Dumb 10 – Scarface

Well, I shot my #1 on Sunday (9/20) evening and made a very solid hit. Unfortunately, the the arrow didn’t get a pass through. My arrow hit the buck high behind the left shoulder and at a steep angle. As you can imagine, it made for very little blood and impossible to track. We ended up calling off the search that night at 1:00 a.m. I was back out looking at 9:00 a.m. the next morning and did a solo grid search for the next 6 hrs. I walked away sick to my stomach. At the end of search I set up a couple more cams, praying the buck somehow made it and I would get a picture. After 5 days, I checked 6 cameras on the property and nothing… my heart sunk. At this point I contacted the neighbors and let them know. Basically, I was spent and not wanting to even consider hunting again this fall. I was depressed.

To my disbelief, a neighbor called me 2 hrs later and said I found your buck!! After confirming a few details, I was in my way to meet him. As you can imagine, the meat wasn’t any good but I was able to punch my 2015 MN tag in the rack.

It’s bittersweet the way things worked out. However, I feel very blessed to know I have an honest neighbor and appreciate the support from friends while I struggled to sleep and eat for 6 days.

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You guys knocking down early season giants is making it very hard to get any work done today!

Kudos to your neighbor.. I’ve heard alot of similar stories where it doesn’t turn out as well as yours. To bad about the meat, but that’s just part of hunting. You did everything you could to recover the animal. Things happen in the woods, I wouldn’t beat yourself up too bad about it. Congrats on the recovery.

Great buck. Whats the score on him? Looks like a giant!

Awesome Ricco!

Congrats on recovering what you could! MN or WI Monster?

KUDOS on the ethics! A lot of others may have just given up OR, continued hunting and stick another one. Its a shame you weren’t able to harvest the meat, but we’ve all been there. Again, congrats and I m,y opinion is the ethics you displayed in punching your tag is a great reflection of being a true sportsmen.

Congrats on finding the buck and will put your stomach at ease knowing the outcome. Too bad for the meat but knowing you found him helps a lot and put in all the effort to find him.

Awesome buck Ricco. I lost the meat on one 3 years ago. Just watched the video again the other night and still don’t know how he made it as long as he did. Deer are tough. If we didn’t care so much we wouldn’t put the time and effort into food plots and year round support of these critters.

Glad u found him. Darned shame about the meat. Ill give you much credit thoug! You tagged him. There are those who would have kept the rack and kept buck hunting.

Thats a very nice deer, congrats! Way to stick with it and not give up on it, also contacting the neighbors is a great idea! Props to them as well.

sktrwx2100 & BigWerm
Not sure on the official score. I know he will def be in the top 3 (possibly #2) on my wall. I did a green/gross score on him and its in the 155-160″ range (includes 7 3/8″ of splits and sticker point on his left brow). I know he won’t take over the #1 spot for sure. He lacks in main beam length and spread.

I’m glad I got him though. I haven’t had a buck worth chasing the past two years and he did grow on me. I figured him in the 148-152″ range (with his junk). So, I can’t complain.

Nice job Ricco ! I lost one back in the late 90’s… neighbor found it with the combine… after the yotes did. Glad you could salvage it

My first year bow hunting I did the same thing, arrow hit the far leg and left me with no blood trail. Still the biggest buck I ever shot, unfortunately, never recovered the deer. That was my first, and almost my last season bow hunting.