here's my doe, she was pretty small, but I'm not picky and we needed meat in the freezer. She was quartering toward me, so the shot looks like I hit her forward, but I smoked her. Took out both lungs and top of her heart. She went 10 feet and dropped dead. I forgot how good it feels to watch your deer go down :D
After not seeing any deer all evening I heard something walking in the leaves so I got my bow and got the camera over there, out stepped a buck I've been after all year and have 2 years of history with I call Clutch. I new he was around 22-24 yards to I aimed a little high with my 20 pin. I only had a 10 foot gap before he went back into the thicket so I had to shoot quickly. At first I thought it was a good shot and I thought I heard him go down. But after looking at the footage i realized it was too low and far back. The arrow was pained in darker red blood and it really smelled strong, I was thinking liver hit. So i backed out and used the wind so I wouldn't spook him where I thought he was, on my way out I found some blood 3-400 yards from where I hit him, I wasn't sure if it was his or not and I went back home and reviewed the footage. My dad thought it was liver for sure and maybe lungs, i thought liver, I wanted to wait until 9:00 (4 hours after shot) but he wanted to go after an hour. So at around 6:30 we took up the trail and he didn't go down where I had thought, he made a loop and went downwind of me past one of my cams and over to where I found the blood while walking out in about 5 minutes or less after shot. We tracked him for 3/4 of a mile with decent blood (not great) before finding him by the river, still alive (3.5 hours after shot) He crossed the river and went up a 15 foot bank onto a property where they don't let people look for animals on. So unless a miracle happens thats the end if the story if Clutch, as you could guess, I'm sick. Its not that I didn't get to hold the rack or put it on my wall, or brag about the deer, but that I am the one that took his life, and couldn't put a rightful end to the story, And that he has been suffering. I will no longer have the feeling I get when he shows up on my trail cam or seeing him out in the field reacting with other deer naturally. Someone else could have taken him with a good shot and a quick kill and a great story with great tasting venison. But that won't happen now. I have been hunting for 3 years with close to 1,000 hours in the stand to try and get a mature buck, and then this happens. There are hardly any bucks that make it to 4 years old around here, he was one of them, but not anymore. That's one more that I won't be able to hunt and neither will anyone else. After seeing the shot it doesn't look that bad, but I must have missed the liver and the stomach. I have learned many things through this experience.
Thanks everyone, I appreciate it. After passing so many deer last year I was just excited to draw back on one.
Getting ready to head back out now, but this time I'll be hunting at home. See if I can't catch one cruising by.
Dang man. I wish y'all could have found him. We all make bad shots on occasion and they all leave us sick. But you have to get back up on the horse and practice more and gain your confidence back.
Hoyt, don't consider this advice oe anything of the sort... But call me unethical or call me a truspasser or whatever you wish, If I've got a wounded and maybe dead deer Im going to go look for it. Ask for forgiveness not for permission applies in a situation like this for me... Just saying. And sorry you didn't find the deer, that sucks! Keep grindin fellas this is a darn good team! We were 7th before Cledus and IA got it done!
Thats what I want to do, I don't really care if they have trail cams everywhere and I will probably get fined or maybe go to jail. I want to find my deer.
Yeah probably aint worth either one and under those circumstances I'm not sure I would look either. If either of those things is a remote possability I wouldn't screw with it. At the same time, I would at the very least call them or stop by the house and respectfully ask. Its worth a shot anyway - you might catch them on a good day!
Here's the twist, no one knows who actually owns it because one guy did but we don't know if he passed it along to his sons or what and we don't know where they live and the only number I could find no one answers on, and the guys that lease it we don't know and the only possible hope is my dad knows where one of the guys works that leases it, he doesn't know a name but he is pretty sure he leases it.
Leave then a message on one of the cameras, tell them who you are how to get ahold of you and why you are on their land. Appologize for not getting ahold of you before hand but explain you didn't know how. Also explain to them the situation - looking for a buck shot on date/time/location. It's a risk but no more risky than walking in front of a bunch of cameras. Maybe someone else on here has some advice but thats the best I got. Id also say if you think over 60% chance you won't find him Id prolly cut my losses.
You aren't allowed to go look for animals in Nebraska on others people land ? In iowa you just have to go unarmed and Can look within a few hundred yards of fence and then if you need to go farther you call the game warden and he will personally take you out there. Happened with my buddy this year.
