Sorry for the long read. Feel free to skip it if you like. It's been a tough weekend. I debated all weekend as to whether or not to post this and decided I would even though it means revealing a very bad decision on my part. This past weekend I went to hunt at Wattensaw WMA in Arkansas. This is a highly pressured WMA with some very well educated deer. I had been wanting to look at a particular spot so when I got there at 2:30 on Friday afternoon, I showered, dressed and left. It was around a 3/4 mile walk in from where I parked. I sneaked through the woods and found an old grown up road bed paralleling an old grown up field. As soon as I found the trail and two scrapes I knew I'd found my spot. The wind was forecast to be out of the north-east all evening which would be blowing into the old field, so I found a tree downwind of the trail and climbed up. The woods there were down right wooly, but I had some good clear shots. At around 5:15 I decided to lightly hit the rattle bag. I carry two grunt calls, so I grunted with one, then the other and hit the rattle bag trying to imitate a sparring match but not a full blown fight. When I was done I made my first big mistake. I hung the rattle bag right behind me on my Realtree EZ hanger. At 5:30 I heard what I knew was a deer walking the trail. My first glimpse of him was the back half of him and my first thought was "OH MY GOD!" He was a huge bodied deer. I raised my binoculars and saw his rack. He was a fantastic 8 point. I really can't guess what he would have scored because his body was so freaking big. Anyway, he was 30 yards out through the thick stuff. He worked a scrape and then walked on, but he hit where I'd walked in. He turned and walked straight toward me. When he got to 20 yards he spotted me. I was standing up holding my bow in front of me with my release already hooked on. He bobbed his head for a minute, then turned 90 degrees and walked to my right. His path was going to take him behind a cedar tree and then into an opening at exactly 20 yards. As he went behind the small cedar I started drawing. Just as he was reaching the clearing I reached full draw and that's when it happened. Just as I hit full draw my elbow hit the rattle bag and pinned it against the tree. He froze before he was totally clear and I knew the jig was up. There was a tiny branch hanging down halfway between him and me and my mind was racing. Try to shoot over it? Try to squat down? Try to let down? Hold and see what happens? Well, I decided to shoot over it, which would have worked, but it was a piss-poor call. I didn't factor in the fact that he was on full alert. At the shot he dropped and wheeled left (away from me). I watched my NAP Killzone impact what looked like just below the spine. I was ecstatic! I'd just arrowed the biggest deer I'd ever seen! I got down, found my arrow and it was smeared with blood, but there was a lot of meat on the broad head. I laid the arrow down in the direction he'd ran, marked the spot with my GPS and, since I'm colorblind, retreated to get help. We got back there about three hours after the shot and even though we looked for four hours we didn't find a single drop of blood. We decided that since it was going to get down to 38 degrees that night we would come back in the morning and try again. We got back out there at about 8:00 am and did circles until we finally found blood and then the track was on but the trail wasn't a good one. A drop here and there, then a patch about the size of a softball where he'd stopped and stood still. We didn't find a single place where he'd laid down. I had some of the best blood trailing fellows I've ever seen, but finally, after tracking a minimal trail for a quarter mile the blood stopped. We tore that area apart for another four hours, but nothing. All I can figure out is that when that buck was wheeling to turn away his body was angled so that what looked like an impact below the spine was actually above the spine. I can't tell you how awful I feel about this. This is the first deer that I've ever hit that I didn't recover. I've heard time and again that "If you hunt long enough it's going to happen to you." Well, it happened, and it sucks. What makes it worse is that he was HUGE. I keep doing the "if only" thing. The one that really makes me kick myself in the butt is the thought that if only I hadn't hung that stupid rattle bag behind me. How stupid was that? I don't know what I was thinking. I guess I wasn't thinking. I tried to hunt the next day but my heart just wasn't in it. I'm beating myself up pretty hard right now.
Don't beat yourself up so bad! I'll share this quick story for motivation. A friend of mine arrowed a buck on opening day this year. Shot looked perfect but they couldn't find the deer after hours of searching. A week later, the same buck came back to the same spot and he got his second chance and made it count. You can see in the pic (above the nose) where the first shot occured. Don't give up on that buck yet if you are able to hunt that area again. At least it sounds like he will survive.
I'm really thinking that he'll survive given what we saw, and yeah, I'll be hunting that spot again, but with all of the tromping we did through that area I wonder if we messed that spot up for good? I don't know.
Sorry to hear that, Johnny.....I truly am....but it really does happen to everyone ....sounds like he is still alive to me...
Thanks, Tony. I'm sorry about it too because he dwarfed the 136" buck I killed last weekend with my muzzleloader.
Hey man, that's alright. When I missed my first hog with a rifle, I swore I would never hunt again, then that same afternoon, I went out to that same stand and shot my first doe. Then about a year later I go out and miss a doe, we went to the range later to help cheer me up "because I love shooting guns" and it turns out the gun was off about 4 in. I was so mad. But since then I just got up and went hunting whenever I could and so far in my 4 years of hunting, ive got 2 bucks and 4 nice does in my scrapbook. Just remember you have got plenty of time to find another big buck. I know those things get you down and if they don't then theres something wrong with you, but you just have to wait it out and keep on at it. Youll get him next time man. Good luck
Sorry to hear man. That's definitely tough and from sound of it with the little blood and not finding a spot where he might of bedded down I'd think he's gonna survive. Sounds like you put about as much effort in as you could.
I'm going back there next weekend. I don't think anyone else around there would go into cover that thick to hunt so it should be safe.
Tough break! It does happen though and sometimes our buck fever outweighs good judgement. Dont let it get you down, best thing to do is accept it and get back in the woods. I missed a nice one this year twice. I was beating myself up pretty bad. Took a few days out of the woods and checked all my equipment, washed my clothes, shot the bow. Next time out i was back in the game! Keep your head up!
I'll be crying myself to sleep tonight too. But I guess the only option is too shrug it off the best we can and make it happen next time.
theres nothing you can do about it really besides get back at it. Its happened to the best of us and he will more than likely live to see another day. Theres no worse feeling than losing a deer.. let alone a big buck. Just cant dwell on it and get back to drawing! haha
Tough break man sorry to hear that. Nothing anyone can say (unfortunately) that will make it not haunt you. It happens so fast and you make the decisions that you think are best at the time. Sometimes they dont' work out... sometimes they do. The rattle bag? Ehhh probably never calculated that being an issue when you hung it. Probably 9 out of 10 times wouldn't be. Don't beat yourself up to bad. You have the best part of the season coming up. Good luck.
Sorry to hear of this Chief! Them high hits usually don't put out much blood. You said you got a pass through in which I'm guessing you didn't get much of loins as the heart of the loins are on each side of the spine. If you hit that spine chances are your not getting hardly any penetration. This old buck will live if indeed that's where you hit him. Still I know it don't make you feel any better. I was in your shoes in 2009 when I wounded my 1st deer ever and he too would've been my biggest buck. Mine was a 150's buck. You MIGHT remember that story. I hunted him for 2 years. Best of luck my friend in getting another crack at this buck.
Yep Steve, you and a lot of others, it seems, know what it feels like. I tend to cheer myself up a little bit by looking at this pic of the buck I got with my muzzleloader in Kentucky on the 19th: I'll be leaving work early on Friday to get back in the spot where this happened. That'll give the deer and the spot a week to calm down. I'll relocate a little farther up the trail, though. I'm a tad worried about this weekend, though. It's a two day youth gun season there. I can hunt but I have to wear orange, which doesn't worry me. Maybe I can get it done Friday afternoon. That's not what I'm worried about, though. I'm worried because I'll more than likely be the only one at the cabin, which sucks if you're colorblind. My wife said that if no-one was there and I shot a deer and couldn't find it to call her. She said she'd drive the 2 hours and bring Elly May, my beagle, to help. I'm a lucky man.
