Hi all, On November 8th at 8:00am, I shot a really good 10 point at 15 yards in open hardwoods on a ridge in Crawford County, Wisconsin. After the shot, the buck bolted, ran about 80 yards and went down only to get back up a couple of times, then layed 80 yards away watching his backtracking. The shot looked good... maybe an inch or two forward, but I thought it would be lethal. After an hour he was able to get up again and stumbled 20 yards to bed again next to a log now 100 yards away. I watched him all day get up every couple of hours with his tail flicking, then lay back down within a minute. I made the tough decision to not push him and leave him overnight thinking he'd be dead right there in the morning. The next morning, I went straight to that log and incredibly he was gone. My son joined me to start gridding that area, but I spotted him about 40 yards down the side of an extremely steep hill... still alive after 25 hours. We were able to get within 28 yards and my son was able to put a killing shot in him. When I took him to the processor, we discovered that my Thunderhead 125 fixed blade had gone through the nearside shoulder and snapped of the leg bone just below tge shoulder joint on tge opposite side. The broadhead layed in the meat in the other side of the broken bone. How in the world did I miss the vitals with that eye level shot at 15 yards? In the picture, you can see my shot which is the lower of the two. My son's kill shot is the top one. Anyone who has any idea how this could have been possible, I would love to hear your thoughts. My son and I have been watching our bucks go down in sight for so many kills that this one is just boggling out minds! I'm glad we were able to recover him, but always hate the idea of the animal suffering overnight. Maybe we should have tried to get another arrow in him the day or night I shot him, but way 100% convinced from his actions that day, that he would die sometime during the night. When in doubt, we back out!
Thank you! At 71 years old, I am blessed to be healthy enough to still do this with my 35 year old son... and still be shooting a vertical Mathews bow!
Thank you! At 71 years old, I am blessed to be healthy enough to still do this with my 35 year old son... and still be shooting a vertical Mathews bow!
Thank you! So glad my son was with me and able to be involved in the recovery. This is one neither of us will ever forget. I am calling this our Traveling Trophy. We will share custody of the mount. He gets it every other year!
