It’s been an up and down week. Long story short, I shot this deer Monday morning. It took me Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday to find him.
I shot him at 10 yards and I watched him run about 60 yards behind some thick trees and never saw or heard him after that. I thought he would be lying there dead, just out of sight.
I got down and found my arrow. It was covered in stomach matter, so I convinced myself it was a gut shot. I didn’t have a drop of blood or sign anywhere. I went to where I last saw him and nothing was there. I decided to back out and not push it.
Had a dog come in that afternoon, they couldn’t locate the trail. Thinking he would go to water, I ended up following a nearby creek upstream 400 yards and back, never found him. Did a grid search near the area I last saw him, but had no luck.
I was feeling pretty discouraged. On Thursday I kept replaying the shot in my mind and thinking about where he could have went. It started raining so hard that I decided to get down from my stand and give it one more look.
I walked a diagonal line from where I last saw him running. Instead of following the creek, I walked across the open field into the other woodlot. Literally, I got inside the wood line and about 100 yards in, I saw him lying there.
Turns out, I hit him high in the right lung and it exited the stomach low on the left side. He ran about 200 yards from where I shot him.
Unfortunately, the warm weather took its toll on him but it was finally some closure to a rough hunt.
He’ll make a nice European mount.
More Info Coming Soon.
