I once killed 2 whitetail bucks with one bullet hunting a friend's ranch in eastern CO. One was directly behind the other and I never even knew it was there until I walked up to them. First deer didn't stop the 7mm bullet but the 2nd one did. CO is a one buck state so the second buck was definitely the "wrong deer." Luckily my father was along on that trip and he had a license so he tagged the other buck. Don't know how it would have panned out if Pop wasn't there.

yes

Yes, like some others watching a group of doe pick the biggest only to find it was a button buck. Gutted, now I double check, triple check to make sure it’s a doe.

I was guiding an axis hunt once that turned into one of the most awkward days of my life. We were going after a specific, 35 inch plus axis. It was a toad. Mid-morning, a group of axis came to the alfalfa I had set out. Mr. big was in the group along with some young, 18-20-inch bucks. I was calming down my hunter, talking to him about shot placement, getting him to breathe a little and chill out before shooting. I very explicitly described every movement of the deer while he looked at him in through the scope at 120 yards for a few minutes. Do you see him, he just turned broadside, facing left, just picked up his head, got him? Oh yeah, said my guy. Ok, take the shot. Boom, little buck two feet over facing the other direction drops like a sack of potatoes. He was so happy! I was like WTF did you just do? The guy was friends with the ranch owner but was still paying. After a very huge buildup followed by an even bigger let down, we loaded up his buck and went in. The hunter and owner got into a pretty heated argument over price. I still have no clue how this guy shot the wrong friggin axis.

About 10 years ago I had literally just gotten in my blind opened the window and there was a wide 8 point with his butt facing me chasing a doe right in front of the fence line leaving the property.
Chambered a round in a split second and had the cross hairs on its back hoping it would turn a little and give me a shot, well it did and I took the shot, it dropped like a rock into the fence.

As I got closer it became obvious that it was not a mature deer, turns out it was a very young max 3 year old stud 8 pointer with an 18" inside spread, I felt terrible for quite awhile after that.

Sure, done the button buck thing.

Also done the "basket 8 who was standing by a mature 10 point" thing.

Also done the "damn I thought that was a bigger and more mature buck" thing.

I hunted alone a lot from a very young age, so at some point I checked all the boxes. Hopefully behind me now. Seen lots of others do it (esp the butotn buck thing). Eat it, appreciate it, learn from it.

i shot one one time when i was sitting with my son. Son was actually in the shooting chair and was trying to take a shot on this older/management 7pt. It wasn't his first deer but he was still on the newer side of experience. I had told him to let the deer get good broadside but i guess he got excited and ended up taking the shot quartering pretty strongly at us. i could tell he hit the deer but not how well. deer ran. as i sat there a sec just sorta taking it in i saw a deer start to cross the next sendero over and somehow in my mind i just knew it was same deer. (how i dunno). just seemed right. i got my son to slide the rifle over which was still out the window and i quickly racked a new round and took a followup shot just before deer went into brush. after i took that shot i started to seriously question how sure i was about it being the same deer. luck was on my side though. we went down there and found him and it was the same buck. and though the first shot was not great the deer was bleeding substantially and the follow up was maybe not necessary. i don't regret it though. i'm just glad it was the right one.

I can tell one that I've heard a thousand times. He & his buddies were hunting on a lease in northern Burnet county, back in the 50s when you were allowed 2 bucks and 1 doe (if the LO gave you a doe permit). This place was over run with a bunch of 6 point bucks. Dad & a buddy were paralleling walking thru the pasture when a 6 point jumped up from behind some cactus. dad shot and the deer dropped, a few seconds later the 6 point got up again, dad shot it again and down it went. a few seconds later it jumped up again, so he shot again and down it went, a few seconds later it jumped up again, so he shot it again but this time it ran into the brush. Dad was a heck of a marksman and he was thinking he had bumped his scope. They walked down to find 3 almost identical 6 point bucks behind the pile of cactus with a blood trail leading into the brush, that they recovered. I grew up hunting with this same group of guys, so I heard it from all of them at some point over the next 15-20 years.

Yep, I told my son to shoot the deer that the little 6pt was sniffing and trailing, it has to be a doe. So, he dropped it. Everything scattered and there were 2 deer that stopped and looked back, so I grabbed the rifle and shot the bigger one. Both deer on the ground were button bucks...

"Ground shrinkage"

Maybe

My yet but still plenty of time to make that mistake.

On a side not I bet there are a few city folks who went on game ranch hunts as clients or whatever and shot the 250” buck instead of the 200” buck. I could see that happening easily if there were multiple huge deer together.

I was sitting in a box blind one foggy opening morning with my young nephew, and as the fog just began to lift it was still right at legal shooting hour.
I was going to harvest a doe for the freezer, and just then my nephew whispered look there's a doe. I leveled the cross hairs on the shoulder and squeezed off the shot and after the flash of flames I didn't see the deer but noticed a deer standing off to the right several yards just grazing without a care.
I figured I missed so I put the crosshairs on that doe and pulled the trigger once again, and this time I saw the doe flop on the ground right where she stood.
After getting down from the stand we walked over to the doe I just shot and then my Nephew says what about this other deer laying over here?
Filled two tags in a matter of seconds that morning!

Yeah, Sapper, I bet those would make for some interesting stories!

I guess you conveniently forgot about that illegal AR buck you shot on Erathkids place back in 2015, was that not a mistake?
You know the buck that Erathkid told me y'all measured together and it was only 11 3/4" Yet in our PM's to each other after that, you said it measured 12 7/8" and felt so terrible about shooting it that you wanted to turn yourself in to the game wardens but they talked you out of it. More

Yep you felt so terrible about shooting that illegal buck that you posted a proud picture of you and it together on this forum, interesting that your only picture of him was a side view of his antlers?
Soon after our fun pm conversation ended, you had that picture and thread deleted, wonder why?
BTW I emailed our pm conversation to myself and would be happy to refresh your memory with it if you like?

Also don't you find it ironic that you are calling out city folks Have you and your family ever lived out in the country, did y'all move from your Belton city residence to the country?

havent made a big mistake on a buck.. but I definitely shot a "wrong" doe a few years back...

I saw her coming up a dirt road that runs parallel to the blind I was sitting in about 200 yards away.. she only gave me a moment, turned broadside, and looked like she was going to head into the wood line.. so I took her..

there was a huge case of ground shrink when I approached.. she was very young.. I thought she was a more mature deer..

Shot a doe at 150 yards. She fell immedately. Waited some time and made the trek down there in the Taco to make for a quick retrieval. When pulling up, the durn thing miraculously came to life and sprang away in the somewhat low brush area around that feeder. I came to a full stop, grabbed my rifle and imediately saw the stupid deer pull up her head (was all I could see) at about 50-60 yards. I quickly made an off hand shot at that head and immediately was impressed with my superior shooting skill - knew it was for sure DRT.

Went to retrieve the mature doe regretting I would now have to maneuver through all those thorns. Got there and realized there wasn't going to be much of a problem. The deer on the ground was probably a fawn of the one originally wounded (never found her). I could easily pick it up with one hand.

Got back to camp where 4 year old Shiloh remarked, "there's a little deer just like me". My "friends" suggested I cut off her legs and pack her in an ice chest meant for a 12 pack.

Same. Twice, within about 15 minutes of each other. We were on a mission to clear out some does and I thought I'd done good by getting two of them. Nobody thought different until we got them up on the gambrel. I learned from it and have never made that mistake since.

I felt awful about it. Still do.

Shots Fired!

It is Return Fire from a previous comment from him