Congrats John! Wish my week went better.
I connected on a very nice 8 pt. Saturday morning. He was chasing a doe that was running past me. I snorted at him to stop him and, in my mind's replay, I know I rushed the shot. (BTW I was about 14 feet up in a ladder stand) I quickly drew and released. I'm not even sure I drew all the way back. (mistake #2) Anyway, the shot was a bit high, straight up from the armpit. It only went in about 8-10". Didn't hit lung but I'm sure of an arterial hit from the blood. (I was using some vintage Bear Razorheads and my BBO "Nightmare") Anyhow, he ran off about 80 yards downhill and stopped for about 30 seconds. I could clearly see blood running down his side. He then slowly walked off over the point of the next hill after crossing a ditch. He had broken the arrow off at the broadhead when he crossed the ditch. I gave him a couple hours before taking up the trail with a friend and my brother.
The initial blood trail looked like someone threw cups of bright red blood everywhere. The was a large pool of blood where he stopped and a lot of blood wherever he traveled. He ended up following a ridge above the steep bank leading down to the creek. We found where he had turned downhill towards the creek. I was making my way downhill, all the while telling the guys to slow down, when my brother had gotten way out in front of us and jumped the buck from his bed near a deadfall where he had left another large pool of blood. Too bad, because I may have been able to put another arra in him. So then he runs back uphill and we loose sight of him where he should have run across a fire break or doubled back towards us. He lost a blood clot about halfway up the hill and was bleeding again. When he reached the firebreak/4 wheeler path, the blood stopped. No blood on the path. He didn't cross the field because he would've painted the grass red. He didn't go right because we would've seen him. We looked for hours for more blood but never found another drop. My brother even climbed up a tree to watch for him in case we jumped him again. Nothing. Needless to say, I was just sick about it. The weather turned very sour Saturday night/Sunday with tornados just north of us and rain and high winds where we were and I had to get back home Sunday. Hopefully, some of our friends will find him or he'll heal up.
Topic: Deer Camp 2005 (Read 6137 times)
