North Carolina doe.....Don't believe everything you see!
09-19-2008, 12:50 PM
#1
Giant Nontypical
Thread Starter
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Dover, PA USA
Posts: 5,497
North Carolina doe.....Don't believe everything you see!
Ok we're cleaned up from me taking the new world record typical southern doe.
There is a little story behind it and I guess a lesson to learn maybe..........
First of all yep these deer are small!! LOL
Jeff is absolutley correct when he said in a recent post that the button bucks here are larger than the doe fawns. I had one of each come by this morning and the button buck was quite a bit larger and already had the body charecteristics of a buck.even though both still had faint spots.
In PA at this time of the year you are hard pressed to tell the 2 apart.
Shortly after those 2 left a mature doe worked her way in slowly eating akerns, until she reached a point where she hit a logging road. I don't know if she felt exposed in that spot but she bolted toward my stand and an opening in the thick brush, almost like she was being chased.
I mouth bleated her to a stop at 8ish yards and settled the pin, just as I touched the release off she started going again in a burst. There was a momentary blank outas towhere the arrow hit because I was so concentrated on a spot on her chestplus she moved at the last second.
I never saw the arrow hit but I heard it.
She ran off and I watched her direction of travel for the short distance that I could see. I then turned my attention to the arrow in the ground uncertain of what and where I actually hit which is really weird for me, especially on a shot that close.
The arrow was sticking in the ground without a drop of blood on it but you could clearly see watery brown "gut" on the bright orange vanes.[:@]
Now I'm pissed and confused as to how I could make such a crappy shot at such close range even though the animal did move a the shot.
So I sat there for the next 2 1/2hrs just STEWING over my mistake. (Anyone who knows me knows that I'm as hard on myself as anyone could ever be so I was hot)
At 9:45 Rob works his way over to my stand knowing that I shot as he head the WHAP! of the hit and the deer running off but never heard the bow.
We contemplated the gut shot and since by this time she's been laying almost 3hrs we decided to see if there was any blood on the trail she took......We quickly found a decent but spotty blood trail and some of the blood drops seemd pretty pink?
We determined a direction of travel VERY slowly in the pine straw and small grass patches and backed out quietly.
So I'm beating myself up over making such a crappy shot still wondering how that's possible at that range......we decide to head for some lunch and to let her lay the customary 6hrs for what we decided had to be a straight gut shot.
At 1PM we sneak back in to pick up the trail hopeful because of the 1 3/4" Rocket Slammerhead that I drove through this animal.
We came in a different angle toward the direction the deer ran and were only 75 yards or so into the woods heading for the blood and Jeff says "There she is".
Half thinking he was kidding I spotted her over his shoulder.
I also thought he was kidding as he reached the deer first and said "Man you SMOKED her!"
I wouldn't have believed it if I wasn't there. The arrow was squarely in the rib cage maybe 2" from where I was aiming and exited right at her opposite side 'elbow' pretty much taking everything out as the arrow ran up through. The exit hole looked like a bomb went off on her side and actually cut the leg tendon off that holds the "elbow" .
I never would have thought that based upon the eveidence on the arrow that the shot was completely through the lungs and basically a perfect shot.
What we figure happend was that the arrow went sqaurely through the espophagus on the way through picking up the gut material there since both holes were obviously in front of the diaphragm in the chest.
The lack of blood on the arrow upon travelling through both lungs is a mystery?
(You can see the exit hole in the picture)
We are relaxing a bit and will be heading back out in a bit but just wanted to share this odd experience. I guess the moral of the story is "Don't always believe what your eyes tell you that you saw or see, good or bad". We took our time, read the sign did everything correctly and recovered the deer, and we were STILL surpirsed by what we found.
Hopefully we'll check back in later with a couple more tags filled!
There is a little story behind it and I guess a lesson to learn maybe..........
First of all yep these deer are small!! LOL
Jeff is absolutley correct when he said in a recent post that the button bucks here are larger than the doe fawns. I had one of each come by this morning and the button buck was quite a bit larger and already had the body charecteristics of a buck.even though both still had faint spots.
In PA at this time of the year you are hard pressed to tell the 2 apart.
Shortly after those 2 left a mature doe worked her way in slowly eating akerns, until she reached a point where she hit a logging road. I don't know if she felt exposed in that spot but she bolted toward my stand and an opening in the thick brush, almost like she was being chased.
I mouth bleated her to a stop at 8ish yards and settled the pin, just as I touched the release off she started going again in a burst. There was a momentary blank outas towhere the arrow hit because I was so concentrated on a spot on her chestplus she moved at the last second.
I never saw the arrow hit but I heard it.
She ran off and I watched her direction of travel for the short distance that I could see. I then turned my attention to the arrow in the ground uncertain of what and where I actually hit which is really weird for me, especially on a shot that close.
The arrow was sticking in the ground without a drop of blood on it but you could clearly see watery brown "gut" on the bright orange vanes.[:@]
Now I'm pissed and confused as to how I could make such a crappy shot at such close range even though the animal did move a the shot.
So I sat there for the next 2 1/2hrs just STEWING over my mistake. (Anyone who knows me knows that I'm as hard on myself as anyone could ever be so I was hot)
At 9:45 Rob works his way over to my stand knowing that I shot as he head the WHAP! of the hit and the deer running off but never heard the bow.
We contemplated the gut shot and since by this time she's been laying almost 3hrs we decided to see if there was any blood on the trail she took......We quickly found a decent but spotty blood trail and some of the blood drops seemd pretty pink?
We determined a direction of travel VERY slowly in the pine straw and small grass patches and backed out quietly.
So I'm beating myself up over making such a crappy shot still wondering how that's possible at that range......we decide to head for some lunch and to let her lay the customary 6hrs for what we decided had to be a straight gut shot.
At 1PM we sneak back in to pick up the trail hopeful because of the 1 3/4" Rocket Slammerhead that I drove through this animal.
We came in a different angle toward the direction the deer ran and were only 75 yards or so into the woods heading for the blood and Jeff says "There she is".
Half thinking he was kidding I spotted her over his shoulder.
I also thought he was kidding as he reached the deer first and said "Man you SMOKED her!"
I wouldn't have believed it if I wasn't there. The arrow was squarely in the rib cage maybe 2" from where I was aiming and exited right at her opposite side 'elbow' pretty much taking everything out as the arrow ran up through. The exit hole looked like a bomb went off on her side and actually cut the leg tendon off that holds the "elbow" .
I never would have thought that based upon the eveidence on the arrow that the shot was completely through the lungs and basically a perfect shot.
What we figure happend was that the arrow went sqaurely through the espophagus on the way through picking up the gut material there since both holes were obviously in front of the diaphragm in the chest.
The lack of blood on the arrow upon travelling through both lungs is a mystery?
(You can see the exit hole in the picture)
We are relaxing a bit and will be heading back out in a bit but just wanted to share this odd experience. I guess the moral of the story is "Don't always believe what your eyes tell you that you saw or see, good or bad". We took our time, read the sign did everything correctly and recovered the deer, and we were STILL surpirsed by what we found.
Hopefully we'll check back in later with a couple more tags filled!
a dancin' banana for ya.. 
09-19-2008, 01:04 PM
#5
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Texas
Posts: 2,363
RE: North Carolina doe.....Don't believe everything you see!
Good deal brother...I had a similar thing happen last year where I thought I made a bad shot and after tracking the 35 yds, I was proved wrong as well....Congrats on the doe and the fellowship there...
09-19-2008, 01:08 PM
#8
Boone & Crockett
Join Date: Oct 1998
Location: Hughesville, PA USA
Posts: 18,322
RE: North Carolina doe.....Don't believe everything you see!
ORIGINAL: Talondale
Wait, I thought this was all going to be on film.
Wait, I thought this was all going to be on film.
I heard Matt shoot around 7:00. I thought I barely heard the bow go off but I heard the unmistakable sound of Thwack! and heard the deer run off and then quiet.
We agreed to get down around 10:00 but around 9:45 I couldn't take it anymore. I slowly got down and still hunted toward Matt's stand. I went straight to where I heard the twack and was smiling at Matt and he gave me the thumbs down and I thought, WHAT? I went to the arrow and low and behold a very bloodless arrow with "food matter" on the fletch. Matt was down on himself, harder on himself than he should have been. It can happen to anyone, anytime and it's what you do after the shot that determines the success or failure.
Matt got down and came over to me and the arrow and we VERY slowly inched forward to check for blood. WE might have taken the trail 40 yards inching forward and glassing just to get a direction and backing out. Without Matt seeing the impact and with what we found on the arrow it was time to head our own recovery thread and back out.
Matt did in reality smoke that doe but she was just as dead and recoverable after waiting and had she been hit poorly, we would have jumped her by not waiting.
Anyway, congratulations to Matt and we're having a great time.
Here's some great photos at the recover site to give you an idea of the terrain.
