Well this buck was never found by me and ruined the whole season. Ultimately I came to a pretty terrible conclusion about the whole thing which makes it worse. I am fairly certain the guy who "helped" me on the morning of November 1st in the pouring rain found the deer on his property and kept it for himself, or whatever he did with it. He and his sister own 4 acres that cover a strip of woods then runs for about 300 yards from the corner of the field the buck had crossed (where if the purple line continues in my aerial photograph) to the road. This is the natural escape route of the buck. From where I shot the buck to the road is 600 yards. Everything off of that creek is steep uphill.
I got a call at very first light on Nov 1st, having told the guy the night before that I had shot the buck. That night he indicated he knew the buck based on my description, he believed it's at least 5 years old. In the middle of the night it started pouring rain and continued for 12 hours. So this guy calls me at first light and says he's already searched his property and it's not there. He will meet on my property and we can keep looking. The only really logical place for it to be is on his property, but we keep looking for a couple of hours and I think this is awfully nice of him. This guy is unfortunately a known poacher and trespasser. I have caught him trespassing numerous times years ago, caught him with untagged buck a few years ago, known for being shady by pretty much everybody.
When I shot my gun to see if it was off, it was not. It's a tack driver, I had a solid rest, 80 yard broad side shot. So I should not have missed by much. The blood looked good, and I believe I one lunged him, with a .50 Shockwave he would be dead, and should be within 600 yards. When I went back to google earth I measured his property and it is a full 4 acres. How could he search that with about 10 minutes of far less than full light in the pouring rain?
I waited until after the season and gave him a call, scratching my head but not yet thinking the worst. Just casually asked him if he ever saw it again or knew what come of it? No, he never saw anything of it. I told him that I had full confidence it was dead somewhere, and he said yeah but you never really know. He is a big rabbit hunter and wanted to come over and hunt my place with my sons (8 and 11) and I said sure, give me a call. I then texted him a pic of the buck from trail cam after we got of the phone.
A week later I called him back. He said he had never seen the buck in the pic before. But he had already admitted seeing it back at the time of the shot. I mentioned that I know the buck must be dead somewhere and I know that it couldn't have gone too far. At this comment he became extremely defensive, but I did not say it as an accusation. So no need to be defensive. That was a flag but I quickly backed off and said oh just thinking out loud.
We talked another half hour. We got onto how the shockwaves are deadly but terrible about leaving a blood trial. He said " you know it was almost a perfect shot" (about my buck). Silence. I said oh really....I don't know what else was said I opted to get off the phone instead of calling him out right there. Obviously, if he knows that it was almost a perfect shot that just didn't leave a blood trail then he found the buck, and lied to keep it for himself. Not sure that he broke any law. He did not offer me to come on his property and lied when he said he searched and it wasn't there. Not sure that is illegal. But he has burned a bridge for life. I won't slander his name in the community because I don't have photographic proof. But he knows and I know. The next time I see him....which may be years or may be never...I will look him dead in the eye and ask him how he knew it was almost a perfect shot.