ORIGINAL: buckeye

Some may have noticed other than those I have spoke with that I haven't been around HNI for a while... I just needed a little break, my pride and psychy was damaged and I needed some time away..... Time away from talking bowhunting that is as it is hard to be positive when you are sitting on the couch during prime rut and after botching two "easy" encounters. I strained some muscles in my bow shoulder drawing on abig 10 point back on November 8th. It was cold in the 20's that morningand I sweated it up pretty heavily on my way intomy setwhich was the killer for the cold to eventually set in on me. I may have been underdressed as well after I got settled in stand, but after the sweating I didI don't believe more clothing would have helped much, if any.



[/align]So as the story goes I was basically freezing in my stand that morning (I rarely ever get cold on stand even into much lower temps as I have good gear for the conditions, this day was different however) and I had the aforementioned big 10 pointbeeline in on me intoa large scrape a mere10 yards awaya tick or two after10AM oblivious to my presence. No shot was offered until he stepped out of the scrape. Just before he cleared the tree trunks I went to draw the bow.



[/align]As I started getting into the bows draw curveI felt a "grinding" crunch and a semi sharp pain in the muscles of my draw shoulderbut kept pulling trying to get the string back... I couldn't. Right after the crunching in my shoulder it felt as if all my strength in that shoulder had escaped me. I quickly let down and tried again and still couldn't get it back past the half way point... Again I could feel the crunching in my shoulder but worse this time.



[/align]Shocked,after a moment I sat down, then he walked off. I didn't even try to draw on him again.



[/align]I sat for a few minutes in disbelief then stood up and started stretching my bow shoulder and rolling my arms around trying to generate some body heat. I did this for maybe 15 minutesthenI could see deer off in the distance on the far ridge side.



[/align]Twentyminutesafter the first disasterI was covered up in deer again with a different140 class buck, a doe and two younger bucks. The doe worked off the far ridge to a creek crossing right towards my stand. After the bigger buck was done harassing the younger bucks he took off for the doe.She led himrighttoward me, as he chased her right past my stand.



[/align]Now warm from all the moving around, Idrew the bow with all my mite thinking I would have troublegetting it back......and I way OVERDREW the bow. I slammed the draw stop into the cable.I thenmouth grunted and the buck stopped broadside at 32 yards, perfect I thought....I aimed, touched the trigger off and watched the arrow deflect off a branch then hit the buck HIGH....To the best my eyes could seeI hit him just under the spine or just over it. He ran for about 40 yards after the shot slowed to a walk, then just walked away from me. He stopped again for a few minutes about 100 yards away at that same creek crossing. I then watched him walk away up hill for good.



[/align]We (my brother, a buddy and myself) waited half the day and went in to look for sign. Long story short.... We did not find him. Wefound next to nothing for blood, maybe a 10-12 pin sized drops at the creek crossing and a little bit of hair where he stood when I shot.



[/align]That is the first deer I have ever shot at that I did not recover with a bow and arrow. I was not nervous beyond what I normally feel when I am releasing an arrow on a good buck, so I am sure nerves had nothing to do with either occurrence. I went back out once last Sunday evening with the bow duringouryouth gun season. I don't know why though as I am still afraid to try to draw the bow as myshoulder is still sore. I damaged the muscles from being so cold that morningand not moving hardly at all for those 4 hours previous to the shot. After stretching my arms and shoulders and warming body up it proves the case as the bow came back so easily 20 minutes later on the second buck.



[/align]I feel terrible about not having any closure with the buck. From my experiences as well as my brothers and my buddy who was present all feel confident it was a non lethal hit. Do I know that for sure though? Absolutely not, butlike I said I feel confident with what we saw.



[/align]Idid havegood results at our public land camp over those three hunts before I hurt my shoulderas I had 5 mature buck sightings, all in range but one, along with a dozen or more younger bucks and a few does. The mature bucks consisted of the one I couldn't get drawn on, the one I "hit", a big beautiful 8, and 2 I passed shots on only being in the high 120's - 130 each. Not to shabby as this is hunted pretty heavily.



[/align]We just had a 2 day youth gun season last weekend and our 1 week gun season startedtoday. It is followedby another 2 day weekend gun seasonthen bythe 4 day muzzleloader season. If I go back out and I think I will it will be tuff going for sure with the bow.

To close this much to long post out...Congratulationsto everyone who scored what they were after this fallthat i did not get a chance to personally say congrats to