This story gets graphic. If you're squeamish or have Anti-hunting tendencies, don't read any further.
About 10 years ago, we rented a basement apartment in a town that was positively infested with deer.
I called the owner and asked him if I could hunt behind the house. Sure, no problem, he said, just don't let my daughter see you (she's two house up) because she's seriously anti.
No problem.
After trying a few other places, I find this perfect (location) tree, which just happens to be maybe 200 yards behind her house. It's like 15 yards from a heavily traveled trail, with a thick branch hiding me from approaching deer.
The only trouble was that it had a wide trunk that split about 4 feet up, so I had to put my climber way up high and climb into it before I could get going up. Not that big of a deal for a perfect spot.
First day, I get myself up in the tree and wait... not 15 minutes later, this HUUUGE doe comes down a trail that tees on my trail. Sure enough, she picks my trail. Walks slowly toward me. She goes behind some brush, I draw my bow, she steps out, looks the other way and stops.
How perfect is this? It's like what dreams are made of, or would be if she was a 10-point.
Take a deep breathe, aim carefully and the release lets go.
WHACK! and she... drops on the spot. Oh crap. I've been down this road before. Sure enough, within moments, she is on her front legs and trying to crawl away. Oh, she's not just crawling, she BELLOWING like a calf. Yeah, 200 yards from this anti-hunter girls house. Within seconds, the girls dog is going nuts.
I can't figure out what happened. Everything was perfect. I grab another arrow, she's still broadside, so I let it fly. It hits a tree, about half way to her and several inches high and right. I just figure I'm in a panic and screwed up. So, I grab my
last arrow, tell myself to calm down, take some deep breathes, aim and fire. This arrow hits about 1/8" from the other one in the tree. Obviously, something is wrong with my bow.
The deer is still bellowing, the dog is still going nuts and now I'm really thinking I'm in trouble. I need to get down and get one of those arrows. I get myself turned around, climb down about 2 steps and the bottom of my tree stand drops out from under me, all the way to the split in the trunk. Yeah, I forgot to tether the top and bottom.
So, here I sit on the top section of my stand, a solid 15 feet off the ground, with no obvious way down, no phone, this deer REALLY freakin' going nuts now that she sees me and the dog going extra special berserk.
I figure the only way down is to shimmy down the other half of the tree. I lean over, just about get my arms wrapped around it and the TOP half of my stand falls, with my bow attached to it which lands on the bottom half of the stand and the top crashes down on top of the bow. Now, I'm hanging 15 feet in the air with my arms wrapped around the tree. Let me tell you, shimming down a tree while trying to loosen and retighten a safety strap is NOT going to happen. I had to loosen the strap and just slide down the tree. That does bad things to the skin on your arms.
Anyway, I get to the ground and, as you might imagine, the deer is no more pleased with the scene that she was prior. She's flopping and spinning in circles and bellowing. I swear it got louder every time.
I lift up my stand, grab my bow and try to pull one of the arrows out of the tree. That's not happening, they're buried. Fortunately, I see the first arrow has come out of the deer, I grab it, go to put it on the bow and realize that my rest was destroyed by the fall. There'll be no shooting this deer.
Well, you can imagine what needs to be done. Many of you have had to do it for one reason or another. I pull my knife, grab her by the ear and do the deed. Of course, it's disgusting, she makes horrid sounds and there's blood all down my hand and arm. I don't want to watch the rest, so I figure I'll go get the stand out of the tree and she'll be done before I am.
I get all set, pack everything up, look over and.... here she sits, like she's bedded down for the night and nothing has happened, just looking at me. Are you kidding me right now?! How the....
So, I have to stab her AGAIN. Same nastiness, but this time at least she dies.
As you can imagine, I want out of there NOW. No way am I gutting her right there. I'm tired and pretty angry (for any number of obvious reasons), still packing 50 pounds of gear and this doe is, as I said, HUUUGE. Biggest or second biggest doe I've ever shot. Certainly pushing 180+ (if not 200) dead weight. I got her out to where I could gut her without any further catastrophe though.
That one certainly qualifies as a crazy kill.