I Hate When This Happens

Cloudwalker · 11-16-2007, 08:28 AM

A couple of weeks ago I got off work at 6am, went home, got the kids off to school, and then I went to the local hardware store and purchased my hunting license. I drove to the new game lands (3,850 acres)just 10 miles from my house and started scouting. Our rifle season had been in just a little over 2 weeks but it was just too dang warm to do any hunting. I scoped out a tall pine in the middle of a "cut-over" (cut-over: area that has been clear cut and re-seeded itself with very thick underbrush) and decided to check it out. I made my way a couple hundred yards to the pine and stood there with my .356 Winchester thinking how tall and straight this tree was and how well my climbing stand would hang on it. I hadn't been there more than 10 minutes when I heard something coming through the thick brush. I zeroed in on the sound and saw a small cow-horn coming towards me. Even though I could have legally taken the deer I decided against it. The deer browsed around for a couple of minutes and made his way to a pine thicket to my left. A moment or two later I heard the deer coming out, but this time it was good size 4 pointer. Since the body of this deer was so much larger than the one before him I decided to take the shot. He was no more than 25 yards away from me when I pulled the trigger. The 200 grain power point hit hard and knocked him off of his feet. He hit the ground, jumped up and started running sideways and fell again. He got to his feet once more and took off, only to fall again. By now I had jacked another round into the chamber of my lever action but I didn't have a clear shot. The deer bolted to my left and I heard him when he crashed to the ground. I eased the hammer down on my rifle and sat down for about 5 minutes to give the deer time to lay down and expire. I walked down to where the deer was standing when I shot and found a lot of blood. I started tracking the blood trail but after about 10 -15 yards the blood just stopped. I noticed a couple of places where the blood looked like it had been sprayed from a windex bottle so I assumed a high lung shot and the deer was blowing blood from his nose. For one solid hour I looked for this deer,sometimes crawling on my hands and knees trying to pick up the trail again. Nothing! I went home in total disgust!

Fast foreward to this morning. I came out of the woods about 9am and got in my truck to drive home. As I was passing this huge cut-over where I had shot the deer 2 weeks earlier, I see buzzards landing and taking off near the tall pine. I park my truck, get out and walk to where I saw the last buzzard. Sure enough, there is the 4 pointer laying in the tall grass. What hurt my feelings the most was that this deer hadn't run probably 20 - 25 yards from where I shot him. I flipped him over so I could see his left side and sure enough there was a hole about the size of my thumb, dead center his shoulder. I just stood there thinking about all of that meat going to waste.

Man, I really hate when this happens to me.

npaden · 11-16-2007, 08:41 AM

You may want to put on some fire retardant gear because some flames are more than likely going to be coming your way.

Being able to track a wounded animal is one of the most overlooked aspects of hunting. Everytime I shoot a deer I always practice tracking it even if I know where it ended up going down. 1 hour doesn't seem like a very long time looking for a deer to me. I've spent that much time looking for a bird that I've shot.

If the hunting area was only 10 miles from your house I would have gotten some assistance and done a grid search for the deer especially if you were confident in your shot.

You can't turn back the clock, but practicing your tracking skills and just being persistent can go a LONG way toward making sure that you retrieve your game in the future.

farmcntry · 11-16-2007, 08:44 AM

If he was only 25yds away a grid search would have found him. If you loose the blood trail start a good grid search for at least 100yds in each direction. You would have found him like this.

ab_newfie · 11-16-2007, 09:08 AM

ONE HOUR - 25 YARDS AWAY!!!
WOW

Remnard · 11-16-2007, 09:16 AM

I used to aim for the heart lung area on a deer. All this talk about wasting meat. In my 30 years of hunting I haven't found too much meat in a whitetails' shoulders anyway. I had to track a few bucks as I had hit some a little further back than I should have.

Now I aim for the shoulder, about 4" down from the back and directly in line with the leg when they are standing broadside. Each deer shot there so far has been found right where they were standing when I shot them. Only they were laying on the ground, quiteexpired.

mutantcoil · 11-16-2007, 09:28 AM

NBDeerHunter · 11-16-2007, 09:32 AM

I have to agree with the responses above....only searching 1hr for a deer just isn't enough time spent searching.......Unfortunely time to time you just don't find an animal but proper process must be following before giving up.
Just my 2cents worth

1shotkill1993 · 11-16-2007, 10:10 AM

thats just a lesson to be learned by you. if you you hear the deer drop, why the hell would you leave without the deer. i think that was very stupid on your part and just atl least do a grid search from now on

bigpapa · 11-16-2007, 11:55 AM

1 hour? That much blood? You said .356 win with a 200grn bullet? You left without it? What gives? Were you late for dinner? I would have lived at that tree till I found the deer. Ummm here is an idea get your climber climb the pole tree and get a birds eye view of where he could have gone. Or go back to the big pile of blood and keep looking. Call some friends and say hey lets look for a deer.[&:]

Cloudwalker · 11-16-2007, 01:06 PM

I can't believe the responses that I have gotten from this story. Do any of you actually think that I wanted to leave a deer in the woods to rot. Let me explain a little more for you. I had just finished a 12 hour shift. It was already 65 degress when I stopped looking. Even if I had gone and got a couple of guys to help me look, which by the way would have been a mircale since everyone that I know has to work for a living, the meat would have probably not have been any good anyway.

I felt bad enough shooting an animal and not knowing if it layed in the cut-over and suffered or not. And now, I find out that I am the only person in the world to ever have this happen to.

You people are pathetic!!

I guess none of you have ever had this to happen to you? If it hasn't yet, I promise you, it will.

By-the-way, this is what I was searching through:

This will probably be my last post on Hunting.net not that any of you professional hunters give a rat's ass!