A bitter sweet end

[Wensel]

Last Nov 11th I made a shot on a nice buck, I thought I had made a good hit, you know the saying, " a little back" I have been looking for this guy all winter and today I finally found him. I was simply astonished of where he ended up, less than 40 yards from my stand.....yes that's right 40 yards!!

During the original track job I left him over night and it snowed but I thought I had a good feel of where he was heading when I last saw him, I looked then for 3 days daylight to dark.....

Well today I figured heck what if he button hooked on me. As you can guess he did.

I'm glad I found him, the shot was bad, low guts...

The bitter part....someone beat me to him......

I have honestly 100's of hours looking for this deer.

Makes me wonder what I'll do the next one I find....

Well I have closure....

[buckhunter21]

Sorry to hear that man. I know all to well what its like to spend days looking for a nice buck only to end up not recovering him. I guess you did learn something from this though to always look where you least expect them to go, but it suck you had to learn it the hard way. When you say someone beat you to him do you mean someone took the horns?

[Archerysniper]

You are a true sportsman,we never give up on animals that that we shoot and spend sleepless night in bed wondering the big what if. Good job on the recovery sorry it's bitter sweet.

[Wensel]

do you mean someone took the horns?

you gotter otter...................

[mknolls]

That really is a bummer. It happens to all of us if you hunt long enough and with a bow. I lost two deer almost back to back in the same year. I shoot a nice doe on a early November hunt. Felt the shot was good. The shot was about 45 min before sundown. Ten to fifteen min after shoot started to rain, light then hard. I was hunting with a good friend. Started my search almost immediately. Good blood at first then lost it. I was hunting with a good friend so went got him and flash lights. Couple hr later my brother showed up to check on us and started to help. Just about that time rain turned to snow heavy snow. Called it a night. Next day 6" of snow on ground and 5 guys making circular patterns to see if we can't find deer, looked two day. The snow never left It was the beginning of winter. Very up set.

Purchased a game tracker. Small roll of string that attaches to your bow, tie string to arrow. Worked great on tests. Two weeks later in a different hunting location, shot a even bigger doe. Game tracker worked great. for the first 60 yards then broke. Another shoot taken half hr before night. Didn't feel the shoot was my best but had good blood. Decided to wait tell morning. Brother inlaw asked if I would let him hunt first two hrs of light then go look for my deer. That was fin. The next morning when I reached my brother in law he said that there were people cutting with a chain saw all morning in the direction my deer went. When we check it out we found my string piled up in a little ball at the end of blood trail. We did look for more sign and finally came to the conclusion that they may have taken deer, not reel sure. The deer did go fare enough to get over to adjoining property, About 120 Yards. Felt it was in our best interest not to make enemies. I just about gave up bow hunting. That was 15 years ago. I'm glad now that I didn't. Love it with a passion. Keep on shooting the reward out way some of the lesson learned along the way. Good to know that sportsmen like your self give there all in recovering of game.

MIke

[mrklean]

Sorry to hear that man, i was pretty close to losing my first deer this year, i kept telling myself your gonna find it, well after tons of time looking i found her.

[archerystud]

Wensel,

Sorry the hear about the end but like you said at least you have some closure.

On the other hand I applaud you for the effort. Nice job of not giving up!

[DoubleLunger]

That sucks Wensel, was it private or public land?

[Wensel]

Thanks for the support, and yes it was private land, non posted.

I do question, when do you require a tag to have in possesion a deer or part of a deer. I know we've all found dead bucks and most guys will take the rack, but I'm really struggling with this.

Someone has a book/ poss BC rack thats non tagged???

Dont want to sound like I'm whining about it, its just a matter of when does the time come when you dont need a tag to have the animal or any part of the animal in possesion?

Thanks again guys!

[Wensel]

And by the way, I kept my tag from the day I shot it till the end of season just in case I did find it......

[DoubleLunger]

I would of done the same. So it was a tresspasser that took it? It figures, i hate that. Have kicked people of my land many a time.