Interesting photos. Your experience seems to coincide with what I have experienced over the years. On hits that aren't immediately fatal, liver or paunch shots etc., it seems that evening shots the bucks try to circle back to where they came from. Like they were going back to their beds where they felt safe before the shot.
Thanks for documenting things. By looking at how your deer moved it kind of goes along with what I've noticed with the last few deer we shot. After the shot they all seem to run 60-80 yards than almost circle back like as if they are running to cover than circling around to look back at where the sound came from and to see what hit them. This is usually where we have found them laying, but none of them have ever just ran in a straight line to get as far away as fast as possible.
Congrats on the recovery man, way to stick with it! I'm pretty sure the lucky hat and shirt is what made the difference. :D
Ok guys, I have to ask this. Why not take a .22 rifle back with you in a case like that ? If you get close enough to see the animal get back up, why not put it out of its suffering insteads of just leaving it in misery until it finally dies ? Here in VA, if you have a concealed carry permit, you can keep your pistol on you while bow hunting. It's a no brainer for me, I'd rather be humane, than to wait two days to get to call it a bow kill. I mean no disrespect, it's just something that I had to mention.
Here in IL if you did that you would be looking at huge consequences. Law enforcement can do it but the general public is not allowed to dispatch a deer with anything other than the legal weapon during it's intended season. We cant legally dispatch a road hit deer out of season like you hear of people doing. It's not always a pleasantry but laws are laws. Does it happen? I'm sure it does, but that still doesn't make it legal and worth risking your hunting rights and potential criminal record. That is IL, other states may vary.
We all know that some laws border on insanity and doing the right thing isn't always doing the right thing.
Doing the right thing away from the eye of the law is one thing, it is a whole different game when a member our DNR hunts less than 150 yards from the property line where this buck ran is a whole different story. Oh, and it is illegal to take a gun into the woods to finish off an animal.....did I mention that?
Making it legal to put a animal down with a rifle would do us no good. Too many people would "rely" on that rifle to put a animal down after taking un-ethical shots. Or who knows, they might even kill the deer with the rifle than put a arrow in it after and claim that they "had" to shoot it with a rifle. It sucks for us where situations can happen where it's nice to have that option, but in general there would be too many issues.
You do make a good point. Too bad there isn't a gene pool depth gauge that has to be used before you can hunt at all...lol
