Last year in late October I got a shot at a nice 10 pointer with about 10 minutes left of legal shooting light. The shot felt good and I heard it hit the deer but it looked like it was very low in his chest. He ran about 50 yards, stopped and turned around and looked back. After a minute or so I snort wheezed at him and he actually hopped a few steps back towards me but then stopped and just turned and walked away. It was too thick to make another shot so I just watched him until he was out of sight. When I got out of my stand I recovered the arrow and it had hair, meat and a very faint film of blood along the entire arrow. It was sticking in the ground about 3 inches. I was shooting the 3 blade Rage. Because of his reaction and the low hit I decided it was best to let him settle down and to come back at first light. There was a good blood trail as my dad and I tracked him for about 250 yards. There would be a big area of blood about every 20 yards or so but nothing in between. But each time I came across these big blood spills I just kept thinking he's got to be down somewhere close. The final blood was actually what I considered huge (about a 2 foot circle) where he had actually laid down. But after this we found nothing and made larger and larger circles around this final blood area for about 3 hours. We never did find him. Then, this summer (July 7th) I got this picture on my trail cam (Cabelas Moultrie 5 mega pixel). I was excited to have a buck this nice and this early in the antler growing season. After I printed the picture out and was looking at it I noticed a pretty buck "chunk" at the bottom of his chest. I thought, could this be the buck I hit and lost last season? I don't know if you guys can see it in the picture or not?!? Any thoughts?
It looks like he has a dent:d If that is where you hit him he would most likely leave a pretty good blood trail IMO. I don't think it would be a fatal hit though. Unless somehow it was a big enough slice to have an organ hang out or something Wouldn't that be something to shoot him this year and find out he is the one you hit last year:d Good luck! BUT I don't think there is any way to know for sure. He might just be having a bad hair day
Also, what do you think he would score after he was done growing? The other pictures of bucks that I got during that week were much smaller even though I could make out 8-10 points on their smaller velvet racks. I am just not familiar with how much more a buck grows throughout July and August? Since I live in Tucson, Arizona I only had 7 days to hunt our Missouri land this year and I had to come in the first week of October. I did get a much smaller 8 pointer and I never did see this big one! Oh well, he just be that much bigger next year!
absolutely that could be him, i've seen it several times. they heal up so fast that it doesn't phase them, they just have a little scar.
might be. remember though that if you cut flesh, but no vital vessels it will bleed like a stuck pig, but not be lethal. think about if you've seen a laceration to a human's face or even your finger. They produce what look like a lot of blood, but no one bleeds out from these wounds. Same I think with this guy. you hit a meaty portion, but no vessels.
