first lost deer - humbling day

[cunnij]

Yep. If you do this long enough you'll have a tale to tell. I have two of them. They haunt me at night. The best thing to do is get back up on that horse and ride.

I agree it was a backstrap hit. The arrow prolly passed right through but the shock knocked him down and when he figured out he was alive he got up and walked off. He'll likely heal up and be fine.

Here's hoping you run across him again before the season is over so you can finish what you started.

thanks and semper fi!

 

[krizia829]

was raining pretty steady opening day, had two nice bucks come in around 7:45AM - took a shot at the bigger one who was broadside to me and should have been a perfect shot - either he moved or my aim was off, hit him high in the shoulder, did not penetrate through (hit the scapula I guess) - he went down hard, arrow broke - he then crawled for a bit, then got up and walked/ran off...once I had come down out of the stand I found the broadhead and the nock ends of the arrow pretty close together, so he had nothing stuck inside him - blood trail got lighter and lighter until I couldn't find anymore - traced and re-traced and walked for about 2 hours and never found any sign of him. Besides feeling awful all day for losing a nice buck, I felt worse for not making a clean, ethical kill. It seems to me he probably survived though. Based on the above, is that wishful thinking, or does that sound accurate?

The exact same situation happened to me a few years back. Would've been my first bow buck. Wasn't a big one, he was a 5pt, he just had a badly broken back leg. Must've been hit by a car not long before. I felt terrible watching him drag that leg and decided to take the shot. Perfect 20 yard broadside shot opportunity.

I rushed my shot and hit him too far forward. Sounded like I hit plywood from how loud it was. He dropped then ran off with the arrow barely hanging in him and I knew it wasn't good. I had a small blood trail that my husband and I followed for almost 200 yards to the point that we were about to cross into the neighbors and it got way too thick for us to keep crawling through. The drops got smaller and smaller. I've never been so disappointed in myself and felt so sad for such a beautiful animal but their will to survive is unbelievable. I believe both yours and the one I shot at survived. It happens to all of us. It's part of the experience and all we can do is keep practicing and focus when taking a shot at another deer. Good luck this season!

 

[Hillbilly stalker]