LBD

Changed up the program completley last night and went to a stand I hadn't hunted since week 1. It wasn't stand I wanted to hunt, but it was the one the wind was good for. At about 5 this guy came down a fencerow about 100 yards away. He hit my scent trail and just kind of wandered down it. He nosed the scrape under me and as he wandered off I drew and then had to stop him at 15 yards. I thought it was a perfect shot. But his reaction told me other wise. He hopped off about 20 yards and stood there for at least 10 minutes. He was not looking at me or for me , just standing there hurting. After what seemed like forever he just walked off slowly. I knew at that point that something was not right. He acted exactly like many of the liver shots I have had and tracked. I decided to give him 4 hours and then went back to track. The 2 blade rage from my 91# maxxis left a lot of blood on everything at the spot of the hit, however blood was sparse after that. We found where he had laid down within 80 yards of my stand. But we hadn't jumped him as the little blood that we could find leaving the bed was dry. Shortly thereafter, we found another similar bed. Some blood in it but not what I had hoped for. After another 30 yards or so we found several places where he had stopped and stood the last had a large amount of blood pooled under the weeds and lots of bubbles. He made an abrupt turn from this spot that took us a few minutes to find but he was only 10 yards further. With temps in the low 30's and a 4 hour wait, he had no rigor yet, so he had not been dead that long. Shot was liver & 1 lung. No monster, but a trophy in my book.

Inside spread is 19".
Thanks to my trackers, I am careful about who I take to track with me, and because we waited long enough we were able to recover a deer that left a VERY marginal trail. Fortunately he didn't go far.

As it ended up I was in a low stand and when I stopped him he was on a knoll leaving very little angle and he was not quartered away as hard as I thought he was.

Nice buck. You gotta do the math before trackin a deer. Watch them guys on TV, they'll go back to the camp and review the footage. Unfortunately we have to do that in our head. It also helps to know one of the best trackers around..............Mr. Trackerfish.

Congrats on the buck. Bucks are like women, they are all nice, just some are nicer then others...WF

One thing to remember on T.V., they normaly don't have to worry about some one else poaching the deer that they wounded.I personaly know of 3 deer that were stolen while the original shooter was waiting for the deer to "stiffen up" or they went back for help. Happened to my son on Thur.,He got a pass through on a nice 8pt even tho it was bleeding very well when he got down to look at the arrow ,he called his buddy who convinced him to wait for him to come help.Since they were on thier own posted property he didn't think there was a prob.While they were waiting a neighbor called & reported some suspicious activity near the road at the end of the property. Turns out while the deer was heading for the other side of the road some #### -heads driving past, saw it go down, then jumped out of the truck & grabbed it & drove away.I will always go after it if it is bleeding because I think that pushing it will make it bleed faster. although you may have to drag it farther.If you make a lethal hit it should be dead within 10-15 seconds,so by the time you get to the ground, if you hunt from a tree,it should already be dead.The only deer that I lost after what I thought was a good hit was one that I waited for an hour so that we could get some flashlight to track it with. sam

Great buck.  Thanks for sharing.