My Failed Hunt 11-22-2022

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Bryan Austin
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My Failed Hunt 11-22-2022

Post by Bryan Austin »

Full Tracking Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIbvmDDItb4

Well I blundered. Just as I pulled the trigger, the buck took a step. Gut/liver shot! I didn't know what all had played out until I reviewed the video.

Winchester 73',

44-40

200gr cast 43-214A, Reloder 7 @ 1,350fps

11-22-2022, 2:04pm

Tuesday at 2:04pm.
Unfortunately I think I made a gut/liver shot. He took a step just as I pulled the trigger and I didn't realize why it was such a sorry shot until I viewed the video. He scooted/walked off the "cliff" (steep slope) and scooted down to a felled tree below. I waited quite a while but I jumped him by accident and he ran another 30 yards into a thicket. I thought I could hear him cross the creek. I backed out and waited till 4:45 to continue the track. I lost the blood trail in the thicket where I last saw him. I didn't, or couldn't find blood crossing the trail or the creek. I did another quick pass in the thicket but found nothing then it got dark. I am afraid the coyotes will finish him off tonight. I am shocked and embarrassed!

However, my plan did come together, my homework for a mountain buck hunt panned out but he was following his nose into the wind and came up from my back left. He was following the pine bench, walking the contour. It was a steady walk and about 10 feet from where I crossed to walk in. I was afraid he would smell my scent (could be why he stopped where he did) so I took the shot early.

Literally about a 25 yard shot. The scope is zeroed in for 265 yards so a 25 yard POA would hit 5 inches high. If I can see correcting during a slow motion video, hit looked center mass but aft of where I wanted it.


11-23-2022, Daybreak

I followed up on the blood trail and followed it to less than 1 foot from the road. I did not find any blood on or across the road nor near the creek. I did find tracks that crossed the creek and leaf disturbance that moved out across the mouth of another drain and up a steep slope. While in the creek searching, a deer blew at me for sever minutes from the area of the trail. Once I got a good ways up the steep slope, I lost all trails and called it a defeat.

I created a very long detailed tracking video but it did not turn out good at all. I made the videos to help me track but when I spliced them all together, the frame stutter is miserable.



Full Shot Video
https://vimeo.com/774446430


Shot Placement Short Clip
https://vimeo.com/774446408


Search Pattern photo, Failed Recovery...no tracking dogs available. I am getting too old for this mountain terrain hunting!
searcharea2.png
searcharea.png
44-40 Website Version
https://sites.google.com/view/44winches ... /2022-hunt
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Last edited by Bryan Austin on Thu Nov 24, 2022 9:48 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Tycer
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Re: My Failed Hunt 11-22-2022

Post by Tycer »

Sorry man. Sounds like you are on the road to sorting out what happened. Deer sometimes move. I’m in the habit of making a fawn bleat with my mouth just before pressing the trigger. They always freeze in a stare. Once had one bite an itch just behind the shoulder as I pressed the trigger. Big soft 45-70 mushroomed in the head as it passed through and it made a terrible mess of both shoulders and the neck.
Kind regards,
Tycer
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Bill in Oregon
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Re: My Failed Hunt 11-22-2022

Post by Bill in Oregon »

Brian, you did your best and tried hard to recover him. Don't beat yourself up. NOTHING truly goes to waste.
I am still haunted by a hunt 25 or more years ago with my Dad near Union Creek, Oregon -- think just west of Crater Lake in Doug fir/Red fir/hemlock country, Cascade mountains about 6,000 feet.
The weather was cloudy and drizzly. We decided to work down a steep draw littered with brush and logging slash. Dad was on the more open south side, and I was on the north. He had his trusty old Springfield with Weaver K3 and I was running a Winchester 94, short barrel in .44 Magnum with aperture sights and hot handloads. We had worked along for maybe an hour when Dad yelled "buck" and a nice 3-point blacktail (that's six points east of the Rio Grande) jumped up about 50 yards ahead of me. I pulled up and put the sights on his shoulder and bang! down he went literally like the proverbial sack of potatoes sliding to a stop at a downed log. It had happened so fast, that as I tried to collect my thoughts, I absent-mindedly reached down to fish the empty case out of the low brush next to me. Imagine my astonishment when Dad shouted "He's up!"
In what seemed like two seconds that buck had made his way into a thicket of second- or third-growth Doug fir maybe 15 feet high and vanished. We huddled to come up with some sort of plan and waited a bit, but the drizzle was turning to rain. Dad went low where he could see ahead a little and I tried to track the buck directly. I did find a couple of drops of blood maybe 25 yards into the new growth, then another drop on dried grass further along, and then the rain really started to pour. We criss-crossed back and forth over the most likely track, but the mud became treacherous and we gave up and slogged back to the "rig" -- a late 1960s Toyota 2-wheel drive Diesel that Dad was crazy about.
I think back over that day often, and hope that maybe I hit the buck in neck muscle under the spine that put his lights out temporarily and he somehow managed to survive. But if not, a cougar, a black bear, coyotes or a combination might have found him. I'm still sorry. Vowed to do better.
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Bryan Austin
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Re: My Failed Hunt 11-22-2022

Post by Bryan Austin »

Thanks fellas!
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Grizz
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Re: My Failed Hunt 11-22-2022

Post by Grizz »

that was a world class recovery effort! Kudos. i think they may crawl down into a hole or under a log when they are hurt-dying. it's easy to miss them.
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Sixgun
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Re: My Failed Hunt 11-22-2022

Post by Sixgun »

Bryan......those things happen...you did your morally best but I may be comprehending the story wrong....

You say you shot at 2 but waited until 4:45 or near dark before tracking? 15-30 minutes would have sufficed.

You say your scope was sighted for 265 yards...on a 44-40? (That one confuses me...nothing personal :D )

Maybe I'm reading that wrong....it's been a long day for me out in the wood pile.

A liver shot will most always drop a deer on the spot so you must have gut shot it....did you happen to notice the color of the blood? A gut shot deer will usually show green mush mixed with the red.....lung shot will be more pinkish....

You could have just nipped it...hopefully......the next day, after the shot, look for buzzards circling....it'll give you a possible idea of where it may have ended up........wounded deer will run down hill and will hang around water after the heat is off.....

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piller
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Re: My Failed Hunt 11-22-2022

Post by piller »

It happens. The fact that you tried so hard after is what is important.
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gamekeeper
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Re: My Failed Hunt 11-22-2022

Post by gamekeeper »

piller wrote: Thu Nov 24, 2022 2:02 am It happens. The fact that you tried so hard after is what is important.
+1
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RIHMFIRE
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Re: My Failed Hunt 11-22-2022

Post by RIHMFIRE »

A similar thing happened to me about 6 years ago on a real fogy morning.
Dropped him and while I was reloading, he got up and ran away. Spent the rest of the day looking for him.
I think a hit him high above the vitals and the shock wave to the spine, dropped him.
Two weeks later he snuck up behind me and down wind.
I think he ran to the next county!

You made a great effort to find him....and that means a lot...
LETS GO SHOOT'N BOYS
.45colt
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Re: My Failed Hunt 11-22-2022

Post by .45colt »

You didn't Fail...... We cannot foresee every exact thing that is going to unfold during a hunt. We can do our best to be responsible and ethical while hunting but
things don't always go as planned. behind My house is more than 800 acres of woods that is mostly second growth that has been logged in the last 20 years. tree tops, briars and stumps. weather hunting with a firearm or archery if You don't drop the Deer on the spot, without snow on the ground there may be along day ahead of You. A whitetail can run 1/2 mile in the blink of an eye. One snowy opening day of gun season I shot at a Buck that took off like a rabbit , it made it quite a ways despite the 12 ga slug that whistled thru his lungs. I was speechless.
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wvfarrier
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Re: My Failed Hunt 11-22-2022

Post by wvfarrier »

Hire a tracking dog. Gut shot deer can live quite a long time.
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Bryan Austin
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Re: My Failed Hunt 11-22-2022

Post by Bryan Austin »

wvfarrier wrote: Thu Nov 24, 2022 9:31 am Hire a tracking dog. Gut shot deer can live quite a long time.
Interesting you mention that...

I called and the guy (Terry) was hunting and didn't want to do it..., no other trackers available. He lived two counties over, the closest one. By noon the next day the temps were too high to recover any meat. I would still like to find him. The coyotes will eventually find him. There are three here in this 400 acre private land that hasn't been hunted in 35 years.
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