Congrats on the kill.  You can use this as a learning experience.

If you gut shoot a deer it will almost always take them more than 5 hours to die. They usually will lay down within a 100 yards and die in their bed if unpushed.  Even though the  blood will be scant you can usually find the deer by following the trail or doing a grid search. I would imagine when you found the spot of blood, the deer had stopped, he probably would have or wanted to lay down at that location.

If it is jumped from its bed the difficulty level in finding it goes up incredibly.

Good luck and again Congradulations on your deer.

Excellent stuff.

Epictetus, the Roman Stoic philosopher tells us, "We must ever bear in mind – that apart from the will there is nothing good or bad, and that we must not try to anticipate or to direct events, but merely to accept them with intelligence."

Congrats!  

Bless your heart, Bud - you just made the start of my season with this well written story, because I haven't even made it into the woods yet (except along the edge of my home range -  LOL), due to numerous reasons not worthy of discussion. Great job on the shot and the story - as well as the honest feelings that most all of us have felt at one time or another. May the good part repeat itself for you many times over, my friend.

Thanks Bernie, and all.


Bernie, if anything gets in your eye's sights it'll be down. The photos of your hits on your targets look real good. I hope you see one and get to draw on it.

Congratulations!

Hope you're right, Bud, and thanks.

Well, I finally made jerky out of the ol' girl. The Super Grizzly I used is in the background. Making the jerky brought back all the memories from two years ago. When I thawed the vacuum sealed meat it was like it was packed yesterday. Hopefully I'll be visit the same processor soon.

Here's to a successful season for all in 2013.

Way to go Bud..

Really nice story !

Looks good Bud!  Congrats on the earlier doe also.  Missed your story somehow.  Good luck this fall!