Nope, not by me. My best friend has wounded two doe this year. The first doe he shot was quartering away slightly. He shot and said that his arrow hit a twig and went down low. Well, we found brisket hair at the shot, and the blood trail was pathetic. There was a drop about half the size of a dime every 10-15 feet, and that was when the trail was good. We tracked the deer for over 350 yards until it came to a thicket with a open field on the opposite side. The blood stopped there and we couldn' t pick it up again. We had already spent about 5 hours tracking it that 350 yards (thats how bad the blood trail was). Well, the next morning my best friend was back there looking. He got there at 7:00a.m. and didn' t leave the woods till dark. He spent a few hours in the morning looking for anymore blood, but couldn' t find it, so, he searched every spot in the woods that a deer could go and never found it.

Well, he was BUMMED out about that as it was his first deer he ever lost. He has killed deer with his bow before, and this kid can shoot that thing INCREDIBLY well.

Well, last evening we were hunting in a bottom by my house. At 4:40 a doe came out of a thicket right in front of my friend. I was only 50 yards away so I was watching everything un-fold. The doe stopped at 17 yards broadside. My friend settled the pin right behind the shoulder and squeezed the trigger. As soon as he did, the deer ducked down and forward so the shot hit about 4" back and 3" high. I sat there listening as the doe went 20 yards and bedded down. She got back up and ran, smacked the arrow off a tree (wasn' t a pass-thru), then kept running. I heard what sounded like her falling for good about 85 yards from where she was shot. Well, we came back to my house, collected our thoughts, got the flashlights and waited. We gave her about an hour and fifteen minutes before tracking. Well the blood trail didn' t start for a good while, but, when we picked it up, we were getting different sign from the blood. There would be a spot of blood about the size of a cigarette pack which would be bright red with a few bubbles in it, but, then there would be about 10 feet of nothing and the next spot would be a small drop of very watery blood. Well, the trail did this for awhile, and finally it just turned into small bright drops of blood every 15 feet or so. By now, we are getting to where I heard her crash, but, there is no deer. So, we pack out and let it alone for another hour and a half then head back in. Well, the blood trail starts getting bad. The drops of blood kept getting smaller and smaller, and the distance between them kept growing and growing. Well, it is late and we have now covered close to 250 yards. Well, I look up and see a posted sign. We are now at the edge of the property. There was about 10 yards of posted woods in front of us and the rest was a HUGE cut corn-field that was posted. Well, we came back and called up the Game Commission. Well, they couldn' t escourt us on the property because of the time and because we didn' t know for sure that the deer was dead on the property. Well, we went back and got my spotlight and spotted that field from the road. We were glassing around for probablly 30 minutes and decided that the deer wasn' t dead in the field so, we went to the opposite side of that field where the property isn' t posted (another farmer owns it and he gave us permission to hunt it). Well, we looked all around his property and never found the deer. I new the shot was back and high but I thought that I head the deer go down.

Well, he is BUMMED out BIG time and he is really talking about giving up archery. We have put in so much time looking for each of these deer that it wasn' t funny. I still have thorns all in my hand from crawling on my hands and knees through green briar thickets.

A few things that are odd about last night is that I figured he would have got a pass through. He is shooting a BowTech Extreme VFT at 63# (maxed out) and 28" draw. He is shooting 27-1/2" Easton Carbon Epics tipped with 100 grain N.A.P. Thunderheads! His bow is shooting right around 270 f.p.s. with this set-up and he is getting plenty of KE. These second odd this is that I thought that the deer had crashed, I heard it plain as day, and I never heard another sound after that. Finally, the deer headed towards and open field (which was up-hill) instead of staying in the bottom, and following the creek bed which is very thick with brush.

I know that you guys will probablly start criticizing our tracking and such, but, I can guarentee you that we put in as much effort as we possibly could have. He feels absolutely terrible about this and like I said, it has him questioning wether or not he should archery hunt anymore. Like I said, he has several other deer under his belt with his bow. A few years ago he shot a nice 8 point on the last day of late season archery in Pennsylvania (yes, that is a RARE occurance). He shot that buck at 25 yards in 5 degree temps and got a perfect heart shot.

I just wanted to post this in order to let everyone know that things can happen to you that you don' t expect and don' t want. You can do your hardest at making a good shot and tracking, but it just isn' t hard enough. You can then either give up on archery and walk away, or you can jump back on the saddle.

I have been telling my friend that he needs to take a litle break from archery, maybe just hunt the last week. Clear his mind, clear all the doughts out, and come back when he is ready and confident.