Boy oh boy boy boy. When you tell your friend that you never have buck fever watch out. He called me MOnday and said he had missed a stud with his rifle, said he was shaking too much. Thats when I jinxed myself, by saying that I never get rattled.

I spent Saturday all day at the range shooting my G2, Encore, and SBH. The rut is just getting started here in Bama and the bucks are starting to move.

This evening I left work at 4:30 and wanted to check out an undergrounf pipe line easment that runs through the property, hardwood swamp to the east (1/4 mile to the city limits and a neighborhood) 20 yard wide gas line and a thick and nast 5 year old planted pines to the west. I grabbed my .308 encore, binocs and shooting sticks and headed into the woods. As I walked down the gas line I saw 2 does and a small 4 point about 250 yards in front. I watched them for a minute and then eased forward. They never knew I was there and headed into the swamp. I reached the spot I wanted to set up at and then made the descision to move to the west side of the gas line so I would be in the shadows. As I was getting ready to sit down I looked down the pipe line and there was a nice 6 point chasing a doe. He ran her into the pines about 40 yards from me. I looked at my watch and it was 5pm. I had about 30 min of light left. I was tucked in behind some spanish moss, shooting sticks set and just enjoying the evening. About 5:15 I looked down the gas line and there he was, big, nasty, giant buck 125 yards down stepping out of the east side. He was 200# plus. I didn't even need to look through the binos, I knew he was a shooter I could count 3 points sticking up on his right side with my naked eyes. My heart began to race. I settled the encore in the sticks and thats when things went from bad to worse. He quartered away from me and when I looked in the scope on 7X all I saw was horns. I looked away, took a deep breath and waited for him to turn broadside. I told myself, don't look at the horns, focus on the spot. I settled the cross hairs on his shoulder and sqeezed the trigger. Next thing I saw was him shoot across the pipe line tail down and as we say in the south skint back. I felt confident with the shot. I walked to where he was and no hair, no blood, no nothing. I couldn't believe it. I grid searched the gas line looking for any evedance of a hit and nothing. I looked for 30 min. I went home called a friend and got my tracking lights. We searched until 11pm tonight and have nothing to show for it. I have crawled through briars, under blown down trees, everywhere. No blood no nothing. I just got home 30 min ago and keep replaying it in my head. I'll be back there in 6 hours at daylight and search again. I have several deer mounted largest being a 9point that scores 146" and I can honestly say that was the biggest deer I have had in my sights. My friend all say told you you should be shooting your rifle, I say it's no where near as fun. I'll look again in the morning.

I spent Saturday making sure all the guns were sighted in and then shot 20 rounds using my shooting sticks sitting on the ground. I spent all summer shooting handguns, I just blew it.

Like I said, I'll look again in the morning and give it 110%, but it's not looking good for the home team right now. I guess I jinxed myself laughing at my friend with buck fever.

Bama,
If I didn't get all worked up about each deer I put the sights on I think I would quit deer hunting. To me, that feeling is about 75% of why I go out in the first place. You already gave 110% that was a long search with no evidence of a hit. I have heard of deer going a long way without leaving a blood trail, but I have never recovered one that didn't. This year I can honestly say was my poorest shooting ever. I wimped out durig the first two firearm seasons here in Illinois and shot my first two deer with the shotgun, but even with the long gun, I had to use all three rounds on both my kills. I am leaving tonight for our Late Winter season and I am only taking the pistol. I hope I get a chance to get the fever and I will let you know how the shooting goes! Good luck and I hope you either find your trophy or get a chance to draw down on him again!

Happens to the best of us.

I'm sure it would happen to me, as I have never had anything bigger than an 8 point scrub buck in my sights.

Well...you just proved that you are human!

I burn a TON of ammo each year to get ready for hunting season...and still usually have at least one miss!! This year my two misses can be blamed on poor range estimation... ...due to my rangefinder. Actually miss #1 was due to that but the other was my fault by using the wrong BP line in the Burris scope.

It seems that after I get a tag filled, the jitters do lessen somewhat.

But the largest buck I ever had a shot at was with a bow...he was on me so fast that it was like I went into autopilot and had an arrow through him. It was not until I recovered him that I saw how big he was and realized that it was a GOOD thing that it happened so fast. Watching them come in slow only makes me more jittery.

I looked another 2 hours Thursday morning and another hour that afternoon and have no blood, hair, or derr. I just missed. All my friends keep saying, see you should be shooting your rifle, I tell them it's not the pistold fault, it's the operator.

Any way I hunt with a handgun so I do get that feeling.I lost that feeling with a rifle. in 25 years of deer hunting I have shot well over 100 with a rifle, no fun anymore. Not even a challenge. See the deer, put the cross hairs on it, pull the trigger, and pick it up. Alabama has a very liberal deer season and you can legally kill 100 in a season if you want. 2 deer per day October 15-January 31, do the math.

The rut is just getting cranked up, so it is time to hunt. Kinda hard to head to the woods when it is going to be 78 degrees Sunday afternoon.