Snake, I'm probably older than you are but that's no excuse either. My intent wasn't to beat up the deer, it was to put him out of his misery as quickly as possible. I was taught to hit a small spot just above the eyes 1 time and slit the throat. A technique used for many generations to kill livestock prior to butchering. I had never had to try this on a buck before. When I figured out it wasn't working I went to plan B as quickly as possible. No, not my most proud moment, learned my lesson, won't be trying that again anytime soon. I will tell you my method when performed correctly is much faster than shooting the deer again. The buck after my arrow passed through the heart and both lungs took at least a minute or two to drop and was kicking the whole time. Seemed like forever. This buck surprised the heck out of me. I had seen several deer spined prior, they weren'y going anywhere. This one's back legs weren't working but he had plenty of fight left in the front end. A lot more fight than I wanted or expected, when I first got close to him, he was laying still, thought he was dead, looked easy, the branch I had was more to poke him with and then he nearly took my head off, the 4 or 5 wacks I took were more in self defense, I remember thinking this stick ain't big enough. lol when I went running back for my bow, I swear the buck was trying to follow me. When trying to land the 2nd shot I had to keep moving because he kept trying to come toward me, wouldn't give me a broad side. It's like those druggies you see on TV shows who are so drugged up they can take 50 bullets and keep going, only get more mad.
I'm telling ya Snake, if you were there watching, you'd been laughing you a$$ off and not whining about cruelty to animals. I know my friend was. He was also happy my rack was broke because, whole, it would have beat his in our contest. It would have been cruel to continue the fight and even more cruel to back off and let him die on his own time.
I have learned a few lessons with this buck.: don't ever assume a deer is dead, deer can play possum, bring your bow with you when going to find out, hitting that spot on a buck with a club is near impossible if the buck has a rack and can still move his head, A bucks rack can be knocked off fairly easily, and a bucks front legs are very strong and even with out back legs, he could have killed me and last but not least, A wounded buck durring rut isn't something to take lightly. This was the second buck that nearly got me, the first I was tracking in a cattail marsh and he desided to turn and fight, long story short I wash bushwacked and ended up with a concussion and bruised ribs and leg. He might have gotten away if he didn't turn to trample me a second time. The nock of the arrow I stuck into his chest somehow got hung in my boot which drove the arrow further in and around while I was swinging my knife chopping at the back of his neck and spine with my knife, holding on for dear life with the other arm. I also have a pretty good scar where the arrow nock dug into my leg. I landed in a deep channel that somehow appeared out of no where, he staggered around in the cattails for a moment and then dropped. The shot took out 1 lung, the wrastling match took out the heart and other lung by moving the arrow around. I had given this buck 1 1/2 hours before starting to track. I had been tracking for at least 1 hour and have never seen a better blood trail. The buck should have been dead, enough blood for 3 deer. Also never been so lost. I never want to have to track anything in a cattail marsh again. After all that, dragging him out about midnight I woke up a pair of sandhill cranes that weren't too happy I was in there space. Talk about a heart attack, damn those things are loud up close, big too! It took a couple weeks to recover from that one. lol Maybe not so funny but a true story. Hope it doesn't appal anyone.