Bad hit by my son, going back out tomorrow

[DuckHunt]

I took my son (age 11) out this afternoon after all the rain finally moved through. Instead of sitting in a stand I took him up to the high ridge and sat on the same log I bagged my 9-pointer last Saturday. We didn't get there until almost 3pm. He gets bored quickly so I introduced him to whittling sticks with a knife. He was good for at least an hour.

About 4:15pm we saw our first deer. A small buck, a 4-6 point, walked by down hill from us. The closest he got was about 50 yards. I made my son pass on the shot. He was a little disappointed that he didnt' get to shoot.

About 5:00pm we saw a small doe working down our ridge. She came off the ridge to our right and walked down the hill and got no closer than 47 yards. Again I made him pass on the shot. We have lots of saplings in the area. We watched this deer feed about 80 yards away for at least ten minutes.

I saw another doe and an unknown deer up above us about 5:20pm. We only saw them briefly.

About 5:55pm I noticed a buck coming from our right walking down the side of our ridge about 75 yards away. He was walking right into our setup. Just as the buck went behind a tree I had my son get into shooting position with the crossbow on a makeshift shooting stick we made when we sat down. The nice buck walked directly across in front of us upwind at about 30-35 yards. We were about 10-15 feet above his head up the ridge. He briefly stopped about 35 yards away quartering slightly away. TWANG. The distance was perfect, but he hit too far back. I was sitting behind the log above my sons shoulder when he shot so I got an awesome view of the hit.

The buck was only very slightly quartering so I'm not sure he got into the ribcage at all. Given the light situation were were in a predicament. We waited about 10-15 minutes and decided to kill more time looking for the arrow. We never found it after about 5 minutes of looking. I decided to look for blood. I found what appeared to be his tracks tearing up the freshly wet leaves. I followed them for at least 40 yards without a single drop of blood. The tracks became hard to follow through a rocky area. I hated to go after the deer so quickly but sometimes you get lucky. As expected, my son thought he saw a white flag ahead of us about 100 yards into the tracking. We immediately backed off. I circled around the rocky area and finally found blood. There was at least a half cup full of bright red blood in an area about 5 feet long. The color made me feel good. Unfortunately this was the first blood we found. The first blood was almost 100 yards after the hit. We were using a Scorpion XP broadhead.

We went back and looked a little more for the arrow but light had escaped us. Our only option is to go back out tomorrow and try to retrieve it. The temp was in the 60s at dark and it is only getting down to about 50 here tonight. Even if we find it I'm not sure it will be fit to eat.

I am going to give it my best though. It was a very nice buck. I believe it had a wider rack than the buck I took last week. Regardless of the number of points it would make an awesome first buck for my son.

We decided to wait until after the early church service tomorrow to try to find it. My son figures he has something extra to pray for. I figure if is dead at 7am it will be just as dead at 10:30am.

Fingers crossed.

DuckHunt

[Exocet77]

Good luck, I really hope you find him. Best off to back out and let him bed down. Give us an update tomorrow.

[Normous]

Good luck. I've killed many in the evening that were recovered in the morning that were fit to eat. Now that I think about it eveyone was fit to eat except the buck that coyotes found first.

[hatchet jack]

BOY I FEEL FOR YOU ,MY SON GOT A GOOD HIT ON A BIG 10 LAST YEAR, COULDNT FIND HIM UNTIL MORNING THE COYOTES HAD ATE THE HIND QUARTER & RIBBS SAWED OFF HIS RACK & LEFT HIM. I WOULDNT TOUCH ONE AFTER THE COYOTES HAVE BEEN THERE. HE HAD ONLY WENT ABOUT 75 YARDS BUT IN THE BOTTOM OF A RAVINE & IT WAS REALLY BRUSHY.

H.J.

[DuckHunt]

Disgusted. That about explains how I feel right now. This morning my son and I took my dog on a leash for a Sunday morning walk in the woods. [No Sunday hunting in VA, yet] My dog is an expert at recovering downed deer. If you have a couple hours, he will find a downed deer or two every time. Even if they aren't yours. He has a tendency to find the deadest first.

First we looked for the arrow. We spent about ten minutes and found nothing. I'm sure it is snaked up under the heavy leaves somewhere.

We headed down the trail the buck took toward the last blood which we flagged. About ten yards before we reached the blood my dog got that pep in his step. He walked right up to the blood and got a good sniff of every leaf. Off we headed the direction the buck went. My dog tracked head down for about 25 yards then went head up. At that point he was tracking the wind. The whole tracking job took about 5 minutes. That includes the point where I slipped on a leaf covered rock trying to slow my pulling dog and he drug me a barrel roll. I'm sure my son was laughing on the inside. At least he asked if I was OK.

About 20 steps after the barrel roll incident I saw the buck. At this point I screwed up. I assumed he was down hard. He wasn't. I told my son "there's your buck". We were about 25 steps away. My dog took a run toward it (25-foot retractable leash) and it got up and ran downhill. It was breaking every sapling in its path. It was a pretty thick area so we only saw it go about 30 yards till it was out of sight.

I looked at where it was laying and there was some blood, but not a huge amount. I'm sure it was laying on the exit side for the arrow. The buck himself was a trophy in my sons' eyes. Heck, he was a trophy in my eyes. After a closer look he appeared to be at least an 8-pointer and have about a 16 to 18" spread. I would have gladly filled my last buck tag with this deer. He was larger than anything I've taken. A very mature whitetail.

We retreated back the direction we came so we wouldn't push the deer. We're only hunting on 20 acres of private land so we can't afford him to move too much. If he did not go over 150 yards, he will still be on our property. I'm not sure what to do at this point. I could sneak out this evening by myself and see if I can slip out the direction he went just in case he is still alive. Or I could back off and go out tomorrow afternoon after work in hopes that he has expired by then.

I'm not seeing much upside to how this might end. Comments?

DuckHunt

[Exocet77]

If that deer is still alive I wouldnt be surprised if its a non-lethal hit. You did right by not pushing him any further again. I would give him till later this afternoon at least if not till tomorrow am. I just figure if that deer was fatally hit, he would have expired over night. I still say good luck, and you may still get him though.

[DuckHunt]

I went out this evening around 5:30pm to see if I could sneak up on him. I circled where I expected he would be and never got a look at him. I finally worked my way around above him where we jumped him this morning. As I walked through the think stuff and out onto the side of the ridge I saw him. He had only went about 100 yards from where he was this morning. He had jumped up and was heading up hill toward the edge of the property. He looked a lot less hurt than this morning by going up hill. He was also walking with his flag up. I slipped back away without pressing him.

I'm thinking that this may end up being a non-lethal hit. Their is a paved driveway just downwind of where I last saw him. I drove down it on the way home and didn't see him. I will make the circle each day this week to make a 'smell check'. I'm just hoping this buck is still around next week for the muzzleloading season.

DuckHunt

[Dumbazz]

Good luck with him. Hopefully it all works out ok.

I am a dog man myself, and it is interesting to read about you "reading" your dog. Good work.

[BUCKSHOT]

Sounds like you have done everything you can to make sure all is well!
It sounds like you have a fine young apprentice there, I hope he realizes all the work Dad is doing to get the job done!
Good fortune on your next expedition with your son.