Opening day in Georgia....not what we expected

Look over to my left, really nice velvet 8pt at 24 yards. He has already gotten downwind and is about to leave before I even realize he is there. He looks back the way he came, I draw put the pin behind the shoulder and start to squeeze. Too easy right, well that is where I made one of the dumbest decisions ever. There were 2 or 3 leaves (smaller size) in the path. Instead of shooting for the lungs like I know, I raised up just a hair. Well at the distance the arrow stayed high and went right over the spine and through the back straps. He ran off with half the arrow on one sde and half on the other. I shook my head in disgust as I knew i had a long track that would end in no deer. I waited 2 hours, got down, found blood and took everything to the truck. I drove up to the store and got a water and waited awhile longer.

I took up the trail, and as expected just plain red blood and not very much. It was like following someone with a cut finger. After about 150 yards I ran out of blood, a small grid revealed my broadhead and about 8 inches of shaft and a little more blood. I followed this to a creek with approx 15' of drop down the bank, he made that and up the other side and no blood, only tracks. I made the other bottom and found a little more blood, and at this point I am on my hands and knees fidning pin drops. I leave to gather a buddy, for one last go and a new set of eyes. I call Phillip (Ga Bowhunter) and run the story by him. I also run into the guys with the dove fields beside us, and low and behold they saw him with about 6" of my arrow and fletchings sticking out of his backstrap. Lee also mentioned he was walking and other than an arrow hanging out of him looked no worse for the wear. I went over there when they cleared the filed and looked for another couple hours and I could not find a single drop of blood, Lee even through his dog out there just in case.

All in all I had a simple lapse in concentration and it cost me my first velvet deer. He is a beautiful 8, very wide but not much for brows and decent tine length. He is a very nice Georgia deer, but about middle of the road for the ground I can hunt. I am bummed, because I feel like I was handed a grandslam and I failed. I have 2 little ones that are the center of my life right now so I don't get to chase these guys with reckless abandon like I use to, even though the most beautiful woman in the world supports it 100%. I feel like I let them down, a nice velvet 8pt on opening day could have erased a few of those must sit in the tree days hoping for a big boy. I thought of Schultzy for a brief second and his buck last year, I was in their bedroom this AM and maybe just maybe this guy gets an arrow from a buddy, or even myself in the next 5 months. I am starting to ramble now, as this sucks. I have killed bigger, missed bigger etc...but for the hear and now this guy really has me bummed. I think he lives, but you never know, my arrow may bring infection and death over the next several months...hope not but that is reality.

Take your time, and shoot straight boys...and I hope you dont get where I am right now...it sucks

 

That's too bad man, I would've liked to seen you sitting behind your first velvet buck.

 

I feel for you. I am sure the deer will live although that doesn't really help right now. Learn from it, move on.

 

Dang Michael. That is a hard pill to swallow. I would by lying if I said that has not happened to me more than once in my life. From your description about the lack of blood and the sighting of that buck by others make me believe he is going to be just fine. Get back in the fight Michael. You put yourself into a great position to arrow a good buck on September friggin 10th so you should be really proud. Not many of us can say we set up on day 1 and had a really good buck give us a shot like that buddy. You should be proud and refocus on the long run. You WILL make it happen again this year.

 

Go easy on yourself. It happens to everyone. We make these mistakes so we can learn from them. Look, it's opening season. You are gonna get back out there. If you look at stats of grand slams that are actually hit when given the opportunity, it's not that great. Just make sure your next shot is a game winner in the nineth. Straight shooting and keep your head up.