What is your strangest recovery?
 

This is a neat thread I think. We all have recovered deer, some easy some not. I would say my strangest recovery was deer I shot on a Friday afternoon, we recovered it the next morining after tracking for about 200 yds. When we skinned it out, it was the same deer that my buddy shot 3 days before in the hind end, the deer came back to the same stand 3 days later and i shot him. Strange but not as strange as some others Ive heard. let's hear it...

RE: What is your strangest recovery?
 

I put my 10 yard pinright on his heart, and released. I thought it was a good shot, but I was a little low, and little far back. I figured it would go 30 yards and expire. We ended up tracking it for almost 2 MILES!!!, mainly it ran in circles. It was snowing out, very hard and the blood trail was getting covered up, I either had to find it now, or never. Finally we caught up with it, and as soon as I released my arrow, it turned at the last second and I spined it. This hunt was not my best moment, but I was glad it was over.

RE: What is your strangest recovery?
 

I shot one on the 23rd of Nov. on the last Friday on gun season in WI. I was hunting on my brother in laws land and on the way to my stand in the morning I hear something to my right.

I shine my flashlight over and see a doe bedded down and she tries to get up but is having a hard time. She was hitting trees and other stuff. I didn't want to shoot because it was pitch dark out and it was an hour before shooting time. So I sat in my stand for about an hour and a half and this same doe came out. I could tell she was limping on her back leg. She was about 35 yards away so it was an easy shot with the gun but I never let a deer suffer if I see one wounded.

Found out while we were skinning her that her back tendon on her right leg was cut somehow so that leg was pretty much useless. I guess this was why she was limping. Also, found some bruised meet on one of her sides. It wasn't gang green or anything but it was blood shoot and was hit by a car. My brother in law said he hit a doe with his truck 2 weeks before while he was on his way out bowhunting.

He hit her on the same side she had the blood shot meet on so we figured it was the same deer since where we hunt up there it's back roads and not many people are traveling on those roads.

That was kinda strange that I ended up shooting that doe when he hit it just 2 weeks before.

RE: What is your strangest recovery?
 

This was a gun kill, but a nice recovery.

It was Friday night and I put a quick (questionable to me now) shot on the biggest buck of my life. I went to look at the point of impact and found bloody acorns all over the place. Obviously I had hit gut, so I let the deer lay and backed out. Six hours later, 12 at night, we were out looking due to snowfall that was coming hard. We had no blood whatsoever, but every 10 yards we would find another bloody acorn. The deer was traveling a trail that was headed straight towards a large development. (I had permission to be on the land). We soon gave up and figured we would grid search it in the morning because the snow had covered the remaining acorns. The next morning I woke my dad up at 5:30 sharp and we were out there well before daylight, because I was waaaaay anxious. We started looking for almost three hours and nothing. We had decided to head back for something to eat and possibly come out later. On our way back, I was dragging behind checking every nook and cranny I could. I was looking up towards the development when I notice a large clump of snow with brown underneath it. I yell at my dad and crash through the brush and jump on top of it. As I was running up on it, I could see the massive antler coming out the snow. Now, I have my biggest buck to show for it. Thanks for reading.

I know, no snow here because of rain and melt off.


And the Mount.

RE: What is your strangest recovery?
 

When I was 15 I was bow hunting on the ground and a doe fawn walked in front of me at 17 yards. I hit her high in the shoulder, arrow went in about 10" or so. We tracked her that night and then quit. Went back the next morning and tracked her all day and jumped her at 10 yards, I couldn't shoot her because 2 other guys were on the other side of her. We later lost blood that day and went back again the following day and found nothing! A day later my dad came home from an elk hunting trip in Colorado. Helooks at me and says, Steve were going back out there, I'm pretty sure I know where your deer went to bed down at. Sure enough we went out there and dad jumped the doe fawn where he figured he would and it ran accross the river by my brother who took a running shot at 30 yards with his compound (He was 12 years old at the time) in the river and he nailed it good in the lungs. I seen the whole thing happen as i was running 90 mph along the bank towards the deer. I dove off the 10' river bank like an olympian swimmer or diver into the river and grabbed my now dead deer! I was one happy SOB that day!

RE: What is your strangest recovery?
 

I had a big doe come at 20 yds. at 8 a.m. one morning. I shot and watched my arrow zip through right in the heart. The leaves were about a foot deep and dry as corn flakes. She jumped put her head down and "shuffled" away. From my stand I could see through the grown over apple orchard I was in to the steep hill side about 200 yds. away. As she went out of hearing I see her heading "UP" the hill. I sat there for a few minutes very confused and decided to back out for a couple of hours. I went to my inlaws for breakfast and brought my mother-in-law with me. (She was bowhunting at that time). We went to a grape tangle where I last saw the deer at the top of the hill. On the way in we jumped her and watched as she shuffled back down towards a creek. There was good blood on both sides of the trail so I said lets go and 4 hrs. After my hit we heard her go down for good. She had went to the top of the hill twice more and that's where she fell. I have a close up of me holding the heart with the good old Bear Razorhead "X" through the top of it!

RE: What is your strangest recovery?
 

2006 I shot a nice 10 I got out of the stand waited until dark and got my buddies to help look for him. It was about an hour after I shot him when we started looking and we had good blood for a while. We came to a spot where the trail split off into 3 differant directions so we each took a trail and I saw him first So I yelled out I FOUND HIM! As I moved closer He picked his head up and looked at me. My heart sank in my chest and I told everybody to stay still. He died with in a couple of minutes but it was scary for a little bit.

RE: What is your strangest recovery?
 

my friend shot a small 6 pt with his bow and did not find it....then a week later in gun season he shot the same deer (arrow STILL sticking out of it)but this time he dropped it.

RE: What is your strangest recovery?
 

last years Doe, she traveled 500 yards up and down hills leaving a sidewalk
size bloodtrail with a perfect doublelung pass through shot. My son had just shot her sister a minute before i shot mine, she must have been pumped up on adreniline. that deer should never had gone that far.

RE: What is your strangest recovery?
 

I hit a branch and ended up hitting a buck in the back FOOT! About 1 inch above the hoof, we tracked it for a while and actually had decent blood before it ran out. We went home and had the idea to take our new beagle pup on a leash and see if he could pick up a trail...this dog had no training nor was he ever intended to be a tracking dog...just a pet..anyway that dog sprinted down the deers trail with no blood dragging my dad behind him for about 500 yards, and we finally found the buck, not proud of the shot but it was an awesome recovery...

RE: What is your strangest recovery?
 

Looks like you poked your pinky finger in the side of that doe pal. Good thing Dalton looks like his mom. BAM!

RE: What is your strangest recovery?
 

buck died from that wound?? Femoral artery??

RE: What is your strangest recovery?
 

I had about a 5 yard shot out of a tree on a medium sized deer. Hit it perfect behind the shoulder, it bounds off about 10 yards and stops for many seconds. It was standing broadside, offering another shot, so I knocked another. It probably saw me, and it wobbled off before I could shoot again. I got down immediately, figuring this deer was toast. It was early evening, ~2 hours before dark. I found the arrow stuck in the ground, but no blood on the arrow, just clear stinky fluid. Hummm, that's weird. I go look where (I thought) the deer was standing, nothing. I was dumbfounded, couldn't believe it, didn't know what else to do but back out. I consulted with others, decided to wait until morning. Got a late start due to circumstances beyond my control, but anyway, long story short: I was looking in the wrong place for where the deer was standing. In fact there was a good puddle of blood, and a standard 100 yard blood trail. We found the deer in a pond, 3/4 consumed by preadators. It really sucked, I still get sick about it after more than 10 years. I made a mistake, and it cost me a deer.

RE: What is your strangest recovery?
 

That sucks.

RE: What is your strangest recovery?
 

I almost hate posting this because I hate posting about stuff gone wrong. It just never makes us as a group look good to the general public in my opinion. However, chit happens and I guess people need to know it.

This might be long, imagine that me with a long post[:o]:D.

It was my second year hunting, first year with a gun. I started with a bow when I was 33, so no I wasn't a kid or anything. I really never had any intention on hunting deer to begin with. I just wanted to learn archery so a buddy I worked with helped me get a decent bow. After a year he talked me into bow hunting and I got a decent deer the first year out. Shortly after that I bought a Remington 700 inline muzzle loader and spent the spring and summer working up a good load for it and practicing with it. It was surprisingly accurate.

Well the day before gun season opened I was cleaning my ML and the breach plug was stuck. I had the barrel and action out of the stock and was wrenching on it with a ratchet and extension. I ended up breaking my trigger in half! OOOPS. I wasn't impressed. I hunted opening day with my mossy 500 and rifled slugs that were good to about 60 or 70 yards. About 10:30 this fantastic buck come out in the field I was hunting, walks across the corner of the property at 80 yards away or so and hops the fence. Too far the mossy so I let it go[&o]. With the Remington it would have been an easy shot.

Now I'm Poed. I said screw it, packed up and left. I decided I would go home and see if I could fix the muzzle loader. I call around looking for a trigger, no one has one and if they did they wouldn't sell it to me since they say a gunsmith has to put it in. I found a guy in the next state over that said he didn't have one for that gun, but he might have something that would work. 2 hours later and $90 bucks later I have a reworked trigger assembly from some 1960's gun he had laying on his work bench, best trigger I have felt:D. At least twice as nice as the one it had in it to begin with. I go home, throw my gun back together and hunt that evening, with no luck.

The next morning I'm out hunting with my Remington 700 ML with that will throw a 300 grn 45 cal bullet at near 1900 fps into a group a little over an inch with a 4-10x50 scope on Leupold mounts. Not to mention with a fancy new trigger;). I'm happy, I'm confident. That spells trouble doesn't it:eek:.

I'm shooting out of an old pole barn over looking an opening meadow that has a pond on one side a cornfield on the other and a woods directly in front of me about 90 yards away. Mid morning a decent 10 point walks out directly in front of me about 90 yards away. Not the deer I saw the day before, but a nice one for me at any rate. Especially considering it's my second year hunting. I lay my rifle on the Easy Hanger I have screwed into a tree. I put my cross hairs right behind the shoulder and BANG! I'm in a cloud of white smoke choking and trying to see where the deer went. (isn't muzzle loading GREAT:D) Well the deer is just standing there looking at me all hunched up?

My buddy is hunting the other side of the property and we have radios. He calls me and asked if I just shot at a deer and if I got one. I said yes, I shot at one, but it's just standing there looking at me. He says "Re-load and shoot again dummy!". Hmm, why didn't I think of that. So I am trying to hurry up and re-load, dumping a charge in my barrel, stuffing the bullet in there, pulling my ram rod out and throwing it on the ground behind me. I throw the rifle up there again and fire, another cloud of smoke and the deer just stands there again? WTF! Then it walks a little ways and lays down in the weeds.

Then I hear a boom from behind me, my buddy just shot a deer at the other side of the property. I call him on the radio and he confirms it. I told him what happened to my deer and says he thinks I gut shot it from the way it is acting. I should just leave it alone for a while. He said if I wanted I could sneak out of there and come help him with his, then we would come back later and deal with mine.

About an hour later we come back to my spot. My gun is loaded again with my last shot, I only brought three speed loaders with me. all of which are laying on the ground where I was shooting along with my rod. My buddy is laughing at the mess I made teasing me about being excited. He said he hopes I don't do that when I'm in a tree stand and slaps me on the back. He has his gun, but only one round in it and nothing else with him.

We walk out and jump the deer, it gets up and starts running, I take a crack at it. I have no idea if I hit it or not. It runs a bit farther and lays down again. We wait a little bit and walk up to it again, it gets up and my buddy fires at it. Again it runs a little ways, getting weaker and lays down again. Not much blood to speak of either. Things are not looking good at this point.

My buddy tells me it's getting weak, but it's close to the property line and he doesn't want to leave it again and have it get up and walk away. He says "Before it gets too rested I want us to rush it. When it gets up I will tackle it and I want you to stab it in the lungs. If we can't hold it down roll off it and run in different directions." I'm looking at my buddy like he his freakin' nuts, which he is at times;). But I go along with it just the same.

He sneaks up real close and it starts to get up, and he slams into it, knocking it back to the ground. I'm right behind him knife in hand. I bury my Kershaw folder to the hilt, pull it out and do it again. The deer puts up no fight and just lays there. We stood up and watched it die. Not a pleasant sight mind you. When you stab a deer in the lungs they don't just close their eyes and go to sleep.

After the deer expires we examine it and field dress it. It ends up my first shot was too far back and a tad high, putting it right behind the diaphragm. And then one of us grazed it on the hind quarter while it was running.

I'm wound up, pissed off, upset and mad at myself. I feel like I could puke at that moment. This isn't how I wanted things to go down on my first gun hunt. I know I shoot better than this, and I know the gun is waay more accurate than that. It was a good shot when I pulled the trigger, I know it I tell my buddy. I was not excited ( I don't get buck fever until after I shoot usually), I didn't flinch or jerk the trigger. I had the cross hairs right were I wanted them and I executed a good, easy shot or so I thought. I was ready to quit hunting I tell you.

I get home and look over my gun and discover my scope mount is broke[:@]. One of the screw heads on my Leupold bases was broken off. The Leupold mounts have a lug in the front that you drop in and twist the ring around to lock it in. Then the back mount has a screw on either side that holds it in. Well when that head broke it let my scope move over slightly and on each shot it moved a little more making it more and more off which is why I didn't hit anything on my last two shots. I felt a little bit better knowing I didn't execute a bad shot on an animal. But I still felt like a dumb ass for not checking my equipment over better before hunting with it.

I showed it to a local gunsmith and he said I probably over torqued the screw and weakened it. I said I did use a pretty decent sized screw driver because I didn't want it coming loose And it was all I had that would fit the slot on the screw. He showed me how a quarter fit perfectly into the slot and that was all the more torque that was required to hold them in. He said not to feel to bad, he sees it a lot.

So that's my story.

Paul

RE: What is your strangest recovery?
 

I was 13 and not able to hunt on my own but Dad would take me with him and I would rattle and glass for deer.Well my parents owned there own business and dad was runnin late with a customer so we hurried up and got all our hunting stuff together and headed out 20 mins before dark.We pull up into the field of my grandfathers farm and where walking along o fenceline at 250 yds we see this large 8 point just shakin its head in the swamp. So were standing there lookin at this buck and trying to determine if it was a taker and dad pulls up and shots at about 300yds the deer just drops.So we wade across the swamp(up to my belly button at that time of year) and look at our prize.He had shot it in the eye ball at 250+ yds...Man was I excited

RE: What is your strangest recovery?
 

probably the weirdest thing that happened to me was the first buck that i ever killed. i hit it a little far back and tracked him for a long time. he went into a deep creek bottom where the vegetation and vines were real thick, almost miserable to walk through. well we came to a small opening and i saw the buck from a distance.well, to my suprise he seemed to be standing up. i must've crouched there for about 5 or 10 min looking at him waiting for him to run. well eventually i knew that something was wrong.it turned out that he had jumped into a bunch of vines and thicket and had gotten tangled. he died in a standing position.

RE: What is your strangest recovery?
 

The strangest recoveries usually happen when things go wrong. Years ago when I was young and whilegun hunting I hit a five point in the back ham. He did a little circle and then took off down the creek bottom. Needless to say, I was disgusted. I started following the blood trail and came to a spot in the creek with a lot of blood in the water. I was standing there looking at it when I heard something crashing to me left. I look up and here comes the buck running through the woods right to me.

He stops in the creek about 10 feet in front of me and and faces me. I attempt to shoot him in the chest and I hear "click". I had forgot to take my safety off. He keeps standing there staring at me. It was a tense situation.I clicked the safety off and fired. He doesn't even flinch from a .30-06 round at point blank range. I wonder if I somehow missed him so I jack in another round. As I do this, he slowly falls over and crashes into the creek, making a big splash. Having a live buck that close andstaring at you while on the ground was a weird feeling.

RE: What is your strangest recovery?
 

I shot a big black bear.. roughly 400 lbs in the spring (19 14/16 skull)..a big bear for this state....anyway the big buggar climbed a hugedougfir tree and died about 25 feet up. When he died he wedged himself into the crotch of a big split of the double topped dougfir. I couldnt climb the big tree he was in because it was too big around and there was no limbs until you got to the bear were he was wedged. I climbed a cedartree next to him about3-4 feet awayand got above the bear while in the cedar, then JUMPED from one tree to the other (in the dark)and got on top of the bear...I wedged my feet above the bear and lifted with everything I had to dump the roughly 400 lb bear out..... he made a hell of a thud when he hit the ground.

RE: What is your strangest recovery?
 

When my son was 14 he is 41 now I went to pick him up from his stand one night and he said he got a shot put missed. He show me were the buck was standing about a 35 yard shot and I told him he should of not ever had taken a shot like that. I ask him if he was sure he missed and he said yes he heard the arrow hit the horse weeds. I told him lets go look and found the arrow broke in peaces and blood. The buck bled heavy for a long time and then the blood ran out. The next day a we went out and looked all day. We just got home when a friend called and ask if he had shot nice buck over where he was hunting and he said yes, My friend was running his traps over on the other road about a mile away and said he jumped a nice buck and it ran up a hill jumped a fence and dropped. We went out to see if it was the same deer and it was. The arrow had hit it in the lower front leg about 10 inches up from his hoof in the lower mussel and cutting a artery. The buck was his first p&y deer a 127 inches , but not his last and he making a lot better hits now.