I have been driving 525 miles to my hunting spot in North Dakota every other weekend since Sept 1st and have seen several good buck on the trail cams but nothing in daylight hours. This last Saturday with about 5 min of shooting light left this buck came strolling by with a smaller 6. The shot was quartering towards me but not enough that I wasnt confident in a good shot. At the shot it sounded like a 2x4 breaking and the deer blew out through the trees and across a soybean field. I thought I heard him crash and thrash in the beans but the sound of the impact had me a little worried. After 15 or 20 minutes my cousin pick me up and then we went and picked up my son and niece from thier stands. My son had two bull moose walk under his ladder stand close enough that he could have touched them with his bow, so he was pretty pumped.
It had been 45 min since the shot so we went back and looked for the arrow, I found it right where the buck had been standing but there was very little blood on the arrow. It had passed through but was almost dry and no blood at the location. We then moved fifty yards out where the deer had crossed the sand road to look for tracks after 20 minutes we found one deep track that had a pin head size drop of blood on it. We followed these small spots for 100 yards to where we lost them, at this point I was a mental mess between loosing the blood and two little kids trying to help while laughing and telling me I made a bad shot. At this point I had to get away from them so I started making circles in the soybean field with my cousin when another fifty yards out we found a lot of blook and his tracks in the sandy field, from here on out it was a sprint through the beans folloing the tracks and knee high blood spraying out three feet on both sides of him to where he was dead. The shot entered his front shoulder and hit both lungs just missing the top of the heart.
This recovery was one of the biggest roller coaster rides I have ever been on hunting with no blood and to many teenagers messing with my head but in the end it worked out great. Looking back he only traveled 200 - 250 yards but prior to that I have never shot a deer that made it over 50 yards. The broadhead (2 blade Rage) performed perfectly going through the front shoulder and through two ribs it was just high enough that the blood didnt flow for the first 150 yards.
I threw in a couple of moose pictures, not the best but they didn't want to pose today.
It had been 45 min since the shot so we went back and looked for the arrow, I found it right where the buck had been standing but there was very little blood on the arrow. It had passed through but was almost dry and no blood at the location. We then moved fifty yards out where the deer had crossed the sand road to look for tracks after 20 minutes we found one deep track that had a pin head size drop of blood on it. We followed these small spots for 100 yards to where we lost them, at this point I was a mental mess between loosing the blood and two little kids trying to help while laughing and telling me I made a bad shot. At this point I had to get away from them so I started making circles in the soybean field with my cousin when another fifty yards out we found a lot of blook and his tracks in the sandy field, from here on out it was a sprint through the beans folloing the tracks and knee high blood spraying out three feet on both sides of him to where he was dead. The shot entered his front shoulder and hit both lungs just missing the top of the heart.
This recovery was one of the biggest roller coaster rides I have ever been on hunting with no blood and to many teenagers messing with my head but in the end it worked out great. Looking back he only traveled 200 - 250 yards but prior to that I have never shot a deer that made it over 50 yards. The broadhead (2 blade Rage) performed perfectly going through the front shoulder and through two ribs it was just high enough that the blood didnt flow for the first 150 yards.
I threw in a couple of moose pictures, not the best but they didn't want to pose today.
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