Last season on Oct 13th, I hit this buck high on a 32 yard shot. I immediately knew it was not good. With it being an evening hunt and having a nice cold front at the time, I decided to wait until morning. Long story short, I ended up bumping him up around 9:30 the next morning about 300 yards from where I hit him. He ran off like a perfectly healthy deer. I checked the bed he was laying in and it was clean except for a few small dried up drops of blood. Flash forward a week later from the same stand, he walked out into my food plot to check out some does that were already out. He never got closer than 45 yards or offer a stationary shot. I was just relieved that he seemed to be fine and wherever my hit was,it was superficial.
Flash forward to Nov 2nd. I took a quick lunch break from my morning set in another location and got right back out for the evening in the same stand I had shot him from weeks earlier. At 2:45, i looked up and he was coming right down the pipe on a trail offering me a 15 yard chip shot quartered away and I double lunged him.
I have no doubts he would have survived had he not made a mistake a third time. I attribute his remaining in the area and visible to the fact he never saw or smelled me in that location. All he knew was something stung him good there. The will and the ability that whitetail have to survive and live is simply amazing and admirable imo. It only deepens my respect for them that much more.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk