By now it very last shooting light, and this deer was right in Cade's "money shot" range....something had to "give"...and soon!
She turned right.....I whispered "shoot"....but I don't think it was necessary....Cade was already starting to draw.....the Lil' Slammer "Guapo" arched to a fully loaded position and with a dull twang the arrow sprung from Cade's hand like an orange missile.....I was concentrating on the deer....
I barely saw the arrow, but knew by the sound, and by the reaction of the deer.....Cade had made a solid hit....but I honestly didn't know where he'd hit it....
At impact, the deer buckled, tucked it's tail and took off in a low run......"you hit her Cade, but I couldn't tell where"!!!!!
To that he answered...."I hit her real good Daddy! It looked almost perfect! I know it was in the chest!"
The deer hit the woods with a crash, and almost instantly everything went silent.....
With that, I about lost it.....I was shaking so bad, I was glad I was sitting down!
I asked Cade a couple more time if he was sure what he saw? He even said one time that if he wasn't in the lungs, he was for sure in the liver, but was 99% sure he'd hit the lungs. He was convinced he'd made a good shot....and he'd convinced me now as well. We were excited beyond words....but it would get even better.
We sat for a while and laughed at each other as we watched each other shake so bad....amazing!
After we calmed down enough, maybe 15minutes after the shot, we climbed down and as quietly as possible packed up. Then I went out into the orchard to check the spot of the shot....
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Instant blood! Oh my!!!!
To make us wait a bit more we walked back to the truck to move it a little closer.
Soon we were back....maybe a half hour since the shot.....we started along the trail.....5yds into it....
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About 20yds. into it....
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The blood was there, but not exactly gushing out. Cade was shooting a little 2 blade, and I'm used to seeing bloodtrails from my deer after I put a big 3 blade through them....I hoped this perceived..."lack of blood" was just a product of his equipment....we followed along and after about 30yds we hit the edge of the woods were she entered...again, there was blood, but not a lot...we continued into the woods....
It was slow going, but 20yds into the woods my Wensel Bros. Main Beam light hit something bright orange....the arrow!!!!
It had blood, broadhead to nock, and blood soaked feathers!
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To be honest, it looked more "livery" than lung. But we still had blood, Cade had me convinced the shot was good......so we continued....at this point we were about 50yds into the trail.....
Another slow 20yds Cade was getting worried, and honestly, I was too a bit. I explained to him how easy it is to miss things at night with only the help of a flashlight......"we'll try a little bit more, but if we don't find it soon, we'll have to back out and I'll come back in the morning".....I really didn't want to have to do that!
He understood as the blood was getting real hard to follow. Another tough 20yds and we'd lost the blood again.....we both searched close to the last drop found. Cade was about 5yds. to my right with his head down looking....I swept my flashlight beam forward and caught "something"....
My heart jumped into my throat as I got my binos up and lined up my flashlight.....white belly, dead deer!!!!!!! OMG!!!!!
As calmly as I could, I whispered to Cade that I'd found blood, and he needed to come over....
He said..... "where daddy"... I said right here, and I think there's something up ahead.....he looked up, I lined my flashlight up an he saw "his deer"!!!!!
I'll never be able to put this part into words...
he about knocked me over as he jumped up to hug me tighter than he ever has! He kept repeating...."we did it daddy, we did it daddy"....an unbelievable, indescribable feeling for us! Somehow I kept the tears back! Not sure how, because anyone that knows me, knows how I am!
We started toward the deer....
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I don't know how many times we hugged, kissed, and told each other how much we loved the other....he'd done it!
As soon as we walked up to it, we could see that he'd hit it a bit higher than he thought....and when we rolled her over we could see the had re-directed back a bit and exited back slightly and was clogged with fat.....
High entrance, clogged exit....that explained the lack of blood....
We dragged her out to the orchard for pix....
Not a happier boy on the face of the earth last night!!!
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