I was invited to a friends deer lease over the Thanksgiving weekend to hunt spikes and does, otherwise known as a management hunt. I decided to take my old .50 TC Hawken percussion. The lease is setup with bow blinds that provide a 20 - 40 yard shot, most blinds are tripods in trees at 12’ or 15’ high. This is an important bit of information to my circumstance.
On Saturday morning I was able to shoot a spike buck at about 45 yards. It was a perfect broadside shot, I hit him in the shoulder and took out both lungs. He ran about 70 yards leaving a huge blood trail that was easy to follow.
With my confidence high after that deer, on Sunday morning I shot another spike at 35 yards. He ran off about 30 yards and then “fell down” beside a small group of trees. I thought I would sit and wait 15 minutes before approaching to ensure he was dead. After 10 minutes the deer stood up and begin walking into the thicker brush. I quickly reloaded and climbed down to start tracking if necessary.
I walked to the spot where he laid down and found two small spots of blood. I began to look for a blood trail in the direction he had walked and found a few spots with each spot smaller than the previous. Unfortunately, after a few yards the trail completely disappeared.
I contacted my friend and let him know I potentially had a deer down and needed help to locate it. The short of the rest of this is we searched for several hours to no avail.
In recreating the shot over and over in my mind, I finally realized I aimed too low, aiming like I would if I were sitting on the ground not anticipating the downward trajectory of the round ball. In hindsight believe I shot a little too quick and certainly did not think about the effect of being that far off the ground, causing my ball’s impact to be too low and most probably missing the vitals.
If this helps anyone at all, always stop and think through all facets of a shot ahead of time. There is nothing worse than wounding and not finding a deer.
On Saturday morning I was able to shoot a spike buck at about 45 yards. It was a perfect broadside shot, I hit him in the shoulder and took out both lungs. He ran about 70 yards leaving a huge blood trail that was easy to follow.
With my confidence high after that deer, on Sunday morning I shot another spike at 35 yards. He ran off about 30 yards and then “fell down” beside a small group of trees. I thought I would sit and wait 15 minutes before approaching to ensure he was dead. After 10 minutes the deer stood up and begin walking into the thicker brush. I quickly reloaded and climbed down to start tracking if necessary.
I walked to the spot where he laid down and found two small spots of blood. I began to look for a blood trail in the direction he had walked and found a few spots with each spot smaller than the previous. Unfortunately, after a few yards the trail completely disappeared.
I contacted my friend and let him know I potentially had a deer down and needed help to locate it. The short of the rest of this is we searched for several hours to no avail.
In recreating the shot over and over in my mind, I finally realized I aimed too low, aiming like I would if I were sitting on the ground not anticipating the downward trajectory of the round ball. In hindsight believe I shot a little too quick and certainly did not think about the effect of being that far off the ground, causing my ball’s impact to be too low and most probably missing the vitals.
If this helps anyone at all, always stop and think through all facets of a shot ahead of time. There is nothing worse than wounding and not finding a deer.
