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The deer bedded down as we approached and lost sight of them in the logged clearing. We knew we were close and I all of a sudden caught an ear pointed at us. I told my wife to get on the sticks and get ready as they would probably bolt any second now…


But they didn’t. The doe just sat there, it never said anything. So we tried like hell to make out the buck bedded with them. She was about 35 yards away and not moving but seemed to tolerate us. So we kept side stepping, trying to get a view of the buck. Found a couple fawns and two more does.


Then three deer stood up. And then the buck. Katie was already on the sticks and the buck was under 50 yards away.

She said he’s “quartering away, should it shoot?” I said he’ll yes and then the buck pivoted back to broadside another step and Katie shot.

He ran and in the binos I could see red on his side. He stopped after 75 yards and got wobbly next to a broken tree. Then ran again.

Katie reloaded and we waited 10 minutes. I thought the shot was a little far back, but he was quartering away slightly and it was still in the ribs not the guts. Could have been a liver hit though.

We slowly walked up to the spot we last saw him and found nothing. The six other deer were standing there with no buck and they trotted off, so we felt confident he would be right there in the slash. Finding nothing, we walked back to the spot he was standing initially and found neither blood nor hair. We tried to find something all along the likely track between where he stood and and where he got wobbly. Nothing.
Now we started to semi circles in the direction he ran. Nothing. 400 yards from where we marked his last known spot over the next two hours to true dark and found nothing.
I found more elk and more does and fawns(or maybe the same ones) but no dead buck.
At dark it was a tough walk back to camp. Katie was tearing up a little bit and I was frustrated by another lack of blood trail from a muzzleloader hit.

We got back to the spot at dawn the next day. We looked again for blood and began circling and circling. Still nothing. No birds, no coyotes, no bears giving us a clue. We followed every crow and gray jay sound that seemed excited. We used our noses. Nothing.

2 hours later we decided to hike back and maybe see if the goats could help. They alert at game and are always interested in dead game, so maybe they would alert.

We saw more hunters walk through the area and asked if they had seen anything, but they were all looking for elk and hadn’t noticed any deer, much less a dead one.

About an hour and a half later we arrived with the goats and spent two more hours circling, following bird sounds and letting the goats wander. Twice they got interested in smells and and we went towards the smell, but nothing. And then they’d go back to eating.

Nothing. We were at a loss and out of time. We had to start heading back to the truck soon, and we had no clues. We were both certain of the hit and I was certain he was dead, but he wasn’t dead within 500 yards of there. It sucked. But we had to give up. The end.

Damn tough pill to swallow there. $hitty feeling knowing something is out there, but you can’t find it and recover it. Tell your wife to keep her head up and shake it off. There will be more hunts and more shot opportunities. Sometimes things just aren’t meant to be. I appreciate you sharing the hunt. Very cool.

Doc_Holidude

damn, hoping for a happy ending

Very interesting story, too bad about the buck, but such things happen when you hunt for a long time.
The Goats are just cool.

What species are the goats? I have fainting goats at home, not much use other than entertainment. We bought the male and female, they had a kid which we handled since birth and she is very social and agreeable to human touch, they others not as much.

Thanks for allowing us to tag along!

Sorry about the buck. But thanks for taking us along in a very cool adventure.

Using powerbelts? Just curious. I've had great blood trails with large diameter round balls though few use them. Sorry you didn't recover him.

Yeah, Powerbelts. I think I’m about done with them.

These are all alpines and alpine mixes. They are a dairy breed.

Ive taken 5 elk ( 1 big bull and 4 cows) and 4 deer with the platinum power belts. Ive had no issues with them and they are the most accurate out of my 3 ML rifles


Wonderful report. Sorry for you and wife to lose that buck. That's hunting with primitive weapons and of course happens often with rifles. . Evaluate try and limit loss

thanks for great report

Only bull I ever lost was with power belts. I'd go to either these:

https://www.muzzleloading-bullets.com/pricesordering/

Or a rig that will shoot big patched roundballs. But the easy button would be shooting the No Excuses. Just my experience.

Good story and love the goats.

Rats!!! I feel sorry for your wife! Always a gut punch feeling to lose an animal, especially after a long search. Not much consolation for her, but all of us know if we hunt long enough this will happen. No rhyme or reason, it just does.

Yet, that was an excellent hunting story. Thank you for sharing and taking us along for the trip.

Thanks for sharing.

Well, not the outcome you and your wife were hoping for but we've all experienced some form of unexplained bizarreness.

Great story and accompanying captures!

enjoyed the story and the pictures ,sometimes the outcome we all have experienced is one we never forget good or sad , believe me it still must have been fun . your goats are sure neat to see in the pictures.

PBS are awful.
XTP s

The end

Fantastic adventure none the less,at least she got some shots off.
It is never easy to know of a hit and a lost animal,but it happens.
Thanks for sharing this ,and taking us along.
Very cool indeed.

Sorry to here about losing the deer. I tried powerbelts once. Very accurate but I found them lacking on penetration. Went back to a big heavy chunk of lead.

I’ve found powerbelts to be very accurate in my muzzleloaders. No issues on smaller whitetails in the South, but I’m shooting only 100 grains of pellets also. Maybe the slower than max load helps expansion?

Anyway, sorry to hear you guys didn’t find the deer. If you saw red on the side, there had to be some faint blood somewhere. I’m colorblind and finding small blood traces is very difficult for me.

Awesome story and goats. I sure we she would have found her deer.