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the good,the bad,the ugly

i thought long and hard about posting a story about this past Saturdays hunt and figured that if somebody can learn from it , well....also , I didn't do any pictures because this isn't something im proud of and it wasn't pretty . I owe it to the deer.

beautiful hunting day Saturday ,weather wise you couldn't ask for a better day . this is the 2nd time I hit this spot .the stand is in a triple trunk oak . 9 is pipeline with hemlocks , 12 mixed oak flat , 3 stream ,laurels, swamp and 6 pricker bushes ,swamp .not to uber crazy with rubs n scrapes , but crap looks like a super highway .I got to the pull off around 5 , finish my coffee and a smoke start putting my stuff on.yiping all around me ,f@#king yotes ! Im debating about waiting for sunrise now,screw it , im bigger than them . a little crunchy walking in but not as bad as a few days ago .

false dawn I start hearing movement at my 9 .too dark still to see . sunrise 2 does @ my 9 feeding 100 yrds or so ,something big crashing @ my 3 in the swamp . rattling going on at two different locations in the swamp but too thick to see anything . when they would stop id give it a minute then rattle a bit , maybe pull something out. gun shots @ my 3 on the other side of the stream . I lost track of the does.

after it settles down a bit I went about goofing around with the live hunts and snackie snack time ,9 am im hungry.lean up against a trunk ,light a smoke,life is good . something running in from my 10 . big ass doe followed by a smaller big ass doe. put out my butt,slowly stand up,nock an arrow, range them and wait.80 yrds slowly closing. somethings not right with the smaller one . shes walking funny . watching her through the range finder it looks like shes having a hard time with her back right leg , not taking full steps and not putting her weight on it,also looks like a small patch of missing fur on her hip . 60 yrds @ my 12 . crap ,what to do ? the yotes will get her eventually .4o yrds @ my 2.. 35 yrds shes behind an oak head down..i draw,she steps out , mouth call..shit ! didn't stop her..30 yrds slight quartering away.head down,framed in by double trunk birch. perfect..aim for the opposite leg and let it fly..

just before the hit I see a small sapling shake..she gives out a blood curdling scream and a half hearted mule kick ? heart shot ? she runs off in the direction she came from , I loose sight when shes behind a tree.the suns coming up over the trees , its hard to see . a few minutes go by and she steps out from behind the tree hunched over walks a few feet and beds 70-80 yrds @my 10..30 yrds from pipeline. 45 minutes , shes still there . I decide to creep down and look for the arrow..a quick scan .no arrow,no lit nock,no fur,no blood. nothing.back to the stand.climb up,shes still there.... plan change..ease out the way I come in , walk the pipeline maybe get another shot. a) she'll spook towards the stream. b) path of least resistance, pipeline...im on the opposite side of the pipeline looking into the woods, suns in my eyes on the pipeline . I catch movement on the pipeline..its a deer running down..don't know if its her..cant see anything in the woods. I call my bro in law and we decide to head back to the truck ,he'll meet me there have a coffee and figure this out..on the way down I saw where she bedded on the pipeline..blood splatter the size of my hand.bright red . no yuk..a good 200 yrds from hit..tiny pin prick of blood every 5 ft or so. 50 yrds another splatter then trails off into the woods. I mark it ,head back to the truck..

while my bro in law ( Brian )with his crossbow and myself are planning this out , a gun hunter (Jessie )pulls up. we get to talking ,he offers his assistance. the more eyes the better..we get on the blood right away ,shes heading for the stream . 3 hrs since she was hit . we make it in about 20 yrds and a deer busts out from jessies right past me headed towards Brian . we make it up to this little nob and a deer busts from Brian towards Jessie . WTF ?.. on the nob we realize we're a couple of feet from the stream and those are deer on the other side.Jessie looks down and finds the back 10 " of my arrow full of blood to the vanes. we're standing there having a butt trying to figure how to cross when Jessie steps closer to the edge "WHAM" it sounded like someone dropped a vw in the water. a deer exploded from where he was going to step. it bolted to the other side and bedded down behind some rocks 70 yrds..now we know its her..Brian works his way down stream,crosses over and creeps to 30 yrds. he says her back is to him but its a do able shot. he raises his cross bow,fires..Jessie works his way across and says the deers heads down..i work my way over a few minutes later and both of them are standing there pointing towards the street..whats up I says..she got up and ran they says..no way !! ...yup , she ran another 50 yrds . as I walked up her breathing was slowing.. then stopped..i put another arrow in her just in case....so, as we were deciding on who was going to cut her throat to finally put her out of her misery ,she finally died..6 hrs from first hit.. poor animal , nothing should have to die like that.

while cleaning her up we checked out what hole did what.. because of the deflection ,my hit was low in front of back right leg up and out in back of left front leg missing all vitals. the intestines plugged the hole. 2nd arrow took out 1 lung ,3rd arrow hit lung heart.. all we needed now was somebody on a grassy knoll....after skinning we saw that her leg was broken a couple of inches away from the hip socket with spider cracks all in the hip . I guess that's why she was walking funny..

I still feel horrible about this, I thought I was doing a good thing . did I rush the shot ? was the lane not clear enough ? this is why I practice.I don't know how many times I played this over and don't know the answers . I guess I just wanted to show especially to the newer guys how things can go horribly wrong really fast .. I went back sunday to see if I can find the other half of the arrow. went from where she first bedded to the river , I couldn't find it.id hate to see another animal or person step on it...thanks Brian and Jessie..Spike78 you called it bud.

Look on the good side of things.. You recovered the deer. It is called Hunting for a reason. Everything is not going to go your way every time. We always want a quick clean kill, but we also know that will not always be the case.

Hey bud it happens u didn't do it on purpose (making her suffer) sometimes u just can't control things that happen same thing for me if u remember early in the season I swear I did everything. Right replayed the shot 100 times in my head went Back and replayed the shot the following day and I judged her at 28 she was 23 and hit her a little high I guess I'll never know the truth of it all. She wouldn't have made it with a broken leg bud no matter what the yotes prob had already gotten to her and she made it out of there but never would have had a chance. They r prob what broke her leg in the first place. Things happen and there isn't much we can do about it keep ur head up dude at least u were able to finally end it instead of never knowing.

Bro, I would suggest that you pull this thread down if possible. Fuel for anti's

Just a thought.

Bless you

how i do that??.didnt think of that

The most important thing is you care. That deer may have had a horrible time in the deep snow with that bad leg and could have gotten eaten alive by coyotes who knows? The antis know things go wrong so screw it keep the thread up as it shows everyone to do the best they can. Ive had a few times where i had zero blood after where the shot was and did circles for hours with no idea where it went and had to give up. If anything the antis will see we arent just in it for the kill after they read how sick we get over something like this. I think you did everything right, if you backed out till morning or evening I doubt you would have recovered it. Good job with the persistance, thats what matters in the end.

DON"T PULL IT.

This thread is a good example of perseverance. Even though a bad shot (not taken but because of deflection), you didn’t give up. I think a lot of people can learn from your examples and at the end, that deer would’ve suffer way more by being eaten alive by coyotes.

You did the ethical thing by shooting the sick looking deer instead of the fat ass bigger one.

Screw the fart bag antis. They think hunting is wrong period. You make a shot where the deer runs 5 yards and expires in 3 seconds, you are wrong in their eyes anyway.

More can be learned from this than a short trail, fast recovery story.

I would always try to take out a wounded deer whenever possible. I would also do everything I could to recover a wounded deer. It sounds like to me that you did everything you could under the circumstances. As someone else has already said, sometimes things can go wrong and it becomes nightmare time. You guys stuck with it and retrieved the deer. Kudos to you!

I agree with above to keep, takes a real man to post something like that, thanks for sharing. It will help some in the future. No one is perfect, we all make mistakes, as I have in the past. I didn't recover the first deer I ever shot last year, she ran 300 yards, think I hit in shoulder, blood all the way, then disappeared. I support you brother! Rob

Congratulations on getting your deer. Good hunting story, thanks for telling it.

Thankyou for the post. Hunting can be a solitary sport and its good to know everyone has challanges. You did the right thing with your shot choice. If you hadn't chose the injured deer your next shot would have probably been perfect. It was the choice of the injured one that made the diffrence.

Really glade you got her a lesser hunter would of gave up you did a good job .steve

Your intent was there and it was good. Don't beat yourself up. You did the right thing, sir.

Here is a follow up on my last post. On November 15th, my hunting partner and I were hunting together on Bridgewater. At sunset he texted me to say that he had shot a buck and was starting to trail it. I joined him and we tracked a decent bloodtrail for 2 hours before marking it and leaving it until the following morning.From the blood we figured the deer was hit in one lung and we would find him in the morning. The following morning we picked up the trail at 7:45 and at 10:45 we found our buck. At times the trail was easy to follow and at other times the deer went thru some nasty tickets and we were on our hands and knees following a drop here and there. Long story short is that we recovered that buck - a 185lb 11 pointer! Sometimes you just do what you have to do.

It is educational and not fodder for anti's. They don't come here, too much truth for them. They prefer to make s#$it up. Good that you kept on it. I have followed them over hill and dale also. About to give up, then find a speck. Cool you got it done.

You can be proud that you did your best to make a humane kill. Nothing to be ashamed of.

Notme,

you did everything right! Hitting the deer in the wrong spot was not your intent, and you showed your true respect for the animal by not giving up and letting it be torn apart by bobcats and coyotes hours later,.... a much more agonizing death.

As hunters we take responsibility for the animals we hunt and kill. Killing is NEVER pleasant, even on a clean one shot kill. Taking a life is a huge responsibility and you lived up to it!

Thank for posting something that will teach the inexperienced and less ethical hunter the right way to do things.

thanks guys..UR THE BEST !!

Good post, good story and don't take it down, because the "anti's" will always have a reason not to like hunters. If anything, it shows that most of us are ethical and we care about the value of life.

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