Gonna be a sleepless night.

I sat 4 hrs this afternoon and 10 minutes before shooting time ended, the big dark horned 8pt I've been looking for came in on a mission. I literally had seconds to stop him as he walked right through my first shooting lane. I managed to stop him in another lane and let the arrow fly. I have no idea what happened but the arrow hit low behind the shoulder and came out his brisket. I did have some clean bright blood about 20yds from the hit so s buddy came to help me track. We had good blood, then spotty, then good blood etc. He crossed the nearby rd and headed for a horse farm so we decided to call it quits and ho back in the am. Im not gonna be able to sleep tonight thinking this guy is out there suffering.

 

You did the right thing backing out. Let him settle and find him in the morning.

 

After replaying the shot over and over in my head last night, i remember he was just slightly quartering away. The arrow may have hit his far front shoulder on exit and came out the bottom. I saw the arrow enter a little low like i said but it looked to have exited almost straight down. My uncle is coming by in a bit and we're going back to track. Keeping my fingers crossed.

 

Go slow don't rush the tracking he is there. Good luck and pictures after you find him.

 

Go slow and good luck! Backing out hopefully gave him time to pass without being pushed.

 

Good Luck with the recovery

 

Best of luck! It's a terrible feeling to have to leave him overnight, but you did the right thing. I hope we get to see pic's of him soon!!

 

No luck . The piece that he ran into is only 150yds wide and runs between a road and horse farm. He headed towards the horse fence then hooked a right and headed towards houses. The blood basically stopped where we left off last night. This morning after searching for more blood for about an hr we decided to walk the narrow piece of woods towards the houses. I checked every trail and thicket he may have ran into but nothing. Hopefully the wound clotted up and no organs were hit and he'll live to see another day. My stomach is in knots. I've lost a doe or two before but never a buck like this. This was him back on the 21st

 

Sorry man. I was hoping to see those horns for real! Don't beat yourself up too much, it happens.

 

It happens to all of us at some point. All you can do is give it your best and it sounds like you did. Don't let it get in your head it's over move on.

 

Thanks guys, yea i know it happens all the time. I just keep thinking what I could've done differently. As long as i don't see buzzards in that area the next few days I'll have hope he's still alive.

 

Take a dog back there and see what it can sniff out.

 

I would but it's a skinny piece of woods that runs up behind million dollar homes. And it's partially owned by the horse farm. Me and the farm owner have some not so good history.

After talking with another friend, he thinks i may have hit a rib down low which caused the arrow to ricochet. Hopefully I'll see him on camera in the future