I managed to slip out of the house yesterday afternoon for a quick bowhunt......I have been fighting an upper respiratory infection and cold for over a month and I finally starting feeling halfway decent this week. This infection has pretty much kept me out of the woods since the day before thanksgiving and I have really missed bowhunting and predator calling....kind of hard to do either when you are hacking up a lung! Up to this point, my season hasn't been very good.......the property I bowhunt is usually full of deer, but, until yesterday, I had seen only ONE deer while hunting, and it was a yearling.
The Hunt: Well, I got a late start and didn't get in my stand until 4:00......didn't see a thing until about 5:00 when I heard a deer walking........turned out to be a nice buck......this was the first time I had hunted this particular stand, I had put it up after a morning hunt awhile back and hadn't trimmed shooting lanes like I wanted to. Of course, the buck came out on my left where I had lots of limbs in the way......but I thought I could get an arrow to him. He was walking fast and I really had to hurry.....I held for 25 yards and pulled the trigger on my Exocet. At the shot, he ran about 35 yards and made a small half circle, then just stood there "humped up".......he was about 50 yards from me.....lots farther than I would ever shoot at an unwounded deer....but I would have shot at him again if I hadn't been looking through a screen of brush. I watched him stand still for approximately 10 minutes, then he walked a few steps and laid down.......he stayed there 5 minutes or so, then got up......I could see the hit was too far back.......he stayed where I could watch him for another 5 top 10 minutes, then slowly walked into the scrub oaks. I knew he was really sick, and he acted like he was liver shot, so I quietly lowered my crossbow, got down and made a big circle to get out of the area without spooking him. I don't know if I hit a limb or if I just didn't allow enough lead for the speed he was walking, either way, it was my fault for hitting him too far back.
The recovery: It was a LONG night! I really wanted to go back and look for him last night, but I knew if I did, there was a very good chance I'd push him out of the area and would never find him.....the temps were suppose to drop into the high 20s overnight.....I didn't sleep too well, and, about 8:00 this morning, I was back where I lost sight of him. I waited until I had good light before starting to look for him......even at 8:00 the frost was so heavy that the blood didn't show up well (the blood was easy to see when the frost melted!!). I was hoping he would lay down in the scrub oaks and that I would find him dead where I last saw him....no such luck! I found blood where he walked off and I followed it for 30 or 40 yards, then nothing. I circled ahead and managed to find blood 100 yards further and followed it as far as I could.......when that ran out, I started walking the ridges and creek bottoms glassing everywhere with binoculars.......I have previously recovered "lost"deer using this method.....it works....sometimes. Patience and persistence paid off.......it took a couple of hours, but I found the buck.
Unfortunately, the coyotes (or dogs?) did too.......when I walked up to the deer, there was hair scattered for 35 yards! I figured there wouldn't be much of the good parts left, but, to my surprise, the coyotes (or dogs?) hadn't eaten any of him!! I studied the scene, looking at the scattered hair and found blood mixed with it, a few yards away I found a bed with blood in it too.......it was clear that the coyotes (or dogs?) had found the buck while he was still alive!! I don't know why they hadn't eaten him, the only damage was to the hide on one rear quarter.....in fact, he wasn't stiff and was still warm......I'd guess he hadn't been dead more than a few hours.
He is the second largest buck I have killed with my crossbow and, after the way my season has gone, he is truly a gift!!
This is the way I found him.....notice the hair behind him that was pulled off his rear, that is a very small part of the hair that was pulled off of him......from the amount of hair scattered around, you would think the deer would be completely bald!!
