Sickening confession.
 

Yesterday morning (10/5/04) I decided to get out for a morning hunt before work. Sunrise was just after 6:00am and I had to be out of the woods by quater of 8:00am to get to work on time. The morning dawned cold and the air was still. I was 22 feet above the ground in my honey hole overlooking the creek bottom that wanders through our property. About 7:00am I grabbed my rattle horns and started to "tickle the tines together", I wasn't working them hard but was trying to produce more of a playful sparing sound. I worked the antlers for about a minute and a half and almost as quickly as I hung up my horns I had two skippers come racing in. This was new for me as I've never gotten a responce from a doe before.
They came in so quickly that they were through my first shooting lane before I could draw and get a pin on either of them. I had to let down and since they were behind me I had to manuver my arrow around the tree my stand is hung in. I was able to get around the tree by but this time the first deer had passed through all my shooting lanes and was beyond any shots. I could clearly see her but any shot was out of the question because of obstruction between us. The other deer however stopped directly behind my tree. Both appeared to be looking for the source of the comotion but neither could pinpoint it.
As the second deer started to move again I drew and immediatly she stopped. She looked a little fidgety so I was expecting her to move again quickly. It never happened, she stood still for the better part of two minutes. I held at full draw as long as I possibly could before letting down for a second time. Within 10 seconds of letting down she took the two steps I was waiting for and stepped right into my lane. I drew, settled my pin and let it fly. By the sound of the hit and the way the shot felt I was pumped. I was certain of a boilerroom hit but she bounded off and and disappeared and I never heard her crash. At this point I only had about 45 minutes until I had to leave for work so I gave about 20 minutes and got down to look for my arrow.
When I got down and got to the point of impact I found my arrow with about 6 inches of it driven into the soil. The arrow was covered end to end with a green slimy film:(, my heart sank. It explained why I never heard her crash, instead of boiler room I blew my arrow right through the sewer factory.
At this point I only had about 10 minutes before I'd have to leave for work. I flagged the spot of the hit and snuck out of the woods as quitely as possible. I knew she needed time and I had to get to work. Yesterday I sat at my desk disheartened all day. I got a splitting headach (which I never get) which I attribute the stress of the situation.
At 5:00pm I got out of work and speed all the way to my spot. I got dressed as quickly as I could and was out in the woods and had about an hour and a half of light left in the day. I immediatly went to the spot of the hit. I could see some guts on a branch and tried to track her but to no avail. The area was heavily tracked up so I started working my way in the direction the deer fled. A half hour of searching turned up no leads or indications as tho where she had gone. At this point I was feeling pretty bummed. I pride myself on making ethical decision in the woods and being a better then average shot and I was starting to have my doubts. Since I could find no sign of her I decided to walk along the high edge of the creek bottom. I started from the spot of the hit and followed it along in the direction of where she ran to. About 70 yards from my stand low and behold there was my deer, dead right along the creek.
I can honestly say that I'm pretty disgusted with my proformance in the morning. If I did one thing right it was getting out of the woods without pushing the deer. An autopsy revealed my hit was about 4 inches behind the diaphram. I was lucky and caught a pretty good artery and she bleed massively internally but never put a spot of blood on the ground.

My advise to those who have a less then stellar hit on a deer, Head to Rob's advised in what to do after the shot post. I could mean the diffrence between a might have been and a disapointing hunt and meat in the freezer. Thank's for the tips Rob. Your advise has lead to a recovered deer.

<<<<message edited to remove pic from post, Wow that pic was big:eek:>>>>

RE: Sickening confession.
 

Yes that sick feeling is never forgotten. thanks for your effort to find her.and dont be tp hard on yourself you dont look like God to me.We all make mistakes. If we learn from our mistakes ,thats what counts

RE: Sickening confession.
 

Thanks for sharing that story. I'm glad you found her.

RE: Sickening confession.
 

yea man don't beat yourself up to bad, i can tell by all of your post your not the kind of person that takes a marginal shot, holding your bow for 2 minutes could have attributed to the errant shot, or your sleeve getting into the string, the main thing is you put in the effort to make a recovery, bad shots are going to happen, they'll always be a little limb or vine that you may never see till you let it fly......keep your chin up and have a great rest of the season

RE: Sickening confession.
 

i'm glad you found her, you did good by backing out and giving her time, tasty backstraps for you!

RE: Sickening confession.
 

You must have hit something other than guts if she only went 70 yards??? What did the autopsy show? Good deal on finding her and following up. I've told this story before.... the short version I once had an arrow covered with green slime. Never found more than a tablespoon of blood. The deer was hit squarely through both lungs/ center of ribcage. The arrow passed through her food pipe picking up the slime. A baseball size of chewed up greenery followed the arrow down the hole and plugged the exit wound behind and under the off side front leg. He went about 90 yard

RE: Sickening confession.
 

Adams

All I can say is you did a great job on not giving up on the deer. Congrats!!!

RE: Sickening confession.
 

No one wants to lose a deer. Things can go wrong on the easiest and most ethical of shots. I think the difference maker is how one approaches bow hunting and the attitude concerning the situation.

If a person hunts long enough and has enough shot exposures, eventually old Murphy will show up and present a real challenge.

Kudos to you on finding her.

RE: Sickening confession.
 

Nothing sickening about it. You made a mistake and then put in the due deligence toward correcting it. That's all any of us can expect.;)

RE: Sickening confession.
 

Mucho respect for your feelings and then your recovery! Good Job!

RE: Sickening confession.
 

Pick your head up! I think you did a terrific job!!!! And that was a great read!

RE: Sickening confession.
 

Hey Adams...don't beat yourself up about that. In fact, pat yourself on the back. You did everything right and found your deer. It doesn't matter who you are...we all have things go awry now and then. You just gotta deal with it, and you did. Congrats on your doe:D

RE: Sickening confession.
 

Just as in your other posts, your atitude as a hunter showed thru in this one. You made a bad shot, and did what you had to do and found your deer. That isn't sickening in the least, but very admirable. I am glad you found her, and hope others can take this post as an example of what one should do in a not so perfect situation.
:) good job:D

RE: Sickening confession.
 

I couldn't find the artery but judging by the amount of blood inside her I had to have cut one. There was easily as much blood as if I had hit lungs. One reason I didn't dig around the gut pile too much was she was a bit stinky after getting gut shot.

RE: Sickening confession.
 

Boy O Boy, after the 750 acres and now this[:o] Man O Man Adams
Good going and Great Recovery;)
I'll even cook for ya tonite LOL:)

RE: Sickening confession.
 

Why the sickeing confession ?

You took a good shot, made a bad hit, made all the right decision and ended up with your deer ........... you did EXACTLY what you were suppose to do

I don't get it .............

RE: Sickening confession.
 

As much as I like to hunt (which = killing animals) I like to do it with in the quickes most ethical manner possible. I'm just a bit disgusted with the hit. This was by far and away the worst hit I've ever put on a deer with my bow. I feel a bit sh!^^y about, that's all.

RE: Sickening confession.
 

If you hunt long enough you'll make a bad shot. You did the right thing and got your deer. Congratulations!:D

RE: Sickening confession.
 

At least you found your deer, I still feel crappy for not finiding the doe I gut shot. I think we may haev pushed her out of the section of woods we were hunting when my friend came down with a 4 wheeler though.
Congrats for finding her, and good luck with your future hunts/shots.

RE: Sickening confession.
 

Thank you but everyone with their tips throughout the thread is why that thread is brought up every year.

Likewise what's been said above, you took a good shot, made a bad hit..if you can call it that. With woodsmanship, knowledge and good ethics you found your animal. Congrats to you and thanks for the report, perhaps someone else will learn from your thread and so on it could teach us all.

RE: Sickening confession.
 

Great job, adams! I can relate to the sick feeling as I've been in a similar situation before. I'm glad to hear everything worked out in the end.

RE: Sickening confession.
 

I appreciate all the kind words. :) It cartainly make me feel better about the situation.

Here's one more for you.

RE: Sickening confession.
 

Adams - I have followed many of your posts. Although I am 39 and you are much younger we are very similar. DO NOT beat your self up on this. If you do you will find yourself making another bad shot. I know this because it happened to me. Way back in '84 when I was 19 I made a bad hit on a doe at first light. I tracked her right away (didn't have Rob's tips back then) and jumped her several times. I looked all day but I never found her. I went out that night to just sit and think about what I had done. Well in came a small 6 point. I shot too soon and hit the front shoulder. Arrow fell out and I never found that deer. All this on opening day. I went home, sold the bow and did not go back to bow hunting until a new friend got me back into it 2 years later.

You found the deer. Be happy and get back out there and hit the boiler room soon. I know you can do it.

RE: Sickening confession.
 

Great story. Congrats

RE: Sickening confession.
 

WIPE THAT SILLLY GRIN OFF YORU FACE!

NAh just kidding man, Adams, you need not beat yourself up over this, everyone makes mistakes... hell i dont think you are much younger than me but i know it took me a little longer to fix the same mistakes you are making now, this is where you can seperate your self from the average hunter, learn from your mistake, and move on. promis yourself that it wont happen again, and you will be good. i made a VERY bad shot at a deer the third year out, and my Grandpa knew i was beating myself up over it and sat me down and explained all of teh wisdom that he coudl share, and then after all teh storys of about 60+ years of hunting he said he did the same thing when he was 17... but then never made the same mistake again. I try tolive up to that kind of hunter mentality...

sure we are all human, and we make some bad descissions from time to time. its not llike yoru getting PLASTERED every night before you go hunting and shoot anything that moves.

oh by the way.... i cleaned out the extra bedroom, and now i have a sofa in there... when are ya gonna come hunting with me in Illinois? ;)

RE: Sickening confession.
 

Congrats on your bow kill and I commend you on your efforts in finding her.

RE: Sickening confession.
 

i am very happy you found her.

RE: Sickening confession.
 

Adams, I can relate to the feeling. I think we all can. One time my buddy shot at a small 6 pointer broadside slowly moving left to right at 40 yds.(which he is very capable of making) and the deer jumped the string so bad it was able to turn itself around before the arrow got there. We waited 1 hour and followed a very easy blood trail for quite a distance (about 200 yds,) and found him very dead with an arrow broken off in its left ham severing the femoral artety. He was very upset that he hit the deer in a place that he wasnt even aiming for let alone the opposite side.
It took days for us to convince him to be proud of taking that deer.
Its hunting not shopping and a if things could go wrong they probably will.
Cheer up you got your deer with a bow and that in itself is quite a feat.;)

RE: Sickening confession.
 

Adams- That's a post that we can all live by... If any of us think that there's a chance that we have a gutshot deer, we should just wait- plain and simple. Like everybody else said, you handled everything as well as you could have after that arrow flew. Things just don't always happen as we plan them. Nice job finding your deer.
I'll always remember the moral to your story. Thanks.

RE: Sickening confession.
 

Good job on finding the deer. What I wouldn't have done though is shot a deer that soon before I had to leave the woods. You're just asking for trouble if you have to leave your deer laying in the woods until you can get back and find it. I know that folks leave them all night sometimes after a bad hit but they don't plan it that way. 6-7:45 doesn't leave much room for anything but a perfect hit early and you could end up with nothing but a coyote buffet. See ya.

RE: Sickening confession.
 

I hear that! Had I hit her better it would have been a sick day. Since it was a less then stellar hit and I had to wait it just made sence to go to work and let time take it's course.