ROOKIE MISTAKE........
So over my thanksgiving break I went hunting at a friends house about 3 1/2 hrs upstate from in NY. Even though i am a huge fan of hunting and shooting, i haven't done much hunting. This was probably my 5th time hunting and have not shot a deer on any previous hunts. So me and my dad and about 5 other guys get up before dawn get into the woods sit alllllll day and see nothing. the next day we do the same thing, get up, go out to the woods, i get into my stand around 5:45. the property owner the night before goes tomorrow, watch the tree line every morning i have photos of this little buck that comes daily. so im sitting there an hr goes by (nothing), another half hr goes by(nothing) so its around 7:15-7:30 and what do you know the exact buck that i saw pictures of come trotting along. About 45-50 yards from me I pick up my Marlin 336 30-30 and take aim, im thinking yes this buck is mine. I zoom in to about 5x on my scope, everything is perfect hes standing in a great spot so i put my crosshairs right by his shoulders and i pull the trigger. IT WAS A HIT, he ran about 10 feet stopped and i hit him again but it was more of a gut shot. I was all jacked up, adrenalin was pumping hands were shaking. NOW HERES THE ROOKIE MISTAKE, i was so excited i just climbed out of my stand and immediately went to go look for the deer. well that turned out to be the worst thing i could have done because the deer heard me and took off before i could see where he took off to. so i started to follow the blood trail went about 20 feet found where he initial bedded down then followed it from there about 100 ft to a pond where i lost the trail
.... the hunting party and i looked for 3 hrs for the deer but had no luck
LESSON WELL LEARNED- wait at least 45min to look for the deer.