• The SH Membership has gone live. Only SH Members have access to post in the classifieds. All members can view the classifieds. Starting in 2020 only SH Members will be admitted to the annual hunting contest. Current members will need to follow these steps to upgrade: 1. Click on your username 2. Click on Account upgrades 3. Choose SH Member and purchase.
  • We've been working hard the past few weeks to come up with some big changes to our vendor policies to meet the changing needs of our community. Please see the new vendor rules here: Vendor Access Area Rules

Might have found my Fall 2017 buck

wrighr12

Member
Joined
Nov 13, 2017
Messages
41
Location
Southern Indiana
Failed to recover a deer for the first time last bow season. I shot a buck twice from the stand, once at around 25 yds, then he stopped again at 40. I think the first shot just grazed the brisket, didn't see much blood there. The 40yd shot was better. Had a lot of blood, and I made a rookie mistake. Started tracking him right away. Jumped him 100yds from the stand and lost the blood trail. Spent the next 2 days grid searching trying to recover blood, but no luck.

This weekend I was post-season scouting about 1.5 miles south of there. Found this guy bedded near a pond. I have no way to know if it's the same deer, but the rack looks similar. Sucks to lose a deer, but taught me a hard lesson about tracking and judging shot distance. If this is the same deer it would have been my best archery buck to date.

20180211_142657.jpg
 

Attachments

  • 20180211_141931.jpg
    20180211_141931.jpg
    566 KB · Views: 65
Nice buck! but not the ending you planned. I know exactly how that feels shot a nice 130class 8, 2 years ago, single lung. We grid searched for quite awhile. I went back for 3 days & finally conceded. No deer! We found my buck while dragging a doe out this year, his skull was I bit chewed up but not terrible. He had bedded near a root ball of a fallen tree & when he expired slid in the depression. We just happened to notice part of a tine sticking out of the leaves. This bed was less than a hundred yards from the stand I was in that night. It was totally my fault, poor shot selection. He was slightly quartering to then took a step & looked back over his shoulder at the same time. Which made for a pretty hard quartering angle, he was close (10yds) I thought I could sneak one through. It looked good but must’ve glanced off the from shoulder plus the steep angle made for not properly recovering him. I regret it, but the plus side is I completely changed my preshot routine & haven’t lost a deer since. I feel ya man!
 
Failed to recover a deer for the first time last bow season. I shot a buck twice from the stand, once at around 25 yds, then he stopped again at 40. I think the first shot just grazed the brisket, didn't see much blood there. The 40yd shot was better. Had a lot of blood, and I made a rookie mistake. Started tracking him right away. Jumped him 100yds from the stand and lost the blood trail. Spent the next 2 days grid searching trying to recover blood, but no luck.

This weekend I was post-season scouting about 1.5 miles south of there. Found this guy bedded near a pond. I have no way to know if it's the same deer, but the rack looks similar. Sucks to lose a deer, but taught me a hard lesson about tracking and judging shot distance. If this is the same deer it would have been my best archery buck to date.

View attachment 3943
Sometimes it's hard to wait to go look for a deer. What I do is after the shot if I don't see the deer die in front of me I'll set my alarm on my watch for 30 minutes and take that time to go over the shot. I'll glass for the arrow and see if I can find any blood with my binoculars and sit there quietly. I known it's tough I take a book to read it settles me down.
 
Failed to recover a deer for the first time last bow season. I shot a buck twice from the stand, once at around 25 yds, then he stopped again at 40. I think the first shot just grazed the brisket, didn't see much blood there. The 40yd shot was better. Had a lot of blood, and I made a rookie mistake. Started tracking him right away. Jumped him 100yds from the stand and lost the blood trail. Spent the next 2 days grid searching trying to recover blood, but no luck.

This weekend I was post-season scouting about 1.5 miles south of there. Found this guy bedded near a pond. I have no way to know if it's the same deer, but the rack looks similar. Sucks to lose a deer, but taught me a hard lesson about tracking and judging shot distance. If this is the same deer it would have been my best archery buck to date.

View attachment 3943
That is a beautiful buck. This can happen to anyone. If you bow hunt long enough you bound to lose a deer I know guys don't like to hear that but it happens . Hang in there and learn from your experience and it will make you a better hunter in the long run.
 
Back
Top