Thoughts?
Shot at this deer 2 seasons ago and missed clean as he was chasing a doe. He went completely underground, had only 2 trail camera pics of him all last year about 1,000 yds from where I missed him in 2017. He showed up this year in the same place as last year around the beginning of November. He has been somewhat regular in this one draw( as regular as you could ask a 5+ yo South Carolina buck to be). Only issue with the spot is It needs a southwest wind but it seems to always swirl. I've hunted in that area 4-5 times with no luck.
Went into this draw day before thanksgiving in the morning with honest intentions of shooting a doe. Much to my surprise he rolls in behind a doe. He wasn't really pushing just more less slow walking behind her grunting with every step it seemed. As the doe was getting into one of my openings, I was watching bits and pieces of him walking through the timber in my scope when all of the sudden he froze. As I pulled up off the scope to look with my naked eye I could see the doe with her head up in the air and I know what's about to happen. I get back down on the gun and the buck is sitting there stomping. I could see the front half of the deer and he was perfectly broadside but my window was pretty tight. I made the rush now or never decision and fired one off. Both deer bolted away from me to my right across a ditch up a small hill into some thick stuff. I waited for a crash but instead about 30-45 seconds after my shot I could hear a deer grunting from the exact direction my buck ran. Then all the sudden the doe my buck was with ran up the hill away from me to the left and the grunting deer that I could hear in that direction was right behind her still grunting.
My first assumption was that there was another buck over there and I just never saw him. When I got down I couldn't find any blood where he was standing. I first found blood across the ditch approximately 20yds from where he was standing. I found 8-10 drops about the size of my thumbnail that stretched about 30ft then nothing. Looked around for a while with no luck. Left and went into town for lunch then met a buddy of mine back over there with his dog. Dog got on the blood but turned left up the hill in the direction the doe and 2nd(or what I thought was the second) grunting buck went. To my surprise the dog found 3-4 more specks of blood in that direction. When I say specks I mean like the size of a pen head. Each additional speck the dog found would be 50-75 yds apart. The dog eventually lost interest and it began to rain.
Frustrated all I could do keep an eye on the camera. Dumped out 200lbs of corn and made sure the camera had fresh batteries. I was due to leave for Disney the day after thanksgiving so I knew I wouldn't get back down there to search for him until today. Went down this morning and pulled that card hoping he would be on there but he wasn't. I put a few more cameras up on trails and roadbeds in what I feel to be his main area and did a grid search of that block of timber before I left today. I'm hoping he shows back up. I can't stand losing any deer, much less a good buck.
My question now is what are yalls thoughts? Deer still alive or dead? My gut says he's alive because he was still tending the doe and grunting as he followed her up the hill after my shot and I just feel like any buck that is mortally wounded ain't gonna behave that way. However, him not showing back up on camera has me worried. Sure he may have said eff it and left the property but his behavior after the shot just doesn't seem like he was all that worried about it....what should I do next?
"They are who we thought they were"
You can dress a fat chick up, but you cant fix stupid
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