Official 2015-2016 deer hunting season discussion thread

[DEER 24/7]

Saw this story on the news, sad deal.

Sawyer Man Drowns Trying To Retrieve Deer
Posted: Nov 14, 2015 2:51PM CST
The body of a Sawyer man was recovered on Saturday after he drowned in Choctaw County.

Troopers say the body of 51-year-old Stephen Newton was recovered in approximately 10 feet of water, 80 feet off the bank in the Kiamichi River, 5 miles southwest of Fort Towson .
Newton and his daughter were hunting Friday afternoon when she shot a deer with her hunting bow.
The deer ran into the Kiamichi River, and Newton went to retrieve it, but he never resurfaced, the Oklahoma Highway Patrol said.

The search for Newton's body was called off at sunset on Friday and resumed Saturday morning.
The Choctaw County Sheriff's Department and the Fort Towson Fire Department also assisted OHP with recovery efforts

This is sad sad sad. A word of advice to us older people you always here oh he is young and thinks he bullet proof. I find myself as I have seen others when you get older it takes to long for it to sink in that we can'nt do what we could do when we was younger.
I am not saying this is what happen to this gentleman. But it just brings it to my attention I find myself at 60 trying to do what I did at 30 it just doesn't always work very good.My prayers go out to this family

 

[makeithappen]

Dang Ryan, that's a great deer! Congratulations!

 

[goldflinger]

Very nice buck Ryan! Congrats!! Too bad about the drowning victim! Sad indeed

 

[ousoonerfan22]

Congrats Ryan that's an awesome buck!

 

[Toney]

Congrats

 

[retrieverman]

Ryan
That's a heck of a buck!!! Congrats!!!

 

[DEER 24/7]

I believe it was a lung hit, maybe a hair low but I felt like it was a good shot. I waited 30 min to check the arrow then another 30 min before starting to track. He jumped up a little, spun 45 degrees, and and bolted into the brush.

So what's the verdict ?

 

[Bulls eye]

Great buck Ryan... Congrats

 

[Sooner Wing]

So what's the verdict ?

Unfortunately he was never recovered. I have replayed everything 100 times in my mind and I have settled on my shot being a little back and low. The arrow left my bow from ~25’ above ground level and I believe that it struck about 1-2” above where the front leg meets the body and roughly 2” back from there. He was walking when I shot him and I believe that the front leg was back when I loosed the arrow placing the shot even further back on a standing still target. I think that I hit one lung but probably went under the second. I can’t imagine that he lived after the blood that he lost and I feel terrible for killing an animal and not being able to retrieve him. I should have put in more time target shooting from that height and/or should have grunted to try to stop him so that I did not rush the shot. Learned my lesson the hard way.

I greatly appreciate everyone's thoughts regarding what went wrong.

 

[FOG]

That stinks SW but unfortunately it happens. I could go on for hours describing all the blunders, mistakes, poor judgment and just plain bad luck that I've experienced while bowhunting but hey, if it was easy it wouldn't be so sweet when you do taste success. Keep your chin up and get back in the saddle.