Win some, Lose some

[rhine16]

Yesterday evening I decided to go to a little strip of oak woods that hadn't been hunted this year. On one hand, i thought i was probably wasting my time there but something kept telling me to go there. As i left my uncles house ( woods about 200 yards behind the house), i told him it was time for me to get a buck with a bow and that 7 years and 14 days were long enough.

I went back, and found a tall pine to climb among all the oaks. Saw pretty good sign coming in but figured that most of it was made at night. Got settled in at 5:10 and started the long fight with skeeters. At 6 30, i heard some deer jump the fence coming out of the bedding area about 60 yards from me and out of view. I readied my self and waited. 5 minutes later a buck appeared 20 yards in front of me and fed to my left. He had 3 points on the left and nothing on right, so he isn't legal in MS. Then i saw the other buck. I saw he was a good racked deer and didn't look back at the horns again. for sure a 14" 8, didnt really get a head on view. He fed to ten yards and then turned perfectly broadside. i drew but when i did my Scent-Lok facemask (first time i've ever worn it, dont know why i switched yesterday evening) got caught in my mouth. I couldnt get my kisser locked in, but i aimed and fired anyway. shot hit in middle of front shoulder but i was confident anyhow.

We gave him an hour, then my dad, uncle, and me went back. My arrow had broke off 20 yards into his run. we had all but 4 3/4 inches of the arrow. we figured it all that was buried inside we should get him. didn't find blood til 80 yards down the trail. followed it easy for 60 yards then it got weak. We backed out and came back this morning. found no blood past where we stopped so we started following different trails through the pine thicket.

We never found him after 3 hours of circling. I feel like he'll live. I'm still sick at my stomach. he was gonna be a great MS bow buck. especially a first. I guess my quest for a buck will have to wait a lil longer. Maybe this evening. But i guess it is like my uncle said, "You win some, You lose some"

[007hunter]

Re: Win some, Lose some

Don't mean to be the bad guy here but, that deer is probably dead. Go back and do a grid search. Where exactly did you hit him in the front shoulder?

[rhine16]

Re: Win some, Lose some

the angle going into the shoulder was horrible. deer was 8 yards from tree and i was a good 30 ft up in tree. Cant tell you for sure where in shoulder but it was in the back half of the front leg. As i said, the part of arrow snapped of was 4 3/4 inches but the tip of arrow didn't have blood on it so i feel like there is a good inch sticking out.

[rhine16]

Re: Win some, Lose some

we did an organized search. He ran back into a pine plantation, which we own a quarter of the hunting rights on (it's landlocked so they have to ok it with all four corners before it can be leased). We searched about a 300X600 yard stretch. the three hundred was between our pasture and a logging road. we split up, and each would go all the way down one and then move down and do it again. My uncle and my dad left about 2 hours in to get ready for church, but i couldnt stop without knowing for sure, so i continued for around an hour and a half, then went to a pond just outside the pines in our pasture to check, then went back to the spot of last blood for the 6th time and spent 20 minutes crawling circles. We feel like hes hurt, but i'm positive that he's gonna live.