0rion
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Scored my first deer of the season Saturday. Shot a decent doe with the new bow.
It was about 15 minutes until the end of legal shooting time and 2 doe came in. The one in the rear was the larger deer and the one I really wanted but they were feeding and taking their time. I was worried about getting past that legal time so I decided to take the smaller of the 2.....although she was still around a 2 year old doe so not huge but not tiny either.
She got to 20 yards slightly quartering towards me and I let one fly. I followed the arrow in and it looked like a pretty good hit. She ran off and I never saw her come up the other side of the ravine but I also didn't hear a crash so I waited for a bit and started climbing down the tree. Get over to my arrow and find no blood on it but it had went through guts. My heart sank. I replayed the shot over and over in my head and it really looked like a good hit but I've been there before and what looks like a good hit at the time could easily be a few inches back further than you thought. Anyhow....it's dark by now and I walk down to where I last saw her drop off in the ravine and kinda look around a bit but don't want to kick her up if she bed down so I slip back out and leave her overnight. It was about 45 degrees then and the low for the night was going to be 32 so I felt pretty good about leaving her.
I go back out in the morning and pick up where I stopped the night before. She was down about 20 yards from where I stopped looking. Wished I would've kept going but at the time I thought she was gut shot and didn't want to bump her because then it would be game over. Not an ideal situation for sure but I did recover her and the meat is fine. It ended up being a pretty decent shot. Went in through the chest and wiped out a lung and the liver and exited out the bottom....explaining the guts on the fletchings. The guts had pushed through some and plugged the hole which explained the lack of blood. That muzzy did a number on her at about 300 fps.
It was about 15 minutes until the end of legal shooting time and 2 doe came in. The one in the rear was the larger deer and the one I really wanted but they were feeding and taking their time. I was worried about getting past that legal time so I decided to take the smaller of the 2.....although she was still around a 2 year old doe so not huge but not tiny either.
She got to 20 yards slightly quartering towards me and I let one fly. I followed the arrow in and it looked like a pretty good hit. She ran off and I never saw her come up the other side of the ravine but I also didn't hear a crash so I waited for a bit and started climbing down the tree. Get over to my arrow and find no blood on it but it had went through guts. My heart sank. I replayed the shot over and over in my head and it really looked like a good hit but I've been there before and what looks like a good hit at the time could easily be a few inches back further than you thought. Anyhow....it's dark by now and I walk down to where I last saw her drop off in the ravine and kinda look around a bit but don't want to kick her up if she bed down so I slip back out and leave her overnight. It was about 45 degrees then and the low for the night was going to be 32 so I felt pretty good about leaving her.
I go back out in the morning and pick up where I stopped the night before. She was down about 20 yards from where I stopped looking. Wished I would've kept going but at the time I thought she was gut shot and didn't want to bump her because then it would be game over. Not an ideal situation for sure but I did recover her and the meat is fine. It ended up being a pretty decent shot. Went in through the chest and wiped out a lung and the liver and exited out the bottom....explaining the guts on the fletchings. The guts had pushed through some and plugged the hole which explained the lack of blood. That muzzy did a number on her at about 300 fps.
