JeepKuntry said:
so why would you want that memory hanging on your wall?
I've only mounted one deer that I didn't recover quickly, and that has been many, many years ago.
It is one of my best bow bucks,[10 point]
The hunt..........Mid October, edge of cut bean field, late afternoon. I had been sitting in my stand since before daylight, deer movement was slow, in fact I don't think I had seen a single deer all morning. Just about the time I was going to climb down and head back to camp I caught movement out of the corner of my eye. Two nice bucks were walking from right to left and were going to cross right in front of me at around 20 yds. Both bucks were good ones but the one in front looked a little larger. They were both walking at a fast pace. In a rush to get off a shot I didn't try to stop them, as a result my shot was just a tad "back" The wounded buck trotted about 30 yards up field and stopped, looking back from the direction he had come from then walked to the edge of the woods.
I immediately climbed down and walked to where I thought the buck had entered the woods. He was bedded and I jumped him up. I began trying to trail him again and bumped him again after about 50 yds.
I finally realized that I needed to give him some time so I headed back to camp and spent the most miserable and longest 4 hours in my hunting career. I found the spot where I jumped the deer last and found just a bit of blood in his bed, I could find no more sign of him, no blood, hair, etc. I searched till dark, then returned the next morning and again searched till dark. I had one more day to hunt before I had to return home and I spent that day again searching. But I never found another sign of him, I was to say the least disgusted.
I went back a week later, and hunted the same stand hoping that I would get a second encounter with him or at least see him and know that he had somehow survived. I didn't see a deer all morning so decided to climb down and take a different route back to camp. I hadn't gone maybe 300 yards when I smelled that unmistakable stink of a dead rotting deer. There wasn't much left of him after the coyotes and buzzards had finished with him, but his rack was unmistakable. I immediate "tagged" him and carried his head back to camp.
Yes, I mounted him on a fresh cape, why? Because he deserved to be mounted and every time I look at him it reminds me of all the mistakes I made on that fateful day.
Mistake number 1 I rushed the shot. Mistake number 2 I should of tried to put another arrow in him when he stopped, mistake number 3 I should of waited or even gone back to camp and given him more time before looking for a sign of a hit. Mistake number 4, again I should of waited for several hours before I took up the trail, instead I jumped him out of his bed. I'm almost positive if I had backed out and gone back in the morning I would of found him there or very close to his first bed.
I'm proud of that buck but it would of been so much more fun to have been able to make a clean shot, give him a little time and find him at the end of a short blood trail.
I make it a habit of looking at him every time I head out the door to go hunting and vow to never make the mistakes I made on that day again.
