Inspiration from adversity

[PopRocks]

On stand Friday night, look behind me on the right side and see a pair of antlers swaying close to the ground......nice deer. Throw my restraint strap under my right arm and spin around. The buck is moving left to right behind me and I get a few more good looks, I want this deer. The cover is heavy and the buck remains behind it as he's moving slowing licking branches and smelling the trail. I scan his path ahead for a shooting lane, and find only what looks like a 3 foot by 2 foot opening in the buckthorn to get a shot off before he gets far enough to cut my wind or disappear behind even thicker cover. I close my release on my loop and get ready to stop him in the hole, looks like he's going to be at 25 yards. He arrives in my only lane and stops, almost miracle like, on his own with half his front shoulder back to his rear leg exposed, couldn't have placed himself better for me. I have already drawn and I lower the pin on him right behind the should, and squeeze the trigger.......I hear a thwack and see red on him as he turns and bolts down the hill. Look at my phone and it's 5:30. I'm concerned because the blood looks a little far back and low, I'm worried. Satisfied that the buck is outta ear shot, I exit the stand at 6pm with the intention of picking up my arrow, checking out the impact site and getting outta there to reevaluate. Take off my boots to remain as quiet as possible, find my arrow and am instantly deflated. White hair, a few specks of blood and a relatively clean arrow. The arrow was greasy and had light streaks of meat on two of my vanes. I hit low and back and am not optimistic about a recovery. Back to the truck I go to resume the search on Saturday morning.

8am Saturday morn I'm back at the site of impact and start the search. I'm hunting in SE Mn bluff country for a little background. Begin to follow the blood straight down the hill, just enough drops here and there to make it fairly easy to follow him, that and the damp leaves piled up at every stab of his hooves as he charged hard down the bluff. He gets about 3/4 off the way down the hill and starts paralleling the side of the hill stoping every so often as evidenced by the heavier pools of blood. Then all of a sudden nothing! Shoulders slumped, confidence waning, i eventually circled and found blood heading back up the hill after a tense 20 minutes. Ahhh, he's heading directly back up to where he came from, presumably his bedding area, which deer hit like this will often do. So up the hill we go following roughly the same type of blood sign as what we follow downhill (enough to follow, but not alot). We get to the ridge on top, about 100 yard directly west of my stand and the buck is on the trail he originally was I when I shot him but heading the opposite direction. Uh oh, blood is gone, circled once again and after an agonizing 15 minutes find blood, he cut off the trail and started heading at 45 degree angle back from the trail. This time there are pools of blood, some here, some there, he actually circled a tree. This deer is confused and hurt bad at this point. The blood is heavy now as he crests the ridge and heads over the opposite side that he went down intially after my shot. I begin to smell an awful odor which practically made me gag, i find the contents of his stomach emptied out on the forest floor and the blood is plentiful. At this momment, i'm elated, sad, mad and disappointed all at the same time. My spirits rise none the less and I look up and raise my arms in joy and let out a holler......oooops, it's a bleached two tone tree laying on the ground, my brother laughs at me. I feel like it's a matter of time now, as the blood is so heavy and the other sign has me wondering how this deer is still on it's feet. Now we are headed down the bluff on the other side, toward the gravel road we park on. The sign is so good we can walk at a fast pace and not have any problem. As I peer up, i see my buck laying 20 feet in front of me, and on getting close see that his chest is still rising and falling, after 16 1/2 hours this deer is still alive. The buck is incapacitated so I take my time and clean some brush so I can get a clean shot in, knock an arrow and finish him. 149 3/4 210.5 pounds. I thanked God, my lucky stars, my brother and another friend who was with me, and all other bowhunters and anyone else that has ever felt like that, I can't believe it. Now here is what I wanted to express. I practice a fair amount, and am proficient with my bow. I have shot many deer and usually put my broadhead where I want. After yesterday, it's not enough. I'm mad I put that deer through that agony and I'm commited to never doing that again. I will practice even more, I will work on mentally preparing myself before and during the shot better. I will practice even more patience with my shot before hittin the trigger. I am inspired by this event to be an absolutely automatic, lights out archer. Something we should all aspire to, for ourselves and our quarry.

[not_nuf_time]

Good Story, good ideas and congratulations.

[tunrevir]

Great job on the recovery and the story to go along with the trophy. Sometimes even though we practice daily when the big one comes in and the heat of the moment things can go awry. Something as simple as monkey gripping the bow due to the adrenaline can have a huge impact on the shot placement. Again great story and congrats on the trophy and the recovery!

Tunrevir~

[mabr]

Great recap, and congrats on a great deer.

I hope your regrets impact more than just me. I've been there. We owe it to deer to be as well prepared as we can. I find myself getting lazy as the season progresses and figure experience is enough. I can still hit that target where i want every time so no need. BUT seasons and temps change as does clothing. Ill be taking a few shots before I leave for tonights sit.

[Rippinlip]

Great story and reminder, I know the doe I took I was pretty upset too with my shot.

I practice alot and thought the shot was good, she only made it about 100 yards, that was because I took advice from here, if in doubt back out.

Ended up hitting her a little back and high. Ended up taking out the liver.

Not only practice, but practice from the angle most representing your shot in the woods. Angles make a big difference.

[PopRocks]

[eyeguy 54]

Dandy!

[propster]

It sounds like you did everything right to recover the animal. Not sure I'd be so hard on yourself - the fact that you hit him low and back, combined with the loud Thwack you heard, don't seem to compute. I'm wondering if you may have hit an unseen branch and that's what made the noise and maybe threw the arrow off a bit? Only other thing I can think is if it hit the very low end of a rib, or it made that noise hitting something after it passed through.

[paceman]

Awesome Story and great job on the recovery!

[Deitz Dittrich]

Great deer, great story!

[mrklean]

nice buck good job

[Bear55]

Great buck and story!