I could wax poetic and say all of the deer hunting clichés. Like how it was just good to be out there. Or how it sure beat working in the office for that particular day. Or the one I loathe the most: “That’s why they call it hunting.”
Let’s put all of those on the table right now in a straight flush. It still won’t take away the sting of the deer that could’ve been.
Most Memorable Deer Hunt
This hunt that now haunts happened a few years ago. I was in camp in my friends Jon Severson and Todd Seyfert of Feradyne Outdoors. They had graciously invited me to hunt some free-range (don’t know why I have to preface that, but there you go) axis deer in Texas. I’ve been blessed in this job to have experienced axis deer hunting once before, and let me tell you it is one of the most exciting deer hunts on the planet — and, dare I say, the best eating venison, too.
More prefacing: The axis deer is not native to North America. In fact, it is considered an invasive species on free-ranging grounds in Texas and Hawaii, but that doesn’t diminish the fact that these deer are incredibly fun to hunt (and eat).
So, anyway, back to the hunt. I’m nestled in a homemade ground blind that Severson constructed of mesquite brush and limbs a few days prior. It’s mid-June (yep, that’s when they hunt these things, because it coincides with the rut), and, well, it’s freaking hot. Daytime temps are in the 90s, but the axis deer are coming to the waterholes quite regularly.
The afternoon sun’s beating down on us as videographer Abigail Hehner and I position ourselves in adjacent hideouts.
The Most Wary Deer
Axis deer are so skittish in nature that seasoned hunters call the mature bucks “ghosts.” Some even go as far as saying that a mature axis buck is a “deer of 100 sits … or more.” What’s more, when they do show up, they invariably know they are being hunted (near ponds, feeders, etc.), so they usually keep their distance by remembering where the most human activity (blinds) is located. This means the buck typically shows up at the far reaches of shooting range. In the case of bowhunting, it’s typical to expect nothing less than a 40-yard shot.
Long story short, the crossbow is sighted dead-on at 50 yards. I’m ultra confident in the outcome.
Everyone else in camp notched a buck tag. Me? Well, this photo is all I got. If it looks like that behemoth is in my lap, that’s because it’s true. Fourteen steps to be exact. I’m not a mathematician, so I’ll let you determine the equation for shooting at a deer that’s 14 yards away when your first dot is sighted in for 4X that distance. And, no, the old bowhunting adage “just aim a little low” is not good shooting advice when you have a deer like that standing at 14 steps.
What happened?
To take a phrase from baseball commentator Dan Patrick … “And the whiff…”
Insert every crying emoji. Here.

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