lost buck story
 

so friday night my buddy comes back from pennstate and we meet up and bust our butts to get out but we dont start walking in until 4pm, he went to his hang on and sent me across the road to a spot ive hunted before. by the time i finally set my climber up and am ready to go knowning rain was on its way. a little before 5 a big coyote comes trotting by and i let one fly, he ducked the arrow at around 30 yards. disappointed about my shot i sat there grunting and awaiting dark. then about 5:10 a real big 6pt (around 100-110") comes in with no brow tines

when the buck got behind some cover i drew back and he walked out at twenty yards, before i shot he turned and walked right towards me. stopping at 12 yards and turning broadside i let the commander go and sent a rage 2 blade to what i thought was a perfect double lung shot. i dont know exactly what the buck did when the arrow hit as i was so focus but he bounded off twenty yards and simply started walking with blood gushing out of him everywhere. i was so possitive that he would be down shortly i called my buddy and told him what happened and even said that it wouldnt be much of a track job, hes pooring blood and i was confident it was a dead buck

i waited until 6 and as i started to lower my bow it starts to pour and i mean it came down in buckets. by the time i got to my arrow it was only waterstained blood on it, we got on the trail right away and had great blood giving the amount of rain and then it just stopped after 80 yards. we backed out got his dad and returned taking more time incase we missed anything. the three of us searched for more blood for about 30 mins and when nothing turned up we looked for a body. we searched in the pouring rain until about 10 figured we would search in the am that we must be walking past him. his dad walked up to 20 yards of a bedded deer before it got up and walked off, unfortantly it was close to the road and he turned his light off because a car was coming and we didnt want any unneeded attention. once that car left he checked the bed and no hair no blood nothing. and this bed was prob. 200 yards from our last blood.

morning came along with more rain and and 3 of us tore up the country side looking without any luck, a ton where the bedded deer headed and nothing. since then weve looked for crows and listened for coyotes and nothing. i hope the buck lived and we see him again to confirm it but until then i just keep replaying everything through my head and can't figure out what happened. everything seemed perfect and there is no deer to show for it. i cant even say the head didnt preform because i could see the blood gushing from it and had such a good trail even with the rain.

the only thing we can think of is that it was a single lung shot and that he lived or was bumped and went extremely far. this has been by far my most archery season with deer sightings and when i finally get to trigger off it just brought dissapointment :sad:

sorry for the long story i just needed to vent

Thats too bad, i always love hunting before the rain since the deer seem to move more... but i hate thinking that it might rain if i shoot one also..

Thats sucks man. If he was "pouring blood" like you said, I find it hard to believe he's not dead. Look for crows and buzzards and what not, he's gotta be dead somewhere.