Today is last day of archery in PA. Figured I’d take the day off, hunt a few hours in AM and drive upstate to bear camp that starts tomorrow. Go figure, a big buck walks into my life around 10AM. Walking slow but sure left to right I saw he was a shooter and hit the estrous bleats but seemed to not phase him. But maybe it kept him close. As he came into my shooting lanes he was 35+ yds so I hit my buck grunt call and he stopped at the first grunt, then hesitated at the 2nd. A big branch cracked far off to my right so he sat still for a minute. I grunted again and thought he’d walk into my last lane at 30 yds and sure enough he did. I stopped him with a bwah and let fly. The range was right but hit back and didn’t pass through. he ran with tail tucked to about 50 yds to my right and stopped. I couldn’t quite see him but I’m sure after he stopped, he walked off. My heart was on the floor but I gotta make the best of it. I sat watching and drank my coffee for 40 minutes, then snuck down to the shot and followed his trail of torn up leaves to where I saw him stop. There was fresh scat but not a drop of blood. Decided to back out and found one drop of blood on way out. I waited 3.5 hrs but wanted to get on it with enough time before dark. I thought I had liver or possibly lung so I was optimistic. I got land owner permissions and reasoned that he’d be dead. By some miracle this gut shot deer was dead within 70 yds and I found him in about 25 minutes. The exit wound was low and he hemorrhaged half his guts and bled out. I realize I am very lucky and am going to start from scratch with my bow and arrow setup next year. I lost a doe in October and was sick about it, and I am very fortunate to have this buck.
I am always a wreck from when I let an arrow go till I recover it. I have only had 1 buck go down where I could see it.
