Times you were happy to not fire your weapon......

One of the plethora of reasons I enjoy spending time on HuntTalk is the learning aspect offered by members various adventure stories. Already this fall there have been tales told of successes, missed opportunities, and wayward shots that ended up being lethal, and some non-recovered animals. Monday morning quarterbacking from the safety of my easy chair might make me start to think I would know what to do in any of the above situations, and yet the stories provide various options considered, alternatives rejected, and a certain course of action pursued to a conclusion.

There are times that I have been quite happy to hold my shot. There could be myriads of reasons why, such as quarry distance, safety issues (skyline, backdrop, other critters), holding out for a certain size of animal, concern about species ID, time of day/lighting problems, too early to harvest on a long scheduled hunt, a feeling like this one is not the "ONE" I want to shoot, your partner is holding your bullets and won't give you one to "have a go", and I suppose dozens more reasons to hold off.

I hope that by starting this thread, you HuntTalkers, both young and old, newbs and crusty veterans might tell a story of two of how you were glad to hold back and not squeeze the trigger and in telling the tale, help us all in pre-planning tactics, ethics and self limitations that in hindsight were the correct move for the day (or perhaps, I suppose, ones that you regret not going ahead as well!)



I can start from my experience this morning. Kansas archery deer season (concurrently running with muzzleloader season right now) has been open for over a week. Due to a wedding, I didn't get to go out the opener weekend, so I rose early this morning to make my inaugural run to a local wildlife area to see what was up with the deer. Poor planning had me sitting down without my shooting stick for my crossbow, but the slope of the hill and my elevated position over the creek bottom would allow me a good solid knee rest should a deer come through on the creek bottom well worn trail. Right at legal shooting time, I heard a "snort, snort, snoooort" and splashing water noises. Moments later a deer of unknown gender ran down the trail. I could tell it was a mature deer by its size, but couldn't see in the bottoms either antlers or no antlers.

Happy to have seen a deer, I remained alert, scanning the woods and creek bottom. A half an hour later, deer movement to my left caught my attention. The deer came down to get a drink, and then crossed the creek and I knew that this deer was probably on a diagonal path towards me, and would come up to my elevation on the high bank hard to my left. Shifting my body so that I could bring my crossbow into ready position, I waited and saw the tiny antlers of a yearling buck come up the trail.

Driving in this morning, I had determined that I was going to shoot any antlerless deer I saw. I also told myself that I wasn't going to shoot just any buck, but was going to hold out for a fully mature buck. This little forky was safe. Or so I had planned. He stopped his progress on the trail, and started to work on some of the fallen acorns. Tens yards away. From my perspective, I could easily see his head and neck area, but his arrow vital zone was covered by the oak tree. Through the scope I could see how long his eyelashes were, and I could see that he had a tear in his left ear.

The private/public boundary was another twenty yards beyond this little yearling, and I had already determined that any buck killed by kansasdad today would be a big one, so I knew he was safe. And he stood there. And he looked right at me, hunkered down behind a log, screened by the underbrush. And he ate some more. And he stood there. And my resolve started to wane. I haven't yet taken a deer with arrow. I tried hard last year. I had my safety off multiple times, but never took a shot. And he was standing there, as if to test my resolve. And then he turned his head away from me, and even moved just enough forward that I would be able to slip an arrow right into the heart/lung pocket. He's so close, I would have to try to miss him. And after another legit minute of "aiming practice", my resolve was really slipping.

Finally the barking of the private land dogs got this deer to turn and run back down the trail he used to come see me. I had held firm, and knew that I should have done so, but had I not predetermined that little bucks (and ones standing five jumps from the private/public boundary) get to see another sunset, I might have pulled the trigger when I shouldn't have.

kansasdad next year.Still not big enough.2yrs maybe.Kids will get a chance in the future.Good call.

Unlimited sheep hunting I came upon a barely legal 4 year old ram. Couldn't do it. Crept up up to about 20 yards from him and watch him for about 30 minutes. Freshly broken horn, he had just gotten his butt kicked by another ram, and was all alone licking his wounds. I really couldn't do it then! Backed out and let him be.

The next year I drew an Idaho sheep tag and had a hunt of a lifetime.

One of several as I imagine many have experienced.

Few years ago during Spring bear hunt I had a nice sized bear walk out of the thick and down into an open draw.
Put away the binos and began following through the scope. Had a bit of time as it was walking within small shrubs and rocks towards a little snow run off stream.
Waited a good 5 minutes, more or less observing and getting situated for the shot.

Then... The bear repeatedly looked up towards the tree line. I scoped along the area the bear kept viewing and sure enough, up along the line came a small cub bounding down the draw on to momma bear.

Set the rifle down and began recording with my phone. More black fur balls moving around from the phone distance though that was definitely one occasion I happily did not take the shot.
Bummed it was a sow with a cub though happy to not send the bullet on it's way.

Good thread! Good one to follow.

One time I will never forget. I was about 18 I was archery hunting whitetail and what to this day is the biggest buck I have ever seen (he would easily have hit 170) came through the woods at about 45 yards this was before I had a range finder and although I practiced regularly past 50 I had a personal 40 yard limit while hunting. He fed for a while and moved off and I never saw him again. I ended up tagging on a one sided 5 point who was so old he hardly had any teeth left and was almost completely gray. Although I never tagged my trophy I have never regretted not taking that shot. 80% of the time I could estimate the range and shoot through the brush just fine, but now I have a good memory. If I had wounded him I still never would forget it but I would definitely want too!

A couple times elk hunting, passing decent bulls, after I walked back to the truck and realized it sucked with just a 20 pound pack.....

Back when I was 18 or 19 years old, I was part of group of guys that would drive deer on a few properties during Ohio's muzzle-loader deer season. I was the youngest guy by a solid 40 years which meant I never got to sit and had to push deer every time. In fact, my buddy Rusty who was in his late 50s at the time was still referred to as a "youngster" by the other guys. On the other end of the spectrum was Frank, nearly 80 years old and understandably, not much of a pusher. On flat open ground, he would give it a good effort but when he got to sit more than anyone. By the end of the week my legs felt like jello and the old guys took pity and let me sit for the last drive of the season. 4 or 5 guys started the drive on the south side of a creek bottom that ran from west to east while 4 of us set up above the creek bottom on the north side. Sitting farthest to the west was Cliff, a Montanan who was hunting with us a thank-you for helping a couple of guys in the crew with an elk hunt the year before. Next in line was myself followed by the "youngster" Rusty who now lives in Montana. Last in line was Frank because the creek bottom narrowed where he could cover it from the back porch of a cabin on the property. Being that this took place 15 years ago, I don't remember exactly how many deer came trotting right at me, but I know the number was north of ten. All the deer stopped at the base of the slope right below me at 60 yards and I had a big doe in my sights but for some reason I set the muzzle-loader down leaned back against the oak tree behind me and just took in the entire scene. The deer had stopped in a place that was in range of Cliff but he also decided to just watch and see what happened. Eventually, the deer started working their way downstream towards Rusty. Once the deer got within range of Rusty, he also didn't shoot but was kind of forced into letting them go because when he loaded his muzzle-loader, he FORGOT THE POWDER. In his scramble to try and figure out why the gun wouldn't shoot, he bumped all the deer towards Frank. Not only did Frank decide to shoot, he made a great shot on a nice big doe that we were all-too-happy to drag out of the creek bottom for him.

You might be asking yourself why this particular hunt is so memorable to me over a decade later. Well, this was Frank's very last deer hunt. Later that winter, he went out to try and shoot a couple of rabbits and after a while took a break and sat down under a big maple tree and fell asleep. Frank had a heart attack and never woke up. I didn't know Frank very well but I am absolutely honored to have been a part of his last hunt and its possible that my decision to not shoot, Cliff's decision to not shoot, and Rusty's decision to not understand the importance of gun powder to a firearm may have led to Frank getting one last deer.

A little over ten years ago I was still hunting a ridge on public land in mid September. It was very windy and spitting rain. With an hour of light left I was cold and wet and had yet to see a deer or elk. I decided to head back to the truck. I didn't walk 50 yards and I spotted a buck at 65 yards below me. Not just a buck but a big heavy 6 by 7. Sixty five yards is bit too far for me even in good conditions. That day I would have to be a lot closer. In the next hour I was able to work myself in to 30 yards. I thought about taking the shot but quickly decided not to. I wasn't worried about hitting him solid. I just wasn't confident that I would find him after the shot so I just sat there and watched him feed off into the darkness.
I hunted that buck every chance I got and never saw him again until I jumped him the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. Ended up with the second best whitetail I have ever taken. Real happy I didn't make the mistake of trying to shoot him back in September.

MTTW said:

Last September I was out scouting an area that I was planning to hunt in November. I was carrying a 4 inch .357 mag. pistol, which I had been carrying for many years. I was walking up a ridge and had my little point and shoot camera out because I had just seen 3 little bucks a minute before. I heard a stick snap up ahead and looked to see a grizzly coming at a walk about 40 yards ahead. He was on a path that would lead him to a position 10 yards ahead of me on the ridge. He had no clue I was there and the wind was 10 mph ish from him to me.
I pulled my pistol and yelled at him and he stopped probably 35 yards out. He stood calmly looking all around in my direction. I decided to start my camera which was in my left hand, the pistol was in my right. He stood still, his head pivoting, seeming to look everywhere except directly at me.
After a couple of minutes he started to walk on his original path like nothing had happened. Still holding the camera and the gun I yelled at him again.
He instantly broke into a dead run directly at me. I dropped the camera and gripped the gun with both hands and fired a warning shot just ahead and to the side of him into a couple of trees. He slammed on the brakes and stood up on his back legs again pivoting and looking everywhere except directly at me. I new he would drop down soon and decided if he came towards me there would be no more warnings. After a few seconds he dropped down and immediately headed back the way he had come. The distance between us was probably 20 yards, I have never been so glad not to shoot a gun.
I dug in my pocket and got a shell to replace the empty. Looking ahead where he had gone I could see him a couple of hundred yards into the burned timber right where I had intended to go. I decided to save that for another day and headed back the way I had came. 2 weeks later I went back, this time packing a new 44 mag. and a level of alertness I had seldom experienced. I will be perfectly happy to never fire it at a bear.
As a side note, I have noticed that my night vision has been effected by this encounter. I now need a head lamp in conditions that I used to be perfectly comfortable walking in the dark.

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Good story and reminds me of my best bear encounter. Elk hunting in North Idaho, a large black bear boar was sniffing the ground and heading straight towards me. As he came closer, I raised my rifle and flipped the safety off. He kept coming unaware that I was yards away. At 8 yards I had enough and whistled at him. He looked up staring into the barrel of my 30-06 pointing right between his eyes. There was no fall season for bear in that unit at the time, and I didn't have a bear tag anyway. Didn't matter. One more step forward and I was going to shoot him.

The look on his face was "oh shit, what have got myself into". He stood there still for a solid minute, starring straight at me. At least that's how long it seemed to me. His wheels were spinning in his head, trying to figure out how he was going to get out of this predicament.

Then very slowly he took one step back, never taking his eyes off me. Then a second slow step back. He took a third step back, wheel around and was gone in the blink of an eye. Reminds me of the song, "Give Me Three Steps" Coolest event I ever witnessed in all my years hunting!

a fellow hunter. I was having lunch in taking a little nap. When I woke up and was trying to get my gear together I looked over and there was a mountain lion looking at me. I have no idea how long he was there. Our eyes were locked. I had no sensation of him harming me and I had no desire to harm him. We just hung out together. I slowly got my rangefinder out and Ranged him at 19 yards. I slowly got my iPhone out and took a few pictures. Then he probably had something on his mind and slowly turned around and walked off. Probably the best time in the woods

It was deja vu all over again this morning. I was sitting 50 yards upstream from where I was yesterday, to be adjacent to the creek crossing. The little forky stayed 100 yards away, and after watching him feed for awhile, I saw movement in the underbrush heading my way. The doe popped out of the thick edge growth, and followed the trail down to the creek. Just as I was starting my breath control and mentally squeezing the trigger, the fawn spilled out of the thick stuff too. The fawn fooled around in the creek, while the doe drank her fill. She then seemed to notice a blob attached to a big tree with a funny looking lower branch protruding from the trunk (me with a crossbow pointed at her). No shooting of crossbolts today, just photos.....Bambi's mom lives courtesy of ol' kansasdad.

A bunch of years ago I was invited by a Latvian native to join a group hunt for stags and hogs. It was a driven hunt and I was near 1 end of the line. Not long after the dogs and hunters started through the trees I spotted several cows and a bull that would have put me on the rag horn express around here.
I have shot a dozen bulls bigger than him so I let him walk in hopes of seeing another, bigger bull. Moments later the hunter next in line shot and killed the bull when it passed his stand. The group had 1 tag so the hunt was over. Every one treated him like a king. That was the biggest bull ever shot by the group.
Back at the hunting cabin I saw dozens of spikes and 2 or 3 pointers but nothin over 100 points if I scored them. The bull I passed was easily 200 but probably not much over that. I suppose that man is a legend, and he deserves it.

Some days i just can't bring myself to pull the trigger, i love big game, especially deer and never enjoy killing more than watching.

My third year of hunting public land on my own and the learning curve was still far from figured out. Missed a deer the season before with my bow and that was the closest I had come to killing one. I made a hunt during a primitive weekend on a piece of land I had never been to before. To get some edge, I accessed with a john boat I paddled down a bayou. Most of the land was public on both sides on the bayou, but a section farther south only the east side was public. Late morning I came across a pool of blood on the east bank (public) from someone that had killed a deer. Shortly downstream and on the west bank (private) there was a fawn standing there. I assume it belonged to a doe which was the blood pool the other side, but who knows.

To say I graciously passed on the deer is a lie. The gun was in my hands at this point and the deer at 20-30yds. I hadn't killed a deer in three years. It wouldn't have been hard to drop it there on the bank, throw it in the boat and be on my way. But I couldn't deny the posted signs I had seen on that side, and reluctantly put the gun down and kept paddling until it ran off. It was a tough decision, but looking back I'm glad I made the right one.

In 2016 I missed a big ram in an unlimited unit the third day of the season.

At the end of September, a few weeks later, I was trying to get that opportunity again at the same ram. During my search I found another legal ram. Legal, good sized for his age, but only 6 years old. I thought about it for a little bit and decided to pass.

4 months later I won the <1 club Dall Sheep hunt at sheep show. Something I would have been ineligible had I killed that ram. And I still get to tromp through the Beartooth looking for an old ram, instead of dreaming about it for 7 years.

Best shot I never took.

Bump........

Any fall/winter no-shot stories to add?

I drew an RFW tag (a CPW-drawn tag that lets you hunt private land) this December in NW Colorado, which I had been saving preference points for since I moved to Colorado 8 years ago. Had a good buddy along to help, and we had 10 inches of fresh snow to work with. We hunted hard all day, and were surprised just how many hunters we were running into, and how hard it was to stalk herds of 500-1000 elk. With about 30 minutes of light left, we got onto a herd of about 500. They had been pushed hard from the west and north by two other groups (we could hear the numerous shots in the background). We were ridged out, and the elk were sitting right around 500 yards away. They didn't want to be where they were, and kept trying to run north and south. However, they knew the other hunters were there, and they never committed to any one direction, but they never stopped moving either. There was one bull (out of maybe 50?) that really stood out. Easily the nicest bull i had seen with a tag in my pocket in CO. He was very good about staying in the middle of the herd, never offering a clear shot. My buddy was constantly ranging him, but the calls never were closer than 475 on the big bull (other bulls were dabbling around the 400 yard mark). I was setup prone in the snow, using my pack for a front rest and my bino pack for a rear rest. Finally, the big bull cleared all the other elk and was standing broadside at 475. I had the safety off and was applying pressure to the trigger, but just couldn't quite hold steady enough to feel 100% confident in the shot. I'm sure the awkward angle/setup and laying in the snow for 15 minutes at that point didn't help. I was sure I would hit him at that distance, but I knew if he ran off there would be 500 tracks covering his and destroying any blood trail. There would also be no chance for a follow up shot with so many other elk around. The forecast was calling for more snow overnight, and we only had a few minutes of daylight left at that point. I just didn't feel comfortable in the follow up if the first shot wasn't perfect. So, I just enjoyed watching that big bull through my scope with the sun setting over him. During this time, a group of 200 elk broke off and were angling our way. We decided to back off the ridge we were on, and made a mad dash to close the distance on that band. When we topped the ridge again, the group of 200 was within 300 yards. I ended up shooting the nicest bull in that band (a solid 6 point) at 275 yards with just a minute or two left of legal light, and made a perfect shot with the bull not taking a step. I was really happy I traded what could have turned into a bad situation with the bigger bull for a slam dunk on a really nice bull. I will admit it was hard in the moment to not shoot the big bull at 475. I'm not planning to accumulate preference points in CO any more, so it may be a long time (if ever) that i'll have a bull of that caliber in my sights again. But, i'm happy i made the right decision.

I had a good Colorado 4th season rifle tag this past fall, a tag I've drawn before several times. I'd had a great fall season, taking an elk with my bow and getting to help my friends punch their moose, sheep, and goat tags. I went out solo for a few days just to get a few more days in the hills. I saw 20+ bucks, plenty of young ones, a few more mature but nothing crazy. I had lots of deer in the scope but never pulled the trigger, I was simply having too much fun checking out new little pockets of terrain I'd never been in and watching the deer to end the hunt...no regrets at all.

Last year my wife and I went on our first antelope hunt in Wyoming. I tagged out early and quickly focused my time on finding her a tag filler. We were in a tough unit, she was three months pregnant, and we had our three year old son with us. After a few days of blown stalks and hours waiting on antelope that wouldn't cross onto public, we found ourselves with a likely opportunity. We spotted a group of four bucks on private that we'd watched cross onto public the day before. We just weren't in the right spot the previous day. This time we had a good setup. All three of us stalked low and slow to a raised vantage point exactly 200 yards from where they had crossed the day before. She was comfortable, laying prone and ready to shoot. The antelope moved sooner than we had expected due to other hunters stopping their truck right in front of the private parcel. This was hidden to us at this point due to the topography. The antelope came down to the exact spot we'd hoped, and stopped in the lowest area. I ranged the largest buck at 206yds, completely stopped and broad side. My wife turned off the safety. As I heard the safety click, I saw two orange hats peek up over the hill, directly in line with the antelope we were targeting, albeit much higher elevation, but still in line. I quickly made her aware and we both knew there would be no shot. Then we sat there tensely, hoping that the hunters 400yds from us had made the same decision. Fortunately, that was the case. It made for a good learning/teaching experience for all of us. Including my son, who is very young but never too young to learn about safe handling of firearms.

MTGomer said:

In 2016 I missed a big ram in an unlimited unit the third day of the season.

At the end of September, a few weeks later, I was trying to get that opportunity again at the same ram. During my search I found another legal ram. Legal, good sized for his age, but only 6 years old. I thought about it for a little bit and decided to pass.

4 months later I won the <1 club Dall Sheep hunt at sheep show. Something I would have been ineligible had I killed that ram. And I still get to tromp through the Beartooth looking for an old ram, instead of dreaming about it for 7 years.

Best shot I never took.

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winner.....