So, here I am with a 5 point buck at about four yards directly opposite the tree from me. He isn't the biggest deer in the woods, but my heart was pounding! This was the best chance I had been given in 6 years on our yearly trad deer hunt. The deer had read the script and I was completely ready. I just needed him to take about few more steps and I would be good to shoot. Everything looked PERFECT!
He stood opposite of me for about 5 seconds and then started his slow walk into my shooting lane. When He hit my 1st shooting lane I thought about stopping him, but then decided to shoot while he was walking. I pointed my bow, drew to anchor and the next thing I know my fletching is sticking out the side of his chest. The shot is a little bit back and low, but definitely in his chest cavity. There was no doubt in my mind he was not going far. I watched him run up a little rise and lost him in the brush. Everything went quiet for about 20-30 seconds and then I heard a loud crash. HE WAS DOWN! I couldn't see him in the brush, but I knew it was over. I started shaking and my knees wanted to give out a little bit.
I texted my wife and a few of the guys to let them know. By the time I got down from the stand it was almost dark so I went to get help. I figured that would also give the buck plenty of time to expire if he wasn't already dead.
I headed back to the truck to get help from Matt and I met Larry there as well. I sent them back to camp to grab help and some food since I was starving. Jimmy and Rob showed up before Matt could get back and we slowly started the walk back into my stand area. We walked slowly trying to wait for the other guys. They showed up a few minutes later.
Once everyone was assembled, I led them back into the woods. We were going to find the buck I was sure was laying just up the rise from my stand site. We started following a decent blood trail up the rise and approached the spot where I knew my buck had fallen.
He certainly had fallen there as we found evidence of that, but he wasn't there? I was completely perplexed. Then we saw more blood leaving from that spot. Okay, surely he just went a few more yards and we would find him any second. That isn't what happened though. The blood trail just kept going with no sign of him having bedded down. Now I was worried. I knew the shot was not perfect lungs, but it was undoubtedly into his chest. The blood seemed to indicate a liver hit. I did double check the shot placement pics on here and the pics show a liver hit as well. We followed the blood trail onto a main travel corridor and it began to get more and more sparse. I couldn't believe it. Eventually the blood stopped completely and we called off the search until the next morning.
The next morning Rob and I headed out to trail the buck. We found the arrow and it had worked completely through the buck and fallen out about where I had heard him fall. The arrow indicated a good hit and there was no paunch material on it. The hit was just as I figured. It went into the chest cavity, but slightly low and back. I had seen many bucks fall to that shot on bow hunting shows in the past. Especially with a sharp 4 blade head. I felt we had a decent enough chance to find him. I'm convinced now it was a liver hit.
Then we started seeing fresh coyote scat and tracks on the blood trail. Not good...
**I need to say a huge thank you to Rob for giving up his morning hunt to help me blood trail this deer.