WAY TO GO SUM! Two awesome days for you on the stand. Team XX isn't out yet.


Okay, you guys said it would happen, and it did. 7:30 a.m. yesterday, two smallish bucks cruising the top ridge, and eight and a seven point - I would have taken either of them if they came into range but they didn't. All was quiet.

10:30 a.m., I hear the brush crack and there he is, Mister October - AGAIN (looking quite lonely), 40-60 yards out back to my right, coming around the ridge. this time, he's using a different trail and will pass 20 yards UPHILL of me. This is a steep hillside, and even though I'm at 25 feet, he will only be maybe 10 feet below my line of sight at that range. He has the wind, a steady uphill thermal breeze. I know I've gotta try to get a shot before he gets dead downwind of me.

He takes a route that gives me a few sketchy shots, but nothing worth taking. He's moving a few yards then stopping, just cruising and smelling. He moves across directly uphill of me, and passes behind some vines (still no shot) I draw, and he has literally five more yards to go before he steps into a wide open lane, but he is dead downwind at 20 yards. I draw.

He steps into a partial opening and FREEZES. He has me. I know it. He's caught a slight whiff of something, just enough to lock him up. His front leg is behind a tree, hind quarters are behind another tree. I've got the back of the lungs, the liver and the guts on his left sidewith a few twigs and vines in the way. I hold. He stands there like a statue, just huffing the breeze. I can see him tilting his head up in the air, looking right at me, and SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSHHHH taking huge huffs of the breeze, trying reassure himself that he's heading into a dangerous situation. Still holding, and I can't let down, because he's staring in my direction with his head in that open lane, and I'm only 10-15 feet above his sight line. I can't move.

Shoulders start quivering, back giving out. It's now or never.

I drop the 20-yard pin onto the front half of the liver, and squeeze. This time, it gets off clean.

baTHUD!

I can't see the arrow fly, but it sounds like I GOT HIM! I watch as he tucks his tail under and turns back to where he came from. He's not doing the "death run," and he's just kinda running low and trying to get away.There's no visible exit wound on his right side, no arrow hanging out either (I nevergot a look athis left side, so it may have still been in him on that side). I replay it in my mind, and it sounded like I heard the arrow smack a twig or a branch only a fraction of a second before I heard it hit the hide.

I wait a few minutes and getdown. Nothing.

No blood.

No arrow.

No hair.

No deer.

I dug through the leaves for at least an hour, looking for my arrow, just in case I missed and it slid under the leaves. Nothing. the leaves in this place must be six inches deep and it was as dry and crispy as the Sahara yesterday. I know the difference in sound between a hide hit and an arrow crashing into the leaves. This sounded like a hit for sure. My arrow is not there.

I saw him run maybe 30 yards before he rounded the bank. I know the exact spot that he crossed - no blood.

Once he clears the bank, there's maybe 75 yards of open woods, then it breaks into a thicket on all three sides. I scoured the edge of that thicket looking for a blood trail. Nothing. I didn't want to get too carried away in there just in case he was gut-hit and I didn't want to bump him up.

For reassurance, I even took my bow to the shop when I went out for lunch yesterday. I nocked a broadhead and took aim on the 20-yard target. Bullseye.

My plan is to hunt in there on Monday, but be further around the ridge where I can see into the thickets. I'm going to watch for crows/buzzards/dogs/coons or anything that would indicate that there may be a carcass around. I want to find this deer bad, but I don't want to waste my time looking for a buck that I might well have missed.

I shoot 77 pounds and a heavy arrow, so I can blaze it through some junk without it being knocked off course easily. Problem is, if I had a straight broadside rib or gut hit, I should've blown right through. I could see the back of his front leg, so I could have placed that arrow far enough forward that it stuck in the far shoulder, and kept it from clearing through the opposite side. Could he have held his blood that long? I don't know.

What do you guys think?

Looking back, I probably should've let down, but he would have certainly busted me and it would've been over. I'm completely and totally depressed.