Losing the "buck of a lifetime"

[bucktrack]

I consider myself to be an ethical and enthusiastic hunter. I like to hunt hard, bag my animals fair and square or not at all, and not to take foolish chances when shooting.

Almost exactly 48 hours ago I was still-hunting across a clear-cut and jumped a mature buck, almost certainly the huge 12-pointer I had been looking for. He immediately disappeared but I sprinted about 20 yards and saw him crashing through the brush about 125 yards away, broadside. I instinctively swung on him and shot two shots. As soon as he had disappeared I had a bad feeling. There was no snow and those were very risky shots to take.

I had fixed in my mind where I'd last seen him, and found what I was fairly sure was the path he had taken. I walked out several possible trails and did a few sweeps to look for blood with no results. Then I found a large splash of blood. Rain was predicted for that morning, so I didn't dare wait. I took up the trail. It was easy to follow, with plenty of blood right on the trail. After about 150 yards I found a bed. The location of the blood in the bed seemed to indicate I had hit him forward, and low. I found one more smear of blood low on an aspen, and after a long search, that was it.

I drove to a couple of other deer camps, including one that had game camera photos of what was likely this monster buck, and we talked it over. Two guys sat in likely places and I zig-zagged through the aspens and swamps trying to drive him out. No luck. We tried doing sweeps on-line with no results. Finally we tried to make our best guess as to where he would have run. He'd been trying to stay on good trails. I found one more smear of blood maybe 18" high on an aspen another 150 yards along, and that was it. We couldn't see any other tracks or blood. And this was way back in huge country. The day was over and I thanked the other two hunters and they headed out. I walked out the trail to a big grass swamp, did a sweep and finally felt defeated. That area is wolf country, and they'd have him soon.

Of course, the big mistake I had made was shooting at all at that distance at a running buck, especially on snow-less ground. Back in "the day" in that area, the way most people, including my family, hunted deer was to still-hunt, and that often included running shots at deer. Well we have pretty much stopped doing that; the odds of wounding and losing a deer are too high. I reverted to those old bad habits under pressure with little time to think. It was my last day of hunting and here was the buck I was looking for in our old "jump-shooting" country. I made a bad choice, no excuse, and after a guy pulls the trigger there's no taking it back.

As hunters, we understand more than most that death is part of life. But clean kills are important and avoiding unnecessary suffering is really important to me. Plus that trophy is lost to another hunter or to my future self. In this case nobody wins, except for the wolves.

So just a reminder: when in doubt, don't shoot. Running shots at unwounded big game are rarely justified.

Good hunting to all.

[multibeard]

Years ago while still huhnting 200 acres of pines, I jumped a nice 8 point with no chance of a shot. I trailed him in the snow for around a mile seeing where he had stood or layed watching his back track. He finally went into the 40 acres north of my 40. I just waved at him where I figured he was laying on the crest of a hill watching his back track and took the round about way home.
I rounded up a couple of my hunting buddys after lunch. The tracker jumped him right where I figured he was laying. After chasing the buck back and forth across 40 acres it finally came out on my corner. I took a running shot and saw that I hit him hard but did not know where. He layed down two or three times before he could no longer get up. The blood was always in the bed fartest wasy from the way he was going. The reason was he was watching his back track.
I had hit him hard in the back hip. Luckily we were able to finally catch up to him and put him down for good. If there had not been snow we probably never would have found him. I have not taken many running shots since then.

[fabsroman]

Stuff happens. Several years ago I shot at a buck that was standing [broadside] behind a tree [with only his front half showing from behind it]. The day before I had sighted in my slug gun and everything was fine. I ended up wounding the buck and couldn't find him that day. It made me sick. I could not believe I had missed, so I sighted my gun in again the next morning. It was shooting 2 feet low which astounded me. After I finished sighting it in, I went back to look for the buck and I found him still alive hobbling around. I killed him with a single shot. When I was able to look him over, I found that the shot from the day before broke both of his ankles right at the bottom of his legs. It made me sick. The only thing I could think of was that somebody got pissed at me the day before I saw him because I had killed 8 does that morning. While I was dressing them and pulling them out of the field, I left my gun at the farm house and can only assume that somebody cranked down the elevation on me. Otherwise, I have no explanation for how my gun was shooting that low.

Sometimes, buck fever causes us to make bad decisions. Sometimes, things just don't go right even when you wait for that perfect broadside shot or the birds to come into the decoys with their legs down and backflapping.

[bucktrack]

multibeard, that's a good thought about getting fooled on where the blood is in the bed. In this case, though, I could tell which way the buck was facing in the bed, so I'm reasonably confident he was hit too far forward. I'm glad you were able to get your buck.

fabsroman, that was probably what somebody did, messing with the elevation, and that was a lousy trick to pull on a hunter and the deer he is shooting at. Good job on recovering that buck, too.

[buckhunter]

I once wounded a decent buck. Lucky we had snow. Followed him for about a mile then he crossed a river. Water wasn't too bad once my bare feet broke thru the icy. Followed and followed him till it got dark. Went back the next day found no blood. The tracks got mixed in with other deer and we never found him. Yes he was running like crazy and I should have never taken the shoot. Another lesson learned. We all have made mistakes and unfortunally we cannot take them back.

[Catfish]

Many years ago I had a friend that put and arrow through a BIG 12 point buck just before noon. It was cold and he had good snow cover and was sure the deer would not go far, so he went home, ate lunch and came back about 1 hr. later. The trail was not hard to follow in the snow with the amount of blood he was losing you could see the trail 100 yrds in frount of you. He tracked the deer untill dark. He went home, ate dinner and went back out. He tracked the deer untill 2:30 am. before he went home and to bed. Next morning he was back out at day lite and went about 50 yrds. before he jumped the deer. The bed looked like someone had dumped a 5 gal. bucket of bolld in it. He found only 2 more drops of blood after that. He followed the trcks another 2 miles before the deer got into a woods that had so many tracks it was imposible to track. He spent the rest of that day walking that woods but never found the deer. He was down in the dumps for 2 weeks about killing a deer that big and not being able to find it. He cheared up when the old guy that lived where he was hunting told him the 12 point was back up where he had shot it. What I`m saying is don`t be to sure you killed that deer. They are tough critters.

[skeeter@ccia.com]

While at the butcher this year, he showed me 4 different broadheads he took from a nice 10 pt someone else had. Found one under each arm pit, one stuck in the hindquarters and then the killing shot. Said one of the broadheads been in for while and started to fester around there but I guess they can be tough...sad though they had to live like that for while but guess happens and not a one of us would do that on purpose. Such as one buck I shot a few yrs back that had the whole arrow laying along the spine just under the skin...not my arrow as I would never take a shot head on.but it looked like maybe the deer put its head down and was shot at...I think it was the buck one 'hunter' was looking for one morning and it was about 1/2 hr after light..he said he can't continue to follow it as he had to be at work by 8...I told him what was he doing out shooting at them if not even have time to follow up on the shots....Fabs, I went with a guy once long ago and we had our guns/cases on top of some gear in the back of his truck....I just happened to walk back there as he pulled some gear out from under my case and I watched my gun flop about 3' to the bed of his truck..I ask.what the :e..ey you doing?..He said that gun is ok and why we keep them in cases..I had to test fire it and it was not off but later found out from others this guy had a hard time with the fact I always got my deer..and in fact was why he wanted to go with me..but guess he figured I would miss and he would stand a chance..anyhow back to subject here..things happen and I have done things I wish never did after the fact.but all is a learning lesson. I think as long as we do anything in life other than sit on a chair in front of the tv, we are going to make mistakes..now to get my wife to realize I have to make a mess at times in order to fix things..and if never make a mess..means you arent doing anything worth while. Opening day deer rifle is Monday and figures something important I been working on for a year now needs taken care of that first day...good luck all and be safe.

[fabsroman]

You have already made the mistake when you decided to sit in front of the TV and continue to make the mistake as long as you sit in front of the TV. TV sucks.

[bucktrack]

Someone encouraged me to go back and see if I could use scavengers to lead me to the remains of the buck. It was a long drive back to that area, and a mile hike back into the swamps, but I found him! The wolves/coyotes/eagles/ravens had eaten most of him.

Just as the sky was starting to get light I heard an eagle call, perched in a tree nearby. As shooting light neared I could hear ravens. Once I could see well, I carefully walked towards the ravens until I could barely spot them and see that some looked to be landing. As I walked through the thick cover I kept a distant high treetop near the ravens in sight, and when I got close ravens started flying up and I knew my buck would be there. Then I spotted deer hair and took a few more steps to see what was left of him, piled up in the swamp.

It was apparent he had died running, and had been dead most of the time the three of us had looked for him the first day. He had gone only about 50 yards from the last blood. We'd searched well beyond and around him for hours but just hadn't stumbled onto him. As they often do at the end he had veered off at a random angle and ended up in a thick black spruce and alder bog. If he had kept bleeding obviously he would have been easy to find. Or if there had been snow. Or ground conditions where tracks or scuffs had been been visible. Or if dogs had been legal.

We were right in deducing that he was hit forward and low. But I thought he was hit even lower than he actually was. He was hit through the left front shoulder, but the bullet had angled so it didn't hit the opposite shoulder and had barely missed the lungs. Due to reported impending rain I'd tracked him right away or he would likely have been dead in his first bed.

The big mistake was shooting at a running buck that far away on dry ground. But I am very thankful to have found him and to know he didn't suffer. As you can see he was a massive 11-point swamp buck, the base of his antlers are nearly black.

http://www.bucktrack.com/Hunting/Swamp_Buck.jpg

[skeeter@ccia.com]

A very impressive rack for sure.

[gd357]

Sorry to hear you were unable to recover the meat, but it's always a relief to know that a deer you shot didn't suffer unnecessarily. That's truly a beautiful buck.

gd