Just as hunch I decided to walk out the direction I heard the crash as I was looking for my arrow last night. About 50 yards from where the arrow was I found a pool of blood. He had circled around and headed downhill which is normally a good sign. The sound I heard was likely him crashing through the saplings when I turned on my headlight to find my arrow. I tracked blood downhill for only about 10 yards then it stopped. I decided to make a couple big circles in the area checking thick spots. I walked within 50 yards of him and didn't see him. I tried tracking the blood again, but it was pointless. I knew how to fast forward to the end of this saga.
I went home and changed into my dog walking clothes and took Beau for a walk. He has a 100% recovery rate, higher if you count the extras you weren't looking for. I leashed him up and we began our stroll. Immediately his nose hit the ground and I quickly noticed that he was tracking the path I drug out the doe on Saturday. That was good because we needed to go that way anyway and it would keep him busy. Once we got about 150 yards from my stand he stopped. His head came up and I could tell the perfect South wide today was working its magic. Beau did a 90 degree turn and started walking directly into the wind with his head up. Dogs are just downright amazing. We walked right to him.
Here is Beau next to the buck.
Here is the official Whitetail Whackers submission. He is an 8pt with <15" spread taken with an Excal.
I would have responded earlier but I was raceing the clock to get him in the freezer. The Rage 3-blade head overachieved once again. The arrow may have clipped a sapling. He was broadsided, but the arrow did not go straight through. It entered just behind the last rib and exited just into the opposite hind leg. The arrow was hard to find because it was not directly past the deer, but about 30 degrees offset. Interesting.
I'm pooped.
DuckHunt
