The old gray buck with 9 lives.....First day of gun season on the forest over looking a branch area up high. Boom boom boom a mile away. Boom boom boom a half mile away. Boom boom boom quarter mile away. Dang, a buck is heading my way. Minutes later, I see him walking the branch. With tree top branches far away in the scope, boom. Nothing happens. Dang. Boom again, nothing happens. I'm thinking my scopes is off, so I aim low, boom. The buck turns and runs to the bottom of the other hill side. Minutes of nothing. Then I see a glimpse of him walking up the other hill. With a tiny hole to shoot through, boom again, then nothing again. Dang. I climb down to check things out 10 minutes later. Behold, the sucker is laying on the steep hill side, what a lucky shot. I get up to the deer and he tries to get up, a spine shot. With the water straight down, I grab the hind leg and with one pull, he slides down to the branch. Ok, now die. Minutes later, no death. Not to waste another bullet, I decide to place my gun up against a tree, knee down on the deer, grab the horns in the back with both hands, and stick the deer's nose in the water. Not a bright ideal. Thirty seconds in the water, the deer comes alive. Throws me off backwards while jumping up and runs forty yards and stops, just stands there. I grab the gun and waited. Dang it, finally a lung shot area shot because he starts to walk off minutes later. Then he walks ten yards and just stands there. His rear starts to sway side to side minutes later, down he goes sliding down a steep embankment. At the bottom, he won't die. He is kicking and tring to get up. No other option, boom again. Thirty seconds later, it is gutting time. That many shots at him by everyone, his luck did run out.

... I sprayed the forest floor. Shooting out 10 yards with so much back pressure, such a relief just in time….

Dang BC, I didn’t know that happened to your buddy.. That’s as sad as it gets there. I know you and I know his father really appreciated spending that time in the woods with you.

BC - That is hands down the best post I've ever had the pleasure of reading on this forum.

Circa 1989: My best friend and I joined a club together. He at that time had a girlfriend who tagged along on most fishing trips and ended up wanting to go deer hunting that year. For some reason my buddy felt she needed to carry a gun despite the fact she wasn't leaving his side. So he borrowed a Winchester lever 30-30 from a friend, which was of questionable working order. Turned out we took my car, A luxurious Chevy citation. Well before daylight We drive down and I had him drop me off and I walked in to a cutover and setup. He was to take my car down about 2 miles further where he and his girlfriend were going to hunt. We had an agreed time of 11:00am that they would come pick me back up.
kick
Well, 11:00am came and I heard nothing of him driving up but figured I’d walk out to a main road and wait. When I get there I see my car parked and my buddy standing alone to the side. He walks up to me with tears in his eyes and states, “there’s been an accident”. I think, ok….. I’m looking around and I don’t see the girl girlfriend anywhere. Not in the car, not standing anywhere…… oh crap. So I ask the inevitable, “What kind of accident?” He says “the 30-30 went off” My stomach now sinks….. so I ask….”and……??” He says, “I shot your car”. Me: “Ok…… where’s the girl?” She’s in the back seat laying down crying”. Me: “crying about what?” Him:” She thinks there’s going to be a fight because I shot your car”. Me: “is the car drivable?” Him: “ absolutely, the bullet went through the bottom of the passenger door panel”. Me: “Well let’s get home then”. I see the car door, which the 30-30 bullet penetrated through and through. I then start to laugh out loud as I now know we don’t have to make accidental death calls, and the reality of these two having the crap scared out of them with the gun going off in the predawn darkness, and the fears that I was going to be fighting and over this. I honestly was so glad we could drive it home and not have to walk out for help that I just laughed and smiled. I knew I would get years and years out of this story. That car had the hole in the door the day I sold it. The buyer loved the story as well.

Rest of the story: the lever him had jammed when he tried to chamber a round. He walked back the car to use the dome light. The action wasn’t closing as it should. But when it finally did…. well, you know.

My favorite.......In 2007 I decided that my son, 7 YOA at the time, was proficient enough to shoot at a deer after being my wingman for several years. I chose a good shooting house with a relatively close shot opportunity. As hoped, a little before dark, out pops a big doe. The New England Firearms .243 drops her in her tracks for his first. It was the day after Thanksgiving. That evening when we get home a friend calls and says he has two tickets to the Iron Bowl he can't use if we want them. Sure we do as we are on a roll and our Tigers can always use the help. We went and AU won. Sunday afternoon rolls around and I ask him if he wants to go and hunt for his first buck? Of course he does and I had already made up my mind that in accordance with our group rules, he could shoot whatever buck he wanted to as his first. We sit up in a box based on the wind and he's on my right. I see something moving to my left and it is a decent 2.5 year old 6 point headed to the food plot. He sits on my knee in order to see and shoot out of the left window. The buck gets to the plot and I told him to shoot when ready. Then he gives me the words I'll never forget. He says "What about that other one Dadddy?" as he points back behind where the 6 came from. I'm leaning back and can't see that way so I lean up and look back into the sage and my heart jumps up in my chest. All I could say was "Yep, shoot the back one". It steps out into the opening and he fires. It bucks so I know he hit it good. It was only about 50 yards or so from us. I watched it run off and marked about where I last saw it. I then heard what I thought might have been it piling up about 150 yards away. I went and found the initial blood. Since it was almost dark and some of our group was also down that afternoon I decided to wait for help. They all came right on at dark and we started the trail. After a bit the blood petered out so one of them said he was going to walk on into the hardwoods where you could see better. In a short time he yells "Oh my God!". We go and recover the 8 point with an 18" inside spread. Great deer for a first buck from a 7 year old. He became an instant celebrity at his school, Morgan Academy, the next day with the pictures. No doubt the best Thanksgiving holiday ever.

My favorite.......In 2007 I decided that my son, 7 YOA at the time, was proficient enough to shoot at a deer after being my wingman for several years. I chose a good shooting house with a relatively close shot opportunity. As hoped, a little before dark, out pops a big doe. The New England Firearms .243 drops her in her tracks for his first. It was the day after Thanksgiving. That evening when we get home a friend calls and says he has two tickets to the Iron Bowl he can't use if we want them. Sure we do as we are on a roll and our Tigers can always use the help. We went and AU won. Sunday afternoon rolls around and I ask him if he wants to go and hunt for his first buck? Of course he does and I had already made up my mind that in accordance with our group rules, he could shoot whatever buck he wanted to as his first. We sit up in a box based on the wind and he's on my right. I see something moving to my left and it is a decent 2.5 year old 6 point headed to the food plot. He sits on my knee in order to see and shoot out of the left window. The buck gets to the plot and I told him to shoot when ready. Then he gives me the words I'll never forget. He says "What about that other one Dadddy?" as he points back behind where the 6 came from. I'm leaning back and can't see that way so I lean up and look back into the sedge and my heart jumps up in my chest. All I could say was "Yep, shoot the back one". It steps out into the opening and he fires. It bucks so I know he hit it good. It was only about 50 yards or so from us. I watched it run off and marked about where I last saw it. I then heard what I thought might have been it piling up about 150 yards away. I went and found the initial blood. Since it was almost dark and some of our group was also down that afternoon I decided to wait for help. They all came right on at dark and we started the trail. After a bit the blood petered out so one of them said he was going to walk on into the hardwoods where you could see better. In a short time he yells "Oh my God!". We go and recover the 8 point with an 18" inside spread. Great deer for a first buck from a 7 year old. He became an instant celebrity at his school, Morgan Academy, the next day with the pictures. No doubt the best Thanksgiving holiday ever.

That’s awesome! Post a pic of your son with that buck.