At about 625 pm the phone rings and it is my son saying he shot at a buck about 25 yards out and was pretty sure he made a good hit. I asked if there was a donkey kick and my son replied yes it kicked and took of running for about 30 yards than stopped and starting walking slowly until it was out of sight at about 50 yards. I said to stay put as the stopping and than walking slowly had me concerned about a gut shot. I told him the first thing we were going to do was find the bolt and take a good look at it and that the smell would also be important.
I arrived at his spot 10 minutes later and we quickly found the bolt and it was covered in blood from tip to fletching. I took a good sniff however and it did not smell right. I asked my son to take me to the spot where the buck stopped and than to where he lost sight of it. Standing at the last known location we spotted him laying about 15 yards further down a small hill. Inspection revealed the buck had indeed been gut shot (it was a slight quartering towards shot according to my son) but that the bolt had also run through the entire length of the liver. The sliced open liver had obviously made a potentially difficult recovery relatively easy.
The last deer my son took was a doe and was while he was an apprentice 2 years ago. This is his first using his own tags and his first buck. Deer scaled 182lbs field dressed so probably about 225lbs live,
The deer as we found him:
The happy hunter:
