Author: James L. Bruner
I have been fortunate enough to track and find every deer I have shot with archery equipment. Admittedly, some of those shots were far from perfect but persistence and knowledge worked in my favor in most cases. In my youngest years of hunting, around age 14, I lost a huge 8 point buck with very tall antlers after a seemingly perfect shot at 50 yards from a 30-30 bolt action. The old buck dropped like a rock and I let my guard down for an instant while walking from my brush blind to the trophy that lay before me. In the moment that I rounded the brush a sight of sheer terror flooded my vision as the buck stood up, kicked like a donkey, then staggered off into the brush that was 10 yards away from where he dropped. As a rookie I stood there dumfounded before realizing I hadnt even chambered a new round after the initial shot. As I slammed a new shell into the chamber and shouldered the rifle, all I caught was a glimpse of the deer fading into the trees.
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