Missed a buck. Will he come back?

[Ken Swenson]

Well, I blew it on a really nice buck tonight in Colorado with my muzzleloader. He was in a bachelor herd of four bucks, all four were shooters in my book. I sat at an ambush for three hours, and before leaving, stood up and turned around to see the bucks 200 yards uphill from me feeding. I’ll spare you the rest of the sob story, but a shot was fired and it was a clean miss. All four cleared the nearest ridge and disappeared, not before their racks were silhouetted in the sunset as they crossed over… brutal.

So besides feeling like crap about a missed shot, I’d like to ask the mule deer experts if there’s any chance those bucks come back to the general area. I have until Saturday before I have to head home.

I know archery is a different story, people can blow stalks and still kill the same buck later in the same day sometimes. Is it a lost cause on a muzzleloader hunt?

 

[yellowbeard]

I'd say good chance you see at least some of them again, in the general area or even in the exact area.

Instances I've had where I bumped bucks and then saw them again in the last two years:

- Bumped three nice bucks at about 50 yards, found one back within 100 yards of that spot a week later.
- Missed a shot at one of three bucks, found one of them in the exact same spot three days later.
- A couple nice bucks smelled me at 150 yards, saw them again the next day on the other side of the ridge, less than a half mile from where they had been.

I don't think Mule Deer go anywhere near as far as Elk when they are bumped.

Admittedly only one of my examples was a missed shot, but I still think you have a good chance. I've seen deer have a bullet fly past them and not react at all. In my opinion, most times a missed shot is less scary to them than them smelling you.

Good luck!

 

[Taudisio]

Last year we watched a Polaris razor full of “banshees” drive 150 yards away from 7 bucks feeding together and seems like they shot every round they had. I was about 800 yards away and 2/3rds the way into my stalk on them. Never heard a hit and watched where the bucks went. I shot one from the group that evening when he came out of the aspen grove/creek he ran to about a half mile from where they were shot at. They did split into pairs and I didn’t see where the others went.

 

[AHayes111]

There is a good chance. My father and I muffed a stock on a big buck one Thanksgiving and he was back in the same place on Sunday.

 

[Ken Swenson]

Thanks guys, gives me the motivation I need to get back out there.

Hopefully one turns back up!

 

[yellowbeard]

Thanks guys, gives me the motivation I need to get back out there.

Hopefully one turns back up!

Let us know how it goes!

 

[RockAndSage]

They'll be back, 1-3ish days. Maybe not back on that exact ambush site, but back in bedding area they were coming from to go feed. Remember, they bed where they do because of perceived security - see, hear, smell, shade, and ideally, close proximity to food. It is not random at all, and the bigger they are the better their particular spot is for that. Likewise, generally speaking, the bigger they are the more insecure they will feel when they're not back in their normal hidey-hole, so they want to get back to where they were.

 

[OKHunter84]

Me and my dad bedded a nice buck at about 1200 yards. We were game planning on how to execute the stalk and watched a side by side illegally drive up to the group on the BLM in New Mexico and start blasting. Dad ended up shooting a buck in a different area that evening, but another guy in the same camp shot that buck two days later in the same area he had been shot at and he was a bruiser.

I missed a buck with a sidelock muzzy in New Mexico 5 years ago and I saw him a couple days later about 500 yards from where I shot at him originally. I never could get another chance at him and ended up shooting a different buck when a killer ice storm blew in.

I put dad on a real nice buck in Colorado in 2017 and he shot underneath him with a rifle at 350 yards. Had to watch his antlers silhouette as he ran over a ridge. We looked for him around that same area for the next four days and never did see him again. I'll never forget the way his antlers looked with the morning sun shining on them when he crested a ridge coming our direction that first time we saw him. He was moving through the area fairly briskly, so I wouldn't be surprised if he had already been bumped that morning.

I wouldn't give up. Those misses haunt you though and seem to be more memorable at times then the successes. Hope you get a shot.

 

[Ken Swenson]

Well, no cigar after two days of trying to relocate. The area is heavily timbered, my guess is they either went nocturnal on me, or found a secondary food source that kept them from coming out.

Heck of a hunt, lots of fun out there. Thanks all for your input!

 

[yellowbeard]

Ah, bummer you didn't get another shot. Thanks for the update though. Next season!