With numerous hit deer posts, this weekend gave me a few new lessons to pass on.. THis weekend I shot a big doe broadside at 20 yards. I saw the arrow hit right where it needed to and was 99% sure I heard her crash shortly after she made it into the woods. I waited half an hour, packed my stuff up, riding high on confidence and went to find my arrow. My heart absolutely sank when I saw the fletching covered in gritty green and brown slime. I knew I had hit this deer perfect, how could this be. I looked at the blood trail in the hay field and there was spray out both the entrance and exit, not typical of a gut shot, but I couldn't deny the brown and green slime. I backed out and came back later still confused how a gut shot would spray blood out both side. I found her, 100 yards away, the arrow had double lunged her but in the process had went through the esophagus which was full of fresh green alfalfa causing the slimy arrow. Keep in mind things aren't always as they seem at your shot, sometimes better, sometimes worse, and if in doubt, just back out. On Sunday a family member of mine shot a deer with a shotgun in a special early hunt in MN. We gave it an hour and began tracking but were quickly out of blood after about 40-50 yards. The deer had been on a heavy trail through some thick brush so I was quite confident that even with the lack of blood I knew the direction it was going. After another 100 yards with no blood I was still confident but no blood seemed odd. During tracking, the crows were going nuts on the other side of a ravine, not in the trees, but on the ground. I had heard of crows leading to a kill site a couple three days after but never this quickly. I went to look and sure enough, the deer had made a completely unexpected turn and went a different direction. The crows helped us find that deer and they were on her within an hour after the shot. Watch the birds!
Good storys! The doe I shot last Friday, she was quartering away from me. Arrow hit back in the ribs and exited the opposite shoulder. Arrow looked great as expected but when I field dressed her, the arrow had nicked her gut. I knew it had as I could smell it when I walked up and turned her over for the pics I took for the contest. She died within 30 yards of the shot. The other thing is that as I sat in the stand, I watched her go down but I sat there for another hour thinking my hitlister may still walk in and I have nothing against putting down two deer in a the same sit. The kicker is that as I sat there, after about thirty minutes, about 15 crows came in and just went crazy over her carcass. They weren't trying to land on it and eat it, just circling around over it and making a racket. When tracking a deer, pay attention to everything around you, nature doesn't usually let a valuable asset like a deer, go unnoticed and often times these tip offs can take you straight to a downed animal. I once tracked a gutshot deer that my dad hit with a rifle. The deer took a step at 150 yards just as he shot. I looked that evening until about midnight and then all morning the next day. I tracked on my hands and knees and used flags to mark the last blood spot. I finally lost everything and was pondering quitting being a mile off our property. As I circled around the last spot of blood, 50 yards further I found a fresh piece of deer meat (could tell by looking at it). I circled another 50 yards further out and walked straight into the buck, yotes had found him and stripped his back half but the cape was still perfect. It was as if nature was throwing me a clue and saying, "don't give up, you've gone this far...go a bit further!". Buck turned out to be ~170" and boy was I proud of myself and thankful for how that worked out.
