Lesson learned

[Shooter77]

After 26 years of hunting, i learned something new a few weeks back. Even though i'm always learning new things when it comes to hunting, this one was about not thinking you missed when the signs point that you did. I was hunting just across the line on my VA farm. about 7:30 I pick up my grunt tube and make a couple short grunts. I lay it down and hear a grunt behind me. I turn around and see a deer on the ridge line about 80 yards walking right to left. i pick up my gun and thru the brush see antler. Being the last day i get to hunt this farm this year, I decided to take any legal animal. i wait on him to come thru one small opening about 60 yards away and squeeze the round off. he just runs off with no reaction down the opposite side of the ridge. I don't hear a crash or anything. i decided to wait till about 8:30 before i get down because 2 years before i shot a buck chasing 4 does in the exact same spot and when i got down quickly, i actually jumped him and he ran off to the neighbors property and was shot there.

Here is view from my stand back to where he was walking down the ridge. I first spotted him to the right of the crooked tree and shot him at the low point of the skyline left of the tree.


I get down and go to where he was standing...all i find is some white hair, small tree broke over (by my bullet) and the dirt kicked up. Here's a pic of the spot going back toward my stand.


Hair & tree that I shot was on the back side of the buck.




i walked about 20 yards down the trail thru the brush and seen a small drop of blood about the size of a #2 eraser. continued about 15 yards before i got this amount of blood trail.


He ran about 70 yards under trees, over trees and then turn up hill a little, then the blood stopped. I was walking around in circles and looking up hill expecting to see him in a blow down ready to jump up and run away. I finally turned and looked down hill about 10 yards from the end of the blood, he was pilled up.


Bullet entered left shoulder and exited out in front of the right.




Not my biggest, but he will live in my memory for a long time for the valuable lesson he taught me about not giving up even when you think you missed him.

 

[WORM82]

Congrats. My brother lives and hunts in gate city Va and I used to hunt there and down in blackwater.

 

[little highriser]

Nice looking farm you have......congrats on the kill.

 

[Mike Belt]

Congrats and way to keep after him! Maybe it's just me but every time I squeeze the trigger I assume I hit the deer. I'm not one for just slinging lead so when I shoot it's because I had a shot. Over the years I've seen a lot of reactions to shots; both marginal hits and perfect hits. Sometimes deer react signifying the location of the hit and sometimes they don't. Sometimes they blow blood leaving a trail that a blind man could follow and sometimes nothing. The more you hunt and the more you face having to search for a deer that has vacated the area after a shot the better feel you get for direction and the unobvious signs along that path. Personally I love the intrigue of unraveling what should be the last few seconds of a deer's life after he disappeared from sight.

I couldn't begin to tell you how a deer feels after being shot. Do they run like they do because they are instantly hurt? Do they initially run from the sound of the shot? Is their mad dash temporarily under control or is it one where they are running strictly on shock and unaware of what they're doing? Often their flights depend on a controlled or out of control run. In any event, the first thing I do is remember a combination of the exact location of the deer at the shot, the direction he headed after the shot, and just as importantly, the direction he came from before the shot. There have been times I've seen a deer whirl or run looping back into the trail he came from possibly because he just passed through that area and it was safe. Often times a deer will run away and pick up any clear trail in front of him. Often times not. The obvious thing to look for is blood which may or may not be present at the shot site. If none is present then direction is the key to finding him. I explore those routes looking for any tiny droplets. This may be some distance away and may be on the ground or may be just on vegetation growing along the way. I often look for scuff marks. These could denote direction, how hard the deer is hit, and more importantly, any turns the deer may make from the original direction of travel. Generally speaking deer run on level ground or downhill, depending on how hard hit. This isn't written in stone. Sometimes they'll head uphill as well. A general rule of thumb is if there's uphill cover that's probably where you'll find your deer.

I didn't mean to hijack this post. I got sidetracked, lol. Usually a tracking job involves a longer or tougher drag. I'd rather drop a deer in it's tracks so actually mention of tracking also correlates to better shot placement as well. But if the need be I love tracking a dead deer on his feet.

 

[iowavf]

Glad you found him. Amazing how far they can go while dying. I spotted my big 8 point sunning himself out in the middle of no where after we had about 14" of snow 2 days earlier. I finally worked to within 30 yards as he was on the other side of the terrace. I raised up the same time he did and had the red dot on his shoulder and fired. Didn't even look like it even bother him the way he spun and ran off over the hill about 600 yards away. The snow drifts over the terraces was about chest deep to me so I couldn't see where he was laying and stood there shaking my head for a minute thinking how could I've missed him? Well decided to plow my way over the terrace hoping to see some blood. It looked like you threw a gallon of blood all over the snow. Followed him and he fell over just over the top of the hill where he went out of sight. He only had pieces of heart and lung left and hard to believe he could run that far that fast with the damage he had.

 

[Snake]

Congrats and I'm glad you stuck with the trail !

 

[Hunt2Live]

Congrats! Nice deer.

 

[Pinwheeled]

Congrats! Cool looking buck and a beautiful piece of timber.


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[wsm]

Congrats

 

[gunrunner]

It is amazing how differently they react when shot.Three years ago I had a 100 broadside shot on a nice 9 point standing at the edge of a clearing.I shot and he turned and looked at me and walked into the clearing.No kick or flinch or anything.I figured I had missed,so I shot again and got the same reaction.As he walked into the woods across the clearing I shot again.I found him 40 feet into the woods dead.All 3 shots were within a 2 inch group and any one should have been fatal.He never kicked or ran,just calmly walked across the clearing as I shot him.I still don't know why he didn't fall,kick,or make a run.It just shows that they are tough animals and we should never assume a miss.

 

[Boone 58]

Great story, thanks for sharing!

 

[AT Hiker]

Glad you found him!



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[Acorn]

glad you found him congrats!

 

[Bone Collector]

Congrats and way to stick with it.

I learned that lesson the hard way in 2008 season. I shot a doe and went to where i shot her and there was no indication of a hit. I followed the trail she ran out on and no blood. Then another doe about the same size ran out of the thicket she ran into, so I assumed it was her. a few days later I saw buzzards about 30 yds from where i gave up and inspected and found her.

Now I always follow where I saw the deer run and try to go to a spot if they stop and stand still and inspect there. I have actually sot one with a bow and one with my ML this year that there was either no sign that the deer was hit at point of impact or no blood trail and i found them both.

 

[easy45]

Congrats


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[harley 2008]

Congrats you found him

 

[Wobblyshot1]

Glad you recovered your deer. Never take it for granted that you missed.

 

[TNGRIZZLY_]

congrats and a nice buck