Fun Morning!!!

[mnhunter79]

Took today and tomorrow off work to do some bowhunting before the slugs start flyin. Went to gander yesterday and bought a bottle of primetime doe urine, put some on a wick. Got to my stand this morning, hung the scent wick 20 yrds in front of me, got up in my stand and sat for maybe 10 min, and here he comes, across a crp field, nose straight up in the air right to me. I grunted with my mouth to get him to stop at 20 yrds,(completely down wind of me too) and WHACK!! The shot felt good and sounded good. Waited an hour and slowly followed the blood trail(not a very good one). about 9 am i jumped him up.(not good). So i backed out. Probly go look for him in a bit(11:20 am now) He was inbetween broadside and quartering towards me, i either hit him in the chest or front shoulder. Let cha know how it goes when i get home.

[outdoorav]

Good luck

[slimngrizzly]

Way to go! What was he? Look forward to seeing him!

[96trigger]

Hope to see some pics, the bucks are getting more and more fired up every day.

[cupper]

Hey Trigger, have you been out lately? I am heading home to SE Mn tonight to do some bowhunti this weekend. How has the heat wave affected the hunting for you?

[96trigger]

Cupp. not to hijack the the thread, but I was out last night. The rut is really starting to pick up. I had one better than basket 8 pointer come into the grunts and then b-lined it to the estrus. Kicked up the does on the way in, Mr. Big was probably with them. I would say we are really at the beginning of the rut right now and its only going to get better. It was warm and buggy last night, but the deer were still moving. Should be a good weekend I would think, especially early morning and late afternoon. Be prepared, it seems like the deer are moving very early now where I am at. The are right up next to the fields if not in them at 4:00 p.m., they are normally still bedded at that time. I don't think the heat will effect it.

[mrklean]

good luck with the find

[jnorm1984]

good luck findin that one! stinks to loose deer, Ive done er a time er two and it makes a guy feel sick for long after....but hopefully you got em hangin right now!

[fritz179]

hey jnorm-how you been doing this year?

[jnorm1984]

fritz??? fritz!!!I been doin pretty great man, ya know workin my tail off n such for the Do Nothin Right. How school goin n such? what ev, Im gona call ya right now

[tealitup]

DID YOU GET HIM? PICTURES!!!

[DonBo]

mn, come on...we need follow up.

[mnhunter79]

Sorry Guys, me and the land owner looked and looked and looked, and then looked some more. Found little drops of blood from where i jumped him this morning and thats it, no more blood anywhere!!! I searched every inch of that property 3 times (no kiddin) and nothin. I have never lost a deer before, MAN what a HORRIBLE feeling, i can't get it outta my head!!! I did find the arrow about 200 yrds from where i hit him, pretty sure the arrow went in the chest and hit the opposite side shoulder bone and stopped, (only 10 inches of the arrow had blood) And it was about 400 yrds where i jumped him, to my stand. Will "NEVER" take a shot like that again!!! Wish i would have had a clean miss, or not seen anything. Pretty sure i did not hit any vitals, so im hoping he will clot up (due to lack of blood trail) and survive. What are the odds of that?

[hartner62]

If you really had 10 inches of blood on your arrow I would go back in the morning and look again. It wasn't a pass through but that should be enough to take him down.

[Eskimoman]

That stinks. Hard to say but we all hope he makes it or someone can take him during the gun season. Hate to see one go to waste. Many of us know how you feel. I gut shot a nice buck a couple years ago and never found him. I was in the dumps. I forced myself out the next day and took the first doe I saw. It is a great way to get some confidence back after loosing one.

[huntfish365]

Yeah, them suckers are tough. It takes a serious vital hit to put em down in short order. They cover so much ground and get into those hidden areas so quick that a marginal shot may kill em but good luck finding them. Some even say a high lung shot is good but that area of prime meat up near the backstraps can be the worst, and so close to a dead dear.

My guess since you found the arrow would be, a shoulder bone hit with 4-6 inches of penetration, and the blood just spattered up to the 10" mark.

Practice, practice. It has happened to the best.

[Deitz Dittrich]

Like an above post states, 10" of blood isin't always 10" of penitration. However if you went through the chest and nailed the far shoulder, even if its heavy quartering shot.. You got at least one lung and probably clipped the other pretty good. I highly doubt this deer will survive. They are very tough creatures, but just my opinion, probably will not survive.

On shots that are marginal, once the shot is taken. Give them as much time as possible. had you not jumped him, you may have found him dead on that spot the next morning. Then again, maybe not, something else could have jumped him. There is no way of knowing.

Its a hard lesson to learn. Good luck the rest of your season.

[DonBo]

This happens to all of us on occassion and we all feel the same as you.

I am not in the boat though that thinks because of the penetration that this deer is necessarily dead. I have seen many hit a bit too high in the area we call "the black hole". Above the lungs, below the spine there is a spot about the size of a softball where there is nothing vital. We have had deer hit here and not recovered only to be taken a week or a year later...or longer.

Don't be too hard on yourself, hope for the best, learn from it, and like Eskimoman said, get back out and get your confidence back.

Good luck!

[mrklean]

Like they have said it happens to everyone, just gotta get back in the stand and hope it comes back.

[propster]

I think you are contradicting yourself. If you indeed hit it in the chest (perception is not always reality), in fact penetrated the chest cavity up to 10", that deer is likely dead. If you feel he's not then you likely hit it elsewhere - leg (though that would probably have kept bleeding when you pushed him), high meat hit, etc. Keep looking, you never know.

[mnhunter79]

my buddy that hunts the same area, just grazed the back of a giant 8 yesterday afternoon. No blood on his arrow what so ever. BUT, where the deer stopped, there was a couple drops of blood, WIERD. could this possibly be the one i hit? He said there was fur missing from his chest area too, and the buck was just out walkin around,not limping or anything.

[harvey lee]

We all learn by our mistakes. A head on shot or a quatering shot at a step angle is a very low pwercentage shot. At least you did your best to recover the deer. At times one will think he can make some shiots that should just not be taken and we all learn after a few of those to not take them. I'm guessing you hit to the side of the brisket and got a skin wound with no vitals hit. Will the deer die, that s a tough one.

Was it muscle blood that you found? Any bubbles in the blood? Light or dark blood?