Yesterday morning I planned on hunting. I set my alarm, but the following morning it never went off. Luckily for me, my dad was going to work, and he knew I planned on hunting, so he shook me and said "hey aren't you going hunting"? I said yeah what time is is, and he told me it was 5:40. I said it's too late, I'm not gonna hunt. He said no it's still dark, so reluctantly I got ready as fast as I could. I got out there at about 5:47 A.M. I waited until I could see 30 yards, and then I rattled. No more than 2 minutes after I rattled, this buck came cruising in looking for a fight. I waited, and he went to a scrape by the lake about 50 yards from my stand. I though he was a goner. He circled around and came back presenting me with a bad shot. I got caught up in the moment, and I took it. I should have been patient and waited 30 more seconds. As he bounded off, I watched him stop about 60 yards from my stand. I got down, and made some phone calls. We went in about 7 hours after I shot him yesterday to look for my arrow. We couldn't find the arrow at the point of impact, and not a drop of blood anywhere. Finally just by chance, we found the arrow broken off at the top about 175 yards from where I shot him. After we found the arrow, we backed out. Yesterday night I called a guy named Wally who has two blood hounds, and I asked him to give me a hand with the track. He traveled 5 hours to help me come find him. I didn't get a wink of sleep last night. He called at 12:06 in the middle of the night to tell me he would be here around 11:00 with another guy named Adam. Around 11:30 he called and we went to get him. He followed us back, and introduced us to the dogs, and I had high hopes. I wasn't disappointed. We immediately went to where we found the arrow, so the dogs would be on a fresh track. He told me to let the dog smell the arrow, so I put it on the ground where we found it. The dog smelled it, and was instantly on the scent. He followed it for 25 yards to the lake, and the handlers looked at each other in disbelief. They said come look at this, he swam across the lake. They went around the lake and picked up his scent again. They went maybe another 30 yards, and there he was. He was stiff as a board. I couldn't believe it. These dogs took five minutes, and we were taking pictures. I originally thought I hit him in the brisket, but it turned out he was quartering more than I thought, and I hit him in the side. He is a buck we have hundreds of pictures of from the last two years, and I've never in 2 years of history, got a daylight picture of him. He was the dominant buck around. This deer is a main frame 8 with a sticker and a small drop time. He is my best archery buck to date and I couldn't be more proud of him. Though I recovered the deer, I learned a huge lesson. I won't ever attempt a shot like that again. It's been a season of highs and lows, and it's been a blast. I'm truly bless to be tagged out, and it's a surreal feeling.
At least it had a good ending. Congrats on the nice buck and good job backing out and going to the extreme of even having dogs come out. A guy i went hunting with on an island in the Mississippi didnt have the same luck. He hit guts liver and one lung. Shot through twigs. Horrible descision on the shot. Hired a bloodhound who tracked for 500yds after we tracked him 300. Looks like he attempted to swim back across the river. Never recovered. I wont hunt with him again because these were the words that came out of his mouth " i shot through some stuff but i wasnt about to let a buck that big come by me again and not shoot".... he had a giant the week b4 on video that he couldnt get a shot at. At least you admitted your mistake and said you learned from it.
YES!!!! So glad this ended well, congratulations young man...job well done finding that deer! Congrats to the dog handlers as well, hope you gave them a hearty thank you and a tip.
Congrats on doing the right thing, way too many give up way too fast or "pretend" they went back out. Too afraid of ruining their next hunt. I never would have guessed he would swim a pond. How deep is it? I thought he would be pretty close by tonwhere you found the busted arrow. Betting somewhere near that point is when he started his death run(swim). Congrats again and way to stick with it. Don't do it again
Sweet! Glad you found him and commend you for following up. Awesome buck with some lessons to make you a better bowhunter. Congrats.
