Amazing day in the woods, with a sad ending (to be cont....)
Yesterday was a magical time to be in the woods. The bucks are in full-blown cray cray mode running around with reckless abandon. I set up on the down wind side and edge of a super thick swamp that's flooded. I was expecting AM action in light of the very cold overnight temps here (mid 20s). I was not disappointed. At about 8:00 AM I saw a group of 4 does bed down on a pocket island of brush in the swamp about 70 yards to the west of my stand. Wind was out of the NW... Things were shaping up perfectly. My stand was over an intersection of 3 trails in/out of the swamp and that bedding area. The trail is torn up with fresh sign.
About an hour later the bucks rolled into town. The swamp was filled with noises of bucks tearing the place up and trampling through the ankle to knee-deep water. Grunting, rubbing, trampling, sparring, I was observing it all. Small trees shaking and the brush being torn up as they trampled through. At about 11:00 AM a buck busted up where the does were bedded sending them scattering. After that, he started walking the trail towards my stand... Show time!!!
I grabbed my bow, stood up, folded up the seat, placed my feet accordingly for the perfect T form shot at my shooting lane. at about 20 yards out in some thick cover, he veered off the trail and started to come directly towards my tree. I'm at full draw at this point and I hold. He walks under my stand... I hold... I don't like the shot angle... He passes the tree I'm in and begin to walk directly away. I hold, I don't like the shot. At about 8 yards he turn a bit and id now quartering away headed for another patch of thick cover. He presents a shot opportunity at about 8 yards...
...I'll pause here for a minute... As the bow hunters among us know, this shot isn't an easy one... Don't let the close range fool you. There are multiple factors here. The angle of shooting down from a tree at such close range, and a hard quartering shot. That said, there is a roughly softball-sized kill zone.. You can tuck the shot in between the shoulder and backbone, down through the back of the near side lung, through the heart, and exit the chest cavity just in front of the front leg. (Don't try this with a light arrow or a mechanical head).
My setup is built for this kind of penetration. I run an arrow north of 500 grains, 20% FoC, and cut on contact fixed blade broadheads (Magnus Black Hornets). I practice this shot on McKenzie targets at my club from an elevated position. They have a pretty sweet archery setup for bowhunters, but I digress.... But the point is I feel like I'm well-practiced with an appropriate setup. I hit the mark in this situation 10 out of 10 times in practice. I was confident... maybe too confident....
Back to the story.... My shot, appeared to hit just behind and below the mark, by a couple of inches. Not a huge miss, but big enough... So as opposed to catching the lung and heart, it looked like I may have gotten just the very rear of the near side lung. But it was hard to tell exactly, it was over in a flash. But, I did see where the arrow hit, and I was immediately feeling ill... I watched as the buck ran off in a large circle around my stand and then back into the swamp. He covered a few hundred yards before I lost sight of him. I took out the range finder, compass and GPS. Tagged my tree on the GPS and measured the direction and distance to the last sighting. I got down and backed out. Went to the truck and had lunch.
...now there are two schools of thought here on what to do next... You can give them the day and come back tomorrow. Or you can push them. It's case by case and you have to judge for yourself. If you're on small property and you don't want to push them off it, you give them time. If it's a gut shot, you give them time. But, if you think you got a good bleeder and you're on a large plot, there is a strong argument made to pushing them. You keep them moving, keep their blood pressure up, keep their pulse up, and the wound can't clot up.
I decided I would investigate the shot location, recover my arrow, investigate, then go to the last sighting and check out the blood/sign and decide from there. I recovered my arrow.. It had passed through and buried itself halfway into the mud. So nothing on the front half of the arrow. The back half didn't have much blood on the shaft, but the fletching had some good blood. Brightly colored. No foul odor and no stomach contents or dark matter indicating guts or liver. I got to the area of the last sighting and found a good blood trail. Lots of blood on the brush and on the ground. Brightly colored, no foul odor, no dark matter or color. At this point, I decided to take up the trail and push him (if he was still alive).
Right at that moment, I heard another buck come crashing through the woods. I nocked an arrow and got ready for a close-in-ground shot. He stopped about 50 yards upwind. I heard him start to trample away. So I stomped on some branches, did my best grunt impersonation (I didn't have a tube at this point), and snort wheezed. He charged in on a frozen rope. He stopped broadside at 5 yards with some brushy cover between us. I had a softball-sized lane through the cover right to the lungs. I thought about it for a few seconds but never drew back. He stood there for what seemed like forever. I said BOO!! and stomped a couple of steps towards him. He looked at me, lip curling and drooling, neck all bristled up... and did not run. I looked right into his eyes, at probably less than 5 yards now, and said REALLY!... I stomped again and said get out of here and he finally ran off... I was close enough to look right into his eyes, and even make out his eyelashes... He was a nice 8 pointer, nicer than the one I had just shot... As good as anything on my wall right now... But I felt I had an obligation to track, and honestly, my confidence was a little shaken and that softball-sized lane suddenly felt really small. I let him walk....
....boys, if you're not out in the woods RIGHT NOW, you're missing out. They're really stupid right now....
I followed the blood trail which was at first very apparent. It covered about 500 yards according to the GPS, but towards the end, what had started as a paint brush trail had become an occasional drop here and there. It was getting hard to follow.. I came to an area where he entered a flooded area that was between ankle and knee deep. My heart sank because - no blood trail. But it's so thick that they travel on defined trails, so I stuck with it and marched on. I came to an intersection and decided I would have to just walk every trail. One one of the options I eventually came to higher ground heading towards a hill. I saw disturbances in the leaves and ground that looked like he may have been dragging his feet... I found a couple of drops of blood and was happy to be back on the trail. As I approached the hill I could see the ground was greatly disturbed. It was evident he struggled to get up that hill and stumbled. The fading blood trail (bleeding out?), the dragging of the feet, the struggle to get up the hill, I expected to find a dead deer just over the hill.
I traversed the hill and was astonished that I did not find him. I followed the dragging hove tracks but there was no more blood from this point. It came to a larger area where the understory thinned out substantially. It was also torn up with fresh tracks in every direction, rubs and, scrapes... It was here, I lost the track... I grid searched from there for the next 4 or so hours, followed every trail in/out of the area, hoping to find a drop of blood, disturbances in the leaves from the dragging feet, something I could follow, but nothing... The light was fading and at about 5:30, I had to call it off....
It's muzzleloader season in RI and I was going to hit it today, but I'm going to try to pick up the track. Today I hope to find him before the coyote do. But at this point, odds are dropping like a rock. But the effort is required. Work tomorrow, and for the week, so this is the last day I have to give it. I'm finishing up b-fast as I write this and I'm off....
Other hunters I've talked to say that if you hunt long enough, this will happen. Maybe that's true, IDK. Doesn't make me feel better about it or make it suck any less.... I can't describe the feeling knowing I wounded one, it's a mix of emotions... Sadness, mourning, grief, doubt in myself....
I understand blood-tracking dogs are illegal in MA.... That's effing stupid.
Yesterday was a magical time to be in the woods. The bucks are in full-blown cray cray mode running around with reckless abandon. I set up on the down wind side and edge of a super thick swamp that's flooded. I was expecting AM action in light of the very cold overnight temps here (mid 20s). I was not disappointed. At about 8:00 AM I saw a group of 4 does bed down on a pocket island of brush in the swamp about 70 yards to the west of my stand. Wind was out of the NW... Things were shaping up perfectly. My stand was over an intersection of 3 trails in/out of the swamp and that bedding area. The trail is torn up with fresh sign.
About an hour later the bucks rolled into town. The swamp was filled with noises of bucks tearing the place up and trampling through the ankle to knee-deep water. Grunting, rubbing, trampling, sparring, I was observing it all. Small trees shaking and the brush being torn up as they trampled through. At about 11:00 AM a buck busted up where the does were bedded sending them scattering. After that, he started walking the trail towards my stand... Show time!!!
I grabbed my bow, stood up, folded up the seat, placed my feet accordingly for the perfect T form shot at my shooting lane. at about 20 yards out in some thick cover, he veered off the trail and started to come directly towards my tree. I'm at full draw at this point and I hold. He walks under my stand... I hold... I don't like the shot angle... He passes the tree I'm in and begin to walk directly away. I hold, I don't like the shot. At about 8 yards he turn a bit and id now quartering away headed for another patch of thick cover. He presents a shot opportunity at about 8 yards...
...I'll pause here for a minute... As the bow hunters among us know, this shot isn't an easy one... Don't let the close range fool you. There are multiple factors here. The angle of shooting down from a tree at such close range, and a hard quartering shot. That said, there is a roughly softball-sized kill zone.. You can tuck the shot in between the shoulder and backbone, down through the back of the near side lung, through the heart, and exit the chest cavity just in front of the front leg. (Don't try this with a light arrow or a mechanical head).
My setup is built for this kind of penetration. I run an arrow north of 500 grains, 20% FoC, and cut on contact fixed blade broadheads (Magnus Black Hornets). I practice this shot on McKenzie targets at my club from an elevated position. They have a pretty sweet archery setup for bowhunters, but I digress.... But the point is I feel like I'm well-practiced with an appropriate setup. I hit the mark in this situation 10 out of 10 times in practice. I was confident... maybe too confident....
Back to the story.... My shot, appeared to hit just behind and below the mark, by a couple of inches. Not a huge miss, but big enough... So as opposed to catching the lung and heart, it looked like I may have gotten just the very rear of the near side lung. But it was hard to tell exactly, it was over in a flash. But, I did see where the arrow hit, and I was immediately feeling ill... I watched as the buck ran off in a large circle around my stand and then back into the swamp. He covered a few hundred yards before I lost sight of him. I took out the range finder, compass and GPS. Tagged my tree on the GPS and measured the direction and distance to the last sighting. I got down and backed out. Went to the truck and had lunch.
...now there are two schools of thought here on what to do next... You can give them the day and come back tomorrow. Or you can push them. It's case by case and you have to judge for yourself. If you're on small property and you don't want to push them off it, you give them time. If it's a gut shot, you give them time. But, if you think you got a good bleeder and you're on a large plot, there is a strong argument made to pushing them. You keep them moving, keep their blood pressure up, keep their pulse up, and the wound can't clot up.
I decided I would investigate the shot location, recover my arrow, investigate, then go to the last sighting and check out the blood/sign and decide from there. I recovered my arrow.. It had passed through and buried itself halfway into the mud. So nothing on the front half of the arrow. The back half didn't have much blood on the shaft, but the fletching had some good blood. Brightly colored. No foul odor and no stomach contents or dark matter indicating guts or liver. I got to the area of the last sighting and found a good blood trail. Lots of blood on the brush and on the ground. Brightly colored, no foul odor, no dark matter or color. At this point, I decided to take up the trail and push him (if he was still alive).
Right at that moment, I heard another buck come crashing through the woods. I nocked an arrow and got ready for a close-in-ground shot. He stopped about 50 yards upwind. I heard him start to trample away. So I stomped on some branches, did my best grunt impersonation (I didn't have a tube at this point), and snort wheezed. He charged in on a frozen rope. He stopped broadside at 5 yards with some brushy cover between us. I had a softball-sized lane through the cover right to the lungs. I thought about it for a few seconds but never drew back. He stood there for what seemed like forever. I said BOO!! and stomped a couple of steps towards him. He looked at me, lip curling and drooling, neck all bristled up... and did not run. I looked right into his eyes, at probably less than 5 yards now, and said REALLY!... I stomped again and said get out of here and he finally ran off... I was close enough to look right into his eyes, and even make out his eyelashes... He was a nice 8 pointer, nicer than the one I had just shot... As good as anything on my wall right now... But I felt I had an obligation to track, and honestly, my confidence was a little shaken and that softball-sized lane suddenly felt really small. I let him walk....
....boys, if you're not out in the woods RIGHT NOW, you're missing out. They're really stupid right now....
I followed the blood trail which was at first very apparent. It covered about 500 yards according to the GPS, but towards the end, what had started as a paint brush trail had become an occasional drop here and there. It was getting hard to follow.. I came to an area where he entered a flooded area that was between ankle and knee deep. My heart sank because - no blood trail. But it's so thick that they travel on defined trails, so I stuck with it and marched on. I came to an intersection and decided I would have to just walk every trail. One one of the options I eventually came to higher ground heading towards a hill. I saw disturbances in the leaves and ground that looked like he may have been dragging his feet... I found a couple of drops of blood and was happy to be back on the trail. As I approached the hill I could see the ground was greatly disturbed. It was evident he struggled to get up that hill and stumbled. The fading blood trail (bleeding out?), the dragging of the feet, the struggle to get up the hill, I expected to find a dead deer just over the hill.
I traversed the hill and was astonished that I did not find him. I followed the dragging hove tracks but there was no more blood from this point. It came to a larger area where the understory thinned out substantially. It was also torn up with fresh tracks in every direction, rubs and, scrapes... It was here, I lost the track... I grid searched from there for the next 4 or so hours, followed every trail in/out of the area, hoping to find a drop of blood, disturbances in the leaves from the dragging feet, something I could follow, but nothing... The light was fading and at about 5:30, I had to call it off....
It's muzzleloader season in RI and I was going to hit it today, but I'm going to try to pick up the track. Today I hope to find him before the coyote do. But at this point, odds are dropping like a rock. But the effort is required. Work tomorrow, and for the week, so this is the last day I have to give it. I'm finishing up b-fast as I write this and I'm off....
Other hunters I've talked to say that if you hunt long enough, this will happen. Maybe that's true, IDK. Doesn't make me feel better about it or make it suck any less.... I can't describe the feeling knowing I wounded one, it's a mix of emotions... Sadness, mourning, grief, doubt in myself....
I understand blood-tracking dogs are illegal in MA.... That's effing stupid.
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