11/09/2025
What a story with this deer… Just after first light was able to take a great quartering away shot, buck ran about 40 yards before disappearing into some thick autumn olive. Gave the deer 3 hours post shot thinking it was a good lethal shot. Ending up bumping the deers first bed, backed out and gave another 4 hours. Roughly 7 hours post shot we tracked again, crawling on hands and knees following a blood trail through a maze of thick cover. Mind you this is prime bear and coyote country. Came out to a clearing and track some more where we bumped his second bed. Backing out again and giving this buck the night. The next day after a major rain storm, tracking drop by drop of blood, we began to feel hopeless of recovery. We slowly were able to find small tracks and more blood which lead to a successful recovery of this buck, almost 16 hours. Strong determination and confidence in the initial shot and key factors along the tracking path lead us the believe this deer was not far. After further analysis we found this deer was lung shot, with a slight heart laceration but he still traveled 500 yards until he expired. You can never underestimate these wild animals. It wasn’t easy but in the end our hunters ended up successful! Another buck down and meat in the freezer🇺🇸