Semisane

What a bummer! Planned to take my first flintlock deer Saturday morning. The wind was wrong for the skychair, so I was in thebox stand on the 1/3 acre food plot. (see picture in http://www.huntingnet.com/forum/tm.aspx?m=3159717&mpage=1&key=&#315971 7)

I was watching a medium size doe with two halfgrown fawns feeding under the three oaks in the middle of the plot when a really nice doe came out of the pine woodsto join them. She was probably 120 pounds or so, and as soon as she stepped out I decided to take her.

I had plenty of time for a rested shot while she was standing still broadside -just to the left of the oak trees72 yards out. I felt I had a good sight picture and trigger squeeze asI touched off the 95 grains of GOEX FFFg under the .54 ball. With a steadybreeze blowingthe smoke cleared real quick and I was able to see her doing a squat-run into the trees at the back of the plot and burst through some thick brush at the edge of the plot.So I took my time reloading and headed towhere she was standing at the shot. No blood - no hair. I very slowly walked the route she had taken to the tree line, about 25 yards over open ground. Still no blood. Checked the brush she had pushed through figuring there should be some spray or rub-off - still no blood.

So I push my way through the five feet of brush and briers at the edge of the plot looking for blood all the way, until I am under the pine tree canopy. The ground here is fairly open with a four-inch carpet of pine needles and small scattered patches of briar, french mulberry, and yaupon. You can see twenty yards in any direction and easily see a downed deer within that twenty yards. I picked up her track in disturbed pine needles and begin to follow - still no blood to be seen. After about thirty or forty feet there are so many trails and cross trails in the bed of needles I can no longer tell which path she's on. So I start making slow semi-circles using the back edgeof the food plot as a base line - start at the left side of the base line, walk a semi-circle to the right side looking for blood or a body. Go into the woods another ten yards and circle to the left,another ten yards back to the right, with each semi-circle being longer than the last.I covered about a hundred and twenty yards into the woods like that and did not find a drop of blood.

Well by now I'd convinced myself that I had a clean miss. Headed back to camp for a sandwich and coke.While eating I kept replaying that shot in my mine. Damn, I KNOW I had a good sight picture and didn't jerk the shot. Walked over to the rifle rangeand put a shot intothe 3" bull at 75 yards. I know I hit that deer. Got two buddies to go back with me and repeat the search. Sure enough, about fifty yards into the tree line we find a very small speck of blood on a pine needle. One guy stands there and two of us start looking for more. Fifteen yards away -another spot, slightly larger. One guy marks and the other two circle.We were able to follow the blood trail for about sixty yards and hita few spots of pretty good bloodand one - the last one - about the size of a saucer, where she had laid down. We were not able to find another spot of blood after that. The three of us spread out twenty yards apart and began walking a grid in a body search. After three hours we gave up and called it a lost deer.

I've gotta` tell you, I've beenbummed out for two days. This is only the second deer I've lost in thirty-something years of deer hunting.

As I sit here typing this I can see in my mindthe sight picture I had on that doe. I have the gun sight so that with a 6 o'clock hold on a 3" bull at 75 yards the ball will hit the top of the bull. I had the top of the front sight just behind the shoulder about 1/3 of the way down from the top of her body. Had I been using a scope I would have put the crosshairs just below the centerline of the body. This was the first deer I've ever shot with iron sights and I think I sighted too high. Probably punched through right at the top of the lungs. As I said - I'm bummed out.

kodiakhuntmaster

It happens to the best of us. Hunting isn't perfect. Sometimes, even when you do everything right, there's no way to find the deer.

Semisane

Yeah, I know Wiggy. With 9 guys in our hunting club, eachtaking around three deer a year,we always loose a few. I'ts always a downer for the group when we can't find one we know was hit.

I've been in the club ten years and lost onedoe four years ago that we tracked for 1/4 mile through open pinesand saw so much blood we could not believe that deer was still traveling. Well, we lost it in ayear old cut-over of about 30 acres with chest high briars. That deer could have beenwithin six feet of you in there and you would never see it. Still, I felt bad about it.

Buck Hunter 1

I hate giving up on them. It's a obsession w/ me, but sometimes you got to give up the ghost. I think about those deer and somewtimws go back when the brush or weeds are down looking for a carcass to see if it was me, did I screw up or just wasn't to be.......You did alot more than other people I have seen and known over the years a ;lot more!

bronko22000

Semi - it is an unforturnate part of hunting. It happens sometimes. I was taught at an early age how to track a wounded deer. Those of us who bowhunt know how difficult a task this can be at times. And a high hit without an exit is the worse to try to track. But I hope you learned something from this experience. I know the feeling that sticks in the back of you head but don't let it bug you too long.

falcon

Semisane, it just happens sometimes. Lost a big cow elk in 2003 and it still haunts me.Other timesone just gets lucky: Last summer i gave up tracking a wounded hog.While driving out of the area, there she was lying dead on the road bank.

cayugad

Very little I can say that has not been mentioned to make you feel worse.. (just kidding) It happens. I've been lucky over the years in find them or in one single case, where someone else did and took it. Still, if it was a high lung hit, you might have hit that area above the lungs and under the spine. That deer will not die, but you did slow it down.

So don't beat yourself up. Next time aim a little lower... Actually because of my ability with open sights at any real distance, it is one reasonI have been transitioning to the 1x scopes. I think they are just a better aiming device for me.

WV Mountaineer

Semi many years ago while still a young lad I lost the biggest buck of my life. He passed by me chasing a doe and I shot him with a 444 marlin. My brother and I both looked for that deer to no avail. God smiled on me that day but I blew it and even today it still hurts to think about it. Our rifle season here in WV opens next Monday and I sure hope the Lord smiles on me again.

WV Mountaineer

Semisane

Well Cayugad, at least you didn't suggest that had I used BH that doe would have been DRT.

dmurphy317

Man, I hate to hear that but it does happen. An uncle of mine once shot a deer with a 7mm mag and thought he had a solid hit.While tracking it, the deer would run about a quarter mile and lay down, leaving a pool of blood. Every time he would get close it would jump up and run before he could see it, he would just here it run off. After tracking all day for about 5 miles he finally decided the deer was probably going to live despite all the blood it had lost. It's not what we want to happen but it does. Good luck on the rest of your hunt.