The shot felt good. We called the shot to be at the bottom of the top third of her body, which is where we wanted it. It was a little back. Guru told me before I shot that I had to get that tree out of my mind or I would hit her too far back. Well, Guru, I guess my internal computer just didn't completely delete that tree out of the shot sequence.
I made Mr. Clean hit her a little bit back, as I said, but not much. It looked like I was several ribs in from the back, but not as close to the shoulder as I wanted. The boys thought I probably took off the back of the lungs and probably got some liver in their too.
After the hit, the doe went hard, but only for about 20 yards. Then she slowed to a trot/walk and went over the rise to the North in the direction that she approached from.
The boys and I expected her to fall over - she didn't. She didn't hunch her back like a gut shot. I remembered Shaun's post from the other day and made sure to take note of her tail. It was up and down and up again. Not exactly 'flicking' like a gut shot and not down either. We all agreed that I hit her hard and we all were confident that we hadn't miscalled the shot, but with her behavior after the shot, I think all of us were second guessing ourselves.
She disappeared over the rise and I felt pretty confident that I knew where she would head. I explained the topography to the boys. I told them that over the rise where we last saw her, there are several trails to the bottom of the hollow. There is probably water in the litle creek in the bottom. On the other side of the hollow there is some thick stuff and on the top of that side of the hollow there is a bedding area. If you follow the hollow all the way out to the North there is a pond - but that is pretty far away. In the bottom of the hollow there are intermittent patches of cover from deafalls and brush.
The boys on the belly went into conference. They decided to leave me out of this one.
YLeeCoyote: "Gosh the shot looked good to me, she can't have gone far. I bet she's dead right on the other side of the rise."
OsageTree: "The shot did look good, but her reaction is telling me a different story - she's not dead yet".
Guru: "I bet she's going to get into that hollow and lay down in that creek . . . maybe work her way in the direction of this pond Ted is telling us about".
Razorbak: "She could go for that bedding area, but Ted said that hill is pretty steep she may not want to go up it if she's hit as hard as we think".
OsageTree: "Yep and hit deer go for water - I bet the bottom of the hollow is where she's headed."
YLeeCoyote: "Alright, Ted, here's what we're gonna do. Your going to sit down in that seat and you're going to eat reeses peanut butter cups until their gone. Then your gonna SLOWLY and QUIETLY get out of this tree, pack your stuff up and get it ready to leave. Then your going to take us over to the spot of the hit and Osage, Guru, Razor, and I are gonna pull some CSI moves".
. . . I comply with their demands and polish off about twenty minature reeses peanut butter cups . . . and Guru doesn't make any 'fat tree rat' comments this time.
The evidence at the shot site was pretty clear. The bottom half of the cedar shaft was stuck in the ground. No sign of the top half. There was white hair all over the ground and the arrow. Stomach contents were everywhere and everything smelled like guts. Without a doubt that arrow went through her stomach.
We figured maybe she was quartering towards us slightly because the shot didn't look like a gut shot.
Osagetree: "I'll tell you what we're going to do next. We're going to put an arrow on Mr. Clean we're going to trail her to the top of the rise where we last saw her and get a sense for this bloodtrail."
Guru: "Ted, it is critical that you are quiet - treat this like you are still hunting - the wind is right."
She was bleeding pretty good. There were nickle sized drops every few inches and sometimes several nickle sized drops. The blood trail was easy to follow.
When we got to the top of the rise, we pulled out the cheapo WalMart binocs and glassed into the hollow for awhile. No sign of her.
We took the trail a little further to make sure she was headed for the hollow bottom. She was. When we got to the next good vantage point where we could see a lot of the hollow, we sat down. At this point, we estimated we had taken the trail about 60-70 yards. We were a bit more than an hour after the shot.
The boys on the belly decided we needed another conference. I was instructed to glass the hollow while the boys contemplated our next move.
OsageTree: "This is simple . . . When in doubt, back out".
YLeeCoyote: "Yeah, but the shot looked good, she couldn't have gone far".
Razorbak: "I agree YLee, this deer isn't going to go far, but she might not be dead yet, we have to give her time."
Guru: "Guys, I don't mean to be practical here, but remember it is Thanksgiving and if this guy stays out in the woods all day, he is a dead man. His wife will end it."
OsageTree (who seemed to have assumed a leadership role in this little conclave): "My mind is made up, here is what we are doing. First, we are getting the heck out of here. It's cold and it's thanksgiving; there is no one in these woods to push her, it can't hurt to wait. We're going to have him drive home - appease the family by doing whatever Thanksgiving dinner chores need to be done and then we will come back at 3pm."
Guru: "I agree, this will give this deer 6 hours to die from the time of the shot. We will have two hours of daylight to find her AND he can get his camera and finally start taking some pictures of these goings on."
With that, we backed out - Razorbak reassuringly said "Don't worry Ted we're gonna get this one."
The next few hours were spent feigning interest in the mundane Thanksgiving feast preparation. My non-hunting, rum drinking brother was doing most of the cooking. The errands I chose were things like sharpening the carving knives, fixing a hole in the fence that the dogs were working on, I made a run to the store for celery because my brother couldn't bear the thought of stuffing without celery. I was as bored with this drudgery at the time as you are reading it now, but I had to do it and it kept my mind off of what I wanted to do.
When the time came I left the house and we were on my last blood by 3:00 just as OsageTree requested.
And I had my camera with me.
I will tell the rest of the story later as I am at work and the rest of the story is supplemented with pictures that I can only upload from home. I will probably not get back to it until around 10 or 11.
By the way - can anyone tell I am having a slow day at work? This is a lot of fun for me, I hope you guys are enjoying it.
Ted
Topic: Did Mr. Clean bring a dish to Thanksgiving dinner? (Read 8237 times)
