Lost Deer

[Buck_IT]

Hi All,

It sure has been a while since i posted. Hope all had a great season thus far.  

First of all, i'm truly having a hard time with this subject. 

As we all know, it was opening firearms weekend, i was all pumped up to be back at it after taking a 6 year break from gun season.  On our property of 100 acres in 9Y, my stand is the notorious/most productive stand we have.  6:30 rolls around and i begin the ride up the hill to get into this amazing ridgetop stand. 6:45 im in the stand and setting up for the morning. As daybreak is brightening up, im enjoying the time in the woods and already hearing shots around me.  7:15 is approaching and i'm glassing the ridgetop where i sprayed this past spring and planted clover.  I'm my scan, boom, BONE!!! right out the garte.  I stop, calm down and reach to my left for the rifle.  I'm the short time of me grabbing my rifle and flipping the safety, the buck stops, 75 yards, broadside.  Set the crosshairs on him and right in the bread house.  I calm myself, settle down all while he's still staring at me and POWWWW!  I let her rip and the deer starts to book it.  As he disappears into the thicket, i hear some crashing and for sure though he  down right there.  30 minutes go by and my fellow hunters meet up and we start to find the impact zone. Within minutes we find hair and a couple drops of blood.  I was so happy and amped up, but there was some white hair in the mix but also consisting of grey hair as well.  We then start walking to the area where i lost him in the thicket and herd the crashing.  I walked up right on massive amounts of blood the size of my boot.  Look at the blood and its bright red with bubbles and there was lots of blood.  As we start tracking the trail, you can see the blood dwindling and every so often, large amounts like he was blowing out the blood.  After tracking for close to 300 yards, he ends up crossing a fence line into a large CRP field and we loose the blood trail.  From impact at 7:20am to lost blood at 9:00am, i spend the next 6 hours searching for more blood and gridding this 20 acre CRP field.  I go talk to neighbors who were sitting over the field in the direction he went and they seen nothing.   I called every deer search person i could find with limited service, I was drained, lifeless and in disbelief.  The deer could have gone anywhere and exhausted all resources.  By 4pm, i had to call it.  From talking with everyone, it seems like i may  have clipped one of his lungs on the lower end and not both given the distance he ran and the dwindling blood.  

This is by far the hardest thing ive ever hard to overcome in my hunting career. I'd like to hear back from ppl to see how you've overcome this feeling of: Should i have looked longer, should i have waited a little longer with the shot to assure a steady hand, should i have talked to other ppl around.  

All words of wisdom would sure help

Best

Joe

[Buck_IT]

I should also note, this was a good 8 point buck, tall, just outside the ears.  We have antler restrictions on our property along some of the neighbors.

[crappyice]

Sorry Joe...it’s an all too real unfortunate part of the game. Can’t beat yourself up
Too bad over it and yet can’t dismiss it as “no big deal”(clearly you are not doing that).
Hindsight is 20/20....waiting longer is always better but damn hard to do especially with good blood.
When I hit and couldn’t recover a bow buck years ago I reset myself by hitting the range and changing something about my approach. It was a slight shift that was more
Mental than anything but it did help me “Get back in the saddle”


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[airedale]

These deals are so frustrating, and unless the Deer is recovered and a post mortem conducted showing exactly where it was hit and the bullet's performance it is hard to come up with a real true answer because everything is conjecture.

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 "i spend the next 6 hours searching for more blood and gridding this 20 acre CRP field.  I go talk to neighbors who were sitting over the field in the direction he went and they seen nothing."   

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I find that interesting that the neighbors did not see that Deer in the field, maybe he turned and circled back.

Al

Edited November 23, 2020 by airedale

[Bolt action]

Any chance the neighbors found it and didn't tell you? 

[Buck_IT]

1 hour ago, crappyice said:

Sorry Joe...it’s an all too real unfortunate part of the game. Can’t beat yourself up
Too bad over it and yet can’t dismiss it as “no big deal”(clearly you are not doing that).
Hindsight is 20/20....waiting longer is always better but damn hard to do especially with good blood.
When I hit and couldn’t recover a bow buck years ago I reset myself by hitting the range and changing something about my approach. It was a slight shift that was more
Mental than anything but it did help me “Get back in the saddle”


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I totally agree.  its all mentally disheartening to me.  I'm an avid bow hunter and property management guy, but covid and having a newborn in the beginning of covid put things on halt.  I am getting through this mishap with my wife and daughter so that one thing keeping me going.  I'm already back to the drawing board for next year and all the improvements i want to make to the property.  I'm defiantly more determined to get my wife and daughter more involved next year to make this a family event.  i guess that's what keeps me getting thought this.   

[Buck_IT]

1 hour ago, Bolt action said:

Any chance the neighbors found it and didn't tell you? 

we have a feeling this is what ended up happening honestly.  The blood trial ended up turning their direction and if it ran 100 more yards to a know bedding area, it would have crossed in front of them.

[Team Hoyt]

I had the same thing happen Saturday morning as well. Hit him with 6.5 Creedmoor. No blood or hair at the hit sight, 30 yards from there little blood. Blood trail very minimal at the most but every drop was full of bubbles. No luck finding him either. Very frustrating 

[Larry]

The law states you can transport someone else’s deer. It needs to be properly tag and you need a note from the taker with his or hers information on the note.

[wolc123]

Dont beat yourself up over it.  Instead of thinking about that lost buck, think of the others, that won't end up lost, thanks to the lesson learned the hard way that time.

I have lost a few in my 39 seasons, but Iearned something from each one.  Their memories remain etched in my memory, stronger than any of the recovered kills.  That helps avoid repeats.

 What helps me more than anything else, is doing my best to keep on good terms with He who controls the final destination of all living things.  If that turns out to be "deer heaven" (my family's food) supply, then I know I did something right.

[crappyice]

we have a feeling this is what ended up happening honestly.  The blood trial ended up turning their direction and if it ran 100 more yards to a know bedding area, it would have crossed in front of them.

I could never imagine stealing someone else’s deer. How could you mount, eat and display something your didn’t harvest but stole?

Now the one that gets tricky is when a wounded deer wanders to another hunter and is finished by the second hunter...technically it’s the second hunter who is the rightful hunter who can claim the deer.


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[BowmanMike]

3 minutes ago, crappyice said:

I could never imagine stealing someone else’s deer. How could you mount, eat and display something your didn’t harvest but stole?

Now the one that gets tricky is when a wounded deer wanders to another hunter and is finished by the second hunter...technically it’s the second hunter who is the rightful hunter who can claim the deer.


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My sentiments exactly but i do think that's what happened. Or the buck doubled back,but more than likely something fishy transpired.

Either way,it sucks to loose a deer but dont let that stop you from hunting. Do all you can to find it and learn from it. I haven't lost one with the gun yet but sure did with the bow. It sucked,but i learned a lot from it and was able to recover some less than ideal shots since then.

[the blur]

What round do you shoot ?   Sounds like a dead deer to me, that just didn't know it.   He's close by for sure.....  

and the 6.5CM guy above... you can't use accubonds or bonded bullets on deer.  They just make a pencil hole, and keep going.  Soft tip or ballistic tip is best for deer.

[Buck_IT]

15 hours ago, the blur said:

What round do you shoot ?   Sounds like a dead deer to me, that just didn't know it.   He's close by for sure.....  

and the 6.5CM guy above... you can't use accubonds or bonded bullets on deer.  They just make a pencil hole, and keep going.  Soft tip or ballistic tip is best for deer.

I shoot a Winchester .270.  My understanding is the make small holes than could possibly close up relatively quick if not a double lunger or heart shot.    

[Buck_IT]

I appreciate all of your comments guys.  I truly do.  I feel more motivated than ever this season to right the wrong.  I will never forget this event but im going to take this and learn from it.  Regardless if the neighbors seen it or not, i live 2 hours away from this property and exhausted all efforts to find him on the properties i was able to search. 

 

Does anyone use shooting sticks with rifle while in the stand? 

The stand i was in has no sides and no limbs to help stabilize my arms while aiming.  I've always used shotguns and never had a problem dropping them quickly with a shotgun.

[mlammerhirt]

Similar story from my doe Sunday afternoon.
50 yard shot broadside of shooting sticks no less with a Savage 220 20ga.
Upon impact I see her through the scope drop low and haul off on a sprint low and hard to the ground. I get to POI pretty quick since light is being lost fast and it's raining hard. My boys and I find white hair and then the panic sets in. I calm myself down, make a plan and a phone call and look once more for blood before heading home real quick to grab flashlights. Well the next grape row over I found a nice pool of blood that gave me hope.
Low and behold my son's, buddy and myself got on the track an hour after the shot and had a heck of a time following blood in the rain. We almost have up for the night.....left the grapes to grid search a thick brushy area, and before calling the search off we did one more pass through the remaining grape rows we didn't look through yet. Well there she lay and our questions started to get answers. I hit her where I was aiming(lung) but she must have quartered to and my round exited back liver. She was basically a dead die running but wasnt throwing alot of blood. These animals are tough as nails, and can sometimes give us huge fits on what we thought was a great shot.

That was the side I shot her on.....was a little back but still clipped low lung.

2nd pic is the best blood we found 6' from POI

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