Germ

It sucks, best thing I can say.

Good luck Friday!!! Keep your head up

mauser06

thanx ghemry..im trying. feeling a bit better and confident we didnt overlook anything. we didnt leave and leaf unturned. i did my part..TWICE. once with the shot. the second in the tracking and recovery. finally got some food down and just woke up from a nap. im feeling a little bit better. im now thinking i hit both shoulders. when he bent down it would move the shoulder back and down. i keep replaying it over and over..i dont think he was even SLIGHTLY quatering away the more i think about it. i dont know...we will never know unless me or one of my group kills him. ill be alright. im sure ill get a call sooner or later and someone seen him. i would just really liked to get my hands around them antlers. when he jumped them downed trees and the blood was pouring out pretty good i got so excited..from the highest of highs..to the lowest of lows...thats hunting

Rob/PA Bowyer

Capt logs, stardate Oct 17th,

Rain, rain all day. I wasn't going to head out but knew the deer would be moving, they always are in the rain. I knew my Enigma would keep me dry so changed in my truck, usually change outside the door and,

I was in my stand by 5:20, the pin oak at the far end of the field containing my food plot. This was the stand last night that the 100"er stood 20 yards away. I was reaching for the rope to hoist up my bow and turned to see a buck not 45 yards away, I believe it was the 8 point from the night before. He must have been there when I climbed the tree and walked by. He wasn't on alert or looking so I know he didn't see me. I quickly pulled up my bow as he wondered to the woods edge, I pulled up my pack for the calls, he was in the woods so I let him go, he'll be around.

Wind picked up, got dark early, didn't see anything else.

On a side note mauser, you've been initiated into bowhunting. Before I took the time to learn everything I could about bowhunting and shooting a bow I was a guy that shouldn't have been in the woods. I speak with experience that many will not know but I share this with you. I started bowhunting at age 15, I got to shoot at a deer, usually a buck every year since that age. I recovered my first deer at age 23, my first buck at 25. Do you understand. We learn, that's all that we can ask of ourselves and others. You've learned, take that into your future.

Get back out there.

dukemichaels

Mauser, that sucks dude! I can't put it better than that. Rob and Ghem are 100% correct in that all you can do is give it your best. That's hunting, that's bowhunting.

I too began bowhunting at age 15, I am now 26 yrs. old, and after 11 years of sitting on stand only now do I consider myself a deer hunter. Although I have shot a fair number of deer and some decent bucks, I still learn about deer and deer hunting every time I set out to the stand. Everytime!

Losing a deer, any sex, sucks! But all you can do is shake it off, get back in stand, and take it to them!

dukemichaels

On a better note, saw several bucks tonight! They will make a costly mistake soon!

mauser06

thanx guys...im feelin better everything i look at and read and every expirienced archer and hunter i talked to. my farmer friend and the other somewhat expirienced bowhunter been on many trails. dad been on MANY trails and used to be an avid bowhunter. all agree and say that my buck is alive and running around out there. after looking at ALOT of stuff i have to say i hit above the spine. i found a good read here: http://tradgang.com/cgi-bin/ultimate...1;t=037344;p=5

they all agree that theres a GOOD area ABOVE the spine to hit and bleed decint..same color muscle blood i had and the deer will be fine. if you look at the deer the guy taped up the measurements i am pretty dang sure i hit somewhere just a hair below the 7" mark you can see. probably still smacked the far shoulder though. dad says if i busted through 1 shoulder and hit the other he wouldnt went far and i would had to put another one in him..but 400yds NOT being pushed on 2 busted shoulders is unlikely i think. im going to say i hit about the spine and between the shoulder. it was a good learning expirience if nothing else. taught me alot and i was on my first bow bloodtrail. did all we could and i feel 100% hes alive and well. also found out i have 5 of the best friends in the world. i dont know anyone else that would drop their day and spend it busting nasty brush in the pouring rain...most of it turned to a swamp due to 2.5 inches of rain according to the rain gauge at the farm. i thanked them all and im going to be dogging for them in rifle season. im usually a shooter and am the expirienced shooter and can line all the shooters..but i owe them. i may have to fight with my farmer friend but i own them. i much rather drive for them then shoot deer they drove to me.

just sucks...kinda tears me up...all summer busting arrows..i drew back and it felt 100% natural..i was surprised at how easy it was to draw and hold back and how solid and natural my anchor felt. all felt natural and my shot was true and deadly...cant predict a duck..i would much rather had a clean miss but it didnt happen that way..live and learn..even though he wasnt 100% alert ill be more cautious next time. if they arent feeding or calm im passing. if they are looking at me or alert they are walking. i learned alot...

thanx for listening and all the words guys..

mauser06

alright guys...mauser is back. im pretty much back to normal. bummed but im convinced that buck is alive..im gunna be back out there hunting. almost threw in the towel and put the bow up for sale. actually considered it pretty hard. i just know i am better then that and will make a dang fine bowhunter with some expirience. nothing i could done to stop him from ducking except not shoot at a semi alert deer. ill now wait till they are calm. feeding or milling around or something. be back out friday..just wanted to thank you all again..

so here comes a question....how do you guys stop a buck thats trailing does pretty hard?? im not convinced that that buck came from my friends squirrel hunting. he came through the same trail 2 does came through..nose glued to the ground trotting. i had "trails end" out on wicks and hit the can about an hour earlier. when the does came through i grunted a couple times at the first one to try to get it to come in and stick around, then the other 2 came in and i grunted a couple more times. so he could very well been trailing and not coming from my friends...how would YOU guys get a shot at him? 20yds walking/trotting down a trail...do you grunt and get him to stop and then wait and hope he drops his alertness and feeds or what?? is it OK to shoot a deer thats alert but not looking at you? say i grunt and he looks but then looks around..is that a good time to let it fly? thanx guys..

Germ

Captain I can only tell you what I do, I do not make a peep when trying to shoot a deer(99% time). Yes I let a 150 class 8 walk by me at 5 yds with the bow backtwo years ago. Nov14th, last good day to bow hunt.

Remember this you are hunting in one of the most pressured states we have. MI is2nd or 3rd, I would put Penn at#1.

So when you see the TV guys making those noise and the deer stop and look up, remember those deer are about as smart as a fawn in Penn. Older bucks knowin Penn "Blah" does not come from a giant squirrel, LOL

If you choose to go this route, you may let one walk past you. Now if the Rut is in full swing and he is chasing a doe, hell yell at him, I did last year and shot the big ten. He was hot, the buck I let pass was by himself and rut was almost over. In time you will learn what to do there is no right answer, just guesses. Sometimes I am right, sometimes I am wrong. I still think to this day, should I have tried and stopped that big 8?Keep up the hard work!!

Mantis Mayer

mauser I don't have time to read what all happened yet but I'll tell you this, that sort of thing happens and I'm proud of you for taking such offence to it. It's when you don't care that it becomes a real bummer to us all. I've lost a couple deer that I know died. Very nice bucks in fact. I didn't know enough to give a liver shot plenty of time to do it's job and pushed the deer into the next county. TWICE! [:@]We learn from our mistakes. That's what make us good hunters. Now on to stopping a deer. It's a great question cuz one of those deer I lost didn't stop before the shot and I shot him walking. And then a doe not a few days after, I stopped and she ducked the arrow complietly. In my hunting log I wrote "to stop or not to stop?" That is the question" And I read all I could on it. Through the years I've found that it's not a good idea to shoot walking deer. Getting them to stop is tricky, you have to be loud enough to hult them but not to loud as to spook them. Pay attention to how loud they are as they're walking/running and go from there. It may only take a small blat noise to a full out yell "STOP." Start off quiteget louder if you have to. Once they are stopped, it's really importent to aim for the heart. If they drop, you still hit both lungs. Break a deer down into three horrizontal sections by mentaly drawing to lines on there body and aim for the middle of the lower section. If you aim for the center of the middle section and the deer drops, you will probably hit high. And I never shoot past 30yds at a deer because thier reaction time is so quick that they could be half turned and at a bad angle before the arrow hits. Even with some of the faster bows out today. Expecially when you stopped them and they'realert. Get back out there bud and good luck to you!

OkI gotta get back to moving, I closed on the log homeyesterday andhave been busy trying to get settled in so I can get back outhunting. Yes that 's right I'm a first time HOMO! I've been outa bunch, bothPA and NY but no shooter yet. Seing lots of does inPAbut didn't apply for a tag. Didn't want the locals mad if I shot one of therdoes. Funny thing is I see 10 to 20 a day down there.Won't be long now andthe action shouldpick up.

No time to proof readand that was a record type job so bear with me. Good luckteam!!!

Germ

M & M said it great!!! Well put, are you a poet?