Great story Rob. Congrats on your first smoke pole deer! They're deadly but us muzzlestuffers gotta take extra care to thoroughly follow up. especially when we dont have the benefit of the white stuff!

My son's first M/L deer last year seemed to hang there a second or two staring at us after the shot before running off. We followed for 40-50 yards with no sign other than my mental replay of her just not looking quite right as she ran off. About 60 yards out we found a little blood. It got stronger with each step and we found her around 110 yards out. He hit her dead center of a Mckenzie 10 ring as she quartered toward us. Got both lungs and a bit of liver along the way. The initial sign sure didn't look like he touched her but if we hadn't followed up she would have been fox food.

Member of NRA, BASS, Buckmasters and Life member of UBP.........Kill a big doe, Let the little bucks grow