This week was most likely my last to chase antelope. Sunday I leave for my 2 week elk hunt. Went out this afternoon after my landowner buddy Nick told me he was covered up in goats while spraying in the fields. 5 mins into my hunt I shot this buck.
Saw him crossing the field by himself. I Pulled into the far side and parked. He still kept coming, so keeping the truck between him and me, I ran out 30 yds and staked my decoy so he could see it. He still kept coming. So using my truck as cover I hid behind the back end, and sure enough he walks right by at around 35-40 yds, and I shot. I must have hit him back, because he runs 50 yds (out to about 75 from me)and stops. I shoot again but miss. He runs another 30 and beds down. I'm literally sitting against the tire of my truck waiting for his head to go down..... keeping my fingers crossed! Can't believe that worked.....
Good luck!
Believe me - if they aren't almost done they can go a very, very long way. Talking miles. So don't rush things.
Take a nap or just chill.
Hoping for good news....
Good luck. "Post" pics once you get him!
The fact he got up means it might barely be liver - likely further back. Usually if it's liver they don't get up at all.
All I can say is until he puts his head down for a long time don't approach him. Then wait even a longer.
If he keeps his head up he's still too strong to approach.
OR
If you are in phenominal shape you can chase him all over kingdom come. However, I don't reco that approach.
We watched him for an hour and he could barely keep his head up, would rock backward and looked like he couldn't even stand.
We decided to finish things off and stalked closer with Xbow. An adult could have easily finished him, but young daughter needs to rest Xbow on shooting sticks and takes a little time to get all set up to shoot.
Bottom line is he went from looking too weak to stand to walking over a mile before we could circle him to finish him off.
I suspected it would happen, and we pushed sooner than I normally would have since it was wide open and I knew we wouldn't lose him.
But as we all know, DO NOT PUSH HIM. Just sit tight and wait it out unless you are confident that you can crawl closer for a shot and not bump him.
Carl
Nick is 150 yds with the sprayer and the buck senses something isn't right. I draw, center my pin,....
smarba's Link
My daughter's buck I described above would roll his head/neck backward so that his horns nearly touched the ground behind him, which REALLY looked like he was at his last gasp, yet he got up and walked a mile when pushed.
And as Bou pointed out all it did was prolong the situation. In our case we knew that she could use rifle if needed (rifle tag) and we were trying to wrap things up to hit the road and get back home earlier so that she could make it to school the next day. Had it been an archery tag I would not have pushed him and I'm 100% certain he would have died in his bed.
For anyone interested, I've included a link to the story. Perhaps it will help deerslayer pass the time.
Carl
Carl
Looks like it could have been a long wait with only the first shot. But you used your brains and patience made the best of a difficult situation. And that's part of hunting.
You made the right call to put him out of his misery as soon as possible.
First time in at least 10 years plus that I’ve taken an animal to the meat processor, but between the heat (almost 80), work, prep for my elk hunt, and a Thurs-Friday deer hunt, I figured I was better off having the butcher do it. Hopefully I don’t get too comfortable with him doing it, or might have to do it more often! ;)
You can see the entry hole in the last pic.... Low right... came out the bottom of his belly, back in thru the leg, and back out again. Total of 4 holes... 2" 3 blade mech. Bad head choice for elk, good for lopes.
Certainly not thrilled about the 1st shot, but glad I could put the sneak on for the finisher. Hopefully I have the jitters out now before next weeks elk hunt!
He isn't big, obviously, and there's a lot more around, (In fact Nick saw 2 this morning that he said were reall nice) but the thing for me is I don't have goats real high on my priority list. This was only the second time in the month that seasons been open that I went out. With deer and elk open now, lopes really take a back seat, so I'm very happy to fill the tag and get some good eats out of the deal.
deerslayer aka.... Happy hunter ;)
Mark
Interesting thing happened to me once. I shot a buck. Broadside shot. Shot looked perfect. He ran hard and I could see blood in the arm pit. Bedded down 100 yards away.
He went and bedded. I knew best was to wait. I sat and watched him for 7 hours. After that I knew something was wrong. So I attempted a stalk. But saw me got up and ran and then bedded again. I tried Another stalk and the same thing happened. So I backed off and watched him until dark. He would put his head down once in awhile and I thought he was done then he would pop his head back up. Darkness came.
I came back in the morning expecting him to be dead. Found him standing up. Made a stalk he saw me at 120 yards and ran dead run for a mile. I learned that day there are times when you should wait and there are other times when you need to run them down.
Good job on your buck!
You did the right thing waiting and by the sounds of it sounds like you got enough liver to hurt him bad.
