The Fishman
5 year old buck +
Saturday night I killed my first buck. I had been hunting a stand and a doe came out and busted me. After sitting in the stand for another 30 minutes I left. I went and sat down at the base of a tree near a feeder. A yearling walked out and I watched her for 10 minutes. I had no intention of shooting her. Since I was just sitting on the ground 50 yards away with no cover, I tried practicing bringing my gun up slowly and sighting the doe. She got nervous from the slight movement, but stuck around. It was about 15 minutes after sunset and getting dark when a larger doe walked up that I decided to shoot. When I cocked the hammer back on my 30-30, the yearling and doe became agitated. As I was waiting for the doe to stop moving, I caught a buck come up out of the corner of my eye. I immediately moved the rifle to his position and fired what I thought was a good shot. He took off running funny so I knew I hit him. I waited and listened a few minutes and then went to the house to get a flashlight. I found blood and started tracking. I heard movement and backed out and came back an hour later. I tracked the deer through thick woods over to my neighbor's field and then lost the blood trail. I called the neighbor to get his advice on what to do. He came out and we found the deer about 60 yards into the field. He was still alive, but wasn't getting up. We put him out of his misery. Once I started examining him, I realized my shot was low and right of where I was aiming. I took out both of his front legs and the buck had somehow made it 200 yards without the use of his front legs. I felt terrible. What should have been an exciting moment in killing a 9-pointer was overshadowed by my regret of rushing a shot, injuring the deer, and not making a lethal shot. I made the mistake of getting excited and not calming myself before pulling the trigger. I will remember this in future hunts and let the deer walk if the shooting conditions are not ideal and I am not calm. The only bright side is that I am pretty sure this buck destroyed a cage and mauled a chestnut tree nearby and we now have plenty of sausage.