Heading to hopefully help my son recover the buck he’s been hunting!

Keep us posted!!!! You’ll find him!

Good luck WB.

Is it that old buck?

Just got to his house. He hit it behind the shoulder, possibly a tad high but he saw nothing but blood on the opposite side right under the shoulder. The deer walked 75yds and bedded. 10 minutes later it made it to its feet and started walking. He saw it hit a feed trail and then lost sight. He’s confident in his shot, but doesn’t understand the deers reactions. Only thing we can come up with is he was quartering a little more than he thought and he got liver and one lung. We’re gonna give it until 10pm and head out to look.

What’s really crazy is the buck he shot 2 years ago did almost the exact same thing. He shot, filmed it walking off behind a bush, and never saw it leave. He climbed down thinking it was dead and trailed it to the bush he saw it go behind and it jumped up. We waited a couple hours then too and found it less than 100yds away with rigor set in.

I’m confident we’ll find it. If not there’s drones and dogs, lol. He’s thinking he’s in the mid 160’s. We’ll see…
I’m betting that deer is dead right now, but best to err on the side of caution.

Compound bow or Crossbow? Just curious.

Nice deer.

I'd unclip that thermal scope and use that to scan ahead on the blood trail.

Good luck. Send us pics!

Great buck. Looking forward to seeing the recovery pics.

Was he in a treestand? Elevated?
Quartering to or away?
Did the arrow get full penetration?

Good luck.

You'll find it!!!

One lungs have been bad for me when I haven’t been patient. Good luck and hope y’all find him.

Good luck. I’ve seen that same exact reaction , and found the deer bedded dead, within 100 yards from last sighting. Problem was the blood clotted when he bed and got back up, made it difficult to find. Did a grid search in the pine cutover and laid eyes on him. I’m confident you’ll find the buck. Good luck can’t wait to see pics.

Yeah, his brand new Prime compound. Very elevated and quartering slightly. No arrow found is another issue, but plenty of blood seen on the opposite side. Shooting fixed heads (Montec G3).
Swamp, we talked about taking the thermal off, but they have fields you could hide a tractor in. We tried that last year in Kayla’s deer and it was useless. He looked at the shot sight for his arrow and blood everywhere. He went about 20yds looking for the arrow and blood everywhere. According to him, blood out both sides.

Get em

From the details mentioned, sounds like a dead deer! Killed one In Illinois last year never found my arrow. Quartering to me. Carrying that shaft inside him sure ate his vitals up - so not always a bad thing.

carrying a fixed blade shaft is Great

I'd say you and the boy are right. My brother had a tree on public land he killed bucks in back to back years that both acted identical to what you described. We couldn't figure out the deal until we really paid attention when we were dragging the second buck out. The shots were only 12 yards and found at the shot opening the trail the deer took had a kink in it that quartered the deer just enough to result in the single lung/liver hit. Even looking at the entrance and exit on both deer you would've sworn it was a double lung. Gutting both deer showed otherwise.

Hope you’re dragging that buck out right now!

Looking forward to pics!

He is a good buck. Deer is reacting like a lung and liver shot to me. Good Luck!!

Well, found where he laid and got up and not much blood. Pretty sure it clotted. He made the call to back out and call in the dogs. They’ll be here around midnight or a little after. I’m heading home and told him to FaceTime me when they find it. When I get some pics I’ll post them.
What makes it bad is they just blocked this area yesterday and finding blood is tough! I’d rather have solid weeds like his last big buck. When your walking and blood is hitting your arms or hand it’s much easier to track, lol. Plus you could figure out which trail it was on.

Hope!!!

Expected to wake up and see a pic of your son’s buck?

Hopefully y’all are just late posting pics due to all the celebrating.

Any more news?

Good luck!

Well, dogs showed and didn’t act right. They looked for 2.5hrs but the dogs never got on the scent even when they put them on blood. I don’t know if it was the fact it was freshly blocked or not.
They looked this morning as well. Blood was very sporadic and just quit. Brennan said they found just a little more from where we backed out and nothing.
He’s devastated. He watched this buck all last year, found one shed early and just found the other side a few weeks ago. He’s moved his cameras about 8 times this year trying to keep up and find him. He actually went with intentions of shooting a doe last night and at the last minute went to a lock on he’d put up at the bucks last location. He hadn’t shown on camera in days, but he just had a feeling. It was a 23yd chip shot and he still had no clue what went wrong.
Now it’s wait and see if he shows on camera or buzzards. Keep hoping I get a call saying we found him, but nothing yet. I even offered to take the day off and walk until I couldn’t anymore. Hate it for him after all he’s done to get on him.

That sucks!

I know the feeling

Been there ...done that.

On a good buck that you've targeted....it stings...causes nausea.

Well, we found him…alive. Won’t go into details but a drone was extremely helpful and caveman tactics were used to finish him. I can tell you this, what you might consider an almost dead deer is in fact NOT almost dead when touched. All involved parties escaped serious injury, except the buck. After getting hands on him, we think he’s a little bigger than what we initially thought.




Shot was high and forward, clipped one lung. We’re actually thinking the aim was good, but the deer dropped and turned. He will “now” listen to Dad and aim lower than what you think.

Great ending, and persistence pays off.

Congratulations, awesome deer.

WS

I'm glad he found a deer he could eat. Not to knock the hunt but I thought finding a live deer with a drone and then going in to get him was illegal. Or is this a state by state thing?

It’s legal to find shot deer with a drone or dogs here. Drone deer recovery is a big business.

That's a great buck!

Persistent paid off.
Nice work guys.

Outstanding!

What a super fine buck!

Glad yall found him!!

Great job staying with it !! Glad he found him. BEAUTIFUL DEER !!

Is that the entry above the shoulder in the pic ? Or the finishing off shot? Don't see another entry wound. Details man all about details.. LOL

I know there is big debate over fixed or mechanical. But seems you guys have a lot of trailing adventures using fixed. IF that is the initial shot and he was shooting down at that deer. You put a rage OR a swacker in him there on a steep angle. He aint going 75 yards.

Don't want to hear how the blades bend when hitting bone. They still cut a 2.5 -3.5 inches as they go thru flesh.

My opinion. Both types have a place.

Congrats. Have you weighed it ? Any idea on age?

Thank God you found him! Ended any suffering and your family is safe. Good job!

Very nice buck. Brow tines are a preference for me , if I have a choice.

Lots of good meat. Don't let anyone tell him that tired old untrue saying- "Ya cant eat the horns".....yes....you can.

There is more to feasting than the belly- though the bigger the buck, or doe, the more meat.

As an artist, beautiful antlers also are a feast unto the eyes, for years. Something to enjoy and appreciate always. Along with a beautiful ivory carved look to the skull in Euro mount. Continued use of the whole animal.

Glad he had success.

Dang. I'd been sick over it too.

We estimated 170# or so. We’re also guessing 5.5yrs old. He’s watched this deer for a couple years now. His body size hasn’t changed in that time, just antler growth. Last years sheds look puny next to him now.

Yes that was the entry shot. Details were left out for a reason…I’ll say a sharp knife and big pine limb were involved. A new cape will be needed and really hoping his skull plate isn’t cracked. Again, what seems dead or basically very near death is null and void when grabbed and it’s adrenaline kicks in.

And unfortunately, a mechanical in that particular shot would have lead to a very short track and time recovery based on where the shot went. For those doubting, once we found the deer we watched for a while to make sure we weren’t attempting to pursue a deer that would survive. Our plan was to just end the suffering. Not many “healthy” deer will let you walk up to them without moving at all even though we could still see labored breathing. It was almost a bad situation for us.

At the processors there was a lot of internal clotted blood. Heck even the processor was intrigued and we got an arrow to check the actual hole. Again, aim low and just count on that deers instincts to drop before bolting. It works for me and everyone else I know that uses that method. Worse case you get double lungs instead of heart and lungs.

I will say this, every deer in his cooler including this one is covered in a thick layer of fat, more so than we’ve ever seen on deer.

Super buck. Glad u guys were able to recover it

One good thing about all the hunting videos is no one misses their bow shots anymore since there's proof deer jump the string occasionally.

Got him

… this video reminds of the dispatch story

… poor deer was trying to relax lol

Congratulations on a monster buck!

At least you found him before the yotes did.

Nice Buck !!

Glad to see that you found him.

That's a fine buck.

Congrats.

This buck is the result of all that private land buck management sweat equity we discuss on here occasionally.


Ms Sharon hit the nail on the head when she stated above that big antlers are a feast for the eyes!!!

I bet when he got up or moved you guys needed to change your underwear!!
Should have video it!

Glad it worked out Hey start a score guessing thread !!
Lol lol


Get a 10+15 print made of the pic you posted to hang next to the mount

He just got him scored…bigger than we thought, but definitely shows what they can grow in a year.
Not gonna start a score thread, folks have beat the can’t eat antlers to death.

… if you’re scared go to church…. That thing had some massive f16’s on it … big animal

Nice X ten!

He's clean and symmetrical.

Tell us the gross..

Great buck, congrats. I lost a doe once when I didn't bring my bow with me on a "dead deer" retrieval. Never got close enough for a knife. Glad you got him.

How much does it cost to have a drone find a deer?

Have no clue on cost, we have friends. Plus it looks good for your business when you find a deer that size and given permission to use the pics. I could ask what they charge if you’re really interested.

Congrats!

Glad you found the buck, he’s a great deer! Goes to show what management does. Good job for sticking with it. That’s one you guys won’t forget!

What a great buck!!

Glad yall found him. He’s a hoss.

This one was killed a couple miles from the house the other day. Said he’s 190”

With some good nutrition and age they sure can get big.

WB - Happy for you and your boy. Great buck.

That is a stud!!! I think every State can produce huge bucks if they’re allowed to grow. It’s finding a buck with potential and learning everything you can about him and praying he lives long enough to reach that potential. Most of our “trophy” bucks average at about a 3 year chase.

Super Buck, Congratulations!

The story on that one is that they have watched him for 3 years. He was killed on a 90 acre farm, but the guy who killed him puts a bunch of $ and work in. I trapped a place not far from this spot that is highly managed and the guy talked about having some giants on his place.

I dont have the time or patience so I still shoot the small ones!

Right on! Glad you guys found him! Very nice buck!

We had a 202” killed in our county several years back and the buck started out on our place and disappeared at 3.5yrs old. 3 years later he was killed 4.5 miles due South. Now the crazy part is he ended up on a place I trap. The landowner shared his sheds with me and he laughed when I said we know that deer. I showed him our pics we had and it was in fact the same deer. He was hunting that deer, but that buck let love get the best of him and followed a doe across the highway to another property and was shot. The guy that ended up shooting him had pics of him too, but all at night. We shared our pics of his younger days and the landowner gave him some of his sheds to add to the trophy.
We’ve found at about the 3.5-4.5 stage is when bucks decide where they are is home or they strike out to other areas to take up residence. If we have them at that age we really try and keep up with them. Even then they have their Summer areas and then their Winter areas on the property. They eventually tell you the story of their travel patterns. When they reach that “take’em” age they really become spooky. The buck my son killed would be a no show on camera for one to two days if he went in that area. Day 3 he’d be on camera multiple times a day for days on end. It’s also like that deer knew what winds he could travel in and be safe. When they blocked that area a couple days before my son called and said it’s either gonna make it easier or run him to another area, lol. You’d have to see these areas to understand the height of these weed fields.

WB - what do you mean by 'blocked'? You've mentioned that several times.

Wild bird plantations will “block” the hunting areas. All have dedicated “feed trails” throughout the property and managers will “block” (cut or chop) parallel either side of the feed trails and then make U shapes every so often off those cuts. It leaves cover next to the feed trails for the quail, but the blocking actually makes it easier for clients to walk when dogs go on point.
At his plantation they have huge weed fields (ragweed, partridge pea, camphor weed, broomsedge, etc) and they will actually cut it up like blocks. It also allows access for hunters and dogs yet still provides food and cover for quail.
All these properties are strictly managed for quail and nothing else. No feeders, no plots, no anything directly for deer. Deer are just a byproduct of the management practices. Manage for quail and everything prospers. These properties are also on a burn rotation every year. Everything is done to benefit quail.
Blocking is always started Oct 1…never before. Burn season starts after quail season ends at the end of February. Burn season ends no later than the first week of April.