The Very Same Buck!

It was sometime in the mid 40's when an uncle of mine, an excitable sort, shot at and dropped an immense buck. Being a most law abiding type he immediately applied the metal locking tag required to be so affixed to the bucks antler. As he "whewed" and tried to stop his shaking (buckfever) all of a sudden the buck shot up and took off into the swamp. Apparently bucko had only been knocked out by the bullet. My uncle sat there dazed and dumbfounded! Vowing to get him he continued the hunt that year but the wiley buck eluded uncle's quest.
The following season uncle returned to the very spot of the previous years activity, found a cozy stump to sit near and settled down to wait. It wasn't much more than an hour when along came an immense form of the buck through the brush. Could it be the one he dealt with last year? Uncle took care to take good aim and fired. The buck dropped in its tracks! Uncle carefully approached ready to blast again if necessary and then dropped down to count the points on the rack! But what should he notice? The metal tag from last year was still affixed and proved to all that this big one got away once but not twice!