enter into the picture the buck below. Good mature deer. The pic is a little missleading but he's 22-23inches wide and decent G2's. Good shooter for here.
It had been raining all day and it finally broke around 4 today. Just a light mist. I had doubts about going because they are calling for rain tonight. But I just wanted to get up a tree. I decided to head to a ladder stand I had on a 20acre clover field. I finally got into the stand at 5:20pm and exactly at 6pm I saw a small buck enter the field to my left. Next followed the buck above and then naother smaller 8pt. They fed for a good 30mins at 65 yards. I tried to grunt but they never paid attention to it or never heard it since I didnt want to spook them by calling loud. I thought about the snort wheeze since it actaully has worked this time of year before. But I decided to let them feed. Well with 15mins of light left they started to turn. 50 yards and closing. Now we are talking. If they break the 40-45 yard range im game. I had a rest on this stand so it was rock solid and I feel very good about a broadside field shot at this range. Plus they never knew I was there. Finally 42 yards broadside. I gave one last look and clicked the safety off and the arrow was off. The buck never knew what hit him. All you heard was a LOUD WHACKKKKK and I knew it was front shoulder. Im not exactly sure of where the hit was, but I know its shoulder from the sound and the reaction. The deer turned and ran like most do with a heart shot. Since rain was coming, I got down to look for the arrow. No luck. It was still in him. I went over to the edge of the field about 75 yards where the deer had went and found blood. Good blood.. bright also! I gave him a good hour but I had to move since rain was on the radar due to hit. Its already misting rain again. The blood was so good I could walk and walk without really looking down. About 30 yards into the woods I found the end of the arrow(vane end) It had blood about 7inches from the end so it went in pretty well. The front 4inches of the shaft with the rage head were missing. Sounds more and more like a likely shoulder hit since he broke the shaft running. Now the blood is pouring. Its running down tree and sticks down the trail. He's heading to the biggest bottom in my state though. The blood was bright and everywhere the first 100 yards. Now its getting thin. We have gone about 150 yards now and its getting hard to track, but still on the leaves about 2-3 ft off the ground. Pretty sure he's breathing blood out now. Then we come to a spot where its 4 pools of blood and you could tell he didnt know which way to go. It looks like someone cut his neck here. Then it starts to piddle right out. We went another 50 yards and came out into a clearcut lot and lost the trail. Its no way to track blood since its bare dirt and mulch from the clear cut. We pulled out and I have an idea where he's going. He turned and it heading down the edge of the clearcut. I wont be able to find blood after this rain but im going back to search atleast. I doubt I find him, but I owe him that much. Worse case Ill head back in several days and look for buzzards. Anyhow, I have to work court tomorrow provided my grandma stays on the same coarse. So I cant look in the morning. The deer will die, I just hope I can find him. I wish I could say I grazed a leg but im sure this was a front shoulder hit. More than likely about 4-6 inches to far foward.
Ive lost deer before and it suks, but you do as much as possible to find it. I just hate knowing exactly which deer this is and not being able to find him.
Team Va should have a good scoring buck but I dont think it was meant to be for the buck above. If all else fails, maybe someone will find the antlers later this year. Stay tuned. Im usually called out to track alot of badly hit deer so I can say that this buck will have a a pretty good tracker after him. I'll give it the best shot I can.
It does sound like a lethal hit .