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The Fat Blob Incident
Includes 20 Full Length Feature Articles plus Bonus Bits and Short Jokes
Available Free ONLY to Team Sarcasm Members
See my hunt area on Google Earth starting from my camp at: 42° 11.620'N 114° 11.643'W
Deer Hunt 08: Big Buck Day (page 2)
Mind Games
Stepping back, I paused for a moment, trying to think clearly. I was so excited at seeing such a nice buck, but frantic at the thought of missing such a close shot. Of course, it was a fast shot, maybe too fast?
The important thing now, of course, was to track back and scout for blood. I started my search not at all knowing what to expect. After several attempts criss-crossing the hillside, I had come up with nothing. I was about to give up. With little snow and heavy sagebrush, even finding a decent track was proving to be difficult. If I hadn't hit him, then all I was doing was adding to the time he would have to get clean away without me having the slightest chance of seeing him again.
No, wait, I thought. Remember the partridge. You have to look harder and farther, I told myself.
I headed back down to where I had taken my shot and took another look at the situation. From there, I noted where I had seen the two bucks come across behind the line of aspens and where the buck had been when I shot. I then tracked the bucks from a point further back next to the trees where there was more snow. This was a good, easy trail here, but for whatever reason, out near where I had taken my shot, the tracks simply vanished.
Confronted with no evidence of a hit, I was beginning to believe I had somehow missed the buck altogether. Perhaps I should just head down into the First Fork Canyon and start looking for the buck again?
OK, I thought to myself, I'll take one more loop around the far side of the ridge, well past where I had taken my shot and see if I could find anything there. If not, I'd move out.
As I walked over the top of the ridge line and a good 30 yards down the opposite side, though, everything changed.
I found blood. Somehow the buck had traveled at least 40 yards from where he had been hit without starting to bleed. I was excited once again, but skeptical at how good the hit had been.
Immediately, new questions sprung up in my mind. There was what looked to be a good amount of blood, and evidence to support that it was a solid lung hit, but then I remembered a time I had thought that before.
Two years previous, my son had made what he claimed to be a solid chest hit on a good sized buck. It was bright red blood and there was plenty of it. However, as it turned out, the only thing that had been hit on the deer was his back foot. It took hours to track that buck over a mile before catching up with him.
At this point, I decided simply to wait. Without knowing exactly how well I had hit the buck, I figured the smartest thing to do would be to allow time to pass. If he was only wounded and not down, I needed to give him time.
So, to occupy my mind, I took pictures. I went back to my truck and grabbed my backpack so I'd be prepared to field dress the buck should I find him and have what I needed to get him hauled down to the closest 4-wheeler trail.
One hour later, one long, arduous wait later, I decided it was time to pick up on the blood trail and see what I could find.
It was then I was in for quite a surprise. I had sat on the ridge top peering down into the canyon for what seemed like forever. I had examined every piece of cover, looking for any sign of my deer. I hadn't seen a thing other than the line of tracks and blood drops I was now following.
As it turned out, I had no cause for worry whatsoever. No more than 75 yards from where I had sat anxiously waiting, I found my trophy.
He was piled up inside some dense brush, downed mere moments after the shot, a clean hit through the chest cavity that had obliterated both lungs.
I suppose I could have spent a good amount of time feeling like an idiot considering all that had gone through my mind in the past hour, but there was just too much else on my mind as I heaved the big buck up out of the brush and began examining his sizeable rack.
Joe Humor
Don't forget to check out the photo set for full size pictures of the area and my buck!
