Congrats WV and jnrbronc!
Sadly..... I suck.
I shot a nice buck this morning but I hit him too far back. Like an idiot I didn't try to stop him as he walked by. It should have been an 18 yard chip shot.
He ran onto the neighboring property and at first it didn't seem like I was going to be able to trail him past the fence. However, the manager of the adjoing property did come and once he looked at the bloodtrail, he let me onto the property and he and I trailed the buck. Unforturnately, as best we can tell.... the buck bedded at the edge of the river and in his death throes (or something) he fell into the river. It's like a five foot drop and he hit some exposed roots on the way down because there's a bunch of blood on them. However there is no sign of the deer in the river. I think he sank. We had a bunch of rain and the river is up and very muddy. ....sniff... cry....
Here's where he went in. You can see the 'kick marks' and the dark liver blood.
I'm going to try and get a canoe in there tomorrow and poke around the river. I'm still holding out some hope (tho' small) that I can recover him.
Not that it matters at this point but I'd guess he'd go at least 140".
