Germ

I hate it when that happens, LOL

sounds like a Nice night!!

mauser06

my worst fear...

i can take spider..i can take snakes..im not afraid of the dark...all common fears...my fear...loosing a deer..aint offical yet..read on..im not posting in the big forum..something like this is personal

got to my stand around 330ish. my buddy and his uncle(my farmer buddy i talk about) said they might push a little and see what they cant stir up. 605 a lone doe came busting through. couldnt even draw..circled me and never got a shot..moving heavy. 5 minutes later 2 more came from another direction. little one and a big doe. drew..settled the pin on the big doe..stopped her..didnt like the shot. few minutes later crunch crunch crunch..same trail. HOLY COW! he got antlers!! 1,2,3,4+points..drew..let him get in the opening 20-25yds away..settled the 15-20yd pin on him mid body behind the shoulder..let it fly. i seen him duck..but also seen my homeade lighted knock sink in about 1/4 way down and behind the shoulder. he was angled jussst slightly uphill. light went out..thought it passed through..awesome. never heard him run but i was about to fall from the stand. marked his path and climbed down..i couldnt stay in the stand but my tree makes no noise. got to the ground and waited 10 minutes and snuck to the shot. arrow laying there. WTF? ok half the arrow..just the fletching half. and about 4-5 inches of blood and hair on it. packed up and headed to the truck. called my buddys and told them get the coon hunting lights ready we gota beat the rain and it wasnt a gut or liver hit. get back atleast an hour after the hit. nothing atfirst..following kicked up leaves..hair..then some drops of blood started. ok on the trail. headed to the top of the ridge..then went right. bounded a couple down pine trees and he opened up..GOOD!! not buckets but a blind man could follow it...uhtoh..headed to a BIG nasttty over grown field..saplings, thorns, ragweed..nasty thick and chest high. lonnng process. 3 of us found drops here and there..lost it..found it..a bunch of times..made it 150yds through there..945 we lost it 30yds from a driveway he was heading towards. driveway is lined in nice cut grass and it was starting to sprinkle. figured we better get down there to see if we could find where he crossed..never did. to the left is a house and a decintly open grassy field..waist high. to the right-a small pond and thick stuff. across the driveway is a creek and more thick stuff. started pouring so about 10pm we had to call it a night..im sick...its pouring and its not gunna get too cold. im heading out at first light but wont have a search party till 11. my farmer friend says if its dead we will find it..he knows the area GOOD..but calling for over an inch of rain. were just gunna exhaust all the likely spots all day. hopefully we find him. he wasnt a MONSTER..but NICE..browtines plus 3 or 4 on top..not long tines but decint mass and width. mannnn why did he have to duck!??? i seen it on tv 100 times but never thought id have such luck....blood was red..not liver blood..no gut..but not frothy..but being its coming out of one hole kinda high it might not be frothy?? i cant see how i hit the far shoulder and not get lungs??? is it possible?? he was probably 5 foot lower then me because he was on the next hillside..arrow SHOULD been exiting a bit lower..but who knows with him ducking. but i figure the only thing stopping a 3blade muzzy is a shoulder..and it had to be the far one for my shaft to break about half way...i hope i find him........sorry for the long post...any ideas?? think its possible to just be muscle?? i just cant see it hitting the far shoulder and not taking atleast 1 lung with it..

MO_Bowhnter

Good luck finding your deer mauser. You will find him. Keep looking. Sounds like you made a lethal shot. I look forward to seeing the pics tomorrow.

mauser06

thanx mo. i hope we find him...2 things worry me..he went approximatley 300yds ALREADY from my stand and the blood color could be a muscle hit. if i dont find him tomarrow i will feel a little better knowing there wasnt no guts or liver or anything fatal. its either lungs or nothing...i just dont buy that i didnt get SOME part of both or atleast 1 lung from that angle. as you can see its 130am here..still up..dozed off but tossed and turned..finally got a sandwhich down when i woke up and wasnt thinking about it. this sucks....i did my part...my shot was true and dead on...if he hadnt ducked. it would been a smoker shot flying straight for the center of the lungs just above the heart..noone might ever believe me but i know he ducked. all i know is theres a muzzy and a good bit of shaft in him and im going to follow up in the morning....next year ill be shooting a heavier arrow...if i stick with bowhunting. i know it might not help..but my arrow weight is only 370grs or so..60lbs of ke or so..still a good amount to smack a shoulder bone though..we all seen them on 3 legs..if i didnt get lung and infection doesnt set in im sure he will be fine. we will find out what i see tomarrow..

GR8atta2d

Lotsa rain coming your way Mauser..Good Luck on your search!

mauser06

woke up at 7...its a washout...terrible rain. only going to get 3 degrees warmer so that aint gunna make a diffrence..its hovered around going bad point all night[:@] but im going to grab the rain gear and head out for a while...i doubt i have a search party its REALLY pouring.......its going to be a needle in a haystack..specially with the rain

Rob/PA Bowyer

Ya gotta try, even if alone. He's out there and daylight makes all the difference. Good luck.

mauser06

well...started off alone just walking all the REALLY likely spots from the last blood. 11oclock i got a gand of 5 guys. we combed EVERY nook and crany within a half mile..then farther in the only section of woods between the corn and hay fields. we walked 5yds apart in thick stuff and about 10 in the open woods..if he was there we woulda found him. checked allllll the thick stuff and all the water. all the valleys and draws and blow downs and everything. walked the whole field up and back and all around where we lost blood. we combed that REALLY hard..turned up nothing. from the shot to the last blood is roughly 400yds. id give ourselves an A+ for tracking last night. that field is rediculous..excpecially at night. somehow we managed to keep turning up a drop here and there..flagged the whold trail. i just cant believe i didnt get lungs. granted the initial hit was high i think to hit the far shoulder and stop there i would had to take the lungs with it...only thing i can think of is when he ducked it bent the shoulder and i blasted through the first shoulder...the way he ran i could tell atleast 1 was hit hard..kinda hunched down and bucked up his front before runnging. then he coulda kicked the close shoulder and snapped the arrow..im bummed..but i honestly believe hes not dead and so does my farmer friend and my other buddy whose an expirienced bowhunter. both were with me the whole time. blood was muscle blood and he went pretty far through some rough stuff to be lung hit. this sucks...i did my part...i had an excellent shot sent his way...didnt rush the shot and the lighted nock told me it was flying true till i seen him hunch down right as the arrow was gone. and we did the absolute best we could looking. if he was dead we woulda found him..we didnt push him and he never laid down. only half decint blood we had is when he jumped the dead pine trees. he slowed down after that till he hit that field. im bummed. havent ate since this time yesterday...and havent slept since longer..i got sleep last night but i was tossing and turning the whole nite and just had the shot visual playing in my head but i dont think hes dead...just hope he dont die. hopefully the farmer or one of my buddy sees him spotting or farming..i dont know what he woulda scored but he woulda been my first NICE buck. he wasnt a monster but i didnt have to count points to know he was legal. and the main beams were nice and thick....

sorry guys.....i dont know if im gunna keep trying or not...i just feel like POOP. the worst part is i did all i could and DID my part. woulda been a double lung smoking shot right about the heart cutting off all the arteries..why did he have to duck? i wanna get back out there..and will..i just dont know that ill shoot. if there was a text book shot id say i had it...and made it..but he ducked

Germ

Captain I am giving you an internet hug, we have all been there!!!

Best thing you can do is get back in the tree and hunt!!

Deer ducked, not much you can do, you can only control what you can!!

I can tell you this, why I do not hunt over bait or like to "push" deer. They are on alert, and any noise you make they are gone!!! I am willing to bet if there was no push we would be adding up your score!!!

mauser06

where i hunt its actually RARE to find a deer milling around. im hunting small woodlots and deer feed in the fields at night. the oaks barely get touched till winter. my buddys never got close to my area..just enough to get the deer on their feet. without them or other hunters bumping deer i wouldnt see much. the area im in SHOULD be a hard core staging area..but they never show in the daylight. an hour after dark and the fields are loaded. and the bucks are still generally on the edges. just so many guys in these small woodlots deer dont like to move from behind the houses and the thickets. i know pushing in bowseason isnt the best but when its soft pushing i didnt think it would be a problem. im just bummed...it takes alot for me to give up looking but we combed everywhere HARD with 6 of us. hes nowhere to be found. with small game and then fall turkey starting these next 2 weekends ill never see a deer just milling around down here. i just cant believe what happend. seen it on tv 100 times...heard stories of it...but didnt think it would happen to me...i dont even know if he was pushed out..he came down the trail with his nose down where the 2 does came through. but i did "bah" at him..he froze and i was already at full draw and released. all i know is them suckers are quick to duck. 260fps at about 60feet he didnt have much time to duck.....but he did. just hope someone sees him alive..ill feel better. i feel better after today..i know if he was hit hard or dead we woulda found him or jumped him. maybe ill get another crack at him myself. not hunting in the morning..im to beat. wont hunt till atleast friday morning at the earliest..but i dont know...im just beating myself up though theres not much i coulda done or woulda done diffrently. i felt 100% about that shot till i watched him duck.