Lost A Buck Tonight!
Lost a nice 8 pointer tonight with at least a 18 or 19 inch spread.I grunted him in here in Virginia to within 35 yards and then shot him behind shoulder.Not sure if I knocked him down or not as I could not see from the smoke.Went over after reloading and finally found some blood.I tracked him by flashlight for over 35 minutes and he was bleeding about every 5 feet and I tracked him over 100 yards.He made a large circle and went back to the river and crossed the river and went onto posted land that I dont have permission to hunt.I am sure he will die as he lost way to much blood to make it bleeding that much.I was shooting the Hornady XTP 240 grain in my Genesis behind 100 grains of T7.Using my fiber optic front sight and williams peep sight he was just 35 yards away but it was close to dark.While I saw the front sight perfect thru the peep it was hard to actually tell exactly where I was on the deer as it was just not enough light to pinpoint my shot so I aimed behind the leg the best I could.Extremely thick where this happened sometimes a 10 yard shot is hard in this area but there are lots of deer there.Good Lord willing next year I will put a scope on my Genesis in order to see better for those dusk shots.I had one but put it on my Marlin 45-70 instead.To say I am disappointed is an understatement but I know the deer wont go to waste as other critters will benefit from it.Man this was a nice buck but the experience will be with me forever. Mike