8pt I 'shot' but he's walking around w/arrow
While bow hunting on Sunday, October 29, for my first season using a cross bow, I had a 8 point buck rubbing a small tree immediately over my right shoulder. He was aggressively rubbing which gave me the opportunity to turn sharply for the shot. I had to make two separate, strained, turns to get in position and never thought I would be able to even get a chance given the moves I had to make. To my surprise, he was still rubbing like crazy and I took the shot. I made the hit and in my excitement, and inexperience, I only waited a few minutes before climbing down from my stand. Once my husband arrived, we tracked him for about 2 hours following what was a good blood trail. We finally gave up for the night and like a kid on Christmas morning, I got up early the next morning and drug my husband back out to help me track more. The two of us, and a friend we called in for additional help, searched again for about 3 hours. We lost the blood trail and were forced to give up. For the next few days I was desperate to find the buck as it would be my first ... but no luck. To our surprise, ten days later, the buck has appeared at our feeder -- arrow sticking out and all and was eating corn. The fletchings are still in good shape and we can only assume the arrow is stuck in a rib or bone and he cannot reach it. Thanks to the trail camera I at least know he did not die in the woods and my first potential mount was lost forever!
I have tried (SEVERAL times) to post the photo ... keeps saying file is too large but it's only 32KB ... any suggestions??