Hard lesson learned

[trex]

Well, this is a late report. I'm just getting to where I can talk about it without smacking myself dead in the lips. I had a rough weekend last weekend. I was supposed to have been out on business in Texas on Mon. and Tues. Me and my girlfriend decided to head down to Galveston to hang out w/ her little brother until Sunday. Got there on Fri, checked into the hotel and picked him up. Decided to head to a little place not to far away to get something to eat. Ordered the salad and got some ground black pepper added. Havin a good ole time shooting the bull and eating the salad when all of a sudden I bit down on a black pepper seed. Cracked my very back top molar totally in half! Talk about pain that wouldn't stop! Had to head to the emergency room to get a shot for the pain and ended up flying back early. Got the tooth pulled on Mon. morning. Started to head back to Richmond...left side of the face all numb from the novacane and all when it hit me. Man, this has been a rough couple of days, I'd like to climb a tree this afternoon. So, by the time I got home and washed everything up I could half way feel that side of my face again and I decided to give it a go. I've got permission to hunt a place here in Ashland not too far from my office that is covered in deer so thats where I decided to head. Got there, unloaded my stuff, got my climber and everything and headed toward where I wanted to hunt. I got to about 50 yds or so from where I wanted to be and scared a doe off who immediately went to snortin as she was running. Thought what the heck it's still early she probably wont spook anything else too bad so I kept on gittin. Got to the tree, climbed it and settled in. Somewhere around 6:00 I heard a deer running up the bank so I stood and got ready. I was situated right next to a deep gully at my back that ran from left to right. The deer like to come up that gully from the pond alot of times and head to the Oak flat. Sure enough thats what the deer was doing. And it was a buck! Nice omne too. He got within 15 yards of me down in the gully so I went ahead and switched sides waiting for him to pass behind me and give me a perfect 8 yard broadside shot. Well, it wasn't to be. He decided to head straight up the vertical 15ft tall bank and end up within 10 yds of me! There he was standing there looking around. I was shocked that he decided to climb that bank like that versus walk another 20 yds to the easy way out of it! Besides being in shock over that he was ALOT bigger than I first thought! He began to feed away from me a little so I switched back to the other side which was facing right to him. I had a holly tree right next to me to break up my outline and I couldn't shoot through it. After all I wasn't planning on having to shoot right there! He did a complete turn and started heading my way. At about 6 or 7 yards he began heading out a bit which is what I wanted. At about 5 yds I drew my bow back because I wanted to be at full draw when he cleared the holly tree. He stood there. And stood there. And stood there. Finally he moved a few steps forward which gave me a shot, but not the one I was hoping for. He hadn't totally cleared the Holly tree. I had a small window to shoot through and get to his shoulder, but that was it. It was either let my draw down on him at 4 yards and risk getting busted by either movement or the sound. It was flat dead calm. Or take the shot. I decided to try him. I let the arrow fly and off he went. Back down the bank, over the other side. I could see the arrow hanging out of him which immediately made me want to puke! I HIT HIS SHOULDER. I sneaked down and headed out of the woods. Came back 45 minutes later and found the arrow. Blood on it for 3-4", but that was it. No blood anywhere else. I looked for blood on my hands and knees until 10:00 that night because I knew the rain was coming and that would be it. Found on Spot of blood about the size of a nickel and that was it. Came back on Tuesday w/ a buddy of mine and we searched the creeks, blowdowns, and ridges for 300yds of where I shot the deer and nothing. I just hope he made it. In hindsight I should have waited just a bit longer to draw and risked scaring him off. He was a tremendous deer! 8 points, about 16-18" wide and every bit that tall. If not taller! That was his most impressive characteristic was his height! I just hope he heals up and doesn't suffer. I must have pulled just a touch at the shot. I had been holding at full draw for well over a minute. And I just barely nicked a small twig at the shot. I just hope he heels up

[wages]

I did the same sort of thing a few years back, in rifle season.
I clipped a small sprout that was 10-15 yds in front of a buck I was shooting at. The bullet deflected, but still hit him. Knocked a pile of hair off, and a bit of blood. I could tell right away I'd hit his front leg/shoulder, but I had no idea if it went deep enough to kill him.

So I got up the next morning at dawn and watched the crows. They were all headed in one of two directions, so I followed them to both destinations. One spot there was a gut shot doe, the other place was a gut pile where a neighbor had got one.

I went back a week later, and did the same thing just to see if the crows woud lead me to another spot in case it had taken the poor fella a while to die. But I didn't find him.

If he's down the crows will have found him. And even though you looked for him, depending on the terain you may have overlooked him. If the shot was fatal you may at least recover the rack. If it wasn't it might make you feel better to know he survived.

[Steverino]

Don't feel bad Trex,

When you're in the heat of the moment, it sure gets tough. You deliberately waited to present a better shot placement and you can play "Monday Morning QB" on your shot til the cows come home but that's hunting. You backed off for awhile and then resumed your search after getting help and got on the animal-all good stuff.

I know how you feel though-I lost a nice, mature doe last year (can't even imagine losing a nice buck like it sounded that you shot on) that made me sick for over a week.

On the brighter side, I have seen deer with what has looked like arrow and or slug wounds many times-especially in their shoulder areas, that seem to heal and get along just fine.

I agree with Wages that it would definately be worth heading back and watching for birds and listening for coyotes (if you have them in your parts) Good luck and don't beat yourself up too awful bad!

[rickjordan]

I did the same thing years ago- I shot a nice eight pointer at about 140 yards with a 3006 and didn't take into account the angle of the deer's body and paunched him. I looked the better part of two days because I was SO sure I made a good shot and hit him hard. He went 3/4 of a mile and laid down by a brook- I found him 2 weeks later. Makes me sick to think 4 inches forward and he drops after 50-100 yards and leaves a good blood trail. Still shaking my head over that deer. All I found was two tuffs of hair from entrance and exit wounds and a small piece of intestine. The hair was body hair and part of the reason I was so sure I made a good shot.

[trex]

Thanks everyone. Went out this evening for the first time since the buck incident. Nada. Not a thing except for a grey fox. I heard some deer snorting. Man were they rasing kain. I couldn't figure out why they were snorting until the fox stepped out. Made sense then. Hopefully get enough stuff done so that I can go tomorrow evening. Thought for sure I'd see something this evening as cool as it was. The wind breezed up a bit and I felt like it was swirling a bit. Probably didn't help my cause the way I was set up. Sure is pretty out there with the leaves changing and all!