The reason is because I can't sleep because in 6 hours I will hopefully be putting my hands on a nice buck I arrowed at 6:45 this past evening!!!

I am trying not to get my hopes up too much because I shot the deer at a bad angle but got a clean pass through with lots of blood on my arrow and splattered around where I shot him. After drawing on the buck he turned straight toward me...I held at full draw for at least a minute and finally decided to take the shot with him facing me at 25 yards, his head was down while he fed. I picked out a spot where his neck met his body and let the arrow fly. Because of my shot selection me and my buddies decided to let him lay overnight...this is my first experience with this and that explains me not being able to sleep!!!
I am keeping my fingers crossed that we will recover him, for I know I will turn the woods upside down if it becomes difficult. We are taking 5 guys to look for him in the morning so hopefully I will have pictures to come...

This will hopefully be my 6th archery harvest since last year when I started. It is the first deer I haven't shot broadside and I don't want to make a habit of doing so. Do others of you often shoot deer that arent broadside with your bow?????

A combination of fast approaching darkness, fatigue from holding my draw, and flat out just wanting to run an arrow through the vitals of that buck helped me decide to squeeze that release...I sure hope I made the right call!



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OK HERE IS THE UPDATE FROM TODAY

At 8:30 this morning 5 guys including myself were standing under my stand looking at my blood soaked arrow. First I want people to realize that I live in the mountains and I don't mean hilly mountains i mean mountains....the ridgetop this stand is on drops off literally 1/4-1/2 mile or more on both sides. Steep is an understatement. This is the last place in the world you want a deer to go far. Anyhow, we quickly found about 3-4 patches of hair that led us about 25 yards from my arrow. There the trail went cold..for the next 2 hours 2 of my buddies were on their hands and knees looking for blood near the last place I saw him run....the other 3 of us began combing the mountainside he ran off of, following deer trails, looking for blood, anywhere leaves were messed up, we looked for blood. Finally, we lined up and began walking up and down the mountain. NO LUCK. NOT A SINGLE SPECK OF BLOOD. NOTHING. At 11 AM we call a guy with a tracking dog. Now Supposedly this dog has never not found a dead deer. From 11:30-1:30, we followed the dog who immediately led us right down where we all agreed we thought the deer probably ran.....about 500 yards straight down the mountain the dog came to about an acres of the thickest briars and weeds you can imagine and began circling it....he then entered and drug the poor guy with him....so at this point we have 6 guys and a dog looking. NO LUCK...but you would literally have to step on the deer to find him in that stuff.The Dog's handler is divorced and it is his daughters birthday so, having never met me until today...he let me keep the dog to keep looking and left to go see his daughter while he had visitation. WHAT ANICE GUY. The other 5 of us decide to go eat lunch. At lunch I tell my buddies to get on with their days....I would go on and look again by myself. So at 2 oclock I leave and head back out....I take the dog back to the thicket and he immediately gets on a trail and for the next 30 minutestakes me on a death jog on a hot trail....now of course in all likelihood it was a different deer's trail thatn theone i shot, because after beingmore than a mile frommy stand and throwing up my lunch, I turned back. I GAVE UP. UNTIL TOMMORROW MORNING that is. at 5:00 i called it quits. I took the dog back, wrote the man a $50 check for his time and graciousness and went home and went to sleep.

My plan is to go back to the thicket in the morning and try tofight through every inch of it. Hopefully I step on the deer."The Dog MAN" says he has another one that is the best at findinga stinking deer and thinks that in a day or 2 his other dog will find him if we can get him somewhere where he can smell the carcass.

I won't everyone to know I gave it my best effort today...I have some great friends to surrender half a saturday during season to help. If this story makespisses you off or makes you sick, well just think how I feel. I share things like this with you guys not because I am proud I pulled that release, but maybeone of you will think about it next time that deer is not broadside. I consider myself extremely ethical and feel horrible about not finding the deer. Good luck to you all and learnfrom this story.

Michael