "why didn't you let him walk out so maybe I could have taken the shot?"

thought i was the only one

at 16 on probably my third real hunt, on a south texas ranch that was a company lease for my dads company. we had doe tags and no clients that weekend so we were walking down a dirt road me with an .06 and my dad and one of his buddies following behind me. there is a herd of does to the left and i pick out a big one and fire a shot, she falls over backwards into the brush. i never take my eyes off were she fell and began walking toward that spot. half way there my dad and his buddy start yelling shoot her again shoot her again. i look to my right and there stands a doe 10 yrds to the right of the spot and 25 yrds away. so i shot her again- you guest it two shots two doe down. dad tagged the second and we had venison for dinner that nite.

Reading through the thred gets me to dredging up old memories...

Not long before Christmas one time maybe 35 years back, I went out to pop a doe for the freezer. I got all settled and comfy and as expected, a big doe eased out of the woods, just at sunset. Bang, kerplop, DRT.

I walked up to start gutting her out and found unusual appendages! Seems the buck had already shed his horns!

Somewhere around the early '70s I had a big buck fool me, big time. I'd been watching work through some brush, across a dry creek from me and somewhat below. I had a good vantage point. Suddenly he came running out of the brush and I shot. Good shot. Again, DRT.

Trouble was, it was a smaller buck. Ol' Biggie had goosed Junior out of the brush to see if anything bad would happen. My father's comment was, "Yeah, they'll do that..."

, Art

Kinda Sorta

It was the first afternoon of NRA4LIFE's very first mule deer hunt. We didn't draw any buck tags, so we made a combo hunt for antelope and muley does. NRA4LIFE comes over ridge and spots 2 HUGE does. Trusty .243 barks and NRA4LIFE has his very first muley. NRA4LIFE very excited at his first of the species. Upon closer inspection, NRA4LIFE not so excited. There laid about a 75 pound doe fawn. Lesson learned. Dang, those ears make 'em look big.

Had that exact same thing happen once, Art.



Now, anyone ever blown an I.D. for one kind of deer for another? There's lots of places where muleys and white tails are in the same area. At least once, I've hunted for mule deer when I'd filled out my white tail tags. Would've been a problem, had I popped an odd whitetail while looking for a mule deer.

I've accidentally made a species mistake while bird hunting. Unhappy occasion.

Shoot the wrong thing? Well... a buddy of mine went on a lion hunt in the Kalahari a few years ago, and he and his PH got on the spoor of what looked like a good big one. After several hours of tracking, they came up to the beast lying beneath a clump of bushes. Unfortunately, due to the bushes, they couldn't get a clear sight picture, but after much shuffling around, Jeff (my buddy) saw the head and mane of the lion, atop a patch of normal lion pelt. Assuming it was resting its head over its shoulder, he got off a quick shot, a bit too low... and shot a lioness in the buttock, just below where her Daddy was resting his head on her flank. She was apparently extremely annoyed at the interruption, and let them know about it in no uncertain terms: but as she and Daddy had disappeared into thicker bush as soon as the shot was fired, Jeff and PH didn't feel terribly enthusiastic about following up.

She survived quite happily, BTW: she was seen next season, with a scar on her rump, but still perfectly mobile. She also had cubs, so her dalliance with Daddy seems to have had the desired result!

(Oh - Jeff did end up getting his lion, a couple of days later, but this time he waited until he had a VERY clear sight picture! )

Not my fault the kildeer decided to fly alongside the dove I was pulling the trigger on...

Old Farmer allowed me hunt whatever , whenever I wanted. Many times he hunted with me. On this day I was out by myself after quail. Old Farmer had something to fix in the barn...

How come a deer will head into a clearing right where you hope to fell a quail?

So there I am with quail loads in 28 ga, thinking " why didn't I bring a 20 or a 12 ga and bring slugs just in case..."?

So you let the quail flush , open breech of Citori, ease the 1911 out and shoot...can't tell where the deer goes for all the rest of the darn quail flushing.

I found the doe about 15 steps into the woods. I toted the doe to the Old Farmer's Barn . Old Farmer just has to raze me..."Son - we need to talk, this here ain't a quail, it can't fly ...no feathers...if you look hereyou'll see...let me explain something to ya..etc.

There was that time I was shooting rabid racoons, one was coming at me and I shot the other one behind him as well...ya think using 12 ga slugs was bit much? nah.

Bowhunting Deer

The first two large does I took while bow hunting for deer, turned out to be "button bucks." Oh well. Kharn & LennyJoe, in Illinois any deer with less than three inches of antler can be tagged with your doe/antlerless tag. In Illinois, all of the archery tags have a antlered AND an antlerless tag.

Flushed and blasted a single Bobwhite Quail, then I saw the yelow feathers! Blasted a Medowlark! :banghead:

In some of the old hunting proclamations Medowlarks were considered gamebirds.


Uncle Jerry shot a mule deer buck with a 30 inch spread in a forkhorn only hunt. Upon closer examination it was a genetic freak a 30 inch spike! Fortunate that the gamewarden wrote him a waiver on that one.

Hunting in Utah above and behind Strawberry Resivior on horseback we had an interesting experience. One of our party went off solo and saw a nice 4x4 buck. Earlier that day he'd fallen from a tree and tagged his scope (unknowingly). 3 Shots broadside at 250 yards from the 7mm went into the dirt before Bambi took off. A wonderful horse chase ensued with bambi loosing the hunter in a draw. Our friend returned to our party just as we finished pushing through the draw and up an extremely sharp slope. He points behind us and says, "did you just come up throught there?" "yep" "why arent' you shooting those deer?"

Turning around we see 4 deer: 2 does and a buck being led by the 4x4 looking at us from about 200 yards away.

Rifles up and kaBlaM! a small one sided firefight ensued. Lot's of missing was done by us younger and deer fever infected hunters.

7mm guy Blasts at the elusive buck and promptly drops the doe standing 8 feet below on the hill side. I clip the buck and my uncle anchors him. The other Buck goes down and we hike over to inspect the take.

No one completely realized what had happened untill we looked down from the 1st buck. We were in the back country deep and had seen bears that day.

We harvested the tender loin and left the doe for the bears and others.

The man that took her on accident finally decided to put his rifle on paper and figure out what was going on. It took lots of clicks to get that scope back "on" at 200yrds.

-usp_fan