icebreaker12
Active member
This one is a little different. The wife and I planned to go fill some doe tags we had. We had about a 2 hour drive to the spot. But we got some wet snow after a warm day yesterday and the roads had turned pretty bad. When we left the pavement and went to dirt roads we got thrown around pretty bad and decided to turn around. I had a buck tag in my pack as well, and asked the wife if she wanted to make the long drive to a completely different area to go for a walk there instead. She agreed.
We finally parked at 7:30 (sunrise was about 7:00). We rushed to get ready and started making our hike in. A short ways in I cut a few very fresh tracks and we slowed and began to follow. A little ways further down the trail I realized one track was clearly a buck, and probably a good one. I got to a point where I was struggling to see where the tracks had gone and was staring hard at the ground. When I lifted my eyes I noticed a small 6pt whitetail staring off to my left. I started to raise my gun when I caught movement to my left (where the buck was staring). Out popped a doe and behind her emerged a nice buck. I quickly raised my rifle and got one in the boiler room while he was still broadside. I looked back at my wife and said “I just killed the biggest buck of my life!” I turned back and my heart sank. I thought he was down, but I saw him moving through the trees, albeit slowly. He eventually moved out of sight without any chance to shoot again.
I started tracking and my heart sank even further. Zero blood. I was sure he was hit, but I was worried he might make his way off public. I quickly made my way to a hill where I should have been able to see him, but I saw nothing. I also cut tracks I assumed were his and still found no blood. I quickly called a friend and my dad to ask their experience with finding no blood after 80-90 yards. Both told me to sit on it and come back after lunch. As I was on the phone with my dad I finally found one drop of blood that was bright red. I felt better, but still planned to wait on it. I had a small bowl the deer clearly wasn’t in that I wanted to follow the tracks through so I could mark that location and come back. Started following and only ten more yards my eyes caught what I was sure were tines in the brush. Sure enough as I began to focus I picked out the outline of a deer. There he was only 10 yards from where I frantically tried to figure out what to do next. Only problem was his head appeared to be up. I watched him for a few minutes and saw no movement, and decided to approach. He was dead! The shot hit lung and exited liver. Only thing I can think led to the poor blood trail was the bonded bullet not expanding due to the close shot?
Anyway.... Here he is.
As he lay
We finally parked at 7:30 (sunrise was about 7:00). We rushed to get ready and started making our hike in. A short ways in I cut a few very fresh tracks and we slowed and began to follow. A little ways further down the trail I realized one track was clearly a buck, and probably a good one. I got to a point where I was struggling to see where the tracks had gone and was staring hard at the ground. When I lifted my eyes I noticed a small 6pt whitetail staring off to my left. I started to raise my gun when I caught movement to my left (where the buck was staring). Out popped a doe and behind her emerged a nice buck. I quickly raised my rifle and got one in the boiler room while he was still broadside. I looked back at my wife and said “I just killed the biggest buck of my life!” I turned back and my heart sank. I thought he was down, but I saw him moving through the trees, albeit slowly. He eventually moved out of sight without any chance to shoot again.
I started tracking and my heart sank even further. Zero blood. I was sure he was hit, but I was worried he might make his way off public. I quickly made my way to a hill where I should have been able to see him, but I saw nothing. I also cut tracks I assumed were his and still found no blood. I quickly called a friend and my dad to ask their experience with finding no blood after 80-90 yards. Both told me to sit on it and come back after lunch. As I was on the phone with my dad I finally found one drop of blood that was bright red. I felt better, but still planned to wait on it. I had a small bowl the deer clearly wasn’t in that I wanted to follow the tracks through so I could mark that location and come back. Started following and only ten more yards my eyes caught what I was sure were tines in the brush. Sure enough as I began to focus I picked out the outline of a deer. There he was only 10 yards from where I frantically tried to figure out what to do next. Only problem was his head appeared to be up. I watched him for a few minutes and saw no movement, and decided to approach. He was dead! The shot hit lung and exited liver. Only thing I can think led to the poor blood trail was the bonded bullet not expanding due to the close shot?
Anyway.... Here he is.
As he lay
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