Well guys, I have to come clean - I shot a nice buck on Weds. night on the backside of this cold front that moved in and never found him. I wish I could say I knew what happened, but quite frankly I don't.
I watched him for close to an hour within 100 yards of my stand making rubs before he finally offered me a broadside to slightly quartering away shot at 30 yards. I had to lean out a bit on my stand to get a clear shot to his vitals, and when I let the arrow go it looked good. However, I lost track of the arrow in flight and only heard a good "thwack" when it hit him, then he tucked tail and bolted like lightning. I swear I have NEVER seen a deer just hit a dead run like that after shooting them.
I came back an hour later with my dad and Mike (dukemichaels from the forum) and we found the blood trail, but it wasn't great. So after about 100 yards or so we backed out and called it a night. Mike and I came back the next morning and picked up the blood trail, which was decent to good at times, and sparse at others. The buck made a giant loop around this swamp where I shot him, weaved in and out of some standing corn before making his way across the road and heading into a giant forest preserve area. He never layed down once in over a mile of tracking him, which is pretty disturbing to say the least. I have a feeling he's not mortally wounded, or else he would've bedded down somewhere along the line, considering he wasn't being pushed at all. The only thing I can think of is that I hit him high and forward in front of the shoulder. Nothing else really makes sense to me.
So, we should be on the board with a nice 140 inch 10 pointer and I should have my 3rd P&Y whitetail at the taxidermist, but instead I'm back to square 1 again and my confidence is lacking. I've got a week from today until I plan on getting back out in the woods, so I'm hoping to reorganize my gear, shoot some arrows a couple nights after work next week, and regroup so this doesn't happen again. Without a doubt, this is the worst feeling in the world for a bowhunter.
