The best and worst day today.

[1highhog]

I went out this morning and knew going in that it was going to be a very good day for hunting.  I got there in my stand about 5:45, a little late, but prepared to see some.  By 7:30, after hearing many shots around me, I was getting alittle aggravated.  All of a sudden, I see a doe, she is about 45 yds from me, but she does not excite me enough to get my gun up.  She then turns and goes in the tree line, and I'm watching her.  I then look back to just see a buck with his nose to the ground walking as fast as possible across the road into the trees.  Now this was a nice buck, I just had time to see 3 points that were about 7 inches long on each side of what was a good 18 to 19 inch spread.  I say some nasty words, for not raising my gun and having it ready.  I hear them going on out of hearing, and about 5 minutes later out walks the doe about 115 yds from me, she walks toward me for an instant, then stops and looks back and I follow her stare.  Out of the trees comes the buck, he stops when he sees her stop, I have my rifle up this time, he is very impressive.  His rack was a good 15 inches high, a total of six points on each side.  The doe jumps into the woods, he's facing me, he turns his head slightly to look her way.  He's exactly 126 yds from me.  I pull the trigger, he falls right in his tracks, then lays over on his side.
I watch him for several minutes, then text my son-in-law THAT i got him.  When I look up, he's starting to try and get up and crawl the 2 feet to the wood line.  I had time to put another shot into him but knew he would'nt get far.  Seven minutes later I look back to where the first buck came out and here comes another buck, just an 8 point, but fairly impressive.  I proceed to shoot him, does the same, falls down in his tracks, I watch him for ten minutes and make sure he's dead.  I go and check him first, he's dead, then head over to retrieve the other one.
This patch of woods is nothing but thicket, and this sucker is nowhere in sight.  Worse yet, hardly any blood did I find, maybe enough to fill a thimble.  Time is now about 9:00.  I call a friend and by the time he gets there with his dog, about 5 hours passes.  We look for about 30 minutes, trying to keep up with the dog through this thicket.  Finally, the dog sees the deer laying up in a dense patch of honey suckle.  The deer runs out and jumps just enough in view in front of my son-in-law and my friend.  They see him good, the dog takes off in chase.  We try to keep up but can't.  Finally we come upon the dog, he seems to have lost the scent, and no blood can we find.  Unfortunately by 6:00, we give up and come home.
I was to dang sure of my shooting and did not think I had to worry him crawling away.  I missed my first deer ever last year, fairly easy shot, 367 yds.  Then I have this happen today.  I hate to think of a deer suffering, or dying for nothing, without me getting the meat.  I at least got the one, and that's good, but I done a foolish thing and now I am paying for it.  Sorry for the long post, most of you probaly quit reading after the first paragraph, but for those who have read through the end, I appreciate it, I just had to vent a little.

[edt]

You did not kill that deer. If he was alive 5 hours after you shot it, he will more than likely recover. I have been deer hunting 44 years and I have lost a few, it happens to everyone. I shot a real good 8 pt. last year during muzzleloading season, he humped up and took off. I was positive he was dead. I put in about 8 hours looking for him, nothing. The last week of gun season I see the same deer. This time he didn't get away. The shot from my 50 cal. had hit him just over the lungs, but below the spine, it was healed over. They have an amazing ability to recover. Don't get down over it, I bet he is alive and healing up. You may get another chance at him like I did.

[IronHog]

I agree that you probably just put a flesh wound on that deer.


Most of the time a decent dog will wear down and bay a seriously wounded deer.

[IronHog]

  I missed my first deer ever last year, fairly easy shot, 367 yds. 

Is that a typo?

367 ain't "fairly easy"

[IronHog]

You did not kill that deer. If he was alive 5 hours after you shot it, he will more than likely recover. I have been deer hunting 44 years and I have lost a few, it happens to everyone. I shot a real good 8 pt. last year during muzzleloading season, he humped up and took off. I was positive he was dead. I put in about 8 hours looking for him, nothing. The last week of gun season I see the same deer. This time he didn't get away. The shot from my 50 cal. had hit him just over the lungs, but below the spine, it was healed over. They have an amazing ability to recover. Don't get down over it, I bet he is alive and healing up. You may get another chance at him like I did.

I've heard of that happening, but if I hit a deer there and it lived I would say the bullet had not performed properly.

[WPSinOhio]

  This sounds just like a deer I hunted for 3 years in up in Guy. This deer was nick named "sway back". He looked like a horse, he was so old his back was swaying and he had white patches on his back. NOoooo, he was not an Appaloosa, lol. One day while talking to a couple of friends on a powerline he stepped out about 220 yards away. My friend pulls up and shoots, bam, the deer drops. He YELLS, I got him!!!. My father and law laughed and said "nope,  look" he was crawling out the other side of the powerline, on his knees, no one could get a shot.

  Now you would think it must have been a hell of a hit. Nope,, we had seen him do this 3 times before. Someone shoots, he drops to he's knees and crawls the rest of the powerline in cover. That deer was the smartest damn deer I have ever hunted. My pop n law swore the white spots were old bullet wounds that had healed. Either way no one ever killed that deer, the last year I saw him he would have scored 165 or better, and up there you would hear about that.

[clutch]

  This sounds just like a deer I hunted for 3 years in up in Guy. This deer was nick named "sway back". He looked like a horse, he was so old his back was swaying and he had white patches on his back. NOoooo, he was not an Appaloosa, lol. One day while talking to a couple of friends on a powerline he stepped out about 220 yards away. My friend pulls up and shoots, bam, the deer drops. He YELLS, I got him!!!. My father and law laughed and said "nope,  look" he was crawling out the other side of the powerline, on his knees, no one could get a shot.

  Now you would think it must have been a hell of a hit. Nope,, we had seen him do this 3 times before. Someone shoots, he drops to he's knees and crawls the rest of the powerline in cover. That deer was the smartest damn deer I have ever hunted. My pop n law swore the white spots were old bullet wounds that had healed. Either way no one ever killed that deer, the last year I saw him he would have scored 165 or better, and up there you would hear about that.

I saw a deer drop like that and crawl today. It was the first time I had ever seen that. It's weird that I get on here tonight and hear about another deer doing that.

There was a grass field of the side of the road and I saw a doe standing about 50 yds off the road so I slowed down to look at it. When I slowed down she dropped down and crawled towards the woods. I watched for a minute then continued down the road. Once I started going down the road again I looked in my mirror and she got back up and walked the rest of the way into the woods.

[1highhog]

Guys, I appreciate the stories and all, I to have hunted many many years, always had the luck I guess to jump them and they stay down.  Never had this happen, but this was the biggest deer I would have ever taken.  I hope he's still alive, because I don't want him to waste.  I hope to see him again before hunts over.  Keep up the deer stories, that's some good reading there and good to see I'm not the only one.

[Hawgon]

You probably shot high and took a hunk out of his backstrap and maybe the top of a vertebrae or two.  When it hit, it shocked his spine and knocked him down as if he had been hit with an ax.  As he came to, he could crawl a little.   A few hours later, he was fine.  If infection doesn't get him, he'll probably be alright.

The moral of the story, is don't get so caught up in one shot kills that you don't put another one in a deer that is moving.  I always shoot until all movement stops.

[The Boar War]

Is that a typo?

367 ain't "fairly easy"

Where I come from it's physically impossible to hunt at 367 yards.  Too many hills.

[razorback4ever]

I have my stories like that, but they didn't crawl. I swear I shot the Energizer Bunny one time. It was a perfect pass through middle lung shot at 75 yards, broadside with a 150 grain soft point 30-06. I saw the bullet strike and the red flash, I saw the chest puff from the impact and the back arch and the tail drop, followed by the frantic "Ow Crap!" scramble out of sight, all the while stumbling and bouncing off trees. I even waited for 30 minutes before trailing this deer. The blood trail was extensive, bright red and foamy, even finding numerous places where this super deer had coughed, blowing out both sides and the mouth. I followed his blood trail expecting to see him at any moment for over about a mile! The blood trail never decreased, it just kept going and going. Finally after an hour of tracking over 2 mountains and down a couple ridges, it started to rain causing me to loose the blood trail.
No way that deer should have gone more than 50-75 yards tops. I have other examples, as I'm sure anyone who has hunted long has, and sometimes it has nothing to do with a "mistake" we make.

[razorback4ever]

I had luck this past weekend, harvesting this nice 10 point with my bow on Wedington WMA. He only had 1 toe on the right rear hoof.

[1highhog]

I have another tidbit about where I'm hunting.  My son-in-law and I went in together and leased this land from Plum Creek, did'nt get it confirmed until Bow Season was already past the first week.  We have only got to barely cover maybe 25 to 30 acres, but after the season is over we're going in and building our stands and building a small camp.  We have driven all of the old logging roads that go through it, it was cut probaly around 20 years or so looking at the growth of trees in the logging roads.  This land has not been hunted in 3 years by a club, maybe by someone local but you can tell by the old stands that nobody has used it in a long time.  We have installed several cameras throughout the lease and every day I'm amazed at the bucks we're getting, at no doe yet have we had a picture of.  We've had small spikes to one 12 point, and what we can tell by the difference in racks 7 eight points, 4 six points 1 five, and the rest are 4 points and other deer that may or may not be the same deer.  We hunted saturday, and Sunday, and I saw throughout the weekend 5 doe.  My son-in-law seen 7.  I've never encountered a place to hunt with so many bucks on it that it seems they outnumber the doe.  I was born and raised in Drew County, and we had alot of deer but I would see far more doe than buck. 
I'm not complaining, to me it's the best land I've ever hunted on.  We have a little over 400 acres but we have alot of work to do this spring planting food plots and building stands and such.  There are so many smaller plots of land that Plum Creek has that I'm surprised more people are not snatching them up.  If anyone needs there contact info. send me an e-mail and I'll give you their site and phone numbers of who I spoke with.  I would have been happy just to get 40 to a 100 acres to hunt but this place was to good to pass up and close enough that we can go out almost everyday just to ride around and spend some time in the woods.

[deshahawg]

I've had them get in a swift running creek after shooting them and the deer are never to be found after that.