titlewave
Senior Member
Back at my desk trying my best to cope and type at the same time this horrible story to try and ease the pain a tad.
Second day of seasons started with crazy cold rain and wind and i decided just to sleep in as i was slightly sick already and didn't want to freeze to death. Left the cabin at noon to drive 40 min to the property and walked in just after the front and rain stopped.
The wind picked up to 25 mph and it dropped to 20 quickly.I sat in a tiny drain ditch up near a hwy with trucks passing every second making all kinds of noise which was great because i could stop coughing. Around 4 pm I saw the first doe way out in the field at 325 yards with no shot . I am watching her because she keeps looking back , and i was thinking there was a buck coming but none appeared.
At 4;30 or so i am looking left then pan to my right where i have a 130 yard shot and there is a doe that appeared out of no where and she is staring at my chair blind knowing something is not right . Behind her , was King kong just walking with his doe 35 or so yard behind her.
No i am in a panic to get my shotgun out the tiny zipper window , which i finally do as this buck is walking at me , then i cant see because my scope was covered by the window so i slid it out sideways and looked at this giant who at this point had stopped and turned his neck and head and was staring me down at seventy yards.
I centered up on front shoulder neck trying to knock him down right there and let the shot fly. The deer buckled and ran with his chest low to the ground till he caught himself and ran 3 legged dragging the one leg like a noodle to 275 yards where i had no shot as i was only sighted to 200 . Despite this i tried to wing another shot at him as a truck passed but missed and figured i may spook him more or off property so i watched him.
He stood there for a few minutes then started to death wobble left then right , then almost fell down and caught himself. Once he caught himself he attempted to lay down in teh field and when his belly hit the ground hit willed himself back up and hobbled to the edge of the wood line where he stood for another minute or so before wobbling left and catching himself and darting 100 mph into teh wood line at a angle very low to the ground.
At this point i packed up and headed to the spot he stood and wobbled and found two huge spots of blood , then marked it and went back to the cabin thinking i just shot my first super booner deer with a 400 grain slug , he's done !
We decided to let him sit over night to make sure he was dead and went back at 6 am to start the search. We found heavy blood into the woods and then to a fence he jumped . On the other side of the fence we found blood and bones and followed the blood trail to the first bed which was covered in frozen blood. From there we followed to bed 2 , 20 yards away and more blood and followed it to bed three with less blood now at the bottom of a small lake dam in some super thick stuff.
At this exact moment i hear something above us and its my buck and he stands up and looks at me , and hobbled off before i could get a shot off. So we travel carefully around both sides of the block trying to see if we can get a shot or see where he is going and find a fresh blood trail up the hill toward the end of the block of woods he was in. At the top of the trail i found three 1 inch pieces of bone and a puddle of bone fragments blood and then absolutely nothing , not one speck or anything anywhere else.
We got permission for the other land owners to search the edge of the block trying to find where he may have crossed and found nothing , we walked around the entire block and surrounding fields and ditches and found nothing at all , almost like he just got on a spaceship at the top of the hill at the last blood and went back to mars.
I paid a dog tracker to come in later that day and got super excited when the dog followed last blood into a thick that was so large a human could enter. About 5 minutes in the dog goes crazy and the tracker says he has my dead and its dead because the dog wont leave. We dig through the thicket and find finally the dog is in a hole digging for ground hogs ( great deer dog ). Despite this i could swear i smelt buck in that thicket but just couldn't see anything.
After spending an entire day trying i had no choice but to drive back to Atlanta , in my truck all night arriving beat down in every manner. My only hope is Buzzards and the property owner who said he walks his property all the time and he will continue to look for my deer as will other hunters we know who hunt around the block. The other though which is a possibility is this monster ate and shoot off a 400 grain 12 gauge slug and will be there next year ?
In any case i had to share my story to help ease the pain a tad , which putting this to words has done. See most people just don't understand or care about what i am going through as they think we are stupid for sitting in trees for hours on end to kill helpless deer. It is with out the most bitter pill i have ever swallowed ever !
maybe Kansas can cure it as rifle season starts dec 2nd and i will be there with my trusty .308 looking to avenge my loss.
Second day of seasons started with crazy cold rain and wind and i decided just to sleep in as i was slightly sick already and didn't want to freeze to death. Left the cabin at noon to drive 40 min to the property and walked in just after the front and rain stopped.
The wind picked up to 25 mph and it dropped to 20 quickly.I sat in a tiny drain ditch up near a hwy with trucks passing every second making all kinds of noise which was great because i could stop coughing. Around 4 pm I saw the first doe way out in the field at 325 yards with no shot . I am watching her because she keeps looking back , and i was thinking there was a buck coming but none appeared.
At 4;30 or so i am looking left then pan to my right where i have a 130 yard shot and there is a doe that appeared out of no where and she is staring at my chair blind knowing something is not right . Behind her , was King kong just walking with his doe 35 or so yard behind her.
No i am in a panic to get my shotgun out the tiny zipper window , which i finally do as this buck is walking at me , then i cant see because my scope was covered by the window so i slid it out sideways and looked at this giant who at this point had stopped and turned his neck and head and was staring me down at seventy yards.
I centered up on front shoulder neck trying to knock him down right there and let the shot fly. The deer buckled and ran with his chest low to the ground till he caught himself and ran 3 legged dragging the one leg like a noodle to 275 yards where i had no shot as i was only sighted to 200 . Despite this i tried to wing another shot at him as a truck passed but missed and figured i may spook him more or off property so i watched him.
He stood there for a few minutes then started to death wobble left then right , then almost fell down and caught himself. Once he caught himself he attempted to lay down in teh field and when his belly hit the ground hit willed himself back up and hobbled to the edge of the wood line where he stood for another minute or so before wobbling left and catching himself and darting 100 mph into teh wood line at a angle very low to the ground.
At this point i packed up and headed to the spot he stood and wobbled and found two huge spots of blood , then marked it and went back to the cabin thinking i just shot my first super booner deer with a 400 grain slug , he's done !
We decided to let him sit over night to make sure he was dead and went back at 6 am to start the search. We found heavy blood into the woods and then to a fence he jumped . On the other side of the fence we found blood and bones and followed the blood trail to the first bed which was covered in frozen blood. From there we followed to bed 2 , 20 yards away and more blood and followed it to bed three with less blood now at the bottom of a small lake dam in some super thick stuff.
At this exact moment i hear something above us and its my buck and he stands up and looks at me , and hobbled off before i could get a shot off. So we travel carefully around both sides of the block trying to see if we can get a shot or see where he is going and find a fresh blood trail up the hill toward the end of the block of woods he was in. At the top of the trail i found three 1 inch pieces of bone and a puddle of bone fragments blood and then absolutely nothing , not one speck or anything anywhere else.
We got permission for the other land owners to search the edge of the block trying to find where he may have crossed and found nothing , we walked around the entire block and surrounding fields and ditches and found nothing at all , almost like he just got on a spaceship at the top of the hill at the last blood and went back to mars.
I paid a dog tracker to come in later that day and got super excited when the dog followed last blood into a thick that was so large a human could enter. About 5 minutes in the dog goes crazy and the tracker says he has my dead and its dead because the dog wont leave. We dig through the thicket and find finally the dog is in a hole digging for ground hogs ( great deer dog ). Despite this i could swear i smelt buck in that thicket but just couldn't see anything.
After spending an entire day trying i had no choice but to drive back to Atlanta , in my truck all night arriving beat down in every manner. My only hope is Buzzards and the property owner who said he walks his property all the time and he will continue to look for my deer as will other hunters we know who hunt around the block. The other though which is a possibility is this monster ate and shoot off a 400 grain 12 gauge slug and will be there next year ?
In any case i had to share my story to help ease the pain a tad , which putting this to words has done. See most people just don't understand or care about what i am going through as they think we are stupid for sitting in trees for hours on end to kill helpless deer. It is with out the most bitter pill i have ever swallowed ever !
maybe Kansas can cure it as rifle season starts dec 2nd and i will be there with my trusty .308 looking to avenge my loss.
