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Losing a big one: that feeling like you're gonna hurl
The rut was absolutely turned off last night.
I rattled, had an estrus candle out and a small buck showed up at last light...to eat. The good news was that a major cold snap was set to hit this morning and it came through as promised. It was 30 degrees with frost on the ground when I got to my spot. The conditions were ripe for the rut to kick in like magic. I hung a new stand last night after seeing too many deer come through this spot to sit anywhere else. I lit the estrus candle and climbed into my stand. It was 5 minutes into legal daylight when I decided it was bright enough to see and proceeded to rattle.
As God is my witness, I didn't get to rattle for 5 seconds when I heard brisk footsteps in the leaf litter below. It was clearly a deer, but it wasn't overwhelmingly loud enough to make me think it was anything special. Whatever it was, it came out of the trees extremely close to and I could see the body pass just 13 yards in front of my through heavy cover. When the deer finally stepped out, it was a no-doubt shooter.
I had already pre-lasered the field edge at various points and he was 30 yards out to my eye. I drew while he was preoccupied trying to figure out who to fight and shortly thereafter let one rip.
*THUMP*
The sound was good on impact and he ran to cover about 140 yards away. I let him sit for 30 minutes before even climbing down. When I got down, I saw a nice scape at the base of my tree that was not there the night prior. I checked my nearby trail cam to see if he had been through earlier that night. Sure enough...
A short walk to the sight of the shot turned up a completely bloody arrow that I turned on end for tracking purposes. At the time, it was bright red and covered with blood (darkened as it dried by the time I snapped this pic).
The track was on and blood turned up bright red along a path of rubs.
I was on the trail with my landowner, a co-worker, my dog and...nothing. Over 6 hours of searching turned up no deer. The trail went from great, to absolutely nothing in 250 yards into the woods. I was at a loss. The shot felt great, the shot sounded great, the blood looked good, but nothing turned up. All I know is that this one stung.
I rattled, had an estrus candle out and a small buck showed up at last light...to eat. The good news was that a major cold snap was set to hit this morning and it came through as promised. It was 30 degrees with frost on the ground when I got to my spot. The conditions were ripe for the rut to kick in like magic. I hung a new stand last night after seeing too many deer come through this spot to sit anywhere else. I lit the estrus candle and climbed into my stand. It was 5 minutes into legal daylight when I decided it was bright enough to see and proceeded to rattle.
As God is my witness, I didn't get to rattle for 5 seconds when I heard brisk footsteps in the leaf litter below. It was clearly a deer, but it wasn't overwhelmingly loud enough to make me think it was anything special. Whatever it was, it came out of the trees extremely close to and I could see the body pass just 13 yards in front of my through heavy cover. When the deer finally stepped out, it was a no-doubt shooter.
I had already pre-lasered the field edge at various points and he was 30 yards out to my eye. I drew while he was preoccupied trying to figure out who to fight and shortly thereafter let one rip.
*THUMP*
The sound was good on impact and he ran to cover about 140 yards away. I let him sit for 30 minutes before even climbing down. When I got down, I saw a nice scape at the base of my tree that was not there the night prior. I checked my nearby trail cam to see if he had been through earlier that night. Sure enough...
A short walk to the sight of the shot turned up a completely bloody arrow that I turned on end for tracking purposes. At the time, it was bright red and covered with blood (darkened as it dried by the time I snapped this pic).
The track was on and blood turned up bright red along a path of rubs.
I was on the trail with my landowner, a co-worker, my dog and...nothing. Over 6 hours of searching turned up no deer. The trail went from great, to absolutely nothing in 250 yards into the woods. I was at a loss. The shot felt great, the shot sounded great, the blood looked good, but nothing turned up. All I know is that this one stung.
Accuracy: because white space between bullet holes drives me insane.
Replies
At least we saw that one a day later with nothing but a bloody side, grazing like nothing ever happened!
Jerry
Sorry it didn't happen for you brother..that sucks looks like a dandy.
All you can do is put it out of your mind and press on, because nobody is ever going to be perfect.
Easier to track a camel through the eye of a needle
Anybody that hunts long enough can empathize
I'm guessing you made a high lung shot. The chest cavity bled out, which accounts for the bright red blood and amount of blood you found early. Then most of the blood from the chest has emptied out and the chest cavity will have to fill up again before you get any more blood out of the wound. It might even be a single lung hit. Regardless, I concur with you that there's probably a dead buck not far from where you lost the trail.
It's good that you're going out to look again? Maybe he'll be laying dead fairly close by. The meat will probably be ruined, but at least you could salvage something. Do you have crows and/or ravens in the area? They're pretty good at finding carrion.
Good luck, and sorry for the bad results.
Gun control laws make about as much sense as taking ex-lax to cure a cough.
I agree with the high-lung assessment, and last season, a buttonbuck that I aimed and shot slightly high with my crossbow made for one helluva tough tracking job just a 120 yard path. Thankfully, I found him.
The good news is that yes, we have buzzards and crows here that don't hesitate to circle nicely around anything dead. I fully expect to have them giving me a major clue as to where he went down when I arrive this evening. I'm waiting to find him 50 yards or less from where the blood ended.
Indeed. I didn't find a thing searching for him. However, there is was a VERY similar looking buck in the neighboring field tonight. This one looked close enough that I had to wonder if the deer I shot the other day lived. He was out there with yet another bruiser who, while not as wide, was much taller in the antlers. If I didn't get him, hopefully he lived and may present another chance.
What was odd was that neither of these big bucks displayed rutting behavior like the one I shot the other day. They were both 175 - 200 yards away. I rattled when their heads were masked so they couldn't see me, and both just went about calmly eating. I could make out on raise his head curiously for about 10 seconds, but that was about it. Hopefully, these guys are just a few days away from getting fired up. We have another cold snap coming Wednesday, so hopefully they will all be chasing by then.
Your neighbour must have been to the cpj hunts course if he shot him for hours................
Sorry to read this Luis. I had that same feeling about 2 months ago, Was hunting for a meat animal for the Take A kid Hunting BBQ with Bloodhound. Sprung a doe that ran off a ways and stopped as it crested a ridge in thick bush. Fired and knew that it was a solid hit but the animal crested the ridge and vanished. Luckily Bloodhound was in a position to see what happened to it...........it ran 30yds and dropped. He only spotted it cos as it kicked its last he saw a fern frond making like a helicopter rotor...........and there was no wind at the time. Luckily for me cos there were only a couple of blood spots at the spot the doe stood when I fired and they soon petered out.
The few minutes of that feeling was enough for me to question a lot of things..........including whether I would continue hunting.
I've lost deer that I would have bet anything they would be found and I've found deer I was sure were lost...
Honestly, I really do hope something like this happened. My hope is that if he didn't die cleanly, he lived another day and bred.
I was extremely confident when I found the arrow and saw the quality of the blood. I thought that there was a big, dead buck just a handful of yards past the field edge. The reality couldn't have been further from the truth.
The only comparably unreal loss of a deer for me happened after I put a shot on an early season doe from my climber. After waiting a bit, I started climbing down. Within a few feet of the bottom, a major rainstorm started up and was screwed. By the time I got the bottom, it was a downpour and the blood trail was gone. I was in total disbelief at what had just happened. Never found that deer either.