Ok, everyone here has some type of "Hunting Heartbreak" story to share sometime this year so now is the time to vent it.
Ok I'll start.
Nice buck I've been watching for a while, going to my stand later than I should have been and spot him just as I crested the ridge. Eased to the ground and tried to side crawl to the nearest tree(didn't take my shooting stick).
Just as I was about to get him in the crosshairs he spooked . After climbing into my stand I noticed something brown run under me, a very playful dog (in the wet leaves) that had trailed me all the way in. Oh well, let's hear the rest of the sad stories. In case you were wondering I let the dog live.

I was sneaking into a bedding area where the big buck I jumped this year was known to be. Just as I was peering over the edge I heard a noise behind me...then a few barks. I slowly knelt back down and turned to see my 8 month old German Shepard/Golden Retriever mix standing there staring at me...I left her in the garage (which is in the house) when I left because she follows me everywhere. Well she wanted to go and barked like crazy so Cindy let her out. Fortunately she (the dog) listens very well with low audibles and hand signals...I very light "psst" and pointed back at the house then she was gone. Thought all was fine then my radio rings and Cindy barks..."is Shelby with you?...oh wait...she just came back on the porch." Aarrghhhh!! From my postition I could see the escape routes from the bedding area and nothing moved so the good thing is that I don't think the buck was around. But man...the sinking feeling when all that occurred was sickening.

This was all preceeded by a few days when I jumped the buck from his bedding area while scooting uo to the house to meet and take a friend hunting. When I jumped the buck he make his way through the field below my place...thought he would cut across the into cover where I could shoot...but no!!! He turned and was heading in the direction of my house...then turned and ran right at my house...all I could see was antlers and my front door through the scope!! I lowered the .30 Herrett and watched his trot right into my yard...through the garden and right past my shed. The friend was standing on the side porch with his rifle loaded...but did he see the buck?! NO!! He was bent over...playing with Shelby!!

Stinking dog!! But she is a BIG SWEETY so I can't be all that mad!!

thats funny dan.....LOL ....er I think it is. bet it wasn't so funny then.

back several years ago, i was bow hunting. i was in a treestand for a evening hunt. had a whole herd of does(7-8 maybe) come in, and i was surrounded. they were scattered anywhere from right under the tree, to 35 yards out. so.....i carefully nock an arrow......start easing the string back........and then my arrow falls off the bow and string completely
ting....ting....ting...ta ting.....all the way to the ground.

oh yeah....i had more arrows to use.....only problem was i had no deer to shoot at now.

Sounds like you didn't pull the string back far enough!

About 7:00 AM on opening morning my son calls me on the radio to let me know that he had two buck coming in toward his stand, a four and a six point. (In eastern PA a legal buck must have a minumum of 3 points on one side to be legal) While he was glassing the six to be sure he was a legal buck, someone came thru the area on an ATV and spooked them both.

Twenty minutes later two antlerless deer come in toward his stand. He took one of the two, which turned out to be a button buck. As soon as I heard the shot I was on the radio to see what he had taken. During our conversation he told me the second deer had headed in my general direction. About ten minutes later a doe comes in toward my stand. When she finally gets into one of my shooting lanes she stops behind a tree with her head showing on one side of the tree and her butt sticking out the other. The tree completely covered the vitals. After a few minutes she steps out into an opening about 30 yards away. I had lined up my contender just waiting for her to step into that opening. I was able to take advantage of a natural rest where a large branch came out of the tree so I had a rock solid rest. I touched off the Contender only to see what appeared to be an explosion in front of my scope. It turns out that there was a small branch (about 1/2" in diameter) that was in line with the barrel but was close enough not to be visable through the scope. Needless to say, that doe wasted no time in vacating the area. The only good thing about the whole situation was the fact that it turned out to be a clean miss.
Sure am grateful that junior was able to fill the freezer this year.

Those were some pretty good ones guys.
After the dog incident Wednesday you would think all the mishaps would be over for the year, much less the week, wrong! Didn't have any Christmas plans for the day Friday so I spent it in a stand near where the dog mishap occured.
Saw nothing but does all day. During the last 15 minutes of shooting light a couple of does and a spike came into a clearing, followed by a buck in the 120s.
He wouldn't give me a good shot until it was almost too dark but then he turned. In my 10 years of handgunning I have never missed a deer, never, until now. A chip shot between 90-100 yds out and I missed him CLEAN! All in one week. I've beaten myself up so bad over it this weekend I'll have to see a doctor Monday. Scared to even set foot in the woods after church tomorrow.

I've enjoyed your stories, this year, wasn't a good year, but let me tell you about last year and the deer season from hell. opening morning, fog was so thick, I could see sometimes ten yards and sometimes twenty five...7:30... a fork appeared at fifteen yds, real small, obliterated by fog, then it reappeared twenty yards away from its original location, but still fifteen yds away from me, this time the matching fork was visible, but the two forks were probably eighteen inches apart, the beam that carried them was massive and dark in color, the click as the contender misfired..... barely got the big buck's attention.. the fog swallowed the buck up again... momentarily the buck reappeared where I first saw him, then he was gone...saw some smaller bucks the rest of the day, but couldn't shoot with the memory of the big one and the possibility of him returning. Second day, eight-thirty, suddenly an eight point appeared at twenty five yards, at seventy yards he presented a clear shot, this time using the 7mm TCU, he appeared to be hit,, ground check revealed a four inch swath of blood.... followed him 3-400 yds and the blood slowed to a constant drip, then ceased altogether. no luck. thursday my huntin' buddy Gerry called and asked if I wanted some meat, he had watched an eight point walk out of the woods and lay down(300 yds away), he cllimbed out of his tree stand and went over to his house and walked up the trail out back that crossed at 40 yds above were the buck was laying. he shot the buck laying in its bed. when I skinned him out he was shot thru the brisket, and clipped on the back of the near side elbow, I think it was the buck I shot on Tuesday..145 lbs hanging, no fat on his back at all. still have 7 tags to fill. seeing nice bucks but always after they see me. Figured out the contender problem, weak hammer spring, for now I removed the hammer extension, the SOB goes bang every time now.... Saturday after Thanksgiving, snowing and blowing, put the horses out and they won't even go to the hay the weather is so miserable, the truck is covered with snow so I let it warm up in the driveway, head over to West Sparta, going up Creek road I notice the transmission is fishing for gears, what the hell?... park on the hill, it appears I'm the only one up there.... the weather is worsening, but at least there is a tracking snow, and because of how fast its snowing, I can age the tracks, lots of tracks, and some big ones. Up on top the wind is roaring now, about nine o'clock Gene's crew works the hill over, by this time I've seen more than thirty deer. the weather is so poor I decide to cruise thru the cedars to look for bedded deer. When I come out the far side and start down a woods road, I notice how quiet the walking is with the fresh snow, suddenly I see an eye above a fork in a pine tree twenty-five yards away, an antler to the left of the trunk and then his nose. The binoculars reinforce but don't give me any help. Out comes the contender from its holster, the buck still standing with only his eye and nose visible..bang ... four point... too big for my game bag,not by much, but the fact that I've got to drag him a mile or so, it could be worse. When I get to the truck it won't go in to reverse and will barely go forward. I check the tranny dipstick, and there is nothing. I finally get it out of the woods.. downhill... hail Curt P and ask if he has any ATF he doesn't so I walk to Millers’ house. He doesn't either but offers to give me a ride. My wife cathy was at the church for the bazaar so I begged a ride to the church. Curt P. told Cathy of my plight, so she hops in her Escalade and comes to my rescue.... out the front door she goes when I walk in the back door.... lots of questions to answer as I make my way to find her ...My oldest daughter tells me mom just went to get me, I see her drive past the door, I excuse myself and try to make it past all of the fat people in the county to catch her, I'm out the door she's at the end of the driveway, I'm at the end of the drive and chasing her up the road she signals right and is gone. While I stand in the road, its not snowing any more the sun is out, some one in a toyota corola wearing a Hawaiian shirt pulls up and say's "I might be lost,could you tell me where the Birdsall Inn is? " I give him directions to Pittsburg and send him on his way and go back to the church to wait for Cathy to come back. Twenty minutes goes by and Cathy walks thru the door, she appears to be on the verge of tears... I'm thinkin' hell its only a transmission line when she says... The Escalade is on its side in the ditch... when she went over the knoll the road was drifted full, she started to fish tail and headed straight for a power pole the only thing between her and the pole was a six foot deep road ditch..yup on it's side laying on the passenger side door.
This year was a much better season.

Here is one that ranks in the stupid list. I had been practicing with the contender quite a bit from the rest and shootin' stix. It was about a week before the season and I get the bright ideal to change scopes. I got the new scope in and put on the contender and since I did not want to remove the old rings from the one I had as it was promised to a friend I put on some others I had that I thought would be ok , as the neck of woods I live in dont usually have anything. So went thru the process of new sight in with the ballistic's I had been using and all was well. Opening weekend I am in the chain on stand and here comes a nanny out at 80 yards, she walks out standing broad sided. I have my legs crossed and am proped up real steady crosshairs were then to be. Touch off the round and she jumps straight up walks over and starts milling around before walking back in the edge of the woods . I had noticed dirt fly but thought it was from a shoot thru. I am a little puzzled now, and as I am about to get down and go check things out, here she comes back out in the field. So I say to myself, Self get things right this time. Brace up again for another try and touch off round #2 this time I watch as dirt and big hole show up in the ground between her front and rear feet. She makes and acrobatic move trots over a short distance before turning her nose up at me . I try to figure what went wrong and the next morning at home tells the story. I go to shoot at the targets to see what is up, low and behold at 100 yards I am shooting a lovely 14-15 inches low . That great set of rings I thought would work fine, the front cap screw had stripped out and allowed the scope to rise . Needless to say a lesson well learned about you get what you pay for and you better take the time to make it right. It would have been my first contender trophy even thou it was a nanny. But so is life. Keep'em tight everyone.

Thanks a million everyone, after reading some of those horror stories I don't feel so bad anymore.