Back at the house I told my story to the other guys and listened to there's. A couple of cold Cokes and we were out of there.
It had been an hour and that should be plenty.
We found first blood not far into the bean field and just before the spot where I'd seen the deer last.
Now we found more ten feet away.
It was rich red blood with signs of bubbles in it. Not as much as I would have liked but still a positive sign.
We moved that way for another 20 yards when the trail just dried up. At that point I was second guessing everything that had happened.
"Maybe I hit it too far back"! "Why did I use the Stinger Buzzcut instead of my Magnus I." "I'm sure I had the angle figured...or did I".
With nothing to lose I picked the row where we had last found blood and slowly moved along search for blood as I went.
That animal was heading for the woods a hundred yards distant. That's what they do. Head for cover when hurt.
It made sense to me that it would follow a row that went most directly to where it wanted to go and I was in it.
After another thirty yards my light reflected off the white between her hind legs. Phewwww!!!
I'd found no more blood.
It was apparent from the stiffness of her joints that she'd been dead since very shortly after the arrow hit her. It could have been a little farther forward, but was a very lethal hit anyway hitting liver and lungs.
Terry grabbed her and headed down the row toward the road. We'd clean her up, get a couple of pictures and take her back to the cabin for proper field dressing.