Little Wattsy
69 Cal.
- Joined
- Jan 7, 2008
- Messages
- 3,631
- Reaction score
- 9
It starts with a dandy buck beaded down in the middle of a field some 500 yards away at 2pm last Tuesday afternoon. A little forky is keeping him company and a fist full of does are near by... I used a drainedge ditch to get to 150-ish yards and then its just wide open field.
He thinks hes hid in a little tuft of grass so with nowhere else to go I start waliking his direction, quartering "past him". At about 110 yards he stands up, ready to roll. Hes looking straight at me. I take a knee, put the sight on that white throat patch, and BANG! (I shoot a TC Renegade with a RB Barrel, 90grs of FFG and a home made .535 PRB and .015 pillow ticking.)
Off he runs...
I go over to where he jumped the fence and found a MAJOR blood trail. I (obviously) misjudged his angle of retreat and looked for a continuation of said bloodtrail for an hour before realizing that he zaged right not left in going over the bank and the search is back on...
50 yards later I jump him. manure he isnt dead.
I take a few steps and see him through dome light brush. Its getting dark. Its starting to rain. I am starting to panic. I pull up aim at a hole in the brush and BANG. He walks away.
I reload and go to last sight and nothing. No blood. Zilch.
Casey, the ranch hand, comes down to help me look and nothing. Flashlights in the rain .. NOTHING.
"Ill come back tomorrow".
I cant sleep. Sick feeling in my guts. Please God!!
The next morning the rain has washed EVERYTHING away. I start a zig zag pattern on my side of the river and after two hours I am confident that I have looked everywhere possible on this side of the river. The ranch owner, Woddy, comes down to see how Im doing. He pulls out a pair of chest waders and crosses the river to assist in the search. Looks down river side. Nothing. Starts on the upriver side and up stands my deer. he takes two or three steps and goes down. Woody cuts his throat and the search is over. (Thank you God!!)
In 32 years of deer hunting I have only lost 1 deer (near 20-ish years ago and I still feel sucker punched over that one).
The 1st shot went in high on the left shoulder and exited high right taking out one lung. The second shot hit a little far back. He was hit hard but still had enough ooomph to get accross that little river and out of sight, proving this to me; Prayers are awnsered... And the deer was found.
He thinks hes hid in a little tuft of grass so with nowhere else to go I start waliking his direction, quartering "past him". At about 110 yards he stands up, ready to roll. Hes looking straight at me. I take a knee, put the sight on that white throat patch, and BANG! (I shoot a TC Renegade with a RB Barrel, 90grs of FFG and a home made .535 PRB and .015 pillow ticking.)
Off he runs...
I go over to where he jumped the fence and found a MAJOR blood trail. I (obviously) misjudged his angle of retreat and looked for a continuation of said bloodtrail for an hour before realizing that he zaged right not left in going over the bank and the search is back on...
50 yards later I jump him. manure he isnt dead.
I take a few steps and see him through dome light brush. Its getting dark. Its starting to rain. I am starting to panic. I pull up aim at a hole in the brush and BANG. He walks away.
I reload and go to last sight and nothing. No blood. Zilch.
Casey, the ranch hand, comes down to help me look and nothing. Flashlights in the rain .. NOTHING.
"Ill come back tomorrow".
I cant sleep. Sick feeling in my guts. Please God!!
The next morning the rain has washed EVERYTHING away. I start a zig zag pattern on my side of the river and after two hours I am confident that I have looked everywhere possible on this side of the river. The ranch owner, Woddy, comes down to see how Im doing. He pulls out a pair of chest waders and crosses the river to assist in the search. Looks down river side. Nothing. Starts on the upriver side and up stands my deer. he takes two or three steps and goes down. Woody cuts his throat and the search is over. (Thank you God!!)
In 32 years of deer hunting I have only lost 1 deer (near 20-ish years ago and I still feel sucker punched over that one).
The 1st shot went in high on the left shoulder and exited high right taking out one lung. The second shot hit a little far back. He was hit hard but still had enough ooomph to get accross that little river and out of sight, proving this to me; Prayers are awnsered... And the deer was found.
