Column by Dan Geddings: The wide one

My friend Shannon has missed a couple of bucks in the last week. He's a good hunter and a good shot, but it just happens sometimes. I've missed a few myself. One was a magnificent buck.

A few years ago, my brother Matt encountered a big buck when he was walking in to hunt a stand. Matt told me the buck was the biggest he had ever seen, with a very wide rack. I knew that Matt wasn't lying, but I figured he might have been exaggerating when he said the buck's antlers were probably 24 inches wide.

I hunted the stand a few times in early November without seeing anything. I tried not to overhunt the stand and would only go when the wind was right. One afternoon I eased down into the woods and got settled into the stand about two hours before dark. It was a quiet afternoon with only the squirrels to keep me company for a while.

About sundown, I thought I could hear some deer moving in from my right. Sure enough, two does came in and started to feed in a little opening about 40 yards away. Three more does tipped in. With five does feeding so close, I had to hold very still. Even though I was fully camouflaged, one of the old does spotted me up in the stand.

The wind was in my face, so I just kept very still while the old doe stomped her foot and stared at me. Her behavior made the other deer nervous, but they didn't leave. Finally, the old doe walked off into the pines. The other deer had not seen me, and they went back to feeding. I eased my binoculars up just to look at them, and two of the does moved off, leaving two behind. While I was looking through the binoculars, I saw a big deer in the background go through my field of vision. It was a very big buck, and he was coming in. I put the binoculars down and grabbed my rifle.

The buck came in with no hesitation. He must have assumed it was safe with the does there. The last two does ran off when he came into the opening. This was the biggest deer I had ever seen. It was the wide one, and I knew Matt had not been exaggerating. I started shaking like a little kid with a bad case of buck fever. I knew that I would have to calm down and get control of myself if I was going to shoot this deer. I didn't know how many points he had, but I knew it was a world-class deer.

It was late and starting to get dark, fast. I didn't have long to act. The buck was facing me, so I couldn't move. Finally, he put his head down, but he was still angled toward me. Slowly, I raised my rifle and found him in the scope, but I had no shot. My mind was racing with thoughts. "Will I get a shot at this deer? It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and I can't mess this up." Again, I had to consciously make myself calm down.

The buck shifted around a little, and I thought, "this is it." I put the crosshairs on him and squeezed the trigger. At the shot, he just wheeled around and ran back through the pines. I was stunned. Had I missed him? At 40 yards! He showed no signs of being hit. I couldn't believe it. How was it possible to miss a deer like that? I got down from the stand and walked to the clearing. I found no blood, no hair, no nothing.

It was getting dark, so I walked out to my truck to get a flashlight and my phone. I called Matt and told him about what happened. We decided to come back the next day to look for signs in the daylight. We spent most of the day looking, and considering the excitement, the angle and the offhand shot, we concluded I must have missed the buck. I was just sick about it.

For some reason, it didn't occur to me to check my rifle. But that was a big mistake, as I found out a few days later.

Reach Dan Geddings at cdgeddings@gmail.com.