I spent a few hours on Christmas day and into the night looking for a deer that a neighbor's daughter had wounded and had come onto my property. A teen age girl's first buck will be a bad memory for her.

Her proud Daddy was busy filming when his daughter made her long crossbow shot. The film shows the arrow flying and arching into the small buck's shoulder, and of course the post shot celebration. The video looks to me like she took a very long shot and hit the shoulder bone without enough penetration, but Daddy calls it " A perfect shot!". The two of them found blood and tracked it for two hours or so until it crossed onto my area of the world where he stopped and phoned me for access permission and tracking help. I was happy to help and hopeful that the nice young lady had taken her first deer.

To make a long story short, the blood was bright red with no foam and the blood trail simply petered out after about a half mile. Another wounded buck thanks to a proud Daddy, an inexperienced young hunter, and a crossbow shot that was way too far. The search for the deer will continue this morning with very little hope of recovery.