Or my" I hate it when" thread.
Saturday morning started great. Got up on time, to my parking spot, changed and in stand in plenty of time. Wind was perfect, overcast and cool, perfect for deer movement. Watched two fawns, still in spots feed with no sign of mama. Around 7:45 I look up from starting a text to Brad about it being a perfect morning for deer to move late, and here come two does. I am i a ground blind and they are walking right at me. The lead doe turns and heads right to the opening I am set up to shoot. I draw as she passes behind a tree and she stops right in the shooting lane and snaps her attention on me. I was splitting my vision from the following doe as I drew to make sure she didn't spook, and this doe now staring at me. I release before I really picked a spot, and the arrow is way low. I can't believe it (it is amazing how fast you can think in these situations), I practice this shot every day and if anything I am a bit high. She drops at the shot and I see the arrow hit right behind the front leg. It still looks a bit low, but could be a perfect heart shot. She spins and is gone. The second doe bolts, hangs around for a bit then blows and follows doe number one. I sit and shiver for awhile, combo of nerves and increased heart rate moving cold pooled blood around.
After a about 15 minutes I get up a quietly sneak out to where she was. NO hair or blood at the site, and I can not find the arrow. I shoot a stumping arrow and there is no arrow anywhere along the track of its flight. I slowly start to look and find some good blood.
(http://www.hunt101.com/data/500/medium/IMG_00949.JPG)
A bit later I find the arrow
(http://www.hunt101.com/data/500/medium/IMG_009515.JPG)
The blood trail is steady, but not prolific after this. A buddy calls and I leave to go meet him and bring him in to help. By the time we get back on it it has been almost two hours since the shot. We follow the trail and jump both deer. We back out to leave her for another couple hours. The blood has been steady, but no bubbles and certainly not a heart shot so I am thinking I just punched between the skin and sternum. However I plan on coming back around 2 to make sure.
We load up in my truck, and I am a bit scattered, and want to get my buddy back to his truck so he can get home and finish his chores. As we drive out I call Brad to update him, using the truck bluetooth. About twelve miles into the trip and my buddy has turned off to head to his house I notice the para-cord I hang my bow from has no bow. I pull over and check the back of the truck, no bow. I realize I must have left it on my cap. Not good. I get back in to call my buddy, and the bluetooth registers no phone. What the ...? I look everywhere. NO phone. When my buddy go out of the truck he grabbed his sweatshirt and other stuff. I thought maybe he grabbed my hone and he was close enough to me as we drove for the bluetooth to have worked. I scoot to his house no luck. He climbs in and we back track. We find the phone along RTE 90. I will tell you and Otterbox Defender case is not enough to save a phone that comes off a truck cap going 60.
(http://www.hunt101.com/data/500/medium/011251.JPG)
Next we head back to where I park and slowly drive around the neighborhood a couple of times. We finally spot it about a mile away, after a couple of sharp corners and pulling into a parking lot, dropping my buddy off and heading back out. It is in better shape than the phone, but will probably get a trip back to the Dan Tolke to have the limbs checked.
(http://www.hunt101.com/data/500/medium/010319.JPG)
(http://www.hunt101.com/data/500/medium/009364.JPG)
So here is my advise. Check and double check, and NEVER put anything on the roof of your vehicle while you adjust gear, or change clothes.
You find the deer?
Sorry bout that, that sucks for sure
Rough day man, I've been there. It happens, keep your head up and get back in the woods.
I have done that with my phone and a quiver, and a deer!
QuoteOriginally posted by Chad Orde:
I have done that with my phone and a quiver, and a deer!
You forgot a deer on the roof of your truck? How did you even get it up there? :biglaugh:
Mike-I did the same thing back in the late 80's or early 90's with a Widow. Put on truck cap and took off. When I came back I found it where I made my first turn. Landed in the grass/not a scratch on it. Sorry about your loss.
How's those wool pants working out?
Good luck-Hap
I have had more than a few days that started well go completely south after a less than positive occurrence. I feel for yah man! Just have to let it go and carry on.
What a day :/
I've lost more than one phone in the woods too
Dang!!!! That is a rough morning!
Very rough indeed! :scared:
Things will get better after a tough start like that.
Oh man that's not a good day at all..it'll turn around. It always does. Those days happen to all of us at some point I guess.
Been there with the phone and I hardly ever take one with me :banghead: .....lol. Hope the bow can be saved....any luck going back for the deer ?? :dunno:
Well, you are due for a change in luck for sure. With your current situation, any change is likely to be for the better.
That sucks!
I did that once with a surf board. Learned that lesson over thirty years ago and never made that mistake again.
Sorry about your loss, but I love the honesty of your story...!
Hell of a story.
Keep your chin up and carry on!
Good luck
Thanks all. I have tried to keep a good sense of humor about it.I didn't add that it rained for the first time in a while. Raindrops started falling as soon as I started the search. Called two blood hound trackers, both were out of town. I am sure the deer is fine.
Sounds like a leg hit. And by the looks of the blood. She will be fine. Good luck with the phone and bow.
I had a rifle come off of a Suburban at around 50mph once. The only way I've lost phones was by having them fall out of vest pockets while water trapping.
Sorry to hear that....
In my opinion, you are right to try to have some sense of humor about it... there's not much else you can do at this point aside from learn from it.
I lost a phone that way, and a wallet one time...
Now I check and double check!
I hope you get some good luck headed your way!
I could stand a low hit on a deer and the loss of a phone but never could I get over the loss of a Toelke. Best of luck.
That's a rough day. Sorry buddy.
I did that once with a Citori--lucked out and realized it before someone came along and picked it up. A few scratches but otherwise OK. I also drove over my Thunderchild a few years ago after I left it leaning against the truck. Also a few dings but OK.
What I am reminded of every year is that it takes some time to get a groove going, with hunting season or anything else. Early in the season is when you and I are most likely to forget something, or screw something up. You'll redeem this, no worries!
Man, that all sucks. Yeah, I really try my best to never put things on top of my truck canopy, years ago I learned the hard way. It's a good reminder.
Glad you got the bow back.
Sorry to hear about your bad luck!
I am prone to such things happening to me, and I can get distracted pretty easily. I decided long ago that if I can help it, I will never set something in a place where I couldn't handle forgetting it. If I set something down, I set it where it won't get dumped, run over, or fly off. I know a girl who set her expensive violin down behind her car while loading it up, forgot it, and ran over it.
Here's another great example... someone (and his family) once came to stay in my house for a couple weeks while in the process of moving, and forgot his loaded .38 special. 3 weeks after they moved out, my 7-year-old found it.
I know these aren't the positive thread anyone likes, but it is semi comforting to know that others botch shots LIKE I DID on opening day.
I got a chuckle at this thread...not laughing AT you but laughing WITH you because we all do really stupid stuff at one time or another, and it's great to share it with others to let them know that you, LIKE THE REST OF US, are human!
Thanks for sharing!
Let us know how that Toelke survived!
Been there..
A cordless phone.
A nice pair of binoculars.
A pad lock.
:knothead:
It was lightly raining and we met at the truck. I was a kid... that's my excuse. Cousin Jim said "why don't we lay our shooting tools" under the truck in the grass to keep them dry. Dad agreed. We sat in the truck for 30 minutes drinking hot chocolate and coffee and then decided to go down the road and hunt another spot. We got out and realized our shotguns were down the road at the first stop...yep, each stock broken in half. So the rule is probably Never put anything on, under or against your vehicle. Never ends well.
On a side note, a buddy bought his wheelie bow killed doe over to hang in my cooling device for a coupe of days. before we finished I took the arrow and pushed it through the skin right below the heart. It produced the same thin smear of tallow on the first couple of inches of arrow that I found after the hit. It also produced a 2 to 3 inch gap in the entrance and exit wounds that would match teh dual blood pool.
Mike, OUCH!!Don't think that will ever happen again to you.
Sorry to hear that...I could see myself doing this on occasion and especially with the excitement of a shot.
One thing I started years ago is always going to my truck and putting my bow in the back seat before I do anything else. Anything. Not sure it helps, but hoping this muscle memory will help during excited situations.
And don't ever forget the only real problems are the ones money cannot fix.