Part 2 The Recovery. This part of the story is interesting because I've been doing this a long time. 40+ years. I lost track of how many bowkills but it's over 100+. I've NEVER seen a tougher deer with more will to live than this guy. I put an arrow through BOTH shoulders. They were mush. It's been my experience that when you do that, they don't live long or go far. Well he didn't go far that for sure. So after getting down I figured I should give him some time. I went home, made some calls, did some paper work, and ran some important errands. I shot him at 8 AM. I got back to the tree at 11AM. We picked up the trail and there were big puddles of blood every 5 or 10'. I knew he would be close and dead when we got to him. We went about 40 yds and my buddy says there he is. I couldn't see him in the grass but as I walked closer I could see his horns upright. My eyes were telling me he's alive but my mind was telling me he's dead so I walked right to him. He tries to run and goes 5yds. I'm like "Holy Cow" in disbelief. I nock an arrow and try to get close to finish him off. The grass was so tall I couldn't see his body and every time I try to close he would stumble/lunge. So finally he was too tired and he let me get close. I still couldn't see his body so I estimated that he was broadside and guessed where his vitals should be. I shot and completely missed! The grass deflected the arrow. He lunged at the shot. This time I could see a narrow hole through grass to what looked a quartering away shot to the vitals. The arrow hit and he lunged again. I could see that I hit in front of the hams on the left side. That took a lot out of him but he could still lunge. He wouldn't let me right up on top of him to finish him off. I stayed about 8-10' away. The grass was still tall but i found a small hole too shot thru. I took another shot and it deflected and hit his spine. Now he can't get up but still very much alive. I'm still in disbelief considering how much blood he had lost and how much he had been through. I move in and put a finishing arrow quartering away thru the vitals and bury it to the nock. His head was still up so we backed off and gave him time. The truck was close so we walked back and put the bow away and got ready to field dress him,etc. After 15 minutes we walked back to him and his head was down but he was STILL breathing! His head was down this time. I figured it would be any second so we just sat there and waited. Well it took him another 15 minutes before he was finally done. This buck had TWO arrows thru the vitals and 2 damaging but non lethal arrows in him. He was TOUGH! He was alive at least 4 hours after the initial hit. Pure adrenalin was keeping him alive. Hopefully Treehopper can post the pics. BTW Thanks again TreeHopper. Saddle was comfy. However I didn't get to give it a true test because I got to hunt out of it for only 1 1/2 hrs!
