Rather be lucky than good...?

[bowhunterforever]

Great bull

[jmscon]

That's a great bull, way to stick with it!

[floatinghat]

Good on you for the recovery.  However, this thread is incomplete without a pic of you on the log crossing the creek.

[jackmaster]

Beautiful bull right there now !!  Congrats...

[jackmaster]

Was that a Texas heart shot? You stuck with him and recovered him, awesome job coastal

[trophyhunt]

Lots of important blood vessels back there, nice job sticking with it. Sweet looking bull for sure.

[pianoman9701]

Archery comes with the chance of something happening to that arrow after it leaves the bow. Good on you for sticking with it and harvesting a great animal. 

[PlateauNDN]

Nice bull and congrats. I'll be honest, through all the practicing that's still my fear, bad placement. I can also say it's watching the animal run off after the shot. Eerie feeling...

Again congrats

[Coastal_native]

Thanks guys,

The understory was fairly thick, but I felt I had a good shooting lane for a broadside double lung shot at 20yds.  It had to be a deflected arrow.  I had a long calling session with plenty of time to get my nerves down.  No way was I 3ft off my mark at 20 yds.  I've also second guessed whether he came to a full stop or if he was still walking when he passed through my shooting lane.  Even if he was taking a step, I can't imagine I'd hit that far back.  I knew something was different about the shot though, because I didn't see the arrow hit and I didn't hear that distinctive sound on impact.  After three successful archery kills, my confidence is still shaky.  It seems like a lot of things have to come together perfectly when you're solo calling on the coast.  I guess that's what makes it fun.

[SeatoSummit88]

That's a great Bull!  Do you hunt upper coast or lower coast normally?

[DOUBLELUNG]

Great job on the recovery! It is amazing what the tiniest twig can do to deflect an arrow.  I was hunting with a buddy in closed canopy old growth, we were shadowing  a 4x4 and a 4x5.  He had a 40 yard broadside shot at the 4x5 bull, best part was he could see the entire rib cage but a big trunk obscured the guts. His arrow ticked a tiny branch at the top of its arc, and deflected down and right, disappearing out of sight - the bull lunged out of there with a huge limp, no sign of the arrow or blood.  My buddy was able to watch him for about 300 yards to where he disappeared into thick brush at the edge of the old growth.  He backed out, found me, and we decided to give him 8 hours (first shot was just before 9am). 

At 5pm, we started in.  We had decided to still hunt through the thick area where he was last seen first, 40 yards above and below, figuring in case he jumped that was the best chance of one of us getting a shot off.  About 20 minutes in, I saw antlers coming right to left in front of me - drew, stood, and could see the bull about 30 yards in front of me: 4x4, 4x4, 4x4 - could not put a 5th point on him, it was the companion bull - I let him walk (I had not killed an elk yet!).  Almost as soon as the bull disappeared my buddy yelled from above "Found him"! 

The bull had been dead for hours.  It had not leaked a drop of blood as far as we could tell, although there was a broadhead puncture through the lower left abdomen.  When we opened him up, he had bled out internally - there was a basketball-sized clot of blood in his abdomen.  After we cleared the guts, we could see the Muzzy 3-blade had sliced through both arteries to the penis, and broke the pelvis on the off side.  We felt very lucky on that recovery.  Rather be lucky?  No, but we'll take it as a second choice!

[724wd]

excellent bull coastal!  glad you were able to recover him!   

[blackveltbowhunter]

Great bull

[swwaoutdoorsman]

Great coastal bull!

[Shawn Ryan]

Way to stick with it.  Even if he was walking, the time it takes for your arrow to arrive on target would not make your shot 3 feet off. Something else (unknown) had to happen. Luck is good to have on your side. Thanks for having the fortitude to post about a shot that didn't go as planned.  It eventually happens to us all.