Went out this morning and found the buck I gut shot Friday evening. After replaying the scenario over a couple of times and going to the last spot of blood I realized from the way he walked off straight down a small run that this deer had no intentions of turning right or left. He was hit hard and looked really dazed that after the shot. He was about 75 yrds from where I stopped trailing that night. After the shot my mechanical broadhead was just barely stuck in the dirt. I thought that was odd on a gut shot with a bow shooting 290 fps. I later found I also hit tha back leg. Ok here is the bad news, since I waited until today to look for the deer the meat was bad. I went to at least cape it out to mount it and from the 45 degree days and the 30 degree nights the temp fluctuated so much it caused the cape to slip from rapid bacteria growth. The meat was rotten from the gut shot (man did it smell bad) Anyway, the rack turned out to be a 7 point with a 20" spread (not to shabby) and I will be paying the local butcher a visit for a replacement cape. All in all I learned a good lesson this weekend.
1. Wait for the right shot.
2. When possible stop a moving target.
3. Don' t hunt unless you can positively dedicate the next day to track/recover your game