THE NOT SO STORY BOOK ENDING

[Show_Me_Your_Rack]

OK well first off this was my first rifle deer hunt. I love to bow and hunt black powder but since i got off my lds mission on october 8th of this year i didnt really have that option.I hunted hard and was holding out for a 170+ buck. the day before the opener me and my buddie and his wife back-packed into an area we had seen some good bucks in the past and one the weekend before the hunt





Opening morning i saw some good bucks that i tried to make a move on but it never worked out. I was not to worried because i had the rest of the hunt.

Once monday came around i headed off to a new area where i spent the rest of my hunt i was seeing arund 75-100 deer a day with only 2-6 of them being bucks and little dinks at that. My dad was with me from monday to the end of the hunt which was good to spend a lot of time with him.
On wednesday evening i was back in some country with my dad and cousin and we had about 1/2 hour left of light and my dad headed back down to the truck and me and my cousin headed down the side of a huge wash hoping to jump out a buck from the trees!!! about 10 minutes into our hike that did happen! At about 80 yards the buck started booking it up the hill in front of us and i had a good look at him through my binos and saw he had decent width and highth and good mass. so i sat on my butt and found the deer in my scope about 100 yards away and i pulled the trigger and to my supprise the gun didnt go off so i took the safety off and did the same thing still nothing happened. Believe it or not if there is not bullet in the chamber your gun will not shoot!! so in no time i jacked a shell in and as the deer topped the ridge i found him in my scope at about 125 yards and with the deer running quartering away to my left i held the cross hairs at the base of his neck and pulled the trigger and all i saw was ha huge flame out of my 7MM-08s barrel. And i didnt see the buck so with light fading i started up the hill to see if i could see anything.As i got to where i last seen the deer there he was on his back with hir right front leg twithching a little. so i yelled to my cousin i got it!! I then pulled out my camera and started to take pictures. Now this is where my story turns bad. as i took a picture the camera flashed 3 times so it wouldnt have any red eyes as it did that the deer leaned forward just in time to get a almost perfect mug shot!!




then in no time the deer got up and started to book it down the hill with my gun on 9 power i couldnt find it right off and the deer ran out of view!! with the light fading we hurried and got on its blood trail and started to follow with the flashlights after about 115 yards I decided that i didnt want to bump the deer at all and get on him first thing on thursday. With the sun coming over the hills on thursday morning found me and my dad hot on the deers tracks!!! the deer had good blood for the 1st 200 yards but then the blood started to slow down but his tracks were pretty easy to follow in the dirt with a drop of blood every 20-50 yards i started to loose hope but kept at it!!! my dad and i lost tracks at around 8-900 yards and we started to glass the hill sides and the washes for the most part he stayed in the bottom!!! while glassing i spotted a skull and for a 3 point he is pretty good





But anyways back to the deer i hit i would be on its tracks then it would go into some rocks and i would loose its tracks theni would luck into them then i would loose them. For all of you that have hit a deer and things were not looking up in finding it i am sure you had a simular feeling that i did and i dont wish that upon anyone. Around 3:00pm we went to the truck to get a bite to eat and i pulled out a good old muley crazy magazine the july/august 2009 and i gained a little hope after reading the story by Jeremy Houston "The Road To RECOVERY" I stuck to it and pounded the hills around where i last was on its tracks and over the next 2 days i found a few more blood drops and from where i hit the deer it made it well over 1 1/2 miles!!! In the end i didnt find my deer and i didnt shoot another. I pounded the hills as hard as i could in search of my buck i know its not a story book ending but I hope and pray that my deer is still out there alive and well!!! Over the next few weeks and months i will be out there searching and watching for crows and keeping my nose open!!! But thats my story now i am sure i am going to get some wonderful feedback from you all and i am ready for it!!!

[Springville Shooter]

Wow, that's too bad, what a nice buck. I too hope that he made a recovery, but with the blood I see in your picutre, I doubt that there's much chance of that. I witnessed a similar incident on a whitetail hunt in Idaho where a friend of mine dropped a nice buck in his tracks. We sat down and watched the buck laying lifeless on the next ridge for a long time and even took a few pics like you did. When we went down into the canyon we lost sight of the buck for a few moments and when we peaked the ridge, the buck was up and haulin' for the top of the ridgeline like he was not even hurt. My friend started taking low percentage running shots and got a lucky hit at about 250yds right as the buck crested the ridge. The first shot hit the buck high and nicked the bottom of one vertabrae stunning the buck I guess but not doing any mortal damage. I learned a great lesson and I am very comitted to making sure that animals are down for the count. I think that it's great that you were and are so comitted to finding this animal and I don't think that you screwed up. Be sure to check game regulations before attemptiong to retrieve this animal after the season, and shake it off, countless animals are lost by hunters every year, it's a part of our sport that no of us like, but it happens regardless.-----shooter

[DeadI]

Bummer deal for sure. Funny thing is alot of guys say " I hit a big one " but don't have the pictures to back up the "big" part. I bet though that the next time you walk up to a downed animal you won't be grabbing for cameras first thing.

[Springville Shooter]

I don't know all the regulations as I'm new to Utah, I do know that there are some regulations and seasons regarding picking up sheds, I don't know about skulls. I'd look into it though, not worth an embarassing, expensive, experience IMO. I wonder if he was shooting Ballistic tips? That could be the problem. HEE HEE just joking!-----shooter

[GUTPYLZ]

A couple things to learn from this thread. I just feel as a hunter, you should always respect your game enough to give it a quick kill. It's happened to me a time or two where they are alive when I come up to them. Just end it quick. Plenty of time afterward for photo's. I personally NEVER enjoyed a picture when an animal is wounded and alive. I am sorry about what happened and I do hope you can recover him. I'm pretty sure he is done.

[MuleyMadness]

WOW!! First off WELCOME HOME.

That is one of the most bizarre stories of the year FOR SURE. Not because of the story, but the PHOTO is crazy. Good luck topping this hunting story.

Obviously lesson learned for sure. As for the buck being dead/alive. My first thoughts were he wouldn't make it from the amount of blood at the scene also. However I think it's purely speculation for sure. But I tend to think you grazed his vertebrae somewhere and obviously stunned him and 'knocked' him out of if you will.

Jeremy's story is certainly a good one and glad you search for him long/hard. I tend to think he might be okay and possibly made it out okay, but just my guess??

To bad you couldn't find him, I know the feeling as many do and it STINKS.

[Springville Shooter]

Show me-

I just wanted to thank you for being brave enough to post this even though you knew you might get some flack. I have thought about your story all day, and I think alot of folks stand to learn from what happened to you. In the heat of the moment it's easy to lose track of what we are doing and it could happen to any of us. I know that thanks to you, dozens of MM readers will be a little slower to start celebration ensuring that the animal has been cleanly and completely dispatched. I hope that your luck improves next year and we can see some nice pics with you and a dead buck. I too would like to welcome you home and congratulate you on your two years of service.----shooter

[Bowtech43]

First off, thanks for serving a mission!!! Good on ya. Secondly, welcome back to hunting. What a crazy story and yes you have kajones for putting it on here. Gotta make sure he's dead my friend. IMO there is no way that animal will survive the winter if he isn't dead already. Put in your due diligence and go back out as much as you can to find him. And kudos for not taking anymore animals. But you'll learn from that one. Anyone that claims they have never made a bad decision once or twice while hunting is lying. That is how we learn, now, don't do it again. It's too bad you lost him, he looked like a dandy!

Good luck finding him...

Brandon

[BIGANTLERGETTER]

congrats on gettin home and thanks for supporting the United States. i to have been in the same situation this archery season with a buck. i know how you feel and it does suck but all you can do is keep searching i found my buck 5 days after i shot him and all that was left was the head and hide due to coyotes and bears. but keep after it...it is hard to think that you are leaving a wounded animal in the forest. but good thing you kept after it when i found mine the crows were the biggest thing that took me right to it and i had the same thing with the blood. my buck was about a mile from where i shot him over ontop of a ridge with water in the bottom. iv been told that he wil prolly go to water so good luck on finding him hope you get him.

[Show_Me_Your_Rack]

Hey thanks so much for the wonderful feed back!!! 1st off in utah you can not pick up skulls i argued this law in the past and it HAS changed. In the past if you found a skull tough luck you had to leave it there. The new law however is if you find a skull you have to have a fish cop come with you to where it is and he will investigate the situation and if he cant find any prove that it was taken illegally then its yours to keep. And i have found a few skulls in the same area so one of these days i am going to have a fish cop come with me to retrieve them. Yes i was using ballistic tips and they do do a good number on what you shoot. I went out this past weekend and i continued my search and still no luck i did find 2 other deer that no one retrieved and it was by watching the birds!!! i am going to stick with it though and hope i find him or see him on the hoof!!!