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.
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