C
Cutbow
Guest
So I hit the general rifle hunt pretty hard this year in Utah (I had mainly been hunting just archery the last few years). I hiked a lot of miles the first few days of the hunt and saw a lot of bucks but nothing that was worth packing that far out. I was planning on doing another long hike into the high country last Wednesday but ended up staying awake really late the night before and when the alarm went off I decided to hit snooze and get some extra sleep. My wife even asked why I wasn't getting out of bed to go hunting and I just told her I was too tired and wanted a little extra sleep that day. When I finally got up I decided to glass an area not too far from home where I always see deer but normally don't see bucks until mid November once the rut gets going. Surprisingly, I saw a mature buck with a group of does about 1000 yards up the mountain from me. I know its early but the buck was definitely rutting because he was pushing one doe around and not paying attention to much else. I worked my way up the mountain and ended up getting a shot from about 250 yards. I fired and immediately the buck ran down and across out of sight. I was pretty sure of the shot so I just sat and watched to see if he came back into view. After what felt like a long time but was probably only 10-15 minutes or so I walked up to the spot where the buck was when I shot to look for blood. I spent a long time combing the area and couldn't find any blood. I decided that if I missed the buck, he may have circled around and gone back to the does so I worked my way further up the mountain to find the group and see if he was with them but he wasn't there. I went back down and spent another good amount of time looking for blood around the spot where I shot and couldn't come up with anything. Finally, I hiked back down to my truck to get some water and think about what had just happened and to get a broader view of the area to see if I could spot anything. Still nothing....I had pretty much decided that I must have missed (and I was feeling sick thinking a blew it) but hiked back up to do another round of searching for blood. On my way back up, about 50 yards below where I shot, I noticed one small drop of blood on a small rock...I was lucky to see it because I wasn't really even looking yet because it wasn't where I was expecting to find blood. I found one more small drop about 10 feet up and another small drop about 10 feet down but I could see the line the buck was taking and started following it. Within about 50 yards I found him down. Not sure why, the shot was perfect, but there just wasn't much blood externally but his abdomen was full of blood...I'm just glad I kept looking. Like I said, sometimes it pays to sleep in I guess (and its better to be lucky than good).
Cutbow
Cutbow
