I had a (long) shot at a buck and didn’t take it. Here’s why I don’t regret it

This is my fourth year bow hunting.

My first year, I got impatient and let an arrow fly when I shouldn’t have.

The buck was 32 yards, way out of what I ethically should have shot at that time. I had not shot my bow enough at that distance with great accuracy to shoot at an animal. My father-in-law came to help in the search for the deer. He thinks I just skimmed his underside. Not fatal, he thought.

We never found him. The sick-to-my stomach feeling sat with me all night and the next day.

I vowed to try to take more ethical shots. Fast forward to now. I feel much more proficient with my bow. However, I have set a limit of 30 yards for my kill range.

On Monday morning, this brute 10-pointer was crashing through the woods chasing a doe. They ran by around 60 yards away and then she doubled back with him chasing. He stopped dead when he saw my decoy.

He walked into this trench and popped up at 35 yards broadside on the other side of it. I told myself it was too far.

He scraped the ground a few times with his front leg and then shook his antlers in some of the grass before coming at a slight angle to the decoy and straight on at me. He then blew up the decoy before running off.

The place I hunt is good and I’m grateful to have it. The owners are incredibly nice. They help me hang my stands each year even though I tell them they don’t need to.

But, this isn’t a place where I have several huge bucks with multiple encounters each year. There are even fewer encounters since the owners got a depredation tag a couple years ago and drastically reduced the deer population. The deer were eating thousands of dollars of crops each year so I get it.

I don’t have 8.5-year-old deer that I’ve watched grow up.

Usually, there are only a couple really good bucks. By really good, to me, I mean from 2.5-4.5 (maybe 5.5) years old.

This guy was the dominant buck and on that upper age limit.

I think I will be more confident next year to let it go at that distance. But, I also think that is the upper limit of what any compound bow hunter should fire.

I’ve seen a video where a bow hunter said how he accounted for the deer dropping when he fired a 60-yard shot.

Yeah, right.

There is too much time for deer to react the further that arrow has to go.

Maybe I could have grunted when he approached my decoy. Maybe that would have stopped him and given me a shot. Maybe it wouldn’t have worked at all.

Either way, it was a cool experience watching a buck annihilate a decoy. He broke one of the plastic antlers, but I think it can be glued.

I had another opportunity at a good buck on Tuesday morning, but got caught off guard when he popped up. Again, I never got a shot off.

Wednesday morning was pretty quiet where I hunt. I think my scent factored into that. The wind kept shifting, going from south to east, with east blowing right toward their bedding area.

There will be other chances, whether this year or next.

So, for now, I am content with my decision and just thankful for a place to watch one of the coolest events in nature unfold — the rut.

— Michael Stavola

Photos from Eagle staff

Chance Swaim took this week off work to hunt. As of Thursday morning, he still had a buck tag. Here are some photo he and Eagle photographer Travis Heying took this week:

Breaded venison bites

My wife had grown up eating ground venison, thinking it was ground beef. But she had never knowingly eaten deer steak. She was hesitant when I tried to make it for her so I decided to go with a recipe I found at Allrecipes that I thought she would like. She was a fan. The full recipe can be found at shorturl.at/hGJMQ.

• Cut 1 pound of tenderloin or the backstrap into small squares. Coat lightly with an oil of choice and then salt and pepper to taste.
• Heat some extra-virgin olive oil in a pan and add garlic (can be freshly minced or from jar). It’s up to you how much garlic to use. I come from a family where there is no such thing as too much garlic. The recipe calls for three cloves, which seems not nearly to be enough. Cook on medium or medium low until garlic is fragrant. You want to infuse the garlic taste into the oil. That should only take a few minutes once the oil is heated up.
• In a bowl, combine 1.5 cups of Italian bread crumbs and 0.5 cups of Parmesan cheese (freshly grated Parmesan cheese is preferred but either will work). Add in the garlic and oil. Stir the mixture.
• Take the cut venison and press it into the bread crumbs. It doesn’t need to coat every spot but try to get as much as possible.
• Cook in the oven on broil. I try to flip one time once the top gets a golden brown. Cook to desired temperature.
• Squeeze some lemon juice on top and serve.

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This story was originally published November 16, 2023 at 2:23 PM.