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Messed up

203ntyp

203ntyp

PMA Member
It's been many years since I had a buck get away. Sunday afternoon I had a hunch where my target buck was and was between does. I sat in a fencerow, got in at 3:00, 3:45 out of nowhere he's right under me. Caught me off guard and I may have rushed the shot and have no idea where I hit him. Close shot, he mule kicked and trotted about 40 yards and stood there looking out into a field then walked slowly another 70 yards into the tip of a small, wooded draw. I backed out and waited 18 hours in case I hit stomach or possible liver? The blood was dark-ish and clean of any stomach hit, trail was good for 125 yards. Found his first bed right in the tip behind another stand, from there he headed down the draw another 40 yards and I found three more beds in real close proximity, the last spot was very little blood so I assume he did that to stop the bleeding. I spent half the day looking everywhere I could and all the creek bottoms. I'm at a loss, hoping it wasn't fatal. This is him walking towards my stand at 2:35pm, an hour before he came back through. What would you do?

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After I got done being sick, I'd circle out as wide as I had permission to, and start grid searching my way back to his last bed. That way if I bumped him, he would hopefully head back in the direction he came from.
 
I had a similar experience with a buck about 10 years ago. Only difference was I had snow, which saved the day. Ended up being a liver hit. No blood after last bed but was found dead in a hide away with 80 yards of that last bed. The multiple beds lead me to believe you hit him fatally. Of course I could be wrong.
 
3 beds close together he is likely dead, and likely within 200 or less yards of there. First choice would be a dog, tracking dog preferably but any dog will find a dead deer if they get the scent of it, run them on downwind side of where you think he is. If i had permission and a dog couldnt find him I would grid search for days.
 
That sucks.....i would think dead.....watch for birds or concentration of yotes.
 
T_Max said:
Did you find the arrow right away? Or at the 18 hour mark?
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Yes, arrow passed through, a little bit of blood on fletching.

Obsessed said:
After I got done being sick, I'd circle out as wide as I had permission to, and start grid searching my way back to his last bed. That way if I bumped him, he would hopefully head back in the direction he came from.
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That's what I thought. I covered about 30 acres and creek bottoms. I did get permission to look around the farm he came from, fingers crossed.

Hair&Scales said:
3 beds close together he is likely dead, and likely within 200 or less yards of there. First choice would be a dog
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I was thinking about finding someone with a dog, my son's Pitbull might do ok but not sure. I did walk about everything except real thick briars as far as 350 yards from where I shot.

Thanks for the input guys!
 
Hair&Scales said:
3 beds close together he is likely dead, and likely within 200 or less yards of there. First choice would be a dog, tracking dog preferably but any dog will find a dead deer if they get the scent of it, run them on downwind side of where you think he is. If i had permission and a dog couldnt find him I would grid search for days.
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3 beds close .. usually means he’s hurting bad and will die ! Good luck
 
Obsessed said:
Post pics when you recover him.
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I had my hopes up but after searching 65 acres the past 3 days and checking 8 cameras I found no sign of him unfortunately. Been very stressed out and disappointed. Maybe I hit low and back hitting the front of the hind quarter? What really disappointed me was that I had a camera on video in front of the stand which should have caught the shot but it won't read it, go figure! Showing an error for some reason on my card reader and a handheld camera. Anyone know how to retrieve data from a corrupt SD card? Had another bear on one of the cams too.

My old legs are wore out, lots of walking. Up and down hills, wading through a cattail swamp, creeks, large area of 6' high weeds and literally crawling back and forth through a 6-acre thick briar patch.

The other thing that upset me is I found 2 dead young buck, one wasn't dead long, had a broadhead mark high. The other had no sign of a wound but the ass and chest were eaten away. Found a trail Cam too that someone trespassed to hang it. Took it and checked the card, over 3,300 pics. I copied the ones of the target buck and deleted those pics of the card. Should I keep it, no clue who's sneaking in there.
 
203ntyp said:
... Found a trail Cam too that someone trespassed to hang it. Took it and checked the card, over 3,300 pics. I copied the ones of the target buck and deleted those pics of the card. Should I keep it, no clue who's sneaking in there.
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Personally, I try to gauge the circumstances of the trespasser before I decide how to proceed. (I realize that others may approach it differently, which is cool.) But in my opinion, there are varying degrees of trespassing. Some are very deliberate and despicable, some aren't, the offender may very well be confused and/or misled by someone else. (Admittedly, with the proliferation of apps and cell phones, etc, it is much harder to be "confused" about where a given property begins and ends is these days, but there are still times where I think it is best to "wade in" v. "dive in".

I would leave a note that they can contact you to get it back. Then you can assess it from there, should they call you.
 
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