3 minutes after shoot time opening morning I called in a 6x6 and proceeded to shoot him somewhere that gave me 2” of penetration and he ran off never to be seen again. I was pulling out my knife and getting ready to start butchering before the shot. Don’t know what happened but he came from 300 yards bugling all the way to a cow call. It was like something from a primos video. Stopped at 29 yards and I let the perfect shot go. Made a loud wack and he ran off with 26” of arrow sticking out of his side. I would have bet my house I hit him in the V. Broadhead failure or shooter failure. I’ll never know…
I had a similar but different hunt yesterday…
It’s been a very slow season for action, lots of cows with no bulls, bulls that are around timid and quiet… yesterday I finally get a bull to crack off, and the whole scenario is laid out well for me, so I sneak down a little so I have as good of wind as possible, and a clear path up the ridge in case I need to March him down, but don’t think I will due to the scenario… I rip a short bugle, he cuts me off, I chuckle at him and I hear ferns swooshing and brush crashing… I won’t need to move.
He stops to bugle, I let him know I’m still right here, and rake a little, now he is seeming full commit… he’s close, I draw, after a bit I’m wondering why I can’t see him… look up and there is a tree flailing around above me 30 yds… let down, pick my bugle up and scream at him, set my bugle down, draw back, and here he comes like a good bull… I have my pin set for 20, knowing it will be close, but there is some big blowdown between us so he cuts right, stops to bugle, and I shoot, looked low, but I should be good, he’s slightly above me.
He wheeled, went back by the tree he was raking, and I could see his back line, head, neck and antlers… I’m hoping he dies in front of me, but as the minutes pass, my worry grows… he stood there about 15-20 minutes, then cows started chirping above him and he went up the hill a few yards, I could still see one side of his rack… about 10 minutes later he walked out of sight.
Long story not as long, I painfully waited 90 minutes to go look at my arrow, and I got over there, it didn’t look great, meat and fat.
Of course found a little blood for about 50yds, then followed track with the occasional drip. Made it about 200yds up the ridge, and he’s up the hill broadside… 51 yds, kinda twiggy, but I drew blood… take my time, execute a good shot and the branch I thought might be a problem was a problem…
Left and gave it time, shot at 7:30, got back in the woods at 1:30… long story short, jumped him and his cows at 6pm, 1200’ higher than where I had shot him…
Looked at the topo, this morning headed for where I thought they would end up, and if I didn’t cut sign, I would go back up to last known location and if all else fails, get back on tracks.
I guessed right, found them exactly where I thought they may be, and I got 110 yds from the bull before the wind swirled on me.. they must have just got a tiny bit of my wind
They went through a draw, up the other side, stopped for a few, then came right back under me… couldn’t see any arrow wound on his side anywhere, and he was sniffing asses chasing cows around.
The bull was 27yds, I shot for 20, and shot low… I have been walking around with my pin set at 25, but I thought that bull was going to come left, and it was going to be 9-10yds, but there was a bunch of blowdown between us hidden in the ferns he had to go around, and I thought he was closer than he was, I aimed for the pocket… now I’m back up on this mountain hoping to glass them up… I really despise making bad shots