early in

Last night I shot a small 7pt thinkingit was anice8pt.Light was fading as I saw a lone deer emerged from the thicketgoing away from me. I flipped the "Can" 2 times for the heck of it, and the deer headed my way. I could now see it was a buck! It looked like a good 8pt, or so I thought. He walked behind some small trees and bushes. When I got a clear shot at his vitals, Itook it. He ran about 30yrds and crashed in the thicket. I then heard him gasping (loud) for air, then silence. I waited a bit and retrieved my arrow which was totally covered with frothy blood. I then followed the awesome blood trail to mybuck, which was a lot smaller than the lighting lead me to think.[:@]
I learned the hard way not to judge a buck ifit's getting too dark. I will pay the price by not being able to hunt Pa's rut.I am happy with any mybow kill, and bummed at the same time. I was hopingto get a big Pa buck this year. Well, a good thing is,this was my third shot at a deer with my Vectrix, and my third kill. Hopefully, I'll kill a real buck in Alberta.There is a1" brow tine on the right side.

fingerz42

Dude dont be bummed. You just killed an elusive critter. Be proud that you outwitted it and got yourself a good deer. There is nothing wrong with that deer. Congrats.

ranger56528

Nice..Altleast you got one......AND being bummed [&o],You should be in my shoes,,,,I have shoulder surgery this Thursday and might not get too finish out the last two months[:@] even tho I have a crossbow or two....I would say any meat in the freezzzzzzer is a good year....

Sliverflicker

Nice buck, Congrats!

wyliescrib

i have learned that they can all be bigger...
eat and enjoy and then the rest of the year hunt and enjoy...

Greg / MO

Hey, hunt long enough and we'll ALL do that... I know from experience... Plenty enough light to i.d. a nice buck, but not HOW nice... and all of a sudden you've shot one that didn't meet your expectations...

Congrats on the nice shot though!

twildasin

Hey never be bummed you did an awsome job shooting and taking a beautiful animal!good job again!

livbucks

Ahh...you got a case of the famed "ground shrink". They all look massive when walking through the woods, don't they?
Every once in awhile you shoot a decent buck and it turns out to be so much more. It does work both ways. Then it's sweet.

nchawkeye

It's too bad deer hunting has to be about the "trophy"...In the recent post "How many", you said you had 28 kills total and 8 (now 9) bow kills...

You're still learning, just really starting out...You need to be shooting deer to gain experience...This is one of my pet peeves with trophy hunters...They don't want to kill does, even if they are over populated....

The only way to learn to be a good, efficient hunter and to learn proper shot selection is to actually shoot an animal...We see all these posts on tracking...Guess what, you can learn tracking by tracking does as well as bucks...

Don't ever be "bummed" because your animal didn't live up to "your" expectations...That is not at all what hunting is about...It should be about putting meat on the table, killing the animal quickly and getting it butchered properly so you can enjoy the fruits of your labor, period...

Congrats on a great hunt, and the good memories...If your season for whitetails is over you might consider squirrel hunting with a .22...This puts you back in the woods scouting, I have stumbled across some of my best deer stands by doing this....

bowman15

I missed a smaller buck one year, and was instantly happy that I missed because he was small. My reward; not another shot for the rest of the year, and subsequently, no more meat in the freezer.

I'm not sure, but I've heard that antlers don't taste so good.....

Nice buck regardless.