Well went to NY for the gun opener yesterday. Hiked a half hr up the MT to a new stand that I set. They woods were pretty quite but you couldnt hear anything coming because the ground was still wet from all that rain. At about 7:10 I look over my shoulder and see a deer coming trotting at a good pace. It looks like a doe so I grab the gun and look well behind it for the buck. BUt I dont see anything. As the deer gets closer I look thru the scope and see thats its a spike! Even tho its not what I would usally shoot. I am gunna take um due to the season I have. Get gets down below my stand and he stops behind a tree. But his kneck down to the base is showing. I take the saftey off and left um have it with betsy. 20 gauge 3 inch remington buckhammers. I hit um hard! He spins and blots over a ridge. I let him sit till 9:00. I get down and look for sign. Nothen. The area is so scratched up from turkeys I can hardly make out the way he went. I start criss crossing for a hr and find bone fragments! I hit him in the damn shoulder blade!! WTF!! I finally find good blood. After a couple of hundered yards I hear a deer blow at me and off he goes! I rip another shot at him. Nothen. I then chased him for a total of 5 hours and lost um!! Man I hate that!! One for screwing up the shot. Two I dont like wounding a animal. Sat at night and saw a deer off in the distance and heard one blowing way off... I just cant win!

Ahh, atleast you had a shootable animal! we were hiking up mountian mid morning, ran into 3 other guys.. Shoting the crap, we hear talking & noises.. 20 HIKERS going summit on opening day!! HELLO.. Nutjobs!
I only had 16 rounds, and wanted to be PC so I had to let them all walk.. It wouldnt be fair to have some share some lead.. Back at the car, one guy was saying the Anti-Hunters came out daybreak & made a show too.. Cars & people were all over the lower woods..

Thats sucks. but there is a lot of the season left..