Shot a nice buck tonight on my Illinois property. The shot was just after the sun went down and my luminok didn’t work so I’m not certain where I hit him. He did mule kick and run quite a distance, 330 yards before I lost sight. I watched him through the binocs as he rounded a tree line corner across a cut over. Tail tucked, he stoped at the corner of the tree line, looked behind him and the walked off. I have no blood and no arrow. The shot was slightly quartering away. I’m shooting from a saddle about 12 feet up in a tree. Distance was 25 yards. My thoughts are liver or stomach. What guarantees a mule kick or is that not enough to go on? I’m going to give him 6 hours or till the next morning because all I have to go on now is his last location I saw him. Any help? Sent from my iPhone using Bowhunting.com Forums
Wait till daylight if you find the arrow it will give you an idea of what happened, running with a broad head in guts does a lot of damage. Good luck keep us updated please.
The mule kick is a defense from a preditor, it often indicates a good hit but not always. Where did you think you hit the deer? Did you see any entrance or exit when he ran away? Sent from my iPhone using Bowhunting.com Forums
Any update? Sounds like a dead deer. Did you notice it flicking it's tail alot when it stopped and looked back? Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk
Tracked blood for 502 yards then he crossed creek onto neighboring property. Going to check again if they’re home after evening hunt. Sent from my iPhone using Bowhunting.com Forums
Sorry to hear that man, hope you can get access and recover him. Best of luck! Sent from my iPhone using Bowhunting.com Forums
Just to updated y’all. I did find evidence of an exit wound the following morning at the shot site and on the grasses through the trails we followed to the property line. Unfortunately, the neighbors were not interested in getting back in touch with me to allow us to continue tracking on their property. So that’s that. Sent from my iPhone using Bowhunting.com Forums
That sucks. Idaho has a good law for this I think. If you need to track a deer onto private property, you are first required to try to contact the owner. If they tell you no...or you don't get in contact with them, then you can call the F&G and they will accompany you. In the case of a land owner that outright refuses to let you track a wounded animal on their property, the F&G will then cite THEM for waste of a game animal and then accompany you onto their property to recover it anyway.
