I hunted one of my favorite stands on Saturday 10/20 and seen a Real Good 10 pt about 150" get out of his bed at about 97 yds..... He headded towards me, but stopped at 79 yds and rubbed a sappling before leaving the area. This sorta got me pumped to hit the same stand again on Sunday evening. I put all my clothes in a huge tub and cut a 2" hole in one end. Fired up the smoker and filled the tub full of smoke about 15 times. When getting dressed, I also smoked myself until I was gagging profusely. Then I headded to the stand. The evening was rather quiet. No deer, No squirrells, just a rather boring night....Except the wind had changed here like 4 times. Kept thinking about going to the house, but also talked myself into "just 5 more minutes" about 6 times. I finally gave in and reached for my quiver over my left shoulder....There he was....Where he came from, I could only guess...But he was Eating Pumpkins (Thanks To You Mr. Cotty) Threw the bino's on him for an even better look and WOW....Looks like a shooter to me. Put the crosshairs behind his shoulder but he kept moving. I kept thinking "Turn you rascal, I wanna kill you". He finally turned what I thought was a good angle and I dropped the hammer on him. On impact, I heard a noise like shooting an arrow into a cardboard drum or something. I remember thinking, Damn, I hit him hard. But no Bronco kick....he just trotted up the hill and disappeared. I assumed it was a great hit and short track job. This was a mistake, I didn't wait like I should have and immediately got down, got my arrow and headded for the house. Soon as I hit the kitchen lights, I felt sick as my arrow was covered in a clear liquid with a little blood smeared in but not much blood. I feared the worst and called on a friend for advice. Then I find out my wife also had shot a buck only 300 yds from me. My friend was nearby so he stopped and looked at the arrow also. We figured look for blood, but back out until tomorrow easily. We got ready to look for Diane's deer and decided to look for blood on mine first. Searching the trail we thought he took~~ Nothing! No sign of blood anywhere...The sick feeling is now stronger. We decided go back to impact spot and still no blood, but I was following his tracks. About 25 yds from impact, finally, Blood! Blood got stronger real fast and headded for a fence. Tracked him over the fence and towards a thicket. The blood wad descent but sorta stopped. While trying to decide which trail to take up, we heard something bust out of the thicket on the other side...DAMN! We bumped him! Which is what I did NOT want to do. Waited about 3-5 minutes and slipped up a deer trail fairly quiet and checked another fence crossing....Blood Again! Let's get out of here and sleep on it after getting Diane's deer.
Was a LONG NIGHT. Had to take care of Diane's deer and get it into the fridge, then try and go to sleep until morning.
We waited until about 9 am and the sky was bright. Grabbed our spray bottles of peroxide and headded towards the fence crossing. Blood was scarce, but I had hope as he was taking the easy route and in a straight line. The peroxide came in real handy a couple times as the spots of blood were very small. If you've never tried this, you need TOO! I finally found a pretty good smear of blood on a branch and whistled for Diane to come over. Soon as she got there, I turned back around and up ahead he was dead near the fence and lying next to him was a shed from last year. We were amazed as there was no ground shrink on this one....I think he got bigger.
After cutting the deer up, I found my hit was real good, but the angle was slacking. My arrow had hit one lung, liver and exited in the edge of the paunch...Which I believe is where the clear liquid came from. I got lucky on this one and will pay attention to shot angles a bit better from now on. Those darn horns and the adrinaline rush will talk you into a shot faster than anything.
Was a LONG NIGHT. Had to take care of Diane's deer and get it into the fridge, then try and go to sleep until morning.
We waited until about 9 am and the sky was bright. Grabbed our spray bottles of peroxide and headded towards the fence crossing. Blood was scarce, but I had hope as he was taking the easy route and in a straight line. The peroxide came in real handy a couple times as the spots of blood were very small. If you've never tried this, you need TOO! I finally found a pretty good smear of blood on a branch and whistled for Diane to come over. Soon as she got there, I turned back around and up ahead he was dead near the fence and lying next to him was a shed from last year. We were amazed as there was no ground shrink on this one....I think he got bigger.
After cutting the deer up, I found my hit was real good, but the angle was slacking. My arrow had hit one lung, liver and exited in the edge of the paunch...Which I believe is where the clear liquid came from. I got lucky on this one and will pay attention to shot angles a bit better from now on. Those darn horns and the adrinaline rush will talk you into a shot faster than anything.
