The forecasted rain did not happen and Friday morning broke clear and cool. I was signed in and set up well before first light, and with the rut nearly here my excitement was high.
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Shortly after first light I caught movement on my right and turned to see a buck. He slowly worked his way around and eventually found himself in front of me, broadside. I had guessed him to be somewhere in the range of 30 yards and adjusted my sight accordingly. As he passed behind the small tree in front of me I drew and waited for him to stop. He followed the script and did just that, unaware of my presence. I settled my pin on his chest and released, watching as the arrow impacted high. As he spun around I saw the arrow still sticking about halfway out, not nearly the penetration I would have liked. He tore off through the brush and I was able to follow his sound straight away, then veering to my right. Shortly after, silence.
I sat for another hour replaying the shot in my head over and over. In that time I ranged where he stood and he ended up being 23 yards away. Using the 30 yard pin, it was no surprise that I hit high. I climbed down and made my way over to the impact site. There was no blood to be found, but I did have hair. Knowing the general direction of his travel, and positive that I did hit him I started slowly trailing, following what little sign there was; a broken twig here, a splayed track there. Some 30 yards from the shot I found first blood and my spirits picked up a bit. The track was painfully slow but blood was good in spurts; I'd find a good patch, then nothing for 10 yards or so, then another good patch. This continued for about 70 yards or so, and just as I was finding my groove the trail simply stopped. I had a good spot of blood, then just ahead of that a splayed track, another pin prick, then nothing.
I searched this area for a while in all directions to no avail and eventually marked the spot and went back to my car to eat and find help. Another hunter was gracious enough to come and help and we grid searched for several hours without turning up the deer. I returned on Saturday morning and continued searching, still coming up empty. Finishing out my obligation to the hunt I headed out Sunday morning but with winds gusting to 40mph there was no way I was hunting from my stand. I pulled my setup and called it a day.
Needless to say, a lost deer is a terrible feeling. I was and am super bummed about it, but am confident I did all that I could to recover that deer. I believe that my high hit coupled with the elevated shot caused me to enter above the lung, and the lack of pass-through did not allow me to do enough damage to the opposite lobe to bring him down swiftly. The biggest takeaway from this hunt is to make sure I range when I set up my stand so that if things happen quickly at first light I'm not guessing. I'll also be looking at a good fixed head rather than expandable as I believe that may have provided better penetration.
We've still got 2 months left in our season and I've got another park hunt starting next weekend. I'm hoping to shake this off and get back out there with renewed confidence.
