Wounded the biggest 8 Pointer in my life!!
 

I know I am setting myself up for some yelling and telling me bad things. But at this point, I am ready for it.

Thursday evening I was out for my one last hoorah before the slug season started on Friday. At about 4:00 PM the biggest honkin 8 pointer decided to show up. He started heading down the creek bank and I gave him a 2 turns on my can and he came right back up. He stood at the top of the creek bed 20 yards away facing me for 15 minutes. Did not want to shoot the straight on shot, so I waited him out. While he was standing there, I had plenty of time to evaluate him. He was a solid 8 pointer that was atleast 20" wide. He was just a beautiful deer.

When he finally started walking again, he went to my left and presented a 15 yard slightly quarting to me shot. I aimed for the back shoulder and let her rip. Well in all of the excitement I was shaking like a loose leaf and that never helps. I ended up hitting him farther back than I wanted. Right height, just back to far. I thought that I had atleast one lung and maybe liver. Well I packed up my stuff and just left and came back a couple of hours later with my buddy. We started tracking and ended up spotting his eyes looking at us and we immediatley left and waited. When we returned he was gone. Normally we would have waited until the next day, but with slug season starting the next morning, I didn't want some gun hunter to take him. Once we realized he wasn't there anymore, we didn't push it, we left.

When I returned in the morning, I walked all of the ditch and woods on the property for about 5 hours with no results. About 1:00 PM I decided to run the rows of cut corn to see if he went and laid down out there. Well I ended up kicking him up about 150 yards out in the corn. He couldn't run full bore and you could tell he was hurting. At this point, I think he still has about 15 inches of my arrow in him with the broad head. The fletching end broke off in the first 100 yards. I followed him across the field and watched him go into another drainage ditch. The farmer just so happened to be out there and he gave me permission to go on his land and gave the property owners for the bordering ground. I then contacted the DOC to see what kind of options I had as to trying to recover him. I was really hoping he would say take your bow and try to get a follow up shot. But he didn't believe the deer to be wounded enough to give me permission for that during slug season. So I waited until the next day and hoped like crazy that he would still be in the ditch.

So on Saturday we walked for another 3 hours and found absolutely nothing. So to say I am bummed is an understatement. My hopes say that he is alive and I want to think that. Because after almost 24 hours he managed to trot about a mile across some fields and one of them being a plowed field.

Let her rip guys, I need a good rippen so hopefully I won't make the same mistake again.

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RE: Wounded the biggest 8 Pointer in my life!!
 

IL_BOW_MAN
Just from I've read I think You are making every effort to retrieve him. He will most definately go down! Good luck! I hope you find him
AL
I would just like to add to check around water sources if you have any. Wounded animals tend to head for either Thick nasty cover or water



Edited by - littleal on 11/25/2002 08:23:05

RE: Wounded the biggest 8 Pointer in my life!!
 

You can't hunt with a bow during gun season? That stinks in Ny you can use any legal weapon during regular season.

I don't think the deer will live with an arrow still in him.Every step he takes the broad does a little more damage.

I wasn't sitting in the tree with you so I won't criticize your choice of shots.It's not like you tried to spine him back by the rump or something.( maybe you read that thread last week.

Keep looking you might find him yet.

RE: Wounded the biggest 8 Pointer in my life!!
 

Not in a &quot;rippen&quot; mood. Stuff happens. Sorry it happened to you. Don't do it again.<img src=icon_smile_big.gif border=0 align=middle> Whatever you did that is. Sounds like you gave it an honest try. At this point he's probably coyote and crow food. I really don't think he could have gone as far as he did if you got what you thought. Sounds like a gut shot to me. The liver dumps too much blood to let him go as far as this one. After 71 bowkills I've just about convinced myself an angling towards shot can just cause to many problems. Every year people kill them that way(I have too).... BUT... every year we hear of many that don't turn out so well. Each shooter has to decide what's best for him. Sometimes we get caught up in the excitment and do things we normally wouldn't. No rippin' necessary. You feel rotten enough as it is. Get back on the horse a little wiser and ride.

RE: Wounded the biggest 8 Pointer in my life!!
 

Start check'n for buzzards maybe you can at least recover his rack for the wall .

If information provided by the members of this board have helped you please let us know .

RE: Wounded the biggest 8 Pointer in my life!!
 

It's a crying shame that you couldn't go out with your bow and finish him off. Sorry to hear about what happened.

JRW

RE: Wounded the biggest 8 Pointer in my life!!
 

you should no flack because you did everything right, well the shot was bad but then sometimes we all make mistakes in shooting, but you waited for the good almost broadside shot (which is very importent). and it looks like you tried everything you could to recover the deer. its just a painful lesson that you learned

propmahn
save the world, reload your brass

RE: Wounded the biggest 8 Pointer in my life!!
 

Why not just finish him off with a shotgun? Worried about making P&Y or what? If you can why not just end the deer's suffering?

RE: Wounded the biggest 8 Pointer in my life!!
 

Charlie,

He may not have had a shotgun tag. They can't be purchased over the counter in IL like archery tags. So if he didn't already have one, that wouldn't have been an option. FWIW.

JRW

RE: Wounded the biggest 8 Pointer in my life!!
 

After the weekend of looking I have determined that there was no lung. I don't believe it was far enough back for a gut shot. There was no food matter in the blood trail at all. He was at water when I shot him and the drainage ditch we last seen him at has water.

And we can't carry a bow during slug season, so I couldn't go and finish him off with a bow. If he would have been down to where we could walk up on him, the DOC would have given me permission to finish him with my bow. And I don't slug hunt so I didn't have a slug tag, or I would have went I finished him off. If somebody would have finished him with there tag, they would have to tag him. I was kind of hoping somebody would have got him so that he wouldn't suffer.
But then again I was hoping nobody seen him, cuz I still want to find him. I am deffinatly not done looking. It has been cold enough that the meat would still be good if he is laying there.

As far as the shot itself, I would not pass on the shot if one walked by tomorrow. It was a decent shot, I just hit farther back then I wasn't aimed. Shaking does that to a person. The error was on my part and not nothing else. He wasn't quartering that bad and it is a shot I have made before.

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RE: Wounded the biggest 8 Pointer in my life!!
 

you'll probably see him in the local paper with a gun hunter grinning.

THWACK!

RE: Wounded the biggest 8 Pointer in my life!!
 

Il Bow Man, sorry about your loss, How you get an opportunity for your gun week.


CHARLIE P, FYI That buck has been seen twice, 3 days after the shot and a couple of days ago. He was chasing does and moving a little slower/possibly limping. Shot was, to be more accurate in description would have been in the center and would havehit the rear edge of the lung area. At the angle and his movement, you know how it ends. I'm not so sure it was a 'gut shot' after all. That post ended like the Civil War and lets let it end. Ruffhunter

RE: Wounded the biggest 8 Pointer in my life!!
 

IBM, no ribbing needed, you have, at this point made a very valient effort to find your buck. I know with a buck that nice and at least half your arrow still in him, that you are not done looking yet. You know where you last saw him, and sooner or later it will work its way on through, if he doesn't expire first. Good luck to you on finding him!!

The best of luck in all your hunting endeavors!!!

God Bless,
Dave

RE: Wounded the biggest 8 Pointer in my life!!
 

I agree that you have expended every effort and have nothing to hang your head in shame for.

I don't like the &quot;quartering to shot&quot; for just this reason. If you can hit tight to the shoulder odds are good to take part of a lung, liver, and the arrow will angle into the gut. This makes tracking difficult because intestinal material will fill the hole allowing for a drop or two of blood every five or six feet; allow 4 hours before tracking this animal.

If the shot is not tight to the front shoulder, a gut shot will be the result; I allow overnight or 10 to 12 hours to track a gut shot.

Dick

RE: Wounded the biggest 8 Pointer in my life!!
 

Is this a B&C 8 with kickers on the G 2's In East Central Illinois on the county line?? Very doubtfull, but if so he's not hurt to bad & runs just fine!! There is a MASIVE 8 pointer in the area I hunt that if killed will prob be one of the biggest ever killed by a bowhunter!!I've ben trying to get pic's of him alive before someone (ME) kills him.. lol I saw him again today with his doe & he looked just fine.. If you get him I want to see the pic's!!!<img src=icon_smile_big.gif border=0 align=middle> Good Luck!!

RE: Wounded the biggest 8 Pointer in my life!!
 

If you have a good population of turkey vultures in your area that is also what I would be looking for. I have located 5 downed deer from public ground hunters by following where I see the vultures. I found a dead doe some one arrowed at Middle Fork State Fish and Wildlife Area a few weeks ago by following up on a turkey vultures sightings, turned out the doe was gut shot high behind the last rib with no more than 4 inches of penetration, the camo goldtip was still in her with 4 inch green and white vanes and a muzzy head.She was laying no more than 10 feet from the mowed grass path. I wouldnt of thought she would of perished from such a low penetrating shot, so dont give up keep on looking and I hope you find him.Best of luck to you Bow-Man.:)

RE: Wounded the biggest 8 Pointer in my life!!
 

<BLOCKQUOTE id=quote<font size=1 face='Verdana, Arial, Helvetica' id=quote>quote:<hr height=1 noshade id=quote>I have determined that there was no lung. <hr height=1 noshade id=quote></BLOCKQUOTE id=quote></font id=quote><font face='Verdana, Arial, Helvetica' size=2 id=quote>

Personally, I believe that there is a very good chance that it was a single lung. A single lung deer can live an aweful long time depending on &quot;how tough the deer is&quot;. Can it live 24 hours? Yes. But that is more rare than the ussual 15 hour rule. Will it die? Yes. Depending on the way it was hit, you may not even have much of the pink frothy blood that you would expect. You didn't have the exit wound which would have been benefical to you.

A lung hit deer does not act the same at all as a gut hit or liver hit deer. They can travel a long way without bedding. The reason is that a liver or gut hit deer is actually feeling very sick. The single lung hot does not. Also, the single lung hit deer will not necessarily travel to water the way that a gut or liver hot deer will.

RE: Wounded the biggest 8 Pointer in my life!!
 

sorry you lost your buck. i tracked one this year for 9hr. and 15min. just to find that she had been stolen.
yes it has been cold enough that the meat could still be good. but the time is running out. it is scary tracking during gun season there are a lot of crazy shooters out there. but it is over for a couple of weeks .
good luck finding him

RE: Wounded the biggest 8 Pointer in my life!!
 

Sorry to hear this story - Keep looking and as others have said, vultures, buzzards, crows even coyote and foxes can help located him.



Shoot often - Hunt always

RE: Wounded the biggest 8 Pointer in my life!!
 

I think you've made a good effort to find him. However, I'm perplexed as to why you weren't carrying a gun in hopes of finishing him off?

PBB

Pick a hair.....or a caruncle!!

RE: Wounded the biggest 8 Pointer in my life!!
 

I feel your pain. You work so hard and here is your chance on a deer that has out lived all the other deer and out smarted all the hunters in the woods and you end up messing him up so that your almost sure he's not going to make it but yet you don't find him. It's the worst feeling a hunter can go through. It happens to most of us, I know it's happened to me. Sorry bud, don't let it get you down to bad.

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RE: Wounded the biggest 8 Pointer in my life!!
 

sounds like you either hit him where bobco19 stated, in 1 lung which are a bear to retrieve....i helped a buddy of mine track a 1 lung hit and we tracked it for 5 hrs before we found it still alive bedded in a cornfield. no telling how long it would have actually gone if we wouldn't have found it and finished it off...or your hit wasn't as good hieght wise as it appeared. you may have hit it high in the withers just above the lungs, in which case you'll probably see him next yr if he survives the shotgun season. either case, no ribbing here you've done everything you could to retrieve him. sorry man it happens. good luck