This evening, me and a buddy set up about 150 yards apart in hopes of at least getting a doe on the ground. I had been watching a handful of does come out of one corner everythime I sit in there, so I decided to set him up in a spot where I figured he was almost guaranteed at least a doe. As the sun was starting to settle, I saw 2 does come out in the field, and one got to about 30 yards from him. The deer was on edge, and headed down towards me. I kept looking in his direction, so I wouldn't miss any action if he shot. About 15 minutes or so later, I see a doe which appeared to be within easy shooting range. I kept saying to myself, WHY ISNT HE SHOOTING!? Then another doe steps out. So here I am watching this whole operation and I was quite baffled as to why he hadn't made a shot yet. Another deer steps out and starts chasing, so I pulled out the binocs for a closer peek. Sure enough it was a buck. I dropped the binos and watched as he made the shot,i could even hear it. The buck ran out into the field, hunched up and was really wobbly. Judging by his actions , I was expecting him to drop. He stood around for a little while, and slowly walked, then stood on and off until he got out of the field. We waited awhile, and I snuck over and retrieved the broken arrow, which indicated about 6-7" of penetration. The deer was quartering away VERY slightly, it was almost a broadside shot. We are going to give the deer 5 hours, due to coyote problems and hopefully retrieve him. The shot was in the shoulder so im hoping he got enough damage to the 1 lung to make a successful retrieval. This is his first bow buck so hopefully I can help him recover it.
Good luck I know that time from shot to recovery can be nerve wracking, let us know how it ends up. I love hearing about peoples first deer or buck
I've shot and tracked many deer, and to me this one looked pretty sick. I really hope we recover it, he's shot 2 does with his bow but this is his first buck.
Ya it is nerve wrecking I'm hoping we do find him tonight. I am the one who took the shot. Woodsy set me up in the perfect spot too. Can't thank him enough for this experience.
The shot was around 4:30, we are going to leave to go back in at 9, by the time we get out there is should be about 9:30 or so. I think that should be sufficient due to the shot placement. If we jump him, we'll back out immediately and follow up in the morning.
We let him sit about 5 hours, then started tracking. Pin drops of blood for awhile, then he started to leak halfway decent. He came to a river, crossed the river and started bleeding really good. At this point we had a good blood trail we could just walk right along and follow. Then it just stopped, any direction that it would make sense for the deer to go we searched basically on are hands and knees, nice and slow which turned up nothing. I'm thinking he must have backtracked, so back at it this am. We tracked for approximately 200 yards, which started right at the shot. The deer never bedded once, but he did stop and stand several times.
We spend a few hours last night(waited about 5 hours before we made an attempt at recovery) trailing the deer in the dark, started getting great blood and then it came to an abrupt end. We both went separate directions, circling the area literally on hands and knees scanning everything we could find. 1 speck of blood to point us back in the right direction is all we needed, which we couldn't find. We finally decided to call it a night, and take it back up today. I always wait several hours, especially on marginal hits, but I like to track on blood before it dries. Much easier to see. We went in later this am, so as not to interrupt any other hunters. Once again, went slow, looked for blood, grid searched for hours. Nothing. We even came in from the other side and looked all around. I think the deer is still kicking, hoped that worse case senario we could find a lamed up deer for a second shot. I'm super bummed for him, he was really excited to get his first bow buck , and I think he missed it windage wise by 1-2 inches. We've exhausted all of our resources for a successful recovery unfortunately .
Yea, for sure it happens even to the best of us, but the whole thing played out great other than the recovery. We are gonna stay right in that area, he's a younger buck so more than likely he won't be far if he's still alive. My buddies main concern was coyotes, he wanted that deer for the freezer
