Never give up.........proof!

[Johnny_Namakan]

I shot this dandy 10 ptr. on opening day of muzzleloader Saturday. At 1:15, about an hour after getting in stand, I began a serious of grunts on the buck call. I gave 5 short grunts, waited 1 minute and gave another 3 short grunts. I put the call down and began scanning the woods. This buck came in about 4 minutes later with one thing on his mind. He stepped into a shooting lane, turned and at a steady walk came right for me. I had my gun up and had him in my sights. He noticed me but didn't bolt, he just stared at me. I knew I wouldn't get a broadside shot so decided to shoot below the jaw and either hit him in the neck or brisket. Well, long story short, I missed my mark by a couple inches to the right and hit him in the gut. I didn't realize this until we tracked him for three hours and still no deer to be found. He shouldn't have gone this far with a 50 cal. 348grain shot to the brisket, as I had hoped to hit. We lost his blood trail several times and almost gave up, but I wouldn't quit. I was not giving up on this deer. I ran out of daylight and marked the coordinates on the GPS. I returned the next morning and started to track again. Very little blood and tough to track, but I still didn't give up. There was a couple times where I spent 30 minutes on my hands and knees looking for a drop of blood. Persistance paid off, and I was able to find him down around 10:00 a.m. yesterday. Like I said, I almost gave up several times. I tracked him over a mile and he never bedded down once. I thought he was gone for good, but I refused to let that be an option. I'm glad I didn't.

[DRH1175]

Good tracking job! Many including myself may have given up if no blood for that long. Any deer in the ML season is a trophy and that one is any time of the year!!

[almostthere!]

So, was your gun off or did you missed because of buck fever?

Nice job on the recovery effort!!!

[Swill]

Very nice buck!

question....

Have you seen that buck on any trail cameras before? Were you hunting private or public land? Too bad there was not any snow?

nice story and pic...

[harvey lee]

Very nice job getting your buck and nice one at that.

[Johnny_Namakan]

I wish I could blame my gun, but I can't. I pulled the trigger instead of squeezing the trigger, so I pulled the shot to the right. But at 65 yards with a head-on shot, a couple inches to either side and you've missed. I was lucky enough (if you want to call it that) to miss by a fraction of an inch, allowing me to still make contact with his left side. His back legs were on a slight hump so his butt was level with his rack, and his back side was slightly turned, so even though I "missed" he still got hit. I'm a stictler about having an accurate gun, and not taking shots that aren't kill shots, so this experience really upset me. That deer should have never taken a step. So buck fever got the best of me.

To answer Swill, yes I had one picture of this guy from Late July in velvet. I knew it was him because of the spread. It was a late evening photo and he was in the background with another 8ptr. You couldn't see the deer very well, but just this huge spread. So I'm 99% sure this was that deer.

It was shot on private land up near Orr, MN. Zone 1A