Hunting / Fishing Stories
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10 Point Buck Shot From Ground at 20 Yards
by Dave Murphy
I smelled him on my way into the woods and knew he was close. I stopped for 45 minutes as
it got light out. I lightly rattled a couple of times in a one minute period to sound like a dominance
pushing match, not a fight. After another minute I grunted once then moved across wind 50 yards.
Everything worked perfect. Buck came in focused at the area I called from, slowly came diagonally to me to
get down wind of my calls; 20 yards broad side behind cover.
I drew and held 4 times before he finally came out on a steady walk towards his next cover. I gave a verbal
grunt to stop him. He looked right at me trying to get a fix on me. I wear dark camo on my legs and light
camo on top to break up my human shape. Unfortunately a small tree was straight up the vitals. My choices
were a neck shot (don't do it), back of lungs/liver, or just calling it a great hunt as he ran away. Hugged the
tree w/shot; hit him 3 ribs up from end of rib cage. Autopsy proved it to be a direct liver/stomach shot. No
exit on the liver (left) side after breaking his thick rib. The entry hole was on stomach side (poor blood trail).
The deer trotted down a trail but I didn't move for 30 min. I slowly eased out of woods and came back 8 hrs
later w/ Brian Walker, the property owner’s son (19 years old, a great help and was lots of fun to celebrate
and parade with!). I hoped I had scored a double lung shot but I knew an inch either way was the difference
of pushing him off and minimizing my chance of retrieval. The buck had pulled out the arrow after 100 yards
& the smell of stomach on arrow worried me. Walked 50 more yards before finding 50 yards of good (fatal)
blood trail, then it stopped. The deer must have ran. I crawled the next 100 yards of hair specks till we found
blood on a golden rod where he broke out of the woods into a field . Not another spot to give us a direction.
We beat brush until dark. I came back w/my 18 volt De Walt light and extra batteries (great tracking light).
Not another spot!
A couple of years ago I met a guy affiliated with Deer Search, a non-profit volunteer group whose goal is to
be a last ditch effort used to increase the retrieval of hunter-killed deer. We used the web on our cell phone
in the field to get the phone # and called them. Within 30 minutes I had the first of 3 callbacks.
Tracker Bob told me he would take half a vacation day from Xerox and meet us the next
day. Gus, his wired haired Daschund, (similar to the one pictured below) followed blood
to where we lost it and hadn't picked it back up. (I always compared myself to a dog as I
crawl for that next spot on a vanishing trail.) The natural tracker went downwind of where
he lost the trail and his ears popped up and head drew back. Of course we found the deer
in the thickest thorniest spot for miles; he had gone another 200 yards.
Thank you Gus and Bob!
They do this as a hobby and only take donations for their organization. No charge but I donated
generously! I truly believe we would have found it beating the brush the next morning knowing it was the
thickest spot. With a liver shot on a big buck he might have lived 10 hrs. and gone 1000 yards or if kicked
up, even farther. I did everything right and will be getting my mount back from Mike Perez Rt. 14 N of Lyons
(great taxidermist/artist) by Xmas, instead of kicking myself for years and losing sleep over the “what ifs”.
This buck is my 17th consecutive year of harvesting a whitetail buck w/ a bow.
Thank you for letting me share,
Dave Murphy
by Dave Murphy
I smelled him on my way into the woods and knew he was close. I stopped for 45 minutes as
it got light out. I lightly rattled a couple of times in a one minute period to sound like a dominance
pushing match, not a fight. After another minute I grunted once then moved across wind 50 yards.
Everything worked perfect. Buck came in focused at the area I called from, slowly came diagonally to me to
get down wind of my calls; 20 yards broad side behind cover.
I drew and held 4 times before he finally came out on a steady walk towards his next cover. I gave a verbal
grunt to stop him. He looked right at me trying to get a fix on me. I wear dark camo on my legs and light
camo on top to break up my human shape. Unfortunately a small tree was straight up the vitals. My choices
were a neck shot (don't do it), back of lungs/liver, or just calling it a great hunt as he ran away. Hugged the
tree w/shot; hit him 3 ribs up from end of rib cage. Autopsy proved it to be a direct liver/stomach shot. No
exit on the liver (left) side after breaking his thick rib. The entry hole was on stomach side (poor blood trail).
The deer trotted down a trail but I didn't move for 30 min. I slowly eased out of woods and came back 8 hrs
later w/ Brian Walker, the property owner’s son (19 years old, a great help and was lots of fun to celebrate
and parade with!). I hoped I had scored a double lung shot but I knew an inch either way was the difference
of pushing him off and minimizing my chance of retrieval. The buck had pulled out the arrow after 100 yards
& the smell of stomach on arrow worried me. Walked 50 more yards before finding 50 yards of good (fatal)
blood trail, then it stopped. The deer must have ran. I crawled the next 100 yards of hair specks till we found
blood on a golden rod where he broke out of the woods into a field . Not another spot to give us a direction.
We beat brush until dark. I came back w/my 18 volt De Walt light and extra batteries (great tracking light).
Not another spot!
A couple of years ago I met a guy affiliated with Deer Search, a non-profit volunteer group whose goal is to
be a last ditch effort used to increase the retrieval of hunter-killed deer. We used the web on our cell phone
in the field to get the phone # and called them. Within 30 minutes I had the first of 3 callbacks.
Tracker Bob told me he would take half a vacation day from Xerox and meet us the next
day. Gus, his wired haired Daschund, (similar to the one pictured below) followed blood
to where we lost it and hadn't picked it back up. (I always compared myself to a dog as I
crawl for that next spot on a vanishing trail.) The natural tracker went downwind of where
he lost the trail and his ears popped up and head drew back. Of course we found the deer
in the thickest thorniest spot for miles; he had gone another 200 yards.
Thank you Gus and Bob!
They do this as a hobby and only take donations for their organization. No charge but I donated
generously! I truly believe we would have found it beating the brush the next morning knowing it was the
thickest spot. With a liver shot on a big buck he might have lived 10 hrs. and gone 1000 yards or if kicked
up, even farther. I did everything right and will be getting my mount back from Mike Perez Rt. 14 N of Lyons
(great taxidermist/artist) by Xmas, instead of kicking myself for years and losing sleep over the “what ifs”.
This buck is my 17th consecutive year of harvesting a whitetail buck w/ a bow.
Thank you for letting me share,
Dave Murphy
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