I screwed up
Hunting public land. Got in the tree at daybreak...30 minutes later I heard a deer grunt. I gave a single doe bleat and 10 seconds later a single grunt. Within a minute there was a deer. He materialized about 55 yds from my tree moving in a direction that would give me a nice broadside shot. At 45 yds from my stand he was perfectly broadside. I tried to stop him by making "meee" noise but it didnt work. I pulled the trigger with the sights on his chest and he went down like a sack of potatoes. It was like the hammer of Thor hit him. He rolled onto his back kicked his legs a bit and lay there. He tried to get up but it was like his back legs didn't work. This is my first time hunting with a muzzleloader adn I didn't know how soon I could reload. I also didn't want to move and make noise for fear of driving him off. He put his head down and I thought he was done.....then after about 3 minutes he fought to his feet and staggered away......I hadn't reloaded. he went about 0 yds downhill then stopped in a hollow. I couldn't see him but he didnt' come out. I reloaded and looked and thought I saw him laying down. I figured he was done. I kept watch.......and about 5 minutes later I saw this deer standing.....then realized it was a different deer. A spike. and I did the dumbest thing I possibly could. I took a rushed shot. Missed clean.
And the first deer. The largest deer I have ever shot in my life, ran ten yards out of the hollow. He walked another ten yards then stopped and looked back at me. I reloaded. In the time it took me to pull my speed loader out and drop the powder pellets he was gone. I got out of the tree walked over to the last place I saw him and found nothing. Went back to the spot where I shot him. It was raining all night. There was no visible blood.....no hair, bone nothing. So I gave it a 2 hour rest. Then started looking and looking. and looking.
I used every tracking trick I know. followed the terrain. followed the water,, followed the trails. did grids and crisscross circled around. I covered several square miles and nothing. By the time I got in my truck to come home tonight I was exhausted. I am certain this deer is dead.....but I pushed him and he became superdeer. I also didn't reload because I was unfamiliar with my weapon and unprepared for the situation. And for some stupid reason I abandoned my plan to not shoot at a spike because I figured I would load some extra meat onto the truck. A bird in the hand. Stupidity. Inexperience. It should have ended so differently.