HuntingNet.com Forums - Anyone hear from GMATT yet?

Here's the link.
http://www.huntingnet.com//forum/tm.aspx?m=2248626

Here's the story.

Quote:

Guys.....I lost my first deer, today.

I saw 9 this morning.....with the last being a lone doe. She was in a peculiar spot....and I pegged her at 30 yds. I felt confident and let it loose. I saw the arrow make contact....and I thought the front-to-back was perfect. She was quartering away slightly. I thought the up/down might be a bit high. I shot her at 9:05. I stayed in my tree until 10:15.....and got down to check the impact spot. No blood. I looked for minute......then figured I had been fooled....and I'd missed. I stepped it off.....29 yds. So....I start to look beyond where she was standing......thinking the arrow may have overshot her and glanced away. Nothing. I was about to back out....and I saw my arrow to my right. I went to pick it up...and it was soaked with dried blood. Now I back out. I called Rob....told him my game plan....then went home to eat something. I got back on the trail at a little after 11:00. It was in the 90's here, today....and I felt like I was in a race against time. When I get back out there....Lisa and I can find NO BLOOD. Nothing. We looked for 2 hours, utilizing EVERY possible trail she could have taken. I watched her intently when she bolted.....and even counted to myself....to time when she might crash. I never heard anything but her running.

Back to my race against time......I let Lisa go get us some drinks.....and we started a grid search. I called some buddies from the shop....and they came over about 2:00. 5 Hours since I shot her....and it's HOT. At 3:00 I told them I thought it was futile.....that the meat was likely lost.....but they stayed with me. At 4:00....I told them to go home. At 4:50.....I found her....more than 200 yds from where she'd been shot.

I found NO blood leading to her resting spot.....and maybe a 1/2 ounce under her. I can't fathom what happened. The entrance wound was where I had thought it was.....the exit where it should be.

I'm open for criticism.....as long as it's corrective. Nobody can feel worse than I do right now. I rationalize it "some".....by knowing that she WILL be consumed by nature.....and that she is out of the herd (my neighbor on the farm over has been killing them via depredation permit for a while).

But it's a hollow feeling. I'll tag her and call her in......but she'll be the first bow kill of mine Im not proud of. I honestly don't know what I could have done differently, though. I'm at a loss. I feel like I let her down.

GMMAT.... sometimes "STUFF" just happens. Anyone that hunts long enough will have some squirrelly things happen. No way I can give any advice that might make it easier to find the next time. You got to go with what you find and play it from there. If you were high it's obvious she bled out mostly internally. There probably was some blood that you missed, although probably meager amounts. Sometimes the terrain and vegetation just makes it harder. Being from Carolina I know you've seen how hard it is to track in pine straw compared to leaves. Open fields can be a bugger too. Sometimes the best thing is to go on the best guess as to where she would go when injured. 200 yards isn't a long way for her to run if you only got one lung and probably liver. A liver shot is for sure usually a 200 yard dash. She was probably dead within a few minutes of being shot. I'd say the meat would be questionable in that heat. You can't really tell until you skin them out a little. If the tummy is all bloated up you're sure to find the underside of the skin starting to have a green tint or slimy appearance. When I hit that I leave it for coyotes and foxes. If it took her a few hours to die the meat may have been OK. Then you have to really fall back on bloated state and color. Sorry for the results, I know you put a lot of effort and time into doing everything right. Sometimes Mother Nature just throws us a curve. You may go for years without another such incident but you'll always remember that crappy feeling that goes with these deals. Sounds like you did your best and tried to do it right. Those quartering to shots are a bummer. May want to reconsider the possible negatives over the benefits of such shots. I just don't do them anymore, but that's me. I figure if I'm at full draw and the deer is quartering to.... if I hold out long enough they'll turn at some point or come on in to give me a better shot. Even if they turn to leave you have enough time usually to slip in a better hit. And if it doesn't happen, well there's the next hunt. This hunt stunk up the woods with wife, friends and yourself wandering all over in heat. Hot weather sucks for hunting. In the past 50 years I was in on a couple green ones. Not mine but hunting partners who called for help. Fat and stomach contents, including liver stuff can plug some holes so that there is very little sign on the ground. Not trying to find fault with equipment or anything, just info for adding to the useless info bank. What broadhead?