Deerbuster.com

I haven't had a classic "Double Lung" hit on a deer in a while. In fact, for of the deer I have been fortunate enough to harvest in the last 13 months had damage to only one lung. It's not that I am impatient or have consistently bad judgment (at least I don't think so) but it has been a run of almost perfect hits.

With the preferred two lung hit, some folks wait an hour before pursuing the animal. Some wait five minutes, others don't wait at all. You and I have seen deer die in five seconds, right beneath our stands, unaware that they were in mortal danger. I usually don't wait much after those hits. It takes five minutes or so to calm and climb down, to replay the events and memorize landmarks, to look for sign from the stand with binoculars and just to enjoy the moment.

Let's say you only THINK it's a double lunger. what if the entry is too far back to clip the near lung. What if the deer was wheeling to turn or jumped the string and you have an entrance in the ABDOMINAL cavity, not the thoracic. What if you get the near lung but the exit is in the abdomen, leaving the far lung intact. You may have difficulty if you follow this deer right away or in five minutes. For example........

One Saturday I got up at 4:30 to hunt in Wilton. After pushing a buck off his scrape at the junction of the field and the trail, I was on stand by 5:55 and waited less than an hour for day to dawn.

The stand, a loggy climber with a plush seat and backrest is my second most comfortable stand. Only my Tree Lounges beat it for allowing me the endurance for all day hunting. I had it at the bottom of the ridge where it seems bucks usually travel. My best friend, Dave Ware had suggested a stand be placed there when he noticed the amount of traffic in that particular spot. So obvious, yet I hadn't thought of it myself. Go figure.

I stayed on stand till 9 am and then quit, accepting that the buck in the darkness would be the only deer I'd encounter that morning. I spoke with the land owner for a spell, and then headed to the tree that was to be the home of one of my Tree Lounges for 1997. He had mentioned he saw some deer earlier in the vicinity, so I took my Mathews Conquest Pro bow along. Before I was even in the woods, I spotted a doe walking and feeding away from me in the hardwoods to the north edge of the hemlock patch.

Movement closer than the distant doe caught my attention and I realized I was only 30 yards from another doe, facing me. I carefully put down my stand and tried not to look her in the eye as I nocked an arrow and stepped to the side to get a clear lane. The doe, and old girl, was used to being hunted but with my demeanor and the equipment I was carrying, she probably thought I was gardening or something. Suburbia! After I stopped moving, drew the bow and took aim, she began to get nervous and stepped from facing me to quartering towards with the right side showing.

I am aware that the quartering towards shot is a no no. Even though I hastily dispatched a spike buck in the same position from the same distance several years before, I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. What can I say? My mind went into automatic and I touched the trigger on my Scott Mongoose release aid, sending the Zwickey on a 2413 her way.

Just before impact she began to turn and instead of hitting in front of the shoulder, it hit behind.

"Good hit!" I thought, as she spun and I saw the vane fletching sticking out of her ribs right in the perfect place we all want to hit a deer. She'd be dead in 30 seconds or so. She was out of sight in an instant. I went back to my car for my buck knife and returned to where I dropped the Tree Lounge so that I might shoot a deer. So easy, this hunting stuff.

"Why wait?" I thought, as I started hoofing in the direction of my condo tree, which was also the general direction of the doe. I didn't see her lying within 100 yards of the hit, so I guessed she went further. I had no idea how far she'd go!

I put the stand up to kill some time. I had placed tree steps and a BOSS collar in a slender tree that grew within 6 feet of a sturdy oak. I used the BOSS stand as a platform about 25 feet off the ground and hoisted the Tree Lounge up and placed it in the proper position for maximum outline cloaking. Once satisfied with the position, the heavy 3/8" chain went on with an industrial master lock. Done. Took an hour. Time to go scoop up that deer.

There was a steady and almost immediate trail from the point of impact. I walked at normal speed, seeing the obvious trail and following the sign of kicked up leaves, broken branches, scuff marks etc. The trail did a big reverse question mark pattern and it became apparent after just 150 yards that the deer had lived longer than 5 minutes and when I entered the hardwoods to place my stand, I pushed the doe out.

"Stupid!"I called myself. Shouldn't have assumed...... What I saw as a lung hit had become a one lung. I learned last year on two deer that an animal can easily live for an hour in that condition and go quite a ways. 100 yards turned into 200, then 300, then four. The trail diminished in magnitude, and I sometimes was on my hands and knees. Just like another deer that I had arrowed at this property, she went to the river. My last buck had used the same location as a barrier to it's pursuer (me). He crossed, then watched his back trail from a thicket, knowing that a pursuer would make noise and be in the open while crossing the 20 foot wide 3 foot deep fast moving river. The trail revealed that after waiting a spell he then paralleled the water for 100 yards and died. I crossed and looked to pick up the trail. There was none! I looked for her. Not there!

"Where did she go? How could she just stop bleeding" I wondered. I doubted everything now.

"Could it be a paunch hit? Should I come back later? Should I go for help and do a grid search?" Walking deer trails revealed nothing on either side of the river. Then it occurred to me.....

"If she's not on this side or that side, there's only one possible explanation." After all, she was angling down stream when she entered. I walked along the river looking for some sign that she had walked in the river, not across it.

A glistening cranberry red spot on a leaf caught my eye. It was blood that had been diluted, possibly dripping off her chest with water mixed into the blood.

Then I spied another leaf, this one with frank blood on it. I was excited again. Confidence swelling, I jumped from rock to rock within the water, spotting blood every 10 to 20 feet. Keeping my eyes peeled on the shoreline for gouged tracks indicating she left the water, I traveled over 80 yards down stream. Finally I heard a commotion too loud to be a squirrel. Hopping onto the bank, I spotted her thrashing on the water's edge 30 yards away. I moved in to 18 yards and nocked an arrow. She was on her side so I aimed just above her spine with my 20 yard pin. The arrow exited through her breast bone, centering the heart. The tenacious doe faded away and gave her life to me.

Lesson for today: If you don't see the deer go down, go get some coffee and wait an hour. You will thank me.

P.S. Read John Trout, Jr. TRAILING WHITETAILS