It can always go wrong . . . . .

[Woodsmoke]

I was out Friday afternoon, and had taken a perfect heart shot at a doe in a group of three just as the light was starting to fade. Range was around around 230 yards from prone, and the doe was one of a group of three browsing next to a ditch, the other side of which was some really dense cover. Absolutely classic reaction to the shot, and once I had my sight picture back I watched 'my' deer disappear into the ditch. I marked the spot and walked onto it without taking my eyes off my marker. I then spent about an hour looking for her in the light of a headtorch. An hour! An hour spent in the most miserable f*cking sh*thole tricky part of the countryside, full of broom so thick you couldn't put one foot in front of the other, full of brambles that snagged and tore at you every other second, and full of dead dry gorse that filled your arse-crack with spite and venom without you being able to do a damn thing about it but sweat and suffer. I actually did get a bit concerned at one point, as all I could see was the halo of light from the headtorch illuminating around a 3' radius with nothing but blackness behind. Luckily though, just as I was contemplating spending a night in the woods, I fell back into the same bastard of a ditch I'd just climbed out of, albeit at an even deeper spot. Got my bearings back and gave up. It was bugging me all that night though, so early the next day I walked back down and followed the path of the bullet same I had the night before. Ten yards from the edge of the ditch, and five yards to the left of my path was the doe!!! I'd obviously walked right past her in the dark. I must have picked out one of the other does without realising after losing the sight picture, and marked the spot where she'd gone. The carcass had been ruined by foxes or badgers overnight too. I was seriously annoyed at myself, but at least I found her . . . . .

Much as I hate to admit it, in this instance an thermal imager would have very quickly highlighted my mistake. Guess the takeaway is that no matter how convinced you are that you've marked your spot, if you don't find your deer it pays to change your focus. Lesson learned!

 

[Ade8mm]

" Guess the takeaway is that no matter how convinced you are that you've marked your spot, if you don't find your deer it pays to change your focus"

Wise words. Thanks for the write-up. Ade

 

[shakey jake]

she clearly didnt suffer, as mistakes go its clearly annoying but a lesson to learn from with out dramas. well done on returning

 

[8x57]

"Much as I hate to admit it, in this instance an thermal imager would have very quickly highlighted my mistake."

Better still a good dog.

Just sods law I would say. I've seen something similar happen in broad daylight and two of us have searched for half an hour and no doubt walked within a couple of feet of the downed deer more than once.

 

[Woodsmoke]

she clearly didnt suffer

Not at all. As I said, it was a classic reaction to the shot so I knew she was down and dead somewhere nearby. I just had my focus on the wrong place, and the denser the cover got the more my head told me to keep looking. Classical case of self-inflicted misdirection

Better still a good dog.

Yes, agreed. Having said that, I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of deer I've not been able to recover over the years. this one was especially galling but yes, a dog would've found her

 

[Stalker62]

Good honest write up with a giggle or two thrown in for good measure.

 

[baguio]

Another good example of thinking about where your deer is stood before taking the shot. That doesn't sound like a very safe place to be searching in the dark. A stalker's safety should always come first. you might be laid there a long time if things do go belly up!
The further away the animal is, the greater the chance of miss marking it and not finding the blood trail. Shooting from the prone position makes marking even harder. Too late this time but all thing that the stalking should consider and you learn with experience. Pulling the trigger is the easy bit.

 

[Woodsmoke]

a giggle or two thrown in for good measure.

I can see some humour in it now. I'm not proud of my language at the time though. Well, perhaps I am a wee bit. Don't think I repeated myself at all while swearing my way through it . . . . .

 

[FISH BOY]

Feel for you as nothing like that feeling of losing an animal.

I recently shot a fallow on a banked hill covered in waist high scrub. Saw it drop and thought I had marked it, only to get to the spot and find nothing. Zigzagging and searching with the thermal for half hour discovered nothing in the tall grass. How the hell do you lose a pricket I thought! Totally stumped and sweating my bolx off, I gave up searching to go home to get the dog and literally tripped over it in a hollowed out bed. Was relieved but couldn’t believe it as I must have walked past it half a dozen times!

Lol - now do a snail inspired spiral search now rather than zigzagging.

Good to see you went back for it in improved conditions.

 

[devon deer stalker]

Shot with copper or lead?
Cheers
Richard

 

[Woodsmoke]

literally tripped over it in a hollowed out bed. Was relieved but couldn’t believe it as I must have walked past it half a dozen times!

I was firmly expecting to find her in the ditch. My mistake was marking where I'd last seen the white tush disappear. What I didn't realise at the time was that undoubtedly was a different animal that had hightailed it using a gametrail. My attention was just so focussed on where I thought she'd gone into cover that it just didn't occur to me to check the open rape. If I'd just taken an extra couple of minutes to scan the area I'd almost certainly have found her.

Shot with copper or lead?

Sierra Gameking 130 soft point in .270. Downloaded to around 2800 or so, and an absolutely superb round for roe deer. Losing this deer was all on me, the bullet performed superbly as usual

 

[bullet chucker]

I have done exactly that the sight picture said,it has broken right in a dash, I even looked across the road in the grass field making a walk of several hundred yards only to hear my mentor call out found it! would you believe it was stone dead about 10 yards on from the shot site, I was very inexperienced, and the dash of the other fallow fooled me big time.

BC.

 

[Brave Echo Niner]

These things happen unfortunately, even with thermal it can be tricky to find them.

I had a Roe doe shot at last light on clearfell at 130m a few weeks back, she had dropped on the spot, but could I find her…

Ended up getting a dog to the patch of stalking and looking with thermal and torches, eventually found her dropped on the spot, hidden in a hollow. As with your case a perfect shot.

It’s a horrible feeling when it happens, but Sometimes it’s Nothing you do that causes it to be a pain!

 

[Mungo]

I have done more or less exactly this, though in chest high bracken rather than gorse, so not as painful.

Dog found it in under 5 seconds the following morning. It had dropped to shot and rolled down a steep bank. Horizontally, it can't have been more than 2m from where it had stood, but was about 10m down the slope, and I'd just never gone far enough down the night before. Must have walked within a metre of it when I left.

 

[long_range_rob]

Foxes I’d say, badgers tend to eat from the a**e in.

 

[muddy42]

My sympathies, this happens to us all at some point. I had a buck that pitched into a hole (after 'mounding' for new tree planting) that I couldn't find last summer. Thermal couldn't see anything and I needed to go back for the dog.

 

[Stalker62]

Once shot a Sika that ran back into the timber. It was as dead as a dead thing, so will not have gone far.

I went into the block and crawled up and down the furrows. All of them. Twice. The full length of the block.

Defeated, I phoned the Stalker and bored him with my shocker.

He was away up at Loch Shin.

He drove to my location (about 20 miles) and arrived about an hour later.

He put the collar on his wee dog and off he went. About 8 seconds later the Stalker (looking at his GPS screen) said "He has found it".

The Stalker then crouched down to look under the trees, pointed to my dead Sika and said, "Is that your deer?". It was about ten yards in.

Embarrassed at having called him from so far, I replied, "No. It looks a bit like mine, but I am fairly sure that one is not it".

He was kind enough to laugh at my embarrassment.

I must have literally crawled over that deer. Twice.

It happens.

 

[Smellydog]

If it was easy even vegans would do it!
Had similar. A roe doe about 70yds. Lept up into a small pine to the shot.
Waited a while and walked up the ride.
What I didn't know and was later very shocked about was she had crawled 50yds towards me in the ditch to the side of the ride!
I had walked past her! 2 hours later I found her, by shear accident

 

[Woodsmoke]

I have done more or less exactly this, though in chest high bracken rather than gorse, so not as painful.
Must have walked within a metre of it when I left.

I probably did almost the same. By the time I had to give up it was pitch black, so I followed the ditch until it intersected a drystone wall from where I'd taken the shot and walked straight past her . . . .

 

[SussexSteve]

Always handy to have a mate on hand with a dog. It can happen to anyone. Easy to lose your bearings in the dark