2013 Bow Buck

[Legacy]

Lets see if i can make a long story even longer...

A couple of weeks ago I hung a new stand in a great deer funnel. Deer trails from all directions leading to this one intersection. And at the time that I hung this stand there was 7 fresh scrapes within 20 yards of it. On monday, I hunted that new stand and was visited by a small 8 pt around 9am. The deer (of course) approached from behind my right shoulder which also happens to be directly down wind but only was focused on visiting and freshening up one of the scrapes. With his attention on the scape, he gave me plenty of opportunity to reposition myself in the stand and prepare for a shot. As he left the scape, I stopped him with a quick mouth grunt, and he gave me a picture perfect broadside 12 yard shot. I could see the entry hole and knew that i made a great shot and with my arrow stuck in the ground i also knew i had a pass through. The buck didnt know what hit him. He trotted for about ten yards then began to walk. He makes it about 40 yards. Stops. Then looks back to see what had happened. My thoughts were that the deer would fall over right there. As im watching him a doe and fawn walk up behind me and bust me in the tree and alert the entire deer woods of my prescence. When i look back my buck is gone but i convince myself that he is on the ground, dead. With everything happening so quickly, I look at the time and note time of shot 9:06am. At 10:00 i pack up, get out of the tree, and head over to collect my arrow.

 

NOTE LOOK HOW CLEAN THIS ARROW IS

 

I walk slowly over to collect my deer from behind the deadfall that i believe he is behind and... hes not there??? I see blood and take a few more steps and i see the deer get up about 50 yards away and boogy out of there.  I begin questioning shot placement in my head. Did i hit him too far back? Liver? The blood trail that ive seen so far sucks. I make the decision to pull out and give him time. I get breakfast, run home, change clothes, get the 4 wheeler, fuel up the truck, pick up my father in law. Anything to eat up time.

We return to the woods, find the bloody bed that i had jumped him from, and pick up the blood trail. Its about 1:00- 1:30 at this point. Not a great blood trail (borderline terrible) but still a blood trail. We eventually find lung. and more lung. and more lung.  Great news... I now know that i have a confirmed lung shot. For about 20 yards or so, we have a great blood trail but its short lived. That once great blood trail eventually trickles to an occasional drop and then stops entirely. The trail leads us to a deer trail that goes in 3 directions. Zero blood. After spending an hour in search of a single drop of blood to determine direction of travel, Zero. Nothing. No blood. There is no worse feeling in the deer woods then not recovering your deer. As an act of desperation, I begin to do a blind body search in the hardwoods. First the left trail = nothing. Then the middle trail = nothing. Then 100-150 yards down the right trail im face to face with the buck, and to my surprise still alive, staring at me from 15 yards away.

 

TOUGH TO SEE...

 

At this point it had been almost 6 hours and somehow hes still alive. He eventually jumped from his bed and once again took off. We made the decision at that point with out a blood trail, we need to see him bedded and let him sit overnight. Eventually making our way through the woods, my father inlaw sees the buck near the top of ravine @ 4:15. So we back out.

After a great night of sleep, the plan is to pick up the trail at sunrise from the last place he was seen. Hopefully hes dead in his bed on the ravine or he died in the creek bottom looking for water. Either way is fine, im just hoping for a dead deer. After 5 min into our search, im yelling "dead buck"! He was dead in his bed.

 

 

After emotional roller coaster over the past 22 hours,  I was eager to see the autopsy report. From the outside, i could see that the exit hole was in the chest cavity almost a mirror image of the entry hole. It looked to be a great shot. On the inside, I found everything to be intact including the diaphram. When i got to the chest cavity, i found the back third of the right lung (exit side) to be bloodied and jellied. The heart was untouched. and after inpection the left lung (entry side) was also shot. Perfect hole (on the back third) but with very little trauma. Confirmed double lung.

 

RIGHT LUNG

 

LEFT LUNG

 

The point of this long post is im amazed at the resilience of whitetails. Im amazed that this deer survived a double lung shot for at least 7 hours and 9 mins and managed to travel over 500-550 yards. BUCK DOWN!

 

[GAMBLER]

Congrats rob. Was this near my house or another spot you hunt?

[Legacy]

wyoming county

[Silver Fox]

Sweet!

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[momay4000]

Man - what a great story. Rob - this has been one of my favorite hunting posts to date. I loved your narrative, pictures and even more importantly your resilience to find your deer. These are absolutely amazing creatures with an incredible will to live.

 

I think many folks would have given up at the lack of blood - great work on your part to keep up the search.

 

From a medical perspective, I wonder if you didn't hit an artery or vein within the lung itself, only lung tissue, so it didn't bleed as much.

 

Thanks for sharing - be safe and good luck in the field,

 

Chris

[Mortigan]

Nice buck - I'm glad you recovered him, Rob.  The only one I never found was my very first archery deer; the coyotes left bones and scraps of hide spread all over the area.  Good work!

[King Slammin]

Great ending to the story. I was hunting late in November in 9n and came upon a bunch of does all herded together heading for the field to feed. I picked out a nice big doe, settled the cross hairs on her and rolled her with my 7mm mag from 75 yds away. I watched her drop, spin around, and take off. When I got to the spot, it looked like a murder scene. We tracked that deer for a few hundred yds into a cedar thicket, lost the snow that was helping keep us on the trail, and eventually lost the deer. I couldn't believe it. Sometimes the deer just have an amazing will to survive.

[Diversion]

Awesome job keeping at it, nice Buck

[Gill-T]

Great story that defies logic. Question...are the blades on the broadhead you used new or had they been run thru a target before?

[Legacy]

 Question...are the blades on the broadhead you used new or had they been run thru a target before?

 

Brand new. Out of the package.

[Capt Vince Pierleoni]

Congrats again, Rob. That story revolving around a double lung hit is mind boggling! Jerky time!

[Kevin J Legg]

Great story and I glad your perseverance paid off. I hit one earlier this year and unfortunately had a worse outcome. Had only 12" of penetration and found the arrow including broadhead after about 150 yards. Backed out and left him for the night. Picked up the blood trail the next day and after trailing another 500 yards the blood trail disappeared after he heading toward very high swamp grass. After several hours of blind searching we were unable to recover him. Just goes to show how tough they are. Hopefully mine made it.

[Gator]

Great to hear that your perseverance paid off! It's tough not to give up and easy to believe that you misjudged the shot. Ask Keith about the "dead" deer I shot that got up and ran away when he poked it in the eye with his unloaded gun...

[315angler]

Congrats!

[Nautitroller]

Great job we track a bunch of deer every year with my leashed tracking dog.  You did everything perfect.  When in doubt back out.  The ability of the deer to live is beyond amazing, I have encountered deer that have had the same type of kill shot and have tracked them over 600 yards.  Around our area the coyotes are so bad it is almost impossible to wait over night.  Last week we tracked a buck that was shot at 5 pm we starting tracking at 9pm and ended up finding it at 10pm over 900 yards away, almost totally eaten by yotes.  The buck was shot at a bit too much of a quartering to angle but right behind front shoulder, one lung liver and lodged in back leg.   Congrats on your buck, I have a name for the ones that do not die easily   "robodeer"  Good luck everyone this next week should be crazy hot! 

[flashpoint]

Great story... even better outcome!

We had a similar one in Ohio 3 yes ago. I was videoing a hunt for my brother, at 6:45 we had a 22" wide 8 point walk under our tree at 6yds( a buck we saw dogging a doe the day before)

we were in a narrow hedge row seperating a cut bean field & alfalfa. The buck stopped two steps from the cut beans & my bro let fly! A complete pass through.. we could see the bloody shaft from the tree. The buck took 5 bounds & stopped 70 yds out ....we tensed as we expected him to tip over.

45 agonizing min later ( all on film) we watch him walk off into a brushy grown up pasture. As we get down & inspect the arrow we find flecks of liver... not so good. Being morning we walk out & wait till 2:00 pm to take up the trail. Very..very little blood???.... hhhmmm. We tracked him for approx 15 min ..& to our amazement we bust him out of his bed, we watch him make the slow.. stumbling run 300yds back across the bean field towards a 50 acre uncut corn field ( can you feel the heart sink here)

We do the obvious... back out & wait till morning. I don't know who slept less..me or my bro. We wake to a frosty morning , & meet one of my buddies from out there to pick up the track. We marked a large hickory on the field edge where we last saw him...be gain there. We find a couple specks of blood & take up the trail( mind you there was less then half a cup in his bed the day before)

My buddy steps a few yards ahead and says he can see a small pond on the edge of the uncut corn....I tell him " head for it!" Well....low & be hold there he lay..only his nose & one beam in the mud.

Upon dressing him the body cavity is still warm! This buck lived till the wee hours of the morning! Glad we didn't push him.

So the answer to every bodies question... where was the shot? It entered high just nicking the liver, punched through the diaphragm & exited just nicking the lower right lung. A very steep shot....that 2" forward would have doubled him.

As said....they have an INCREDIBLE will to survive...& thankfully one that the yotes didn't get to first this time!!"

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[flashpoint]

Here he is! & yes he was taken with a Ten point cross bow which is legal FOR ALL on Ohio!

Sent from my DROID RAZR HD using Lake Ontario United mobile app

[Xxx]

Very nice buck, and even better story, I really appreciate the will to pursue the act of following up to find these animals after the shot, if you make the attempt to take the life of a animal then you should take every effort to find these animals, down here in PA. the archery guys have a bad rap because if the don't find the animal within a short amount of time it's "oh well" there's more, and us rifle hunters find them either dead and half eaten by the yotes or shoot one with a arrow in all infected and no good, so two thumbs up to all the guys that posted your stories and found your deer.!!!! My brother-in-law had a similar story he shot a nice buck, and thought it was a good shot, waited 2 hrs and went on the blood trail which he said you could run after and upon the tracking he also jumped the buck in disbelief that it was able to go another inch he watched it go up a ridge and towards the development. He backed off and waited till the next day and came in through the development and over to the ridge where the buck was last seen, got on the blood trail again and saw the buck laying down, but looking around, so he backed out and came in at an angle he could shoot, this time he had his cross bow, and the buck stood up and he put another arrow right in the boiler room the deer fell right over. he brought over to my house to skin it off since I have the doings and he pulled an autopsy on the shot the first arrow took out 1 lung and hit the bottom of the heart which was like jelly, if I wouldn't of seen this with my own eyes I wouldn't of believed the story. These animals are tough as nails and the will to survive is amazing!!

[panfisher]

Although I don't do any hunting anymore (I might get back to it), I really do appreciate the perseverance you showed in ringing out any and all possibilities and giving all of the time to claiming the kill. Great story  ... and I hope everyone who reads it can take your story with them in practice in the field....Your stamina has grown to match that of the whitetail's....... And that buck will only improve it at the table..... !

[FX]

Great story Rob!  Really made one feel like they were there with ya and brings back memories for those of us that have gone through that "emotional rollercoaster" as evident by the replies.  Congrats man!

 

Shawn

[DJ 17]

Rob,

What kind of Broadhead? The holes in the lungs didn't look like they caused a whole lot of damage?

[Reel Action]

Great story and love the pics! It never ceases to amaze me how different one tracking job is to the next. Some shots I'm concerned right away and the deer drops...others I'm sure I've placed it perfectly...and it's hands and knees through the thick stuff to find them. It's part of the allure of deer hunting...such a formidable opponent. Of course...it feels a whole lot better AFTER you've found them than while you're in the midst of it! Congrats on a nice buck and an even better trailing job!

[Legacy]

Rob,

What kind of Broadhead? The holes in the lungs didn't look like they caused a whole lot of damage?

 

Im using 100 grain 4 blade Slick Trick