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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.
"For some unfortunates, poisoned by city sidewalks ... the horn of the hunter never winds at all" Robert Ruark, The Horn of the Hunter
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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
Livin ain’t killed me yet, but it’s workin on it!
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damn, hoping for a happy ending
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Very interesting story, too bad about the buck, but such things happen when you hunt for a long time. The Goats are just cool.
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Wow! Way cool! Do the goats need to be tied up or will they stay close by? Can’t wait for the rest of the adventure! The goats will stay close. I don’t have to tie them up at night but any time I leave them loose I wake up to hear them walking around and eating things, so I prefer that they stay tied up at night. I never leash them when hiking or when hanging around camp. Fascinating. So they just follow your lead down the trail? Do you transport them in a horse type trailer? Are using goats as pack animals somewhat common? Can’t wait for more! One of the best threads ever Right, they just follow. I bottle fed them since they were about 2-3 days old. I don’t use a horse trailer normally, 5 fits ok in the back of my F150 with a stock rack around the sides. When I had 7 it was a bit much and the truck would squat really badly. I wouldn’t say they are common, but in my my circles they seem more common as pack animals than llamas. They are much friendlier but hate water and are smaller than llamas. So while each individual can’t pack as much, they seem easier to handle to me as you don’t have to physically touch them while hiking. 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.
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Thanks for allowing us to tag along!
FJB & FJT
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Sorry about the buck. But thanks for taking us along in a very cool adventure.
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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.
Last edited by 30338; 09/21/22.
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Yeah, Powerbelts. I think I’m about done with them.
"For some unfortunates, poisoned by city sidewalks ... the horn of the hunter never winds at all" Robert Ruark, The Horn of the Hunter
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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. These are all alpines and alpine mixes. They are a dairy breed.
"For some unfortunates, poisoned by city sidewalks ... the horn of the hunter never winds at all" Robert Ruark, The Horn of the Hunter
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Yeah, Powerbelts. I think I’m about done with them. 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
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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.
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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.
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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!
WWP53D
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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.
LIFE NRA , we vote Red up here, Norseman
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Yeah, Powerbelts. I think I’m about done with them. PBS are awful. XTP s The end
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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.
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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.
You get out of life what you are willing to accept. If you ain't happy, do something about it!
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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.
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