@Meatball Well I got up at 5 to get in early for shotgun season with my dad. Our friends have about 23 acres so we went there. I took the south he took the north. I was in a tree stand when this beautiful big buck walks right up to me only about 30yds away. I shot him (unfortunately just off the side of the gut so it was gross to field dress?) and he trotted off about 40yds and stopped so I couldn't decide if I really had hit or not. Then all of the sudden he takes off and I lose him. Never saw him to after bout 10min I got down and went to the spot where I last saw him. Apparently he wasn't too far away cuz I look over and see this buck running the other way but I didn't shoot cuz I only had one tag and couldn't decide if that was the one I had shot. I lost him again so I went back to my stand. I went to the spot where I shot him and found a pile of fur so I started lookin for blood. Took me an hour to track him but I eventually found him about 200yds away from my stand. When I found him he wasn't quite dead and I didn't want to shoot him again bcuz that ruins more meat. So for 15 minutes I watched him die before I got too close. Just in case. When he finally died I called my dad to help me take up to the shed because there's no way I could drag him by myself. Sure enough 10 minutes later he pulls up with the four-wheeler and a trailer with a deer of his own. It was super fun!
@grace that's awesome! It's hard to track a gut shot! And that's your first?! On a 23 acre plot, to top it off?!? I bet there are gonna be man tears when the folks nearby stop seeing that beauty on their trail cams! "Where did he go??!!" 😂😂😂
I know grown men that have given up on gut shots, even lung shots because the trail wasn't what they were expecting. I'd find the corpse a day or two later, torn apart by coyotes and buzzards, or sometimes intact
