I Feel Sick

Today was the first decent day to hunt since the season opened and I was there. I started my morning hunting a spot I have had luck seeing deer in the past on a regular basis. It was cold and there was a good frost on the ground. The wind was very light, almost still and it was a perfect morning.

Well, almost perfect. I went to get my gloves out of my pack and had the wrong ones in there. I had my early season lightweight gloves. I toughed it out as long as I could, until my fingers went numb and decided to run back to the house and get my other ones. I was close to the house so it wasn't a big deal.

I got the right gloves and headed back out but decided to go to another place. The place where I turkey hunted in the spring. I got out of the car, geared up and headed into the woods.

I got close to the corner where I was going to set up and something caught my eye. It was deer and lots of them. They were feeding down the fenceline coming towards me. I thought "Oh crap this could not be worse." but they never noticed me. Never even looked up. The wind was had picked up and was blowing right up their tails. Ok, now I must be dreaming.

Here's the fun part. I have my stool on my shoulder, my sling on my bow and on my shoulder and the deer are moving into the clearing that I am standing in. I set the stool down, nothing. I get my sling off of the bow and on the ground, still nothing. I get an arrow nocked and draw. They are still coming, right in a line, like a parade.

I am watching them and the first one walks by. They are at 25-30 yds. and don't even know I'm there. I hit a bleat on my mouth call but it keeps on walking. The second one is coming up and it's bigger so I settle my pin on it. It steps into the lane, I bleat, it stops and everything after that was in slow motion.

I set the pin, checked my No-Peep and squeezed the trigger. I watched the arrow fly right into the doe. She jumped, flipped and turned over the fence. She cut through the field and jumped the next fence into the woods. I could not believe it. I had to pinch myself to make sure I wasn't dreaming.

I thought I heard a crash just after she crossed the second fence but then heard a second crash so I waited about an hour to go in. Plus I had to get permission from the landowner next to the WMA to retrieve the deer. It turns out that was the easy part. Come to find out the owner is our family dentist. Things are looking better all the time.

I call my father-in-law to come help me out. We go in and pick up the trail very quickly. It was like a bucket was splashed about. We followed the trail for about 40 yds. and came to a creek. We were able to trail her to the other side of the creek and then the trail started getting less and less. We trailed spots for about another 40-50 yds. and then it just disappeared. We started a grid search, I was on my hands and knees and could not pick up the trail. I called my boss and a few other friends and we all searched all the way out to a road that I didn't know was there and never recovered the trail or the deer.

Now I started feeling sick. We searched for several hours and I started reliving the shot in my mind. I even went back to the point of impact to relive it.

Here is where it gets bad. I stand where I was when I took the shot and suddenly there is a branch in the lane. I never saw that in my sight picture. I didn't find any marks on it from the arrow but I can't be sure. Then I picture the impact and see the arrow in the deer as she turns and flips. A couple of us search the field but do not find the arrow and it was not recovered anywhere on the blood trail.

After much discussion and reliving the shot both mentally and verbally, I feel very strongly that it was a shoulder hit and not a very good one. I believe the arrow caught the branch and deflected forward and hit high on the shoulder and I believe the arrow is still with the deer. I feel confident in the effort that was expelled in the search and recovery attempt and admitted defeat. Once the trail was lost, there is approximately 3000 acres for her to disappear in with a large part in heavy cover.

This is the first deer I have lost and I feel worse than I ever thought I could. Especially with taking such care on the shot and placement and having to be slow and deliberate because of the position of the deer in relation to me and being in the open like I was. I hope this never happens again.


It's just sickening.