Exomax downs 11 point Ontario Whitetail, sad ending. GRAPHIC

[hockeyfodder]

Hey All:
I have been hunting with my son for about 3 years with Excal Crossbows.
I've hunted for over 20 years with Excals but he is relatively new.

We hunt a small plot of land near where we live.
We have two ladder stands set up and spots for a couple of tents (for the old man...me, in inclement weather).
We were out Monday night and my son heard a deer move behind him up to my area near an old overgrown orchard. I heard the buck working a scrape or rub behind me but couldn't see him because of heavy pines.
Tuesday morning I went out myself and it was a beautiful morning, crisp, no wind but unfortunately no deer either.

We got out in the afternoon relatively late (4:00pm) and set up in our ladder stands.

Nothing near me and just as I was getting out of my ladder stand I get a text from my son to come down with the recovery equipment. He had a big bodied deer come right below his ladder stand a few minutes before legal shooting was over.

He sent a Big John bolt through from almost straight above him.

The buck had walked in on the trail (nose to the ground) he used to come in Monday night and had used a drag line with doe in heat lure on it.

The buck took off in a long arc heading back in the general direction he had came from. My son lost sight of him after about 90 yards.

When I got down to the treestand we examined the arrow and there was good blood and hair on it.

We looked for 45 minutes to find and bloodtrail but found absolutely nothing.

After almost three hours of a grid search in tough terrain we had to give up.

My son and a buddy went out first thing in the morning and located him about 140 yards past where we had stopped looking.

Unfortunately the coyotes are better trackers than us.

They had found him and ravaged all the good parts.

Mike and his friend cleaned him up as best they could and took him to our butcher for assesment. It looks like we'll get a good bunch of meat from the front of the deer.

The bolt had entered high on the shoulder (as expected from that angle) taking out one lung and slicing the bottom of the heart. A great shot considering the angle.

Anyway the sad ending is we lost most of the good parts of the deer, but we did recover and salvage what we could.

Thanks to Anthony who will post pics for me...

Mike Sr.

[gerald strine]

Congratulations to the hunting team on the harvest !
To bad about the coyotes but good job on the recovery just the same.

[vixenmaster]

Sad to hear of the endin n outcome, glad to hear y'all found him n recovered him

[xcaliber]

Big Congrats! Can't wait to see the pics. I have lost a couple to Yotes too over the years, really stinx.

[Riflemanz]

Sorry about them yotes! What BH was he shooting?

[hockeyfodder]

Not sure what BH it was but the damage that was done should have put him down quicker, granted a mechanical might have opened a larger wound and left a significant blood trail...well that's hunting, coulda shoulda woulda...

[GrassyKnoll]

Congrats on the recovery...

[one shot scott]

Good on ya for salvaging what you could. Sorry to hear that recovery was a bit late. Congratulations just the same, waiting on the pictures.

ps: I hate coyotes.

[wabi]

Congratulations to your son on the deer, but sorry to hear the coyotes got the best eating cuts.

[j.krug]

Good to hear you salvaged a bit of meat. Time to whack a coyote or two!!

[amythntr]

....I will get Mike's images up when I get home from work!


Anthony

[Hester0305]

Congrats to your son for his deer, I'm sorry the yotes found him first Single lung hit deer even heart shot deer for some reason tend to travel a lot farther than they should. Great thing is you'll able to salvage some of the meat.

[retrieverman]

I've got an acquaintance who lost a nice buck earlier this week due to NOT exercising the diligence ya'll did to find this buck, so I commend you for your effort. Congrats to all involved!!!!

[amythntr]

Sorry for the delay Mike....but here are the three images:

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Anthony

[rein1]

I've heloed track many deer and bear in U.P. of Michigan the day after they where shot . Unfortunately most of the time coyotes and sometimes wolves will have them chewed up pretty good .I always encourage the hunters not to salvage what meat might be left because of rabbies or the possibility of.

A few yrs back I helped a bear hunter the day after to find his bear , We found the bear but all the meat and hide was gone. The only thing remaining was the head and vertebra .Like somebody completely deboned this bear..

I took a nice 450 lb bear up in lake Nipigon last year and my guide wanted to wait until the next day to recover him. Needless to say we had a breif discussion which didn't work anyhow to my advantage . So I grabbed my gps and my son and into the bush we went . After 3 hrs of tracking we finally found my bear. I gutted him all out clean the bear up and started a nice fire for the rest of the night. I tell you what it didn't take long before coyotes and what else was up there to check out the smell of this dead bear . My son and myself had a interesting night up in the bush of Lake Nipigon ...