this morning's lesson....

[gab]

Don't have your thumb on the rail of the Exomax when you squeeze the trigger... it smarts!

I was peering through the scope at a good size Vancouver Island black-tail doe at 30 yards. There was some brush in the way, but the heart-lung area was visible. I squeezed off the shot and what pain. My follow through sucked and the shot went high. I immediately checked to see if my thumb was still attached. It was! Fortunately it was only a graze. About one-third of the nail is black and the thumb swollen, but the damage isn't too bad. Not worth going to the doctor about. It just hurts.

I didn't find the arrow, but did find lots of blood. I sat down, ate my peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and waited half an hour. At first there was a good blood trail, some of it looked frothy so I assumed I hit some lung, but after three hours of tracking the blood trail almost disappeared, then I scared it from its bed. I will go back in a couple of hours and try to take up the trail. Hopefully, I find it before a bear or cougar (no coyotes here). It grieves me to loose an animal. The only big game animal I ever lost until now was a bull moose in northern Alberta. Tracked it for a whole day and never found it. It still haunts me.

[gerald strine]

I hope you find it good luck.

[HIGHBOW]

Good luck on finding the deer, to bad about the thumb. I have been lucky that I have remembered to keep mine out of the way so far.

[vixenmaster]

A Hard lesson learned is a lesson well remembered! I am sorry you had that happen on thumb & yer deer. Hope you do find yer deer

[gendoc]

gab, i hope you find your deer............. like said, a lesson learned about tha thumb.

[wabi]

Hope you find the deer, but that's an indisputable reason for poor shot placement.

[rander3141]

Hope you find the deer, but that's an indisputable reason for poor shot placement.

Or poor thumb placement

[gab]

Well I searched until nightfall but never found the deer. My guess is it is dead and bear food. When I went back to the area to search there was a very fresh pile of bear poop that wasn't there in the morning. My first lost deer in over 40 years of hunting.

It has been unseasonably hot here on Vancouver Island(yesterday and today 25 degrees C; that's degrees 77 F for those of you south of the Razor wire) even if I found it now, the meat wouldn't be fit for human consumption.

The thumb hurts less, but is an ugly shade of black and blue. It will be a good lesson for some time to come to keep thumb and figures off the rail.

[sumner4991]

One sad gab and one happy bear.

Hope you heal quickly.

[Bullzeye]

Loosing an animal sucks, loosing a thumb would have been way worse, but I think you got off easy considering some of the thumb accident pic's I have seen on here from other peeps . Hope you heal quick!

[HammerNAnvil]

Good thing my thumb doesn't reach the top of the riser.. But I know what black thumbs are, I shoe horses, hurts a ton when your thumb is where it dont belong..

[Hester0305]

I shot a deer with vertical bow and hit him high and see him the next week and my brother killed one I shot with a 4 blade Muzzy right under the spine. It had a scab over the spot but you could still see the 4 blade broadhead scar.

It could have lived for another day and another chance.

Sorry to hear about your thumb. I know it could have been worse.

[greyhunter]

Been there, Done that, but I'll probably only do it that one time.
Reminded me of in the very cold weather, New Years I think, of a fire cracker going off in my hand. hurts for hours.