I shot at the biggest buck of my life on Thursday evening. I never found any blood, hair, or my arrow.
I was hunting a new greenfield that I had never hunted. It had all kind of sign and was torn up more than any I had ever seen. I decided to hunt a few of the hardwoods at the bottom end of the field. I positioned myself where the deer would come out behind me to the left if they were to come to the field from that side or I would still be able to shoot part of the field.
At about 15 min left of shooting light, a spike comes out. Then, he gets pushed out by a huge 6 pt. Then I see the white of the monster came out. The only problem was that they were behind me to the right....the worst place to be. They weren't in a hurry to come out and day light was fading. He finally turned broadside. I had turn to face the tree and put my right hand over the harness strap to be able to draw. Then I had to lean way out to miss a deadfall between us. I thought I heard a clear shot and took it. I heard the "thwack" sound that usually means a hard hit. It wasn't a great "thump" lung shot, but a clear hit sound.
He ran into some a kudzu thicket and I thought he was down. It was shaking as he kept getting hung up in it, but finally he made it out. I still thought I had him. I gave it an hour and then looked for my arrow and blood to no avail. Then I tried to find where he went into the kudzu. No luck. I gave him another hour and then looked throught he kudzu and and where I thought he came out. No luck. A front was coming through and the weather was dropping temp. The dew was as thick as rain. About an hour later, I heard coyotes yipping and howling about 200 yards away. I couldn't get to them because it was so thick through that 7 year old clear cut.
I came back the next morning and looked for 2 more hours. No luck. I am bummed.
Found out my dad's cancer has come back, my laptop got stolen out of my car last night, I can't find the biggest buck of my life, and Auburn lost.... Man.
Well, guys at least I had some action. I feel terrible about the buck and guess I will go back next week and look for buzzards.