Let's wrap up this week with my 3rd wounded buck thread, shall we? Back on 10/27 I shot a buck that I nicknamed "The Fridge". It was a textbook encounter. He came out an hour before dark, directly upwind of me, and had no idea I was there. I pointed the camera on him, drew, anchored, stopped him, 2nd guessed my yardage b/c I'm dumb, and then proceeded to totally blow the shot. He did drop a bit on release, but not horribly bad. I watched my arrow bury to the fletchings high and in front of his shoulder. To this day I really don't know happened other than I just pulled the shot. Chalk it up to buck fever I guess. As he tore off through the brush I already knew it was a lost cause. I've shot enough deer in my life to know when it's good and when it's bad, and this was bad. I turned the camera around to watch the footage back, hoping to see something that my eyes didn't. I stared down at the screen only to see the dreaded green "Standby" text instead of the red "Record". I wanted to puke. Or cry. Or crap my pants. Or all three I guess. The Fridge in all of his glory. I let him go overnight without even looking for my arrow. The next day Mike and I went out and spent over four hours trailing him for about 1.5 miles. Yes, miles. We had blood the entire time. Eventually the blood trail ran out and we called it quits. In the back of my mind I hoped he would live, but find that all too often we as bowhunters kid ourselves that deer we shoot are going to be okay when they really aren't. We do it to make ourselves feel better of course. I was hopeful, but doubtful at the same time. I spent the next two weeks hunting our lease and wasn't back on this farm until last night. After my hunt I pulled cards on a few cameras just to see who has been showing up. (This is where the pics of the buck the yotes got to came from.) Right after he came through I got some pics of the Fridge - alive and well. I have to admit, it's a bittersweet feeling. I'm glad he's alive so I can still try to kill him (very ironic, no?) but I'm still depressed that I hosed up such a golden opportunity. In any case, here he is. Alive and well with a 2 inch hole through the top of his back. Pics were taken one week to the day after he was shot. Aye. I suck. Until further notice I'm done with wounded deer threads. They're depressing me.
How far from where you shot him was this picture taken? Just curious how much they'll avoid an area after being bitten by an arrow. That's a nice buck, you should have smoked him.
Hot a doe last week in the same spot. Glad you got confirmation of him! Sent from my ADR6350 using Tapatalk 2
Exactly 0.63 miles as the crow flies accoring to Google Earth. I don't have any cameras near the stand where I shot him, so I don't know if he's going back there or not. Additionally, the spot where I shot him is 1.19 miles from where the first trail camera photo was taken. He gets around it seems. I still suck.
The will to live is unreal on these animals ( I would be curled up in a little ball crying like a little girl with a hole like that). Hope you get him, he's a monster!
These animals are truly unbeleivable. To take an arrow then a week later back to making scrapes and just going about his business like nothing happened. Truly amazing
Cool that you got the pic to validate his well being. I am like you in thinking that we sometimes try too hard to convince ourselves that a lost deer survived but in this case there is no doubt.
Arrow buried to the fletchings and we found it about 100 yards down the trail. Covered in blood from end to end so I'm assuming it pulled through as he was going through some brush. My thoughts going into the track were that we either found him within the first 150 yards or he was gone. When the first 150 was up he crossed a road and went 500 yards across a hay field and cut corn field. Obviously not the typical sign of a mortally wounded animal who isn't being pushed.
Justin, ya know, the simple fact that you're willing to own up to your mistake, in my mind, makes you a bigger person. Not many will admit it, make millions of excuses as to what happened, or just never mention it. Kudos to you. You are a heckuva bowhunter, I've seen many of your kills over the years to know this. I personally think its proof to anyone on here that chastises others for wounding a deer that if you hunt long enough, and take enough shots on deer, that sooner or later something like this will happen. Hope you get another crack at him. Best of luck to you buddy.
Thats great to have proof that the deer survived and is semmingly OK, going about his regular business. Even with the proof I know exactly what you mean by the "I suck" mentality. Must make you sleep a little bit better though.
