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Good day...Hopefully Better Day Tomorrow

akira7799

akira7799

Active Member
Joined
May 16, 2014
Messages
106
Location
Pittsburgh, PA
I had a pretty good day all-in-all. There were a lot of bucks roaming around in the AM. Little bit of chasing. I actually had a fork-horn about 7 yards away, but, since it didn't have '3 up on one side", I had to pass.

At around 5:10pm I heard some lady walking her dogs in the adjacent cemetery. She (and her two dogs) pushed a shooter buck, 7 or 8 point, right under me. It was in the same spot as the fork-horn was in the morning, but I couldn't get my bow off the bow-holder. The cam got stuck in the hook. So, by the time I got the bow off the hook, I had to make a 15 yard shot, quartering-away through some mild brush. I settled my pin, let the arrow fly and heard a good hit. I watched him trot off and start to wobble. He was just about to lay down when that lady and the damn dogs started walking by.

The buck spooked and ran off.

Well, I gave it some time (not enough) and started to track. I couldn't find the arrow...I think it might be buried inside the buck. There was a decent amount of blood where he was about to lay down. I tracked him around 70 yards away and bumped him.

So, I called off tracking for the night and will go back in the AM, but it's supposed to rain tonight.

Any pointers would be helpful.

Wish me luck!
 
Hopefully you have already found him but here is what I can offer:

Do you hang your bow with the hook through the cam? If you do you might want to consider just hanging it with the limb sitting on the hook. I find it too hard to get the hook out of the cam in a quick situation like that.

Without seeing where you hit, anything else is just speculation. I use pink fletching with pink wraps to help me track the arrow and see it hit better, and last year I start using lighted nocks also and they all make a huge difference. Sometimes knowing where you hit can be make or break in making a recovery.

With the shot you described, it could be anything from a gut shot, gut/liver/one lung, middle of 1 lung and clipped another, 1 lung/liver, and just one lung.

On a shot where I don't see them go down, I will give it 1/2 to 1 hour before I get down and evaluate the situation further. 1/2 hour if I think I can check the shot site/arrow without pushing the deer, longer if I think they might be in tight. If I think it was a good double lung shot, I didn't see them go down but the arrow and sign confirms it, I will start trailing. If I don't think it was a good shot or the arrow says I need to wait, I will wait.

Not necessarily relevant in your case, but FYI a decent amount of blood doesn't always mean anything. Deer that are hit in just the muscle will bleed and bleed and make you think you are going to find them and then suddenly it will clot up and stop.

Hopefully he was really hurting and didn't go far from where you bumped him and bedded down again. I would start at that spot and see if you can find any sign. If you can't I would start following all the trails around that spot looking for him and sign. If that doesn't work I would start circling around from that spot looking for him.

Good luck and I hope you have found him by now!
 
Well Red,

I found him! First buck is under my belt.
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https://flic.kr/p/ADo9Bm
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https://flic.kr/p/ADo9Bm

I do hang my bow through the cam. I will hang it on the limbs going forward. I never "needed" my bow like that before and it was a very teachable moment. Thanks for the tip. It's an excellent piece of advice and I hope it will allow me the ability to take a better shot in the future.

I now know where I hit it. Back...WAY back. Hind quarter back. The blood loss was pretty severe and a large portion of it was internal. Where I aimed and I where I hit were two very different places. I'm pretty sure the light brush I shot through affected the arrow flight and pushed the shot further back. I use green and yellow fletchings on bare carbon. I might add wraps and more visible color fletchings. I also use lighted nocks, but I was waiting for a new shipment of nock batteries and additional nocks, so I couldn't use em' this time.

Patience is something that I need to embrace when it comes to hunting. After a shot when I see/hear a "hit"; I'm pumped and wanna' start tracking right away. I need to slow it down more. If it's a hit or a miss, waiting is the thing that can make or break the hunt. This time I was lucky on multiple levels. With it being my first buck, I was amped up and probably shouldn't have taken the shot in the first place (since it was through some brush).

He ran almost 160 yards total. 60 to the first spot where I bumped him last night and about 100 more after that. Once I started tracking this morning, all the blood was washed away, due to last night's rainfall. Even the spots where he was losing blood last night (larger puddles) were washed away. I started tracking at the spot where I bumped him and did what you suggested (in only what I can call a "moment of clairvoyance"-as I found him at 07:15 hours). I checked the high trail, mid trail, and low trail. After all of those failed to turn anything up, I crossed a road and checked some culverts hoping that he would try to lay down next to water. He ended up dying about 20 yards off the road, next to a smaller dirt road, wind to its back, overlooking a 100 foot steep decline.

All in all, and as with most other hunts, it was a great learning experience and I'm happy that it turned out well. Thanks for the tips Red! I'll definitely be adding high-visibility wraps and start hanging my bow off the limbs.

I brought him to the processors this morning, and, since he is my first buck, dropped the cape off at the taxidermist.

Thanks again. I really love the forum and support. I do believe that hunting from a saddle gave me the flexibility to make take this deer. If I was in a "traditional" hunting platform there is no way I could've done it.
 
Nice going akira!

Good for you for sticking with it and finding him - especially in poor conditions after the rain washed away your blood trail. Congrats.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Congrats! That is a beauty for your first buck! It is a buck I would be happy with any day! :D

Poor decisions happen. Like you said just take it as a learning experience. I still make poor decisions at times. One of my mantras is I try to not make the same mistake twice and to learn from the mistakes I made. Just like you, I still get super amped up before shooting a deer which can lead to poor decisions. I have gotten much better but it occasionally happens. I occasionally will rush a shot, but my biggest thing is I go into the buck (or doe) fever zone where I am not really thinking and just acting. I have found 2 solutions for this. First, I practice shooting a lot. I don't shoot at long ranges, my max is 25 yards, but I shoot almost every night during the summer, and about a month before the season I switch to only shooting a deer target. This training makes it so that everything is second nature and I can just rely on my instincts when the time comes. The second thing that helps is shooting deer. I know this sounds obvious but I shoot 3 or 4 deer a year with my bow and there is no better training than the real thing. Not only does it help with being in the situation, but if you don't make a good shot there is no better training on blood trailing than the real thing. I pride myself on my blood trailing skills that I developed out of necessity and I have the confidence that even if I don't make a perfect shot I can make the right decisions to recover my deer.

Congrats again! I know you are a newer hunter so I thought I would share some of the harder lessons I have learned. If you already know this stuff just ignore me :p
 
Red,

Thanks so much. I was happy to find him too.

As with anything, (like we both have said) hunting is a learning experience. I feel a little behind on the learning curve due to the fact I started later in life, but I think it also gives me the ability to remain open-minded. That's why I was open to hunting from a saddle in the first place. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I'm wide open to suggestions and any tips people might have.

I know for a fact I didn't practice enough this off-season. I traveled from July to October for work. :-/ As for shooting more deer, I'm all for it. I believe the little tracking I have done is strong, but I always can and want to learn more.

When I dropped it off to the deer processor, I told him the story of my hunt. His reply was, "Well, sometime's it's better to be lucky than good." I smiled and laughed a little bit, but I really want to be good and leave as little to chance as possible.

Some of the other lessons this taught me was to definitely scout more in the off-season and prep more of the sites I'll be hunting, so I don't have to shoot through anymore brush.

Thanks again for all of the advice. I'll know I'll be asking more in the future.
 
No problem! We are always here to help :D

If you haven't read John Eberhart's blog, you should.
www.scentlok.com/blog/

If anyone is only able to implement some of the things he does, it would make most guys a better hunter.
 
Thanks for the link.

I read his two books, which turned me onto saddle hunting in the first place.

I'm looking forward to the blog now too.
 
akira7799 said:
Thanks for the link.

I read his two books, which turned me onto saddle hunting in the first place.

I'm looking forward to the blog now too.
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That fork horn you had to pass up sounds like my first buck. And the one you ended up with was a great reward for passing on him. I shot my first buck (a small 4 point) in PA but that was before the 3 on a side rule.

Best hunting advice I ever got was one word: "Patience"
Sounds like being patient and passing on the 4pt (even if it wasn't a choice) led you to the more mature buck. Being patient probably would have given you a better shot w/o brush. Being patient after you shot him, you could have probably picked him up 60 yards from the stand one or two hours after you shot. It's also the hardest advice to follow both when the hunting is good and when it is bad. If you figure out how to follow it, let me know!!!

Congrats on a fine buck.
 
@Mausty-It's funny how patience in other parts of life are so natural. For me, I'm patient with a ton of other things. I just need to translate it over to hunting. I hope it's possible.

@G2-Thanks very much.
 
akira7799 said:
@Mausty-It's funny how patience in other parts of life are so natural. For me, I'm patient with a ton of other things. I just need to translate it over to hunting. I hope it's possible.

@G2-Thanks very much.
Click to expand...

Man, when you read some of my other posts you will see I don't have any either. There are so many options that as soon as one seems cool, I jump somewhere else. I am famous for finding and getting the big bucks on camera and then never hunting them. My friends love hunting behind me, believe me. My patience has cost me a wall full. But I love exploring, learning and finding them.
Keeps my hands from getting bloody!!! :lol:
 
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