Moment before a shot, YOUR FAVORITE

[BiG Boar]

What is your most memorable moment before a shot? Describe....

As hunters we all like shooting, and we all like harvesting. Most don't enjoy killing.... Myself included. I hate to see an animal suffer. However, just before the shot, after the stalk, as you're lining things up, what is the most memorable hunt in your mind.

My best ever moment was seeing a roosevelt elks' red antlers at 20 yards. I could see it heaving with every breath as I climbed over the top of a cliff with my bow in hand. Slowly it stood up as it caught my wind, and I drew my bow and put my pin just behind the front leg.

If I could relive one moment, that would be it.

[BCBear]

It's usually the same feeling for me knowing that it's just him and me with nobody else around. Should I do it?

[vortex hunter]

Droping my first buck with my old 45/70 with open sights

[The Dude]

My favourite moments are having them in the crosshairs, and lettin' em go to grow bigger. :D

[The Silent Stalker]

My first bull moose. I was all alone, had been out all morning, when I was looking off one side of an over-grown road. I heard some bushes crashing behind me, I spun around to see a big bull running through the bush at 50yrds. Before I knew what to do, he just stopped and turned broadside and stared at me. It was a very relaxed and slow feeling moment. I lifted my rifle, aimed and squeezed the trigger off, he dropped. I shoot a 7mm rem mag and it was the first time I can say I remember no flinch, or after shock, I watched him drop through my scope like it was a steady window. My greatest moment hunting yet.

[proguide66]

The rosie story was a gooder!
I remember my first kill , 5X4 book blacktail(go figure)..sneekers , red plaid shirt , black 'CAT' hat , snuck to 15 yrds and smoked him..arrow...shitting myself , everything went slow motion , including the memory...wish I could re live that one at the same age...

[beeker]

I remember my first bull moose. I had a November leh and it was day #2. Day one, we were onto a moose but things didn't pan our. On day 2 we had a plan that I was gonna hike into an old tree stand / blind. My partners dropped me off and I began my hike in with an old wooden chair that I was going to take into the stand. I was only a couple hundred yards into my hunt when the chair I was carrying snagged a bush and spooked up a couple moose. I could hear that I was in between the 2 of them so I let out my most desperate cow call. It was only a couple seconds later when I saw the morning sun reflecting off of some moose antlers in the second growth. It was at that point where everything seemed to come together and it seemed like time just stood still while I took a knee and placed a perfect shot to drop my first moose.

[hunter1947]

For me I want to make a perfect shot and the animal to have no pain when I take the animal the one animal that tops all is the first animal I took with my rifle the animal was a Vancouver island Columbia deer a spiker :).

[BlacktailStalker]

My best moments come without knowing if i'll get a shot or want one...
Getting in close on a worked up bull elk listening to the sounds they make that you can't hear outside 40 yards is pretty awesome.
Walking in to the base of a tree, where it is likely nobody else has ever been, or will ever go, to look up at what started as a bark or track on the ground, and see one of the most secretive animals alive, A big Tom, with three of your best friends below that just unraveled his travels telling you all about it as you listened to their story, is absolute tops.

When I find a good ram I'll probably have a better before the shot moment.

[Ride Red]

I'm at home in the bush with a lot of memories. Personally, I love the stalk as it gives me an extreme high, pulling the trigger is just a bonus. But, my absolute proudest and fondest moments were watching my boys setting up on their first mule deer. I'll never forget their faces, excitement and how well composed they were in the whole process. I think Dad had more jitters than the boys.

[fearnodeer]

My favourite moments are having them in the crosshairs, and lettin' em go to grow bigger. :D

Got to agree with ya Dude its a great feeling knowing you could have but decided it was that animals lucky day for what ever reason.

[000buck]

Was on a trail between 2 slashes and a momma deer and her younguns paused to have a chat with me at about .... 1 meter. She was just stood looking straight at me an arms length away. I talked she listened, seemed like 10 mins was more like 90 seconds, but she just stepped on to the trail and walked around me and they dissappeared into the bush on the other side. ... Things that make ya go huh.

[redneckmedic]

Had a similar expierience with a cow moose, she stood less than 30 yards away and all I did was talk to her for close to 3 minutes she just stood and listened was absolutely amazing, I did check extensively for spikes before beginning to talk though ;)

[butcher]

For me it's the moment just before I shoot at a big ram, when I say a little prayer, close my eyes, turn my head and yank the trigger.

[Weatherby Fan]

Was hunting Mule Deer area 3 late season,3-4 inches of fresh powder..........perfect conditions,working my way through the jack pines back to the truck at dusk,light snow falling,I look to my left downhill and about 20 yards away is an opening about 6 feet across looks to be an ear sticking out on the right side of the opening,glasses up sure enough its a doe so I sit down look through my scope blow a cpl times and out she steps,she looks at me then to her right back at me then to her right.............must be another deer I strain to see what shes looking at............nothing
I blow a cpl more times and all of a sudden a mass of antlers tips out from the left side of the opening looks at me and quickly pulls his head back behind the tree's.........whow this things a huge non typical.......again I'm looking through my scope in the trees and I finally make out his throat patch face and antlers,

a quick shot in the throat patch and he drops like a stone.......I walk over to him and sure enough he's a very heavy 4 point with a bunch of little sticker points not the huge Non Typical as I first thought but a very nice Buck just the same,the reason I mention this as at 20 yards he held and I tricked him into looking at me........this is the one of most memorable deer I have shot and will never forget that rush of excitement when he stuck his head out from behind the tree.

WF

[cariboo crawler]

My hunting partner spotted a nice four point muley from the other side of the valley. It was way beyond reach so we decided to check it out later in the morning . There was lots of good sign that he was hangin' around here so I decided to come back in the late afternoon , find a good viewing spot and lay low for a while.
I came in to the big clearcut from the opposite side to where we had seen him and took a seat in some low brush . After about 30 minutes I'm looking around and I see him standing on a knoll in the same area as I came in. He is not aware of me so I slowly line him up from the top of a log I was partially hiding behind . Now this was my first animal with a 300WM I had always used a 270 Husky . the animal was about 275 + yards from me and I don't usually make shots that far out with my 270 , never had to really. Anyway I had been practicing with this new rifle and figured , hey I can do this. I put the crosshairs just behind is front leg and squeezed. He jumped and disappeared out of view. I got up went over to where I had shot him and sure enough he was laying about 10yds from where he was standing . I cleaned him out and noticed I had taken approx 1/2 his heart off along with lungs .
Felt pretty good about the whole thing . I use the 300WM pretty well all the time now .
The antlers are mounted on my hunting partners cabin.

[RENO]

X Bow hunting, fall day, sight overcast, wind slightly rustling the trees and smell of fall in the air, You know it's that time of year I call it "Sells Like Hunting Time". anyway I was set up on the side of a slope in some undergrowth when out of nowhere, and silent comes this buck doesn't catch my sent or notice me at all, as he approaches at a 45 degree angle he stops, feeds a bit, still chewing he turns and looks straight at me, and our eyes connect, my heart was pounding so loud I thought, the sound would scare it away, I put my sight on him behind the front leg, and released,he stood there ,it seemed for ever..... the buck heaved his body upward and then started to walk away, I'm thinking I missed as I looked again ge began wobbling and fell over. It was a heart shot, the animal dropped 10 feet away. it was my biggest buck ! I'll never forget it.

[.330 Dakota]

Watching and instructing my 13 yr old daughter squeeze off her 1st and killing shot on her 1st deer at just over 200yds. Seeing the surprise on her face as the deer hit the turf instantly. Listening to her yell "I hit it Dad" and tossing it in the truck after.

[Caveman]

I've have, as I'm sure many of you have, had many close encounters with game that I may have shot or may have let walk. Two stand out very clearly in my mind because of the adrenaline of the moment. The first was being stalked by a big tom cougar and turning around at just the right moment to realize that at 15 ft. it was either me or him. The second would have to be bugling in my first big bull elk. After a bugle and a moment of silence, the pounding in my chest when he vigorously raked a 12 ft evergreen from about 100 yrds and then came right in on me. There are many others but these two have to be the best. Game and predator, or Predator and predator, both aware of the others presence, the outcome uncertain, about to unfold in a matter of seconds.

[BromBones]

close my eyes, turn my head and yank the trigger.

:mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen:

[RENO]

Watching and instructing my 13 yr old daughter squeeze off her 1st and killing shot on her 1st deer at just over 200yds. Seeing the surprise on her face as the deer hit the turf instantly. Listening to her yell "I hit it Dad" and tossing it in the truck after.
that's a great story, reminds me of my first reaction hunting with my Dad. nice to have kids you can share with.

[.330 Dakota]

that's a great story, reminds me of my first reaction hunting with my Dad. nice to have kids you can share with.

Makes it all worth while

[RENO]

Makes it all worth while

exactly, right on friend, I think to bad allot of kids minds aren't positively open to outdoors, and fresh air, get off the xbox, take your kids out,bond, and stop closing wilderness area's to build stupid ski hills, and giving clear cut
contracts to these company's that block the outdoors in these areas to hunting ect, this is a free country and large and the kids should have every opportunity to experience all there is. I'm glad I did and do and they should all have the same as well.

[Kirby]

2005 my BC book mulie. Me, him, 27 yards and the minutes it took before he stood.

[BCBRAD]

When the sight picture is right the rifle goes off, not really a conscious thing on my part. The leading up to the shot 'the hunt' is vividly remembered after the shot 'harvest' is remembered but the actual killing part quickly fades from memory.

[killman]

I remember like it was yesterday. Sat my Beer on the dash........rolled down the window.......

























Just kiddin..:mrgreen:

[Tikka270wsm]

For me it was an Island Blacktail I shot a few years back. He was bedded in the thick timber about 50-60 yrds from the old road I was walking and all I could see were his antlers. I remember walking right by him thinking his antlers were just dead branches as it was thick as hell. I doubled back and "Holy shit!" those are antlers. I put a grunt call in my mouth, got my 30/30 ready, let out a grunt and let the call fall to the ground. When the buck stood up he was staring strait at me and I shot him right in the throat patch.

[bcmulie]

September 3, 2000. I was hunting muleys in the alpine in Region 3. There had been about an inch of fresh snow overnight, and at around 9 am I cut the tracks of a buck and a doe moving from the alpine down into the scrub timber. I followed the tracks for about 100 yards and then cut left around a gully when the tracks went right, figuring that I might be able to spot the deer from the other side of the gully. I snuck around a clump of trees and looked across into an open clearing. About 150 yards away there was a huge muley standing in the snow, broadside to me. I remember thinking that it looked like an image out of Outdoor Life magazine. There are a lot of images that I've seen hunting over the years, but that one, more than any other, has stuck with me.

bcmulie

[IronNoggin]

And sometimes those moments come along even when shooting is not involved...

Few years back I was hunting up-Island for blacktails with a Buddy. One evening I happened across the head of a valley that had been logged ~ 2 years previous. The deer sign was INSANE in the head of that valley, so I made a good mental note of just how to sneak in there in the dark the next morning as I made my way out.

Next morning, I got to "The Spot" just as the sky started to lighten. Sat for a spell, then began to tiptoe along the higher crest of the valley. HEARD something moving below me, sounded like jaws chomping away on forage. My heart was hammering so loud I strongly suspected whatever was below me would certainly hear that and spook! Ever so slowly I crept up, then even slower began to raise my peepers over the egde. At first I didn't understand what those huge old "trees" were, right there in front of me, less than 20 yards off. then... realization! Antlers! HUGE Antlers! HUGE ELK Antlers!! The bull was so close now I could hear his every breath. he was completely unaware of my presence, as was the 9 cows that feed below and up the canyon from him. Every hair on my body was standing at Full Red Alert as I watched in stunned silence! With no tag in hand, there was of course no other possible choice. I sat there for almost 20 minutes as the herd slowly fed down the canyon and out of sight. Wasn't until they had vanished and I stood to survey the area for deer I realized I was actually trembling with excitement!!

Shot more than a few elk over my span. Sneaked right in close on many occasions. But the picture of that 9x9 bull feeding at <20 yards in the grey and misty morning fills my head with such clarity as to have been but mere moments ago!!

And forevermore I am doomed to applying for the well over-subscribed tag in that area!! One day I hope!! And sincerely hope one of that Giant's offspring will meet me at the head of that, or a similar canyon...

Cheers,
Nog

[kyleklassen]

the best is when your buddy is just gonna squeeze off a shot and you honk the horn....ohhhh man that gets me everytime...always a crowd pleaser.

[BearStump]

Destroyed my first mulie from 15 yds with my. 300 win mag. It was a spike buck and I did'nt want it to turn and charge. You know how deadly an injured spike buck can be, they can cover ground fast. So I took the double front shoulder shot and it lifted the buck off his feet and it kind of resembled a 10 yr old girl getting tackled by an nfl linebacker.
As stupid as this story sounds.....it was my first buck about 10 yrs ago and I'll never forget the excitement and joy that I felt.

[waistdeep]

No shooting but still a serious memory:

Years ago on the first trip with Marlin375 we drove all night to a late season LEH Elk hunt area. It was a full moon, cold and snow was covering everything. We drove past Radium into a honey hole our third hunting partner "Dead Eye Tim" knew of, as we drove in on the snowy road to the camp, we saw no tracks in the fresh snow so we joked that we would come all this way to find no Elk. Ol Dead Eye commented, "just around this bend across this creek you will see them". Beautiful full moon, no clouds and fresh snow as we came around a corner off to the right 25 yards was the biggest bull elk this flat lander had ever seen silhouetted on a slight rise with a moon in the background. We stopped the Blazer and watched a herd of 40 Elk as they grazed in the snow and watched the exhaust through thier nostrils on that cold night. Man that was awesome.

It was my first BC hunt as a Praire boy so Welcome to BC was etched on my mind.

[r106]

mine has to be my first harvest. Last spring hunting Black Bear. I saw a bear 600 yards away down a pipe line. I sneaked in to were I thought I saw him and no bear. I got down on one knee and listened and heard nothing. Then he walks out in front of me 30 yards away and we lock eye's for a second and as he stood broadside I squeezed the trigger. One bullet through the shoulders and he hit the dirt no more than 20-30 yards and one more through the lungs just to make sure.

[835]

There all pretty exciting. I still get jazzed evertime i get to pull the trigger. Once my mind has decided it is time, a flood of consequences goes into my head.
Once i figure out how to eliminate the bad consequences its 3 lbs to death.

The whole point i hunt happens in those moments, and when that time goes away,,,,,,,,,, Well ill still hunt of course.

[1980skywalker]

2 years ago we headed up for my first LEH bull moose hunt, we had just arrived after a 20hr drive through the night and had to paddle the canoe loaded with our gear across the lake to the cabin. The sun was at our back and the wind in our face and although my buddies had advised me to leave my gun onshore, (the canoe was so stuffed with gear it was ready to capsize), I insisted on taking it just in case. It was about a 4 mile paddle and a mile in we spotted a moose moving quickly along the shoreline away from us a very long way away. I looked at my buddy and simply told him to paddle like his life depended on it, we were exhausted but adrenaline had taken over. As we drew closer we realized it was a bull and the adrenaline surged, 100yds and I told my buddy to duck. I leaned forward and rested my rifle on our gear, exhaled and pulled the trigger... nothing. I cycled the action and jacked another round into the chamber and the bull took off running, he had heard us and my heart sank. Being my first moose hunt I had been listening to a moose hunting cd the whole way up and suddenly I heard the of the narrator in my head, 'sometimes a quick grunt will stop a moose in his tracks and you might get another shot.' I grunted and with one foot already in the timber the bull turned his head in curiousity towards us. Once again my buddy leaned away from the shot I raised the rifle, pulled the trigger and he dropped on the spot! Our moose hunting careers had officially begun and within the first hour we had a bull on the ground, WHAT A RUSH!

[Flin Flon]

Mine was many years ago but like so many others it seems like yesterday. I had just met up with my Dad after checking out a couple of dry swamps. We drove maybe 50 yards and we see a young bull moose crossing the road just around the bend then disappearing out of our site. We both go "antlers" I reach to turn the truck off and Pop reaches for my hand saying no leave it running then tells me to get out and walk behind the truck he would drive until we see it again. I get out and walk behind the truck. I start thinking this can't be what he mean't I can't see anything here so I go down the side until I'm even with the passanger window. Ya that's better. As we start to go around the bend I see him standing there looking straight at me. Pop stop the truck, Pop stop the truck, POP STOP THE F*+#ING TRUCK. (he couldn't see the moose)I have the cross hairs right between his front legs and can clearly see he's sporting Bone. I'm just about to pull the trigger and Dad say's "does he have horns" I put my gun down and raise my binos "yes he does" again I raise the rifle and just as I'm about to shot he turns his head. I raise the rifle (insert here were Pop has told me a 100 times never go for the head you could miss the brain and they could run for miles) and pull the trigger. The next time I see that moose all four legs are pointing to the heavens. I out run the truck to my first big kill. The bullet went through the brain and one leg is still twitching and I'm bouncing up and down when Pop gets there and I'm asking him repeatedly should I shot it again. He calmly answers "you can if you want to" Anyways that was my first and I think my heart rate has gone up again so I better go lay down for awhile.

[srupp]

hmmm 2009 laying over a rock with 11 stone rams feeding I had choosen "mine to attempt " over the past couple hours..leaning over the large rock..repeatadly ranging the distance 318 yards...was pretty pumped..it boiled down to 1 shot..no such on a second on this one..318 yards exactly...all came out well...

steven

[bosca]

I was about 20 years old and this was probably my 4th or 5th buck...The memorable part was that it was the first time I actually applied some strategy. I spotted a big 3x3 about 1km away 1/2 way up a hill side. I decided the only way I stood a chance of getting a shot at him was to get above him. I picked out my route up a draw and over to ledge about 40 yards above the buck. Long story short...about 30 minutes later I peak over the ledge and to my disbelief their he is bedded down looking down hill in the direction I had come from. The rest, as they say, is history.
Up to that day my hunts were mostly just being in the right place at the right time and the deer had usually spotted me before I spotted them...they were just to young to know any better. Since that day I have been hooked on the 'stalk'. I felt pretty cocky after that hunt but I have since been humbled by many a old Wiley bucks but also had many more memorable successes......I suppose every hunt is a success when you think about it.

[matt420]

i love the rush you get when you have an animal in your sights, nothing else like it and no pill to cure it, but my favortie so far was my first 4 point mule, i was all by myself and seen him in a clearing about 125 yards feeding with his head down and when i noticed the back splits i pulled the trigger thinking it was going to be my first 3 point (it was any buck season) and when i walked up to him he was a 4x3

[Deer_Slayer]

A big black bear I shot up near Golden BC. Was a perfect spring morning and just getting warm when this beast walked out into a clearing and started feeding on dandy lions. I raised my rifle and watched him through scope waiting for right shot. Bear was about 75 yards away. I remember getting steady and slowly squeezing trigger and hitting the boar right perfect in the heart lung area, using my trusty Winchester Model 70 30:06 180 grainers. That bear stood up and yelled and screamed then tore the living shit out of everything close to it for a good 2-3 minutes and I got carried away watching instead of pumping another round into the bear. I got a hold of myself and pounded another round into the beasts chest as it rose again swatting and roaring and bellowing. This shot knocked the bear ass over tea kettle backwards, yet it still rolled on the ground tearing a big hole in the grass. I ran up closer and placed one more shot into the spine behind the head and this killed the bear. While gutting I saw that the heart and lungs were totally gone and the 2nd shot had gone thru chest and broken the shoulder, 3rd shot well it broke spine. I never forget this hunt and can still see it after almost 20 years. Oh and bear skinned out at 6'8" and probably weighed about 450 lbs.

[Rodd]

Mine would have be the Tom Cat in my avatar... at the time I was 19, and this was the first big Cat I had ever walked up to at the time.. I was solo on this hunt, and when i arrived near the tree, I was amazed at how big that kitty was for real! and it was only 12ft up in a Fir tree perched on the first set of limbs.. It looked friggen huge! I was nervous about even approaching the tree, let alone getting the dogs under control... As my Father had told me "Do Not Shoot until the dogs are tied up!" So the dogs were at the base of the tree, and the cat was 12ft up, they could nearly jump up high enough to bite the tail, and the tom would take a swat at them occaisionally.. So I loaded the 308 norma, and approached with the Rifle pointed at the cat, and retreived the dogs... Now all that was left was to kill the big Tom.. Simple.. Then I thought I have time, so enjoy the moment.. And that I did for all of maybe 90seconds... then I plugged him.. It was a cool 90 seconds watching the Cat, and admiring his size, and beauty... That was my best 90seconds before shooting ever!!! Loved it! And solo to boot..

[anglo-saxon]

close my eyes, turn my head and yank the trigger.

So you don't actually hit anyhting, then? :-)

[anglo-saxon]

The moment before the shot is never memorable for me as I completely "zone". I guess it's my military training, but I am singularly focused on the "target" and everything else just seems to happen. It's like an out-of-body experience, almost. All I know is there is a switch from the 360-degree hyper-awareness of the hunt, to the forward-focus of the stalk and then the concentration on the target. I suppose I miss out on some of the more aesthetic pleasantries of the experience, but that's the price I pay for being a soldier way longer than I've been a hunter. Oh, well...it seems to work.

[SimilkameenSlayer]

for me, a sense of wounder and thankfulness, before and after a kill.