One in a million

[mountain man 71]

Congratulations

 

[kaizen leader]

I'm sorry this is so long, but please bare with me. My 14 year old daughter and I were hunting a farm this morning when she shot a nice 8 pointer. The deer was quartering towards us and she hit it behind the shoulder, so I suspected a one lung, liver and gut hit. The deer was obviously hit very hard though, as he only ran about 40 yards before laying down in plain view by a fence. We could see him from the jawline up, but really didn't have a shot. He wasn't going to live long like that, so we waited. A minute or so after the shot, two coyotes came down the fence line where the buck was bedded and attacked him. The buck jumped up, hopped the fence and ran away with both yotes right on him.

A few minutes later we decided to take up the blood trail that went about 150 yards, ending at the shoreline of a 5 acre pond. The buck was nowhere to be found, nor could we find any more blood. After searching all around for four hours, my daughter and I were tired, thrashed from briars, disheartened, frustrated and just bummed. It was over and an easy recovery had morphed into something I've never seen or heard of in decades of hunting. As we were leaving, I drove to the far side of the pond to take one more look from a different angle Unbelievably, I saw something through my binoculars way out in the middle of the pond, about 200 yards away. It was the buck, dead and stuck floating on top of the aquatic weeds that choked the shallow pond. As the light and clouds moved, the glare on the pond went from highlighting the buck to completely hiding it. We were elated! It took two hours of very hard, cold and wet work to recover that buck, but we did it. My daughter stuck with it through it all and we had an experience we'll never forget.

Wow. Congrats. Nice buck.

 

[bowhunterfanatic]

Awesome! Way to stick with it! Lifelong memory made there.

 

[DC219]

Congrats to y'all both on hanging in there and finding her buck! That is a great buck!

My sister shot a buck a couple years ago and my brother in law was blood trailing him and saw him stand up. He had his muzzleloader and he shot him again and he rain up a hill and disappeared. They found blood all around the pond in two spots but never found him. My dad drove down to their house and they all went back out to look again. The sun had come up good as it was about lunchtime. My dad spotted something white under the surface of the pond out in the middle. It ended up being her buck. But he didn't float and had sunk and he was about 5 feet under the water. My dad had spotted the bucks white belly. My brother in law had to use his chest waders and a long stick with a loop on it and finally got the loop around his antlers.

Wow! Good find. I know how that grab-bag of emotions feels. It's so cool and such a relief to get that recovery.

 

[Crappieaddict]

That's a great story with a happy ending! Congrats to her!

 

[medic]

Congrats!

 

[Stalkhunter]

Outstanding congrats

 

[Specializedjon]

Very cool story. Congrats

 

[Dean Parisian]

A hearty congratulations to your daughter! Great story! Proud and happy parents.

 

[thirdwilliam]

congrats to you both

 

[BARhunter]

Congrats!

 

[younggun308]

Congrats!! Your very lucky! I lung shot one in Georgia and it jumped into a raging creek that carried him out of my life forever. I've never gotten over the fact I lost a dead deer like that.

Perhaps that was the Lord's way of feeding some starving pilgrim 30 miles away.

 

[younggun308]

And what a fantastic memory! Congrats!

 

[bobbuck]

That's a beautiful deer! Congratulations to your daughter. Glad you didn't give up.

 

[Hillbilly Hunter]

Awesome! I am glad you found him!

 

[Fearless]

Great job

 

[batten_down]

That's a great deer. And what a story! Really magazine worthy. I would contact Deer and Deer Hunting or Field & Stream, I bet they would do an article on your experience. Either way, an experience you'll both never forget I'm sure. Thank you for sharing.

 

[killingtime 41]

Glad y'all found him. Congrats to her and you. Coyotes would harm a deer would they. Lol they kill most of the fawns around here. And god knows how many full grown doe or bucks. Cool story and even better to witness

 

[DANO63]

Sweet!

 

[Snake]

He's a buck worth going for , congrats . Dang yotes wouldn't even let him die in peace