hey guys, made it back from my VA trip. I screwed up big time, I hit a super nice buck (10 or 12 pt, bout 20" wide) with my muzzleloader and I didnt recover it. I basically got excited and took a quartering-too shot, miss judged the range and I think I hit it high in the neck/back. At first I thought I hit 1 lung but the way it bled I think I just hit muscle, and I'm hoping the deer survives. It was late, just a few min of shooting light left and I rushed the shot. We tracked it to the river after 3 hrs wait, then I waited till morn to wade accross the river and tracked it till 4 pm, only going about another 300 yrds. All in all we tracked it about 1/2 mile before the blood trail went away, sure could have used Ruby But the water from the river rinsed the blood off, we had maybe 20-30 yrds of good blood (watered down i think) then it was specks here and there, I ended the day crawling on hands and knees looking for blood. The last bit of blood I had was on the underside of a leaf about 18" off the ground on a small tree. Which is why I think it was a high shoulder hit, the deer never bedded, and kept a good pace (we were getting blood every 8ft). The most frustrating part is I dont know why I took the shot! I knew better, I should have slowed down, I even remember thinking that I should wait on the shot!!! For some dumb reason I thought the ML would go through the shoulder bone and that it was 125 yrds, not 85 so I held a little high!!!

Anyway, I've been beating myself up over this all weekend. It was one of the better bucks I've ever shot! I'm chalking it up to one tough learning experience. Other than that it was a great trip, had some great time w/ friends and was covered up in game. Saw 4-5 different 2.5 yr old bucks, and 2-3 nice shooters (the buck I shot was with an 8 pt ~18" wide and really tall, that I almost shot before I saw him) I saw a ton of turkeys, and almost shot one but I was seeing so many deer I didnt want to take a shot.

Anyway, I wont be out till thursday when I head down to Andy's place for a hunt! I'm really pumped about that hunt! Then I have fri-sat to hunt around home so my fingers are crossed that I'll redeem myself

Andy - great find, glad Ruby was working well and your wife was involved!! I'll send you an email about this week.

Crenth - Congrats on the doe! I'm sure it felt great! Got any pics?