My younger son (Owen) who is 17 yrs old was out Saturday trying to fill his SD Black Hills buck tag. This was only the second time he has ever drawn a Black Hills buck tag so he was holding out for a nice buck. He had seen a couple nice bucks and even had a an opportunity to shoot at one a week earlier, but his gun didn’t fire (bad shell).
Owen headed out later than usually on Saturday afternoon (about 3pm). He is hunting public land and was happy to see only one other vehicle there when he pulled in. He walked back to a ladder stand and it didn’t take too long and he had deer around him. He spotted and watched about nine doe for the next hour and a half. Then around 4:30pm he spotted two deer a little farther off. They were running around, a nice buck chasing a doe. They were heading toward him, so he waited for them to get closer. Light was beginning to fade and he decided to take his shot. The buck moved right when he shot but it still went down and thrashed around on the ground. He called me and told me he shot a buck and I told him I would come out to help him. I walked out the door and my older son (Jake) was just getting home and he said he’d join me in heading out to help Owen. We made the ten minute drive to the Game Production Land and as we began walking in Owen called and said that he walked over and the buck got up and was hobbling away (jumping down a 10 foot cliff and heading into a ravine). He could see him lying next to a tree and Owen asked if I thought he should finish him off? I asked if he thought he had a good shot in him and that’s when he said he wasn’t sure because he moved right when Owen pulled the trigger. Since it was almost dark I told him to try and finish him off if he had a clear shot. He climbed down an area off the cliff that wasn’t so high and walked up to within five feet of the buck and it was laying on its back and not moving so Owen thought the buck was dead. He decided not to shoot and walked back to the cliff to climb up and signal us with his flash light. Right then the buck got back to his feet and hobbled away.
It was a ¾ of a mile walk back to where Owen was hunting (no motorized vehicles allowed). Jake pushed the game cart and we met up with Owen once he climbed back up the cliff. I debated about leaving the buck overnight and trying to find him in the morning, but Owen and I had watched a large mountain lion walk by the same stand earlier in the season. After talking it over we decided to go down the cliff into the ravine and look at spot where Owen saw the buck laying on his back by the tree. Then we could look at the amount of blood that was there and try and make a better judgement. We get down to that spot and there was some blood, but not a lot. While we were looking over that spot we could hear some twigs snapping and we pointing our lights and the deer was only 30 yards away. He stood up and I encourage Owen to finish him off, but he could not see him from where he was standing. Jake and I could see the buck and watched him hobble off. I could tell he had an issue with a rear leg (we later found that Owen hit the deer back farther than the vitals and the exist wound was thru his hip). We decided that we would try to pursue him. Keep in mind we are on a hill side of a ravine. We spread out and walked (we actually were scooting on our butts toward him). We could see his eyes glowing with our lights and he wasn’t more than 30-40 yards away. We got to within ten yards and Owen gave me his gun and I put a shot in his neck and we thought it was over…
Jake walked back to the cliff to get the game cart (we figured it would help to get him up the hill). Owen and I walked over to the buck. He was still breathing, but his head was on the ground. After about five minutes of waiting for him to stop breathing, I asked for Owen’s knife and I was going to finish him off to end any suffering. I reached down to move his front leg when all of us sudden he began kicking and I stumbled back and fall backwards as the buck climbed to his feet and began hobbling down the ravine. Owen and I watched as he jumps over the edge of another lower cliff and we both stood there in shock. Owen makes his way to the lower cliff and looks over and the deer is on its back on a ledge ten feet below. Owen begins telling me this right when the deer pushes off the rock wall with his back feet and drops to the bottom.
Owen and I find a spot that we could slide down about 20 yards away from the cliff. We holler for Jake to leave the cart and come join us after we convinced him that the deer was still alive and had jumped over a cliff (he thought we were joking). We make the 75 yard decent to the very bottom of the ravine. We find the buck with our light and he is still alive pushing with his back leg and sliding down the last part to almost where we were standing. He then takes his final breath.
I didn’t know if we would be able to pull or carry him up the last steep hill that we had just slid down. Jake and Owen struggled to pull him out of the brush and over to the trail we came down. Jake says “this is going to suck”. I agreed, but said yes, this is going to really suck, but we will laugh about this someday. I put the shoulder harness drag strap on me and tied to the antlers. The plan was for me to lead while the boys pulled. It was a huge, exhausting struggle but we made it up the 75 yard steep hill by crawling and grabbing little trees and pulling ourselves and the deer up to the spot where I had shot the buck in the neck. We congratulated ourselves for doing what we thought was going to be impossible. We rested for about ten minutes and then Jake retrieved the game cart. We had our doubts that we would be able to maneuver the game cart the rest of the way, but I had a feeling that it might be easier than just dragging the deer. I tied the shoulder drag harness to the game cart and pulled while Jake and Owen pushed. It was a struggle, but it was easier than just dragging him up the hill. We finally made it to the base of the top cliff and found a spot to pull him and the cart up. Now we were on flat ground and pushing the game cart was a breeze for one person. We rotated who pushed while the other two carried gear. It took us 4 hours, but we did it and have an incredible story that we will all share for years. It took all the combined effort of the three of us. We would have never been able to accomplish the feat missing any one of us. We all learned several lessons with this experience and we will do things differently in the future if we ever have a wounded animal with an unsure shot placement.
It sucked, but we all laughed about it that night while telling my wife and girls that entire story. A memory I'm sure we'll never forget!
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Topic: My sons Black Hills Buck (unforgettable story) (Read 3288 times)
