459 days later i found him
- northeast beast
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459 days later i found him
November 15 2016. I had just one hunt left for bow season and on this neighboring property before the orange army came in and beat it up for the 4 week gun season. The terrain is mostly Agg fields and small timber blocks. This property is behind my house and i have yet to kill a respectable buck here. Knowing there are some well fed soybean and corn bucks wandering around I held out. That morning i had 2 hours to get it done before I had to be to work. An hour after sunup I heard the distinct sound of a tending grunt in the thicket to my right. I thought it was another guy thats how bizzare long it lasted. I knew it was real though because no one else bow hunts this. I never saw the couple.It was down to the last 30 minutes before I declared tag soup for 2016 . I opted to take a slow walk back to the house and see if I could spot the deer in the thicket. I had the wind and it was a powerline trail and decently wet so it was pretty quiet walk. I glanced to my right and there on the transition line of the oak flat and power line clearing was the unmistakable front half of a deer. I also saw a nice long main beam with a fork. At least a good enought 6 point. I was drawn instantly, if that deer took 1 step he was out of my window. The arrow zipped over the tall weeds and below the few branches and I watched my trueglow nock fit the perfect key hole into the deer and make the unmistakable “thwack” of a muzzy hitting the shoulder blade. He busted out of there and I heard another deer run too it must have been the doe. They ran to the thicket I heard them in earlier. Wow now what? I have to be to work in 20 minutes. Well I knew I needed to give him more then that and it was my 2nd month,new job and it was a meeting so I went in to work for the day and was hopeful the small wood lot could be covered by a few of us in a couple hours at the end of the day. We did it that day and the 3 days following.I gave up. I only found the broken arrow and minimal blood. I assumed he lived. The following week gun opened and as like years past my neighbors went in there and pushed it hard and killed a few does. His crew never spotted my dead buck. I was down and out. 2016 was my worst ever no deer season. I scooped a road kill i saw happen but that was it for venison. I had not had this experience in over 17 years. My daughter and I were out scouting yesterday and we found a hole head and rack. It is unusually clean to have died this fall but very strange the antlers have not been chewed if it is from 2016. The skull was laying in 10 yards by 10 yards pool of water. And when I found my bearings I realised it was just 50 yards from where I shot that buck in 2016… I presented the case to several of my hunting buddies and they all said yeah that is probably the same buck..I went with the sound of the doe running off as the direction to search all the while he was 50 yards in the opposite direction. What a mystery and miracle that no other animal or human found him. A lesson to be learned though I should have put in more time searching. 50yds in a semi open oak flat is not acceptable to me to miss a deer laying in a big puddle. It will get a special mount that is for sure.It was my first buck at my house, first on the ground and it was the most difficult shot I have pulled off.Thanks for reading
- SRWbowhunter
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Re: 459 days later i found him
Picture isn’t showing up for me but cool story nonetheless. Too bad you couldn’t recover him right away but nice to get some closure after all this time!
- wolverinebuckman
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- Stanley
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Re: 459 days later i found him
Way to stick to it.
You can fool some of the bucks, all of the time, and fool all of the bucks, some of the time, however you certainly can't fool all of the bucks, all of the time.
- northeast beast
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Re: 459 days later i found him
Glad you found him and got some closure!
I expect you have some big lessons learned too looking back at the attempted recovery...
I expect you have some big lessons learned too looking back at the attempted recovery...
- Ghost Hunter
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Re: 459 days later i found him
Way to go. Good read. Good picture too.
I'm reason they call it hunting and not shooting.
- Babshaft
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Re: 459 days later i found him
Right on man, congrats!
- llcooljames
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Re: 459 days later i found him
Pretty neat to get some closure
- ScottSpitzley
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Re: 459 days later i found him
Awesome story. Glad you found him!
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Re: 459 days later i found him
That's awesome bud. So glad u found him.
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- creepingdeth
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- <DK>
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Re: 459 days later i found him
Awesome!
- Sailfish_WC
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- Bigb
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Re: 459 days later i found him
Glad you found him!
In order to not beat yourself up about finding him immediately, I'll tell you a quick story.
2014 the day my buddy and I arrived to where we hunt we got in late and only had about 45 minutes to hunt so we jumped in a couple close stand to hunt. My buddy was hunting a few hundred yards away. Around dark i get a text that he just shot a nice buck. We waited about 45 minutes and got all our gear and went in to track. It was supposed to storm that night so we had to go in right away. We blood trailed that deer for over a mile through some pretty hilly country before we lost blood. Over the next month we got the buck on camera 10 or so times chasing does and such. Then, a month later my buddy is at my wedding reception in Chicago on a saturday night and his brother calls and says he found his buck dead. It was laying no more than 75 yards from where he shot him but had just expired in the last few days. We had trail camera pics of him over 600 yards away after being shot but he was found dead only 75 yards from where he shot. It was 100% the deer he shot (we knew this deer well and walked by a camera 10 seconds before being shot then ran by another one while we were trailing him). Don't beat yourself up, that deer could have lived a lot longer than you thought.
In order to not beat yourself up about finding him immediately, I'll tell you a quick story.
2014 the day my buddy and I arrived to where we hunt we got in late and only had about 45 minutes to hunt so we jumped in a couple close stand to hunt. My buddy was hunting a few hundred yards away. Around dark i get a text that he just shot a nice buck. We waited about 45 minutes and got all our gear and went in to track. It was supposed to storm that night so we had to go in right away. We blood trailed that deer for over a mile through some pretty hilly country before we lost blood. Over the next month we got the buck on camera 10 or so times chasing does and such. Then, a month later my buddy is at my wedding reception in Chicago on a saturday night and his brother calls and says he found his buck dead. It was laying no more than 75 yards from where he shot him but had just expired in the last few days. We had trail camera pics of him over 600 yards away after being shot but he was found dead only 75 yards from where he shot. It was 100% the deer he shot (we knew this deer well and walked by a camera 10 seconds before being shot then ran by another one while we were trailing him). Don't beat yourself up, that deer could have lived a lot longer than you thought.
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