The picture above was taken by my trail camera. I was perched in another tree off to the left of the photo.
As if scripted, the bigger buck walked closer toward me before turning broadside, then slightly quatering away. Completely unaware at 15 yards, I couldn't ask for a better opportunity. After beginning my draw the rest of the shot seemed to be on autopilot. A very faulty autopilot as it turns out. I can't say I remember anchoring, aiming or pulling through. The next thing I remember was my arrow smacking the deer in the right rear leg!!!
What the heck??? I've never missed a shot so badly in my life!!!! Totally disgusted with myself I could only helplessly watch as he ran off with the arrow imbedded in his lower hip. He stopped and looked back for a bit before slowly walking off into the thick red willows of my marsh.
I was literally sick. Animals don't deserve that kind of treatment and I felt aweful to be the sole cause of it.
I had still only been in the stand for about 45 minutes, and headed back to the house to figure out what to do next. A phone call to a good friend venting my frustrations and berating myself led to a more calm discussion on the next best course of action. Even though the hit was horrible and the chance of recovery nil, I had the obligation to follow it up. My best hope was that when he got into the thick willow cover the arrow might pull out intact, the blood flow would clot, and he would live to see another season.
I have a Boykin Spaniel named Arlo that lives to blood trail deer. After dark I took him down to where I had last seen the buck. Blood sign was good, but of course everything I found was going to be all there was. There would be no body cavity filling up with blood.
Shortly after entering the willows I found my arrow. The broadhead itself was missing and had broken off at the adapter. Twenty five yards past that I heard the deer jump from its bed and crash off throught impossibly thick willows. We trailed to his bed, and the blood trail continued past it. Arlo was as hot on the trail as I have ever seen him and I struggled to hang on to his lead. I use a 30 length of rope for trailing and knew that I didn't dare let go of it for a second or he would be gone.
Everything I knew (which isn't much) about blood trailing a muscle hit deer is to keep them moving and hopefully the blood flowing. We continued on as fast as I could possibly go through the thick cover. The trail crossed a ditch and then a fenceline into a picked corn field. We could make better time out there and were nearly running on the track.
I shined my flashlight ahead and saw deers eyes reflected back to me maybe 150 yards across the stubble at the edge of a brushy fenceline. To far to identify if it might be the buck, but the blood was leading us toward the eyes. As we approached closer the buck suddenly got up and loped across in front of us at 40 yards. He was obviously hurting to let us get so close. He made a wide cirle and headed back toward my little marsh.
We followed back across the original blood trail, crossing at the same spot on the ditch. Arlo had no trouble staying on the fresher trail. Continuing on as fast as we could on to our neighbors property, the trail was still very good with plenty of blood. As we entered a section of tall marsh grass the buck once again jumped from a bed only 15 yards in front of us. He had to be getting weak. I know that I was!
He was now headed toward the road. I stopped for a short break to give Arlo (and myself) a chance to catch our breath. I again called my buddy to discuss what his thoughts were on what to do in a situation like this. We both felt the only hope was to keep pushing on.
Forty or so yards past our rest stop we came on to the buck in his final bed. The nightmare was over for both the buck and I.
As I said at the start of this thread, I am not proud of what happened last night. I am happy to have ended up with a great buck, but it will always be tainted with remorse over a shot poorly executed on my part.
The lessons we need to take from this are to follow up every hit, no matter how slim the chance of recovery may be. Secondly, be as knowledgable as you can possibly be on how to follow up different hits after the shot. When I came back to the house to get Arlo I actually got online and found a great short tip sheet to use on following up wounded deer from DeerSearch.com
http://deersearchflc.com/RecoveryTips.pdf I have a copy printed out and will be carrying it with me in the future. It will go in a pocket of an orange vest that I have set up specifically for blood trailing. Some of the other items that I have in the vest are flashlights and batteries, knife, toilet paper for marking trails, gps, gloves, hat, and of course Arlo's harness and leash. Having a seperate vest or at least a bag prepacked with everything you might need helps to make sure you are not stuck out on a trail without something that you wish you had remembered to pack.
Topic: Better Lucky Than Good (Read 2443 times)
