This is the first time I have ever named a specific deer that I've seen on my trail cam. I've seen this deer since they started growing their antlers early last summer. When I pulled the card back in early September I had this picture from August 31. I named him Daggers because that's what his G2s and even brow tines reminded me of. Since that picture he's the deer I've wanted this year. There were 3-4 bucks I had on camera that I would have been happy with any one of them, but there was something about him that put him at the top of the list, even though he wasn't the biggest. On October 30th I was up in my stand and had just blown a chance at the biggest buck I've seen on camera. I had rattled and called him in, and he was working his way in to range through the trees and I over grunted him and blew him out. I've never shot a really big buck and I got an admitted case of buck fever and got too anxious. A few minutes later I did my rattling sequence again to try to get him back but he didn't come. Within 5 minutes of that last rattling sequence I had 3 deer show up by my stand, Daggers came in first and stood out at about 40 yards, followed by a smaller 3x3 that walked right behind me and another deer to my front and left. I don't really know what the third deer was because I had my attention focused on the biggest one I saw (Daggers). Daggers stood in the same spot for about 5 minutes before continuing to move in closer. At this point I wasn't exactly sure which buck it was, but I could tell even in the low light that he was a decent sized buck. I had a quick thought in the back of my mind wondering if this was Daggers because I saw a little curve on his left brow tine. I drew back and waited for him to pass by a tree in front of me and as he was passing by I stopped him let arrow fly. This was where the emotional roller coaster started, I had used my 20 yard pin and I saw the arrow go what I thought was completely underneath him. I waited for about 20 minutes to climb out of my stand, and when I stepped off the distance he was at 30 yards to where I shot. Expecting a clean miss, I checked the arrow and it was covered in bile, and a certain odor. Being just about 7:00 pm I backed out of the woods and went up to the house. I called a buddy and decided to wait until 8:00 to go track him. My 10 year old daughter wanted to go with me, even though I told her if we find him that he would be stinky because I hadn't made a good shot on him. A buddy of mine joined me part way through the tracking process. We followed him through our woods, up along the cornfield, across the neighbor's field and through the neighbor's woods. About 10:15 we completely lost the blood trail and my daughter was getting very tired. We brought her home and went over to my buddy's place so he could replenish his flashlight batteries. We returned to where we had the last blood and looked around until about 12:15 am, scoured the whole area around the river and the field that was by the last drops with no new clues. I had to work the next day and when I returned from work my dad and I went down again to look around 2:30 pm. Once again we checked the whole area and this time I followed the river all the way back to our woods with still no trace of him. As we were walking back through our woods my dad found a puddle and asked if I had been there the night before. I told him no, and we worked our way back toward where my stand was that I had shot him from, checking all the tall brush and zig-zagging back and forth with nothing. After some more searching we returned to where we had last seen the puddle, after standing there and talking for a few minutes all of a sudden he jumped up and ran off, he had been laying not 10 yards from us and I had walked by him before and didn't see him. We watched where he went and I hurried up and went back up to the yard and grabbed my bow and dad walked through the woods hoping to jump him up again so I could finish him up. He never came through and when dad got to me I walked back through the other way checking all the tall brush that I could and there was no sign of him. He only bled when he laid down at this point so there was no blood trail to go on. At about 5:00 pm Saturday afternoon I went back up to the house and over the course of the next week relayed the story to quite a few people and everyone told me that I had done due diligence and that if I had a chance at another deer I should take it. Friday morning I was back in the stand and rattled in 2 separate bucks, but neither ever gave me a shot opportunity. After that I went back out and decided to make one last ditch effort to find the deer I had hit a week before. I figured if he was dying from blood poisoning he would have headed toward water. I went back and forth through the thick brush along the river and finally saw a deer laying right down by the river. I could hardly believe it! I was so excited and thankful! He's by far the biggest deer I've ever shot and I was so excited to find him! I'm sad that I don't get any meat from him, but relieved at the same time and happy I stuck with him. There was something down inside of me that didn't want to get another deer because I wanted to know for sure about Daggers. Thanks for reading and good luck on your own hunts!
good ending. you put in a great effort trying to find him but did'nt before the meat got spoiled. feel good about that and try for another.
Glad you found him and applaud your effort. However, why are tracking a gut shot deer so soon?? You should have given him at least 8 hours or longer. If you woulda waited, he prolly would've died in his 1st bed. Congrats, it's a learning experience
You're completely right and I realized that after I had already tracked him for a long ways. After looking back on it I wished I wouldn't have went after him until Saturday after work. Definitely a learning experience. Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk
Sometimes it is hard to wait...even when we should know better...its a tough lesson to learn. Good job finding him.
Sometimes it is hard to wait...even when we should know better...its a tough lesson to learn. Good job finding him.
